It’s probably fantastic for the wife at the moment for Swinners…. but for you to appreciate it you’d need to take it somewhere else. I can’t help thinking all you are getting are the disadvantages but non of the advantages???

Oh absolutely agree yes, what i was asking from it was completely not why either myself or most people would buy and use it… But that’s where we were and that’s what came up at the time. So that’s where it was tested and ridden.

I’m with Weeksy on this one, I was one of the ones on an EBike at FoD on Saturday along with the wife and son when we took a some E150s out for a few hours, I was on an RS with Lyriks.

Main feeling I came away with was disappointment mixed with relief that I didn’t want to buy one, while it was great fun shooting up any incline while chatting to my son on the way and saying to anyone I passed “Yes, we’re cheating” I found the handling of the bike itself sadly lacking. It was surprisingly twitchy and unsettled on anything rough, not what I was expecting at all.
Now, this is probably all related to set-up as I think the forks were too hard although they were set at 25% sag before I left the tent and I noticed that someone had wound the compression up to full which once it was backed off improved things a little and the tyres felt far too hard while riding despite seeming to visibly “squish” into the ground reasonably while I was on the bike.

I also found it quite disconcerting when I changed pedal position in a bend by cranking forwards a little and the motor kicked in a few times trying to “drive me on”, that’s probably just something you get used to.

Viewed in overall it was just not as fun a riding experience as my G170, the easing of the ups for me wouldn’t outweigh the diminishing of the downs. Add to that the £1.5k-2k premium you pay for that battery and motor over a regular bike and I’m happy with my clockwork model for now.

Some people love ’em, some people don’t.

I also found it quite disconcerting when I changed pedal position in a bend by cranking forwards a little and the motor kicked in a few times trying to “drive me on”, that’s probably just something you get used to

According to my mate there’s a lot of trail braking and rear pads being needed on them as because of exactly that you trail the brakes through loads of turns you normally wouldn’t without the motor kicking in.

Weeksy

Oh absolutely agree yes, what i was asking from it was completely not why either myself or most people would buy and use it… But that’s where we were and that’s what came up at the time. So that’s where it was tested and ridden.

I’d be made up if the OH wanted one … though the biggest issue is then having to justify why Ollie pedals but that aside it would be great getting her out to Surrey Hills or Swinners but then stealing the bike for a lads weekend in Wales or Scotland.

It’s probably fantastic for the wife at the moment for Swinners…. but for you to appreciate it you’d need to take it somewhere else. I can’t help thinking all you are getting are the disadvantages but non of the advantages???

Judging by the number of the things at Swinley (and recently seemingly on the army ranges too) they can’t be that out of their depth.

I can see that they would perhaps better suit faster, more open trails with bigger jumps that just happen when you hit them fast enough, whereas Swinley is more like a 20 mile pump track. Apart from 15, 25 and the latter half of the blue, it really makes you work for any airtime.

What riding should it be used for that I’m not doing then?

Rocky/rooty/technical uphill singletrack – the kind of stuff that you’d be walking up with a normal bike. Due to the weight I prefer the ebike over non ebike on the rocky downhills too.

I also found it quite disconcerting when I changed pedal position in a bend by cranking forwards a little and the motor kicked in a few times trying to “drive me on”, that’s probably just something you get used to

Yep. You get used to turning the assist level up/down too and you can use that motor kick and overrun to get up rock steps. Feathering the back break on tight uphill switchbacks was a new technique for me.

Rocky/rooty/technical uphill singletrack – the kind of stuff that you’d be walking up with a normal bike.

TBH where i live in the south, that simply doesn’t exist.

I’m sure if i lived in the Peaks/Lakes that stuff exists, but down in Berkshire there’s very very little you cannot ride on a regular basis….

And to be honest… Riding up stuff that’s hard interests me WAY more on a manual bike than it would on an ebike. It’s about the challenge, it’s about the grit, determination, sweat and effort.
Climbing it on an ebike, meh, i’m not seeing it.

