Ebikers – Curious Clothing Question

Obviously it would be wrong to insinuate that they aren’t working as hard.

Whilst a lot of ‘us’ tend to bang on about how you CAN get a good workout on an ebike, the reality is, a lot of the time you aren’t working as hard.

This even more so when out in a mixed group with some on normal bikes – I’ll definitely tend to wear more clothes than the regular bikers (in cooler temps/wet weather). Warm weather, then it’s the same clothes as regular biking

I wear the same clothes on my ebike or my singlespeed hardtail. Shorts all year round. If I’d got out for a ride on either yesterday I’d have been in my thinnest tech t-shirt, a desleeved cotton t, or a vest (sorry!)

I suspect that there may be more ebikers out there than you think – but you tend to notice the ones wearing lots of clothes because anyone doing that on a normal bike would melt!

This even more so when out in a mixed group with some on normal bikes – I’ll definitely tend to wear more clothes than the regular bikers (in cooler temps/wet weather).

Absolutely. If I’m out on a social club ride involving some of the slower members then I’ll normally wear a bit more than if I were out solo, because I expect to be going a bit slower and stopping more often. That’s with none of us on ebikes.

Maybe the ebikers were wearing fire retardant clothing for when the battery inevitably self-combusts 🤷‍♂️

I wear the same clothing on an E-bike and a normal bike. Trousers all year round as well.

I really don’t like this trend for trousers on MTBs. Why would you want that much insulation around the muscles that are working by far the hardest?

I particularly like heavy 3/4s for bike commuting/work because they’re cool when your legs are moving pumping air in and out but warm when you’re standing still. But they appear to be an endangered species…

I noticed it on a nirvana cycles post a while back…

I wonder if quite a few are people have given up motorbikes for emtbs and are just used to wearing more stuff.

I ride both bikes and ebikes. I always find it a bit of a quandary at this time of year, just as the weather warms the vegetation goes into overdrive and I spend much of this season with lacerated arms and legs so much as I’d like shorts and tee shirts I usually end up in longs to avoid the ‘self harmer’ look. And I haven’t even mentioned the wet slappers after it has rained

I’ve worn a light, Polarec Alpha insulated jacket on an e-mtb in cool-ish conditions before now, if I did that on a normal bike, I’d evaporate in short order. There can be a hefty difference in heat production between normal bikes and e-bikes, at least ridden with higher levels of assistance. Obviously if you pedal like a loon and use eco mode a lot, that may be less of a thiing.

i cannot fathom how they weren’t passing out from the heat.

They simply weren’t working as hard as you and simply wearing trousers as opposed to shorts isn’t a death sentence. In fact, there’s at least one study that shows: ‘Wearing long pants while working outdoors in the tropics does not yield higher body temperatures’

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23379809/#:~:text=Results%3A%20No%20significant%20differences%20between,C%3B%20p%3C0.05).

So basically, it seems feasible that your assumptions that wearing long trousers make you hotter, may be incorrect, even if that seems unlikely.

“‘Wearing long pants while working outdoors in the tropics does not yield higher body temperatures’”

That seems reasonable – it’s common to have more coverage in very hot conditions to shade the skin from the sun, as it’s about keeping the heat out. However pedalling a bike (so legs constantly moving when doing significant work) in temperate conditions (ie British summers) whilst wearing longs rather than shorts is likely to because you’re trying to use the cooler air outside to remove heat generated by the person doing athletic work.

If you’re wearing too much on an ebike you can use the motor more to stop yourself overheating. Or you can remove some layers and pedal harder.

However pedalling a bike (so legs constantly moving when doing significant work) in temperate conditions (ie British summers)

I think the point is that quite a lot of e-mtbers’ legs are not doing ‘significant work’ – which ultimately, let’s be honest, is the attraction for most e-bike riders and the reason the things exist – so legwear is probably less crucial. Obviously you can ride an e-bike hard, but I’m not sure that’s a really common thing, particularly when it’s baking hot and you have the choice.

On top of that, I wonder how many riders are toting knee/shin pads under their trousers anyway, at which point the cooling gains from wearing shorts probably drop off too.

But I think, if you step back from the STW thing of arguing about the nuances, mostly you don’t get as hot riding an e-bike as you do on a non-assisted one. Not that it matters anyway, people can wear what the hell they want if it makes them happy, decency laws permitting.

The flip side that’s easily overlooked is that if you’re wearing more clothing than you need to, then you may avoid putting effort in (that you can manage and enjoy) when riding an ebike, simply because you’re overheating. I’ve had plenty of ebike commutes when the weather has been colder than I was expecting and I’ve had to pedal like a lunatic to stop myself freezing.