So, we’re moving house soon to a town about 35 hilly kms away. I’ll ride in some days and drive in others, but it’s really looking like we’ll need to buy another car unless I can ride in most days. Whilst a 70 km hilly round trip might just be a daily attainable goal for me in the longer term, the complication is little miss zokes and the bike trailer.

There’s no way I can drag her up the biggest hill unassisted, but I’m guessing that an ebike might make this feasible. The commute is mostly undulating, but it has a couple of pinches and one long, big (500m height difference) hill.

I have two questions: how much easier do ebikes make hills? And, how worried should I be about such a long descent on a heavy bike with a heavy trailer? The more I think about it, the more I see this as the bigger issue…

how much easier do ebikes make hills?

It’s pretty much what they are for 😆

And, how worried should I be about such a long descent on a heavy bike with a heavy trailer?

As long as your brakes work you’ll be ok.

How far away is she from trailerbike age? Then she can pedal with you 🙂

I would have thought any decent ebike with disc brakes would be ok. You could always fit some bigger rotors to help with the increased weight.

I’ve had some overheating issues with a Tandem and a double trailer with 2 kids with 205/185 rotors. Ended up with 3rd rim brake on the rear.
An ebike with a trailer and one child should be fine, increase rotor size if you are worried.
On large hills going down, Sit up and use wind resistance, Use brakes alternately, front then back. Try not to constantly drag the brakes as that makes them heat up more.

Are you thinking about a trailer for part of the 70km trip

That’s quite a long way, an ebike is limited to about 15mph so you’re going to be on the road a long time. Also, you might need to charge the battery every day (assuming it lasts a full return trip)

Personally, for that sort of distance, I’d be considering a car/motorbike and then ride in for fun when I fancied it

Hmmm. I think my biggest concern is getting into a “tail wagging the dog” scenario on that descent with the trailer.

That, and I’ve not yet figured out how to miss all the busy roads with the trailer (the descent is bike path)

@ben: it’s 35 km each way. Tbh I’d struggle to do it much faster on my own on the racer

how much easier do ebikes make hills?

I ride an ebike. I’ve forgotten what hills are.

I reckon you will use a full battery in 35k with a trailer.  Hills will be no problem. You will need  a charger at work, or a spare battery.

im 20 stone and my ebike pulls me up hills no problem at all.

thats 20 stone nekkid, probably 23+ with clothes and all the associated crap i carry at work.

I wouldn’t be worried about brakes either, i use 203 fr and 180 rr rotors, full xt.

my wife’s ebike has 180 fr and rr deore, tbh im hard pressed to tell the difference.

can you fit some type of drag brake to the trailer?

it wouldn’t need to do a lot of work to make a good difference id think.

That’s quite a long way, an ebike is limited to about 15mph so you’re going to be on the road a long time

e-bikes are not limited to 15mph, the assist is limited.

ie: the motor stops helping you once you reach 15mph, you can still propel it faster under your own steam, just like a normal bike. So you’ll not be on the road any longer as on the flats and downs you’ll go at whatever speed you can pedal a non e-bike at, but it will help you on the ups, so you might spend less time on the road.

Points about battery/range are valid though, depending on the model and how high you have the assist you might burn through the battery pretty quickly.

Yup, it’s a fair old hill. 500 m in about 10 km with little respite. Not so bad on the road bike unloaded. Simply unpleasant on the MTB or my commuter, and probably nearly impossible at any reasonable speed with a trailer without a reasonable amount of assist.

So the hill is (fat packet calcs)  about 5%? Not that steep, then…. An ebike will definitely help you up it, but if be surprised if you were able to carry on past 15mph under your own stream on the flat.

My Trek Powerfly with 500W battery will do about 28 miles and over 3K ft of climbing in the Forest of Dean on one charge dragging my fat (113kg) arse around in Eco mode. On tarmac, with proper tyres and high tyre pressure I’d expect a lot more out of it.

Sounds like an ideal opportunity for a regen-braking option ⚡️

*edit, maybe not…

Let’s work out, for a 120kg eBike rider and ebike, how much height you would have to be expecting to climb and come down again to make regenerative worth it. Let’s say 20% increase in range

So 2Ah with a 36V battery is equivalent to 259,200 Joules.

Given a mass of 120kg, and gravity of 9.8, this gives a height of 220 metres

But! Don’t forget the efficiency.

With a 50% efficiency of regenerative braking that changes to 440 metres.…

So there you have it – assuming you want increased range of at least 20%, if you don’t expect to climb more than 440 metres in your average commute then regenerative braking is not worth it.

https://www.pandaebikes.com/regen-braking-ebikes-worth/

Every day’s a school day 🤔

Intrigued.

Looking at e bikes for wifes commute as she is moving to a bikeable office. But also looking at nursery run potential too. Thought trailer and e bike was bit of a no go (and not really an option for our garden access) so had been looking at rear rack seats but they limit pannier options. Her journey is somewhat flatter and shorter so there aren’t any concerns over battery life, turbo all the way.

Sadly, the more I think about it, the more this is unlikely to work for totally unrelated reasons – there’s not an easy way to be on light traffic roads for most of it apart from the big hill, and I’m not comfortable with towing the little one in a trailer on a busy twisty road in rush hour.

Here’s the route, if anyone’s still interested: https://www.strava.com/routes/12059329

I guess a second car is about the only way. Bummer.

I tug a trailer with my toddler in to and from nursery. It’s only a 10-12 mile round trip and the trailer and he weigh in at 25kg. The biggest climb is 130ft gain and 6% gradient. It’s tough; that’s with a 28T front ring and using the 36T rear cog on the pine mountain. Descending the hills are no issue with the trailer and standard brakes. Max speed I’ve seen was 35mph (no passenger) I’m considering an ebike for a longer work commute.

Why are trailers and ebikes a no go?

Why are trailers and ebikes a no go?

It seems theyre not. My concerns were strain on the system up, and too much weight for a long descent. Seems that’s probably not an issue

@shedbrewed

I think the xiongda  2 speed hub maybe good for this application. Its quite light but has a second gear for winching heavy loads up steep gradients.  Check it out by searching Pedelecs or Endless Sphere fora for info on this hub and all sorts of other stuff for utility/haulage ebike options. Some of the trailers have their own hub motors and batteries, so maybe could be used with a normal bike.

I have a Bullit E Cargo Bike with the Shimano S8000 drive train. It’s amazing.

It’s a really pleasant bike to ride, as well as being able to carry huge amounts of kit/people/trousers.

I ride it for fun too, it’s just a blast, and you can pick up shopping or children if you need to

I have a spare battery too.

If you have the storage room and the budget they are well worth looking at.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z1ToYcVu0bQHKq0w2

but if be surprised if you were able to carry on past 15mph under your own stream on the flat.

I’m really curious as to why you’d say this? You’re the second person on the thread to suggest that, 1st person because the eBike is ‘limited’, which it isn’t and you because….?

On flat ground the weight is mostly irrelevant, you’ve only got to get rolling and accelerate until the normal barrier of air (+rolling) resistance vs your input power is reached, and neither are that much higher on an eBike.

If you can pedal a normal bike over 15mph on the flat, you can pedal an eBike over 15mph on the flat, and you’ll get from 0-15mph in a quicker/easier manner than without the assist.

FWIW our Bullitt* Cargo bike bombs along quite happily at 18+mph on the flat, and that’s a bulky old beast to push through the air! give it a slight downhill and wheeeeeeeeee!

*Ours (belongs to the charity) has Shimano STEPs with a Di2 Alfine and if you just turn on auto-shift and put the assist on medium you just have to spin the pedals, it shifts gear for you and jsut keeps going until the cutout, at which point you’re back to pedalling a normal Bullit (if there is such a thing!), but the STEPs helps massively with the effort of getting the thing moving away from lights and any time there’s a gradient, it’s ace!

I highly recommend *what I have* – ha!

BBSHD Bafang 1000, it’s a add on mid-drive (fits any screw on BB standard), easily capable of pushing along several people (have tried!). I’ve paired it with a 1500w 52A battery for epic distances (so far managed 120km in scottish borders on one charge).

Have a look at Em3ev.

Regen braking is cool, but if you’re travelling up and down hills and aiming for distance, a DD Hub gear motor is not what you want. Heavy, poor efficiency when off and inefficient (it’s wound for either hills or flats, not both).

Feel free to drop me a PM/email if you’d like a longer chat.

If you’re going to get a 1000W motor you might as well get a full on motorcycle. Both require registering, a licence, a motorbike helmet and insurance.