Rocky downhills… again, none here… I’d love some.. but i’d have to drive 3 hours to get to them 🙂

I’m fairly small and light, and found the same, on descents they just feel like a big heavy lump that does it’s own thing. Not necessarily bad, but very different to a normal bike.

But.

And to be honest… Riding up stuff that’s hard interests me WAY more on a manual bike than it would on an ebike. It’s about the challenge, it’s about the grit, determination, sweat and effort.
Climbing it on an ebike, meh, i’m not seeing it.

Technical climbs they really come into there own. You can get up stuff you’d never even look at on a normal bike. It opens up a whole new world of what’s possible. Still lots of effort and skill required, but for me, technical climbs would be the main reason for buying an ebike.

Horses for courses.

Looking at that particular ebike it’s rather short for an average sized man, has a rather steep head angle, a bendy fork and has a light damping tune so if you’re average weight or heavier the suspension will be underdamped, so I wouldn’t expect the handling to be great.

There’s definitely an adaptation period with an ebike. I don’t know how they all work but you control the assistance on a Levo with your left thumb; off, eco, trail, turbo. And you develop a feel for how the assistance will respond to your pedalling – a bit like how you learn to shift cleanly by adjusting your pedalling torque and cadence. When commuting I use the brakes more for sure but when MTBing the difference is marginal – but when MTBing I’ve often got the assistance off (in turbo mode it’s easy to go too fast into a corner, brake during the turn, slide around messily and slower and then accelerate out – turn the power off and I’ll judge things better and carry the speed through).

If you have a more subtle riding style which relies on finesse and timing rather than weight and strength then I can see you might hate the handling, especially if you’re either small, light, or less strong. Personally I love that my Levo wants to go flat out in a straight line over everything or hold whatever radius I’ve set it to carve – and if I want it to do anything else I have to put in a significant input – that stability gives me so much confidence, not just when going straight but on flat corners with minimal grip, when linking slaloms or when getting air.

I’ve only been to Swinley twice despite living in the south east and I wasn’t the greatest fan either time – gut feeling is that it’s probably the worst possible type of trails for riding an ebike hard (but probably very nice for a beginner on an ebike).

probably very nice for a beginner on an ebike).

Based upon half of the posters in here, i should have loved it then 🙂

Technical climbs they really come into there own. You can get up stuff you’d never even look at on a normal bike.

This is part of the problem with modern bikes I find. Not just ebikes. The same happens with modern trail/enduro bikes on the downhill. As the bikes get more capable you have to seek out more extreme terrain to get the same thrills, with the consequence that it hurts a lot more when you get it wrong. It sounds as though ebikes bring the same issue to the climbs as you now have to try to ride up a cliff to get the same challenge you used to get from a muddy bank.

Where’s Geex when someone needs telling they can’t ride a bike?

Has he been kidnapped?

It sounds as though ebikes bring the same issue to the climbs as you now have to try to ride up a cliff to get the same challenge you used to get from a muddy bank.

I was talking about technical climbs rather than just steep stuff. You have a the ability to put down a huge burst of power very very quickly so you can get up and over stuff much easier, and in less distance.

Where’s Geex when someone needs telling they can’t ride a bike?

Dunno. I miss him 🙁

Well that was a minor distaster, after a not inspiring trip to BPW i thought i’d help Mrs Weeksy out by fitting a dropper post. Bought a Specialized Command post as i really liked the one on my boys bike.
Went to fit it and well, lets just say an Ebike isn’t quite as simple as a standard bike.

Just to get the first 6″ of the cabling started i needed to remove the lock mechanism, which is fiddly beyond words. It’s then internally (ish) routed down towards the motor, but you can’t get it started without removing the motor cover…. Then you can’t get to the cover bolts as the cranks are in the way and the chainring. Once you get past that you realise that without removing the sodding motor you can’t actually get the cable routed at all ! I simply am not doing that, it’s just too extreme.
So for now the wife has my wireless Magura Vyron fitted and if she gets on with that, i’ll have the Specialized Command fitted to my G-160 later on.

What a pain in the backside.