After a rough few years health-wise, I have struggled a lot in trying to recover a reasonable proportion of my previous fitness – counter to my original post-operative prognosis. In fact, in many ways my health is now more compromised than pre-surgery.

So with mixed feelings, I have just bought an e-bike – hoping to recapture the sense of freedom and fun from cycling with my riding buddies – without slowing them down. The feelings are mixed, because I want to very much feel like I did, but I got so much pleasure out of the physical effort and achievement.

So I know a couple of people have been in the same situation:
1). Do you get the same degree of pleasure and satisfaction on an e-bike?
2). Have you found that the e-bike has improved your fitness or made regaining some of what you lost, easier?

I have two other modern bikes that I love, and I don’t want them just to gather dust…

Demo one. Your feelings towards them will become apparent at the top of the first climb.

I’ve just got my first ebike
Early days but so far it’s mainly positive
I first started “riding off-road” (not mountain biking) about 30 years ago
For me it was more like hiking on wheels with a bit of adrenaline thrown in when going downhill
Age and injury has caught up with me but an ebike feels like I’ve gone back 30 years and rediscovered the things that first brought me to the sport
The two biggest surprises to me are that I now enjoy climbing again and any boring/dangerous road sections can be burned off in turbo mode to get to the more interesting off-road stuff as fast as possible
It also means I can ride further in less of my precious time and fit in some short 1-2 hour rides where previously I wouldn’t have bothered due to the time required to get to the interesting stuff

Thing is, you can dial the assistance right down and if you find you’re getting a bit fatigued later on, turn it up.

I can see myself getting one eventually just because they’re so much fun. I enjoy the fitness aspect, but literally everyone who I’ve spoken to who have gone to an e-bike get out 2-3 times more often.

Do it! My stoker is not the fittest but we’ve done about 650 miles under lockdown and had to go for “practice in the rain”

Buy Bosch or anyone else for actual support and spares, or build your own.

I couldn’t recommend a Shimano system in good faith.

I have both an ebike and normal bikes. I enjoy both, sometimes I’ll go a few weeks without riding the ebike, sometimes the other way round. I have no health issues, I just enjoy riding my bikes. My ebike deffo got me back into riding my normal bikes more though.

Ebikes are as easy or as hard as you make them.. I bought one cos Im a fat knacker and couldn’t keep up with fitter riding mates.. When I ride by myself or with the slapnuts I’m mainly motor off unless pushing them up hills.
When with fitter mates in better riding locations it allows me to complete the rides as they would. You can fly up the hill should you wish or alternatively give yourself a workout that only you will know is sustainable by paying attention to the modes and adjust according to how you feel at each given moment.
Buying mine has helped me get fitter as I have no excuses for bailing so it’s a double edged sword in that respect😉

Demo one. Your feelings towards them will become apparent at the top of the first climb.

Err, the OP has already bought one

Slight thread hijack in reply to Transporter. I get the theory of assistance on climbs but how about on the flat? (probably more road bike orientated) does the power cut out completely above 15mph leaving you doing all the work? i.e. on a flat road ride at 17mph would the motor provide any assistance?

Yea, if you’re relatively fit and riding along on the road you’re constantly butting your head on the limiter. You’ll usually be faster on a normal bike unless going up something steep.

Off road though, they’re ace.

A few years back I sustained a pretty dramatic ankle injury, I couldn’t ride for about a year and will never be 100% again, pulling up in particular gets very painful after a while.

Bought a Focus Jam2 just as a way to keep up with my annoyingly fit mates, it basically got me back in the game. Love it.

Still ride a ‘steel is real’ hardtail when I’m out with the kids or at Swinley or places like that, but for proper big days out in the hills, it’s E-MTB or E-MTB these days.

Does feel like a bit of a stodgy hovercraft on flatter stuff though.

Hi connect2,

I’m afraid anything above 15.5mph you’re pedalling the hulking beast all on your own. It’s actually worse than riding a well setup normal bike with the motor drag(I have a jam2 6.7 nine 2019 with a shimano motor) I just tend to leave it in eco and purposely stay around 13-14mph instead.

I couldn’t recommend a Shimano system in good faith.

Let’s suppose I have ordered a bike (Not in stock yet) with a Shimano Steps motor…? What are the issues…?

Awesome mate, enjoy, you’ll love it!

So tell us what you’ve ordered at least! 🙂

The Turbo Levo SL is right up my street, but a lot out of my price range at the moment!

Just been watching McTrail Riders’s latest YouTube video on his Pivot Shuttle. The one thing that I would love to do on one is explore the off-piste stuff in the forests.

Grinding back up fire roads to explore would be much more doable on an ebike.

I picked up a Trek Rail recently and love it!! I don’t need it from a fitness age reasons, it was more a mental block on mileage, definitely helped my idea of what I can do….still ride the stumpy when on group rides but use the Rail when out on my own.

Used to find I would get to 15 miles and while I had power in the legs I couldn’t get past the mental block that I was knackered, used the Rail alternate rides now ride 22 miles on both, so it did the job.

One thing I do like and I know I shouldn’t but hitting turbo on the fire road hills and still powering up with the added assist, always brings a smile to my face!

In hindsight I should of just got a levo sl as I ride round in eco most the time, maybe my next one will be levo..

The one thing that I would love to do on one is explore the off-piste stuff in the forests.

Snap!

I have ordered a YT Decoy 29. Went for this as it seemed a really capable all-around bike. I have a 2016 Transition Patrol as my ‘big bike’ and a lovely Stanton Switchback as a hard tail. I wanted something that would be more of an all-rounder really – as one e-bike is definitely all I can afford.

Following a few years of bad health (spine fusion & then 1/2 knee replacement) I found getting out was hard work as was keeping up with others. My wife with help from my brother brought me a Levo and since then my fitness and health have improved massively. I’ve done just over 2000 miles on it and get out now every week. It brought back the fun of getting out and pushing my limits.

you can still cycle your old bike. It’s not embargoed. 😆

After years of back pain and then having three vertebrae fused, my wife struggled on a bike. Couldn’t do more than a couple of km on the that and a few gentle slopes as it caused too much pain. She bought a Trance E+ and now we can get out as a family (kids aged 4 & 8) on grade 2 & 3 trails for two to three hours. She starts out on the lowest assist level and dials it up as required – basically the extra effort on uphills is what causes the pain.

It’s brilliant, the amount of time and effort it would have taken for her to slowly build up to this on a regular bike meant it just wouldn’t have happened – the kids are getting faster by the week, she’d struggle to keep up! Regarding fitness, just because it’s an e-bike doesn’t mean you don’t put in any effort. It’s definitely helped her regain fitness