ebike or not?

I have e road and e mtb bikes plus non e ones and ride them all. On the e ones I tend to go further in the same time, my HR stats are identical on both. I would definitely say that I have less leg fatigue after an ebike ride though.

I haven’t ridden in nearly 2 weeks as we have loads of work going on in the house, but went out after work yesterday on my regular road loop, on my Creo Sl. 24 miles, 1500 feet of climbing, average speed 16.7mph, moving time 1:24, ave HR 142. For me that’s a decent enough workout, and my legs are only a bit tired today. Bike was in Sport (middle setting) throughout and I used 1/3 of the battery.

Maybe it comes from being a climber – or even from my work – but the sense that you should bring yourself up to the level of the challenge, rather than demand the challenge be made easier for you is pretty much ingrained. If you want to go further, just get fitter. If you want to clean that technical climb – learn to ride your bike better.

Lovely. Sounds like road riding, or running. Of course that is what you like about your riding. For me, I have no interest in the ups, they are a means to an end; to ride down trails, to get to stages to race. I don’t get any sense of achievement going out and ‘cleaning’ a climb or going up it 11 seconds faster than I have before.

On all fronts, it just comes across as a move that smacks of a lack of consideration for anyone else or anything but your own immediate pleasure. Which I have no respect for.

That’s a nice bit of virtue signalling. Your point is applicable to anyone using any piece of manufactured equipment for ‘fun’.

Maybe it comes from being a climber – or even from my work – but the sense that you should bring yourself up to the level of the challenge, rather than demand the challenge be made easier for you is pretty much ingrained. If you want to go further, just get fitter. If you want to clean that technical climb – learn to ride your bike better.

What an odd argument. There have been loads of advances in equipment over the years that we all take advantage of.

Even aside from that, I’ve a few different bikes (none with electric assistance), and I choose the most appropriate one for the ride I’m doing. Road bikes are definitely faster on road than mountain bikes.

On all fronts, it just comes across as a move that smacks of a lack of consideration for anyone else or anything but your own immediate pleasure. Which I have no respect for.

Does it take you a long time to walk to all those places you go climbing at?

“My only exemption is e-commuter bikes, which offload energy production from an ICE to the national grid.”

My Levo replaced a 50cc scooter and my full-sus and I commute on it and MTB on it. Over 95% of my riding is from my door. How many MTBers drive to ride a large proportion of the time?

I paid actual money for the BLevo app and had it running during my shortest inbound commute today. It’s only a short commute, just over 10 minutes, one steep climb, most of the rest downhill or flat. As usual full assist for the main hill, off the rest of the time. Here’s some stats:

4.66km distance
24.1km/h average speed
39m total ascent
11:35 elapsed time

Biker power average: 190W
OFF: 155W
TURBO: 269W

Biker power max: 477W
OFF: 462W
TURBO: 477W

Motor power average: 374W
Motor power max: 733W

Total Wh biker: 25Wh
Total Wh motor: 12Wh

Will do the reverse on the way home!

@larry_lamb

Whatabboutism doesn’t absolve you of the moral weight of your decisions. You do your best – if you do less, you should have a reason for it that’s better than ‘but mum he was doing it as well’.

@colp

Nope, almscliff is a 15 minute bike ride.

@hob-nob

If you can’t see the shades of grey nor see the value in improving yourself – I’m a bit stuck on how to relate to you, sorry. That’s cool – but aren’t you worried about your environmental impact?

@chiefgrooveguru

That’s awesome mate. Could you have chosen to ride a non e bike to work though? Then you’d be fitter and more able to ride an actual bike in the mountains?

Whatabboutism doesn’t absolve you of the moral weight of your decisions

I have absolutely no issue with owning an emtb but your attempt to belittle others by doing so on the back of an environmental argument, yet yourself failing to adhere to that argument you’re pushing is beyond ironic and therefore makes your argument from yourself null.

Try harder.

Sorry continuity, but that last sentence comes across as incredibly condescending. Not sure you really meant that?.

I think he did. He sounds awesome on a bike

Anyone got an Orbea Keram ?

I feel like its all passing me by, with so many owning an Ebike and i still cannot decide what exactly I want – HT or suss, full on on just to get about on.

Most spec on the £3000 range is pretty rubbish(top budget is closer to £6K, but thats not the point), but I thought the keram max looked(for me) a possible. An ok fork, reasonable bits. Like the racks on the SUV option, but doesnt say if you can buy and retrofit those racks onto the MAX version.

So after all my positive comments about my borrowed rehab Turbo Levo, rolled it out this morning and the battery is stone dead, no lights, no sign of life. Replacements cost £840.

There are a whole loads of cautionary notices on the battery including ‘do not get wet’ and ‘do not shake/vibrate’. You couldn’t make it up :-)

Just take it out anyway :)

https://ebike-mtb.com/en/specialized-battery-recall/

Just take it out anyway 🙂

I took the cross bike out instead. My legs still work, sort of…

https://ebike-mtb.com/en/specialized-battery-recall/

Yes, I saw that, but the serial number suggests that it’s not one of the batteries affected, but thanks for the heads-up.

“ That’s awesome mate. Could you have chosen to ride a non e bike to work though? Then you’d be fitter and more able to ride an actual bike in the mountains?”

You’re even more wrong than you’re condescending. Pathetic.

What I find completely strange about the entire unfit/fit/bike/ebike argumentative nonsense is nobody whining has ever bought a bike on its ability to climb hills, most if not all are buying their non ebikes with the intention of going DOWN a hill.
Then its all the talk of forks, shocks and their tweaking, along with geometry, all in all the uphill ride characteristics hardly gets a look in :?

Just caught up with this thread- I got the bad covid last May with a stay in ICU which left me with a heart rate of 165 just taking a dump when I eventually left hospital and reduced lung capacity due to scarring
Bought a s/h levo and it was great for getting me out when Id recovered a bit more but became too much of a lump for me -most of my riding buddies are singlespeed luddites and I ride cannock so found it hard to start getting fitness back unless on my own or with other e-bikers.
Roll on a year and I bought a levo sl and for me its great – rides much more like a normal bike but still can make me ride further and enjoy it more- I toyed with the idea of going back to a normal bike but at the moment just ride with eco set really low or even with it switched off but know I have help if i really need it- still messes with my head a bit and feel a bit of a fraud but if it gets too bad I’ve just built up a rigid singlespeed so I use that as payback.

I toyed with the idea of going back to a normal bike but at the moment just ride with eco set really low or even with it switched off but know I have help if i really need it- still messes with my head a bit and feel a bit of a fraud but if it gets too bad I’ve just built up a rigid singlespeed so I use that as payback.

Thst’s ace, great that you’re on the mend. I’ve been using the Levo for almost six weeks now, three or four times a week and increasingly on eco setting. Can’t say enough good things about what a brilliant rehab tool it’s been as well as a huge mental boost. I can’t see myself owning an e-bike long term, but if I did, it would be something like a Levo SL.

I really don’t understand the bickering about whether e-bikes make you fit or not. Either the people slagging them off or those claiming the contrary. I mean who cares?

@chiefgrooveguru

You appear to have got pretty upset and nasty because your choices were questioned. Do you usually do that? Sorry – I don’t see how it was condescending: it wasn’t intended as such – but to question the argument that An e-mountain bike with thick tyres and suspension isn’t a very efficient (or cheap) commuting machine – why did you choose to use that when you could have just used a cheap road bike?

It would certainly have given you the cash to buy both a communting bike and a mountain bike.

@larry_lamb

So confirm for me your argument is that unless you completely delete any carbon or environmental footprint to your life (i.e. essentially unless you top yourself quietly) – there’s no point trying to make a difference where you can? Do you recycle? Or do you think that’s for morons because they have gas fired central heating so who are they to question you?

Sorry to jump in but do the manufacturers have a replacement program for dead batteries they seem very expensive to replace, Is there an average time the battery is supposed to last or just the usual 1 year warranty.

@continuity

It was your version of ebike riders = shit riders that people found condescending

Maybe it comes from being a climber – or even from my work – but the sense that you should bring yourself up to the level of the challenge, rather than demand the challenge be made easier for you is pretty much ingrained. If you want to go further, just get fitter. If you want to clean that technical climb – learn to ride your bike better.

So I take it you are running singlespeed fully rigid steep head angle and skinny tyres?

Variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn’t it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles rather than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft. Give me a fixed gear. – Henri Desgrange first Tour de France organiser

Sorry to jump in but do the manufacturers have a replacement program for dead batteries they seem very expensive to replace, Is there an average time the battery is supposed to last or just the usual 1 year warranty.

its usually quoted in number of recharges until capacity is down to a certain %. I seem to remember is mine is 500 charges. The cells inside are all the same size so companies can recell a battery pack

Ours are now coming up to 4 years old and no sign of deterioration on any yet. The Specialized app shows them as OK. One of them is in the batch that have been recalled and although we were informed the day the recall went out and also a follow up email from the bike shop haven’t got round to having it checked and sorted.

It’s also nice to be lumped in with been an overweight couch potato that more than likely have no bike skills and a fitness level of 0 that’s not bothered about the damage that I’m causing to the trails and the environment.

I’ll contemplate what’s been said whilst I sip my Gin and tonic and plan how much fun I’m going to have this weekend what ever bike I decide to wobble about on 😉

continuity.
How does ordering cheap tat from China sit with your green credentials…

PSA (Maybe) – Cheap Knock-off Road TOGS

You’re just coming across as a bit of a nob.

The Op just asked for advice on if an ebike was for him.
Not for a lecture on how green or not they are.

“You appear to have got pretty upset and nasty because your choices were questioned. Do you usually do that? Sorry – I don’t see how it was condescending: it wasn’t intended as such – but to question the argument that An e-mountain bike with thick tyres and suspension isn’t a very efficient (or cheap) commuting machine – why did you choose to use that when you could have just used a cheap road bike?”

But that is absolutely not what you said. I’d you’d said that then I wouldn’t have responded as I did. You actually said this:

“That’s awesome mate. Could you have chosen to ride a non e bike to work though? Then you’d be fitter and more able to ride an actual bike in the mountains?”

You didn’t say anything about why am I commuting on a heavy bike with draggy tyres, you said that because I was riding an ebike I would be too unfit to ride an actual bike in the mountains. That’s what annoyed me, because I have perfectly decent fitness (I’m not an XC racer but I’m rarely worried about keeping up on group rides, even when I’m riding my Levo with the power turned off and thus a 20lb handicap). Next time I get to do a Wales uplift/trail centre trip with my mates I’m thinking of taking my hardtail because it was so much fun on really gnarly natural trails in Mallorca.

So why do I commute on my Levo? Or on my Zero AM hardtail? Because the short way in still has about a mile of singletrack descent and a fair few drops and jumps. And the short way home has a drop or two and some uphill singletrack. And the long ways can take in some proper (but short) DH runs with bigger jumps and drops and enough steep/loose/grease to justify the cut spikes I run on the front all year round. Or I can go the even longer way and do more of a singletrack ride. With the Levo I can squeeze two good DH runs into a half hour ride home, which would be impossible without the motor. A road bike or other commuting bike would be much less fun. Also, maybe I’m wrong but I feel a bike with big tyres and big brakes and a dropper post is much safer around stupid car drivers.

“It would certainly have given you the cash to buy both a communting bike and a mountain bike.”

I don’t like road bikes. I have an old Brompton but I only use that when going to London. When I had a shorter commute I did it on a BMX standing up all the way. Now it’s longer I have my two MTBs (which my wife is just about tall enough to ride), my Brompton folded away and bikes for the three kids. That’s all my bike storage space full!

I wonder what the tipping point is for the environmental virtue signalling? Is n+1 alright? Never seen anyone really question that, folks on here with double figure bikes, never seen that get the condescension.

Or is it just the fact that someone can have their cake and eat it, without the virtuous mileage and teeth gritting of an ‘actual’ biker, ie an ebike.

Where exactly is the line?…..

I’ve owned an e-bike for about eight months now (a RM Altitude, not that it matters) and what I enjoy the most about it is the ability to climb stuff that I have never, ever, successfully climbed in 35 years of riding, other than on a motorcycle. And no, before someone says it, I was never a crap climber – I was always known as much for my climbing abilities as descending.
And now I actively seek out ludicrous climbs and attempt to clean them – that does even more for me than a clean descent, I couldn’t give a monkey’s about speed for its own sake (trials rider, you see).
That’s really why I chose the Altitude – 108Nm torque (as standard) with the possibility of more.
It’s not a 300 TXT, that’s for sure, but if you have the skills you can do some impressive climbing – and that’s even at my age.

I still have a LV 301 and my Hummingbird singlespeed and I still ride and enjoy them both, but climbing the top section of Ballacuberagh (with the Liteville across my back) brought it home to me just how much that pissy little motor is doing when I can ride clean to the top, if I choose my line well – carrying the front over rock steps almost like being on a trials bike, stopping and hopping to sdjust position and then setting off sgain…..

It’s a whole different thing and for me that’s how I justify it. Not to just make things faster/easier but to open up a whole new world – new if you’d never previously done it on a motorcycle at least.

@singlespeedstu

Wait, you’re now saying that I can’t raise the issue of 1) lithium extraction and 2) electricity production to supplement your ride because China = bad? That’s some oddly racist whattaboutism. Would you be happier if it was sold as ‘made in the US’, having been shipped from China to the US then shipped to you in the UK?

continuity

Do you have shimano parts? Ethically very dubious. How about CF – pollution.

do you own a car and / or have children? Both far more polluting than an ebike.

Just seems odd that someone so obsessed about the huge pollution that EMTB’s cause 🤣
thinks its fine to order ten quid tat that they don’t need from China/anywhere that far away.
I don’t actually care just think it a bit strange.
This is an MTB forum and the OP asked for advice on a bike, you then take that as a que to insult several people.
You’re attempt to try and make me out as a racist is also bizarre.

I wonder what the tipping point is for the environmental virtue signalling?

Anyone who owns a car and / or has children has not right to question anyones green credentials as those are the two most polluting things most folk do

Anyone who owns a car and / or has children has not right to question anyones green credentials as those are the two most polluting things most folk do

What about second properties TJ?.

Not a huge source of pollution 0- in fact no extra really. Morals and ethics – thats a differnt question

🤣👍🏻

*raises hand*

If I could interrupt the bickering for a sec, to ask an ebikey related question.

Removable battery or not..?

I really like the idea of an Orbea Rise or the likes, but they have integrated batteries. Common sense says that an easily removable battery for charging are going to easier to live with? Yes/No ?experiences?

^^^ think that depends on your storage plans for the bike. If it’s being kept somewhere with mains power then not an issue. If however in a garage or shed without power then removable is a plus.

The big issue with non-removable is Winter. You’d need to bring the bike inside to store it

Not sure I like the idea of integrated battery tbh, ease of charge and life of battery gonna be an issue, though I’d like to assume it’s possible for an authorised repair centre to replace.