First proper eMTB ride revelations

“I do get a bit of power panic if im stretching the riding out.”

Start your ride with the motor turned off and ride it until it feels like a bike* – you’ll realise it’s not that bad and then feel much less panicked about running out of battery. *If I’ve not been using the motor beforehand I find my ebike just feels like a slightly more sluggish normal bike – but only when accelerating from a standstill or low speed. Once it’s rolling it feels almost identical to a normal bike with the same tyres, until it gets steep and then you just have to use lower gears or stand up more.

No need for Corporal Jones moments!

But claims that riding a regular bike is somehow harmful to your health (with claims of research) are frankly irresponsible.

I think they’d maybe be ‘irresponsible’ if they were coming from a public figure like an MP or sports scientist, but in this context, they’re just unsupported – or more charitably, over-simplistic – bobbins and my guess is that pretty much everyone reading it knows that. For something to be ‘irresponsible’, I’d argue that you’d have to have some actual influence, and consequently ‘responsibility’ in the first place.

On the ‘power panic’ front, I think ‘range anxiety is the usual terminology, power panic sounds more like the moment when your bike in turbo mode tries to boost you off the side of a cliff when you over-correct the steering on some nadgery technical climb…  but maybe that’s just me.

I’m becoming e-bike curious! My main reason for getting one will be because many of my riding buddies have or are heading that way.  I ride with e-bikers (who keep to the group going up hill) and it works but the other way it doesn’t. I would put my self down as a fit 50 year old certainly not ready to give up peddling. Anyone been in a similar position and made the leap to battery powered mtbing?

Yes, but I was late 50’s.

Got a Kenevo SL, and 2 years later still happy with it.

Has it impacted my fitness?  Nope, just means I can ride further and ride more on it and my non-eebs.

Tonight I’ll be out on my gravel bike; 40 miles & 3000ft loop with +60% offroad.

The thing I have noticed about ebikes is that they enable people who don’t normally ride a bike to do a decent day out in the hills and enjoy themselves.
Why would that be a bad thing?

The thing I have noticed about ebikes is that they enable people who don’t normally ride a bike to do a decent day out in the hills and enjoy themselves.
Why would that be a bad thing?

I’ll play the bad guy…

Because the sustainability of the hills and trails relies on not too many people using them. Fitness is one barrier that keeps the number down, others include technical difficulty, knowledge of routes, availability of parking, bike hire services nearby, cost of bikes and kit, and proximity to populations.

Of course it’s good for the individual. And at some point when I can no longer overcome the above obstacles I’ll be especially grateful for ebikes.

The thing I have noticed about ebikes is that they enable people who don’t normally ride a bike to do a decent day out in the hills and enjoy themselves.

Why would that be a bad thing?

Noone said they were a bad thing.

Nope they are not a bad thing.

My wife tried one but just didn’t get on with it,  far far too heavy to be nice to ride.

I don’t want one because most of my riding is a weekly 2 and half hour charge around,  just wouldn’t be worth doing on an ebike

@bikesandboots
I get what you are saying but people I encounter on hire bikes don’t appear to have the skills and ambition to cause serious problems for trail management. They seem to stick to double track used by vehicles and one person we encountered was walking an ebike down a descent in Glenn Tannar because she was concerned about riding it.
The more people who get out on bikes and enjoy riding responsibly the better.

It wasn’t just hire bikes I had in mind.

The forces that result in more people are out on bikes are massively bigger than those working on responsibleness. You can’t compete with capitalism. So overall I’m not in favour of getting more people out in the countryside on bikes or also foot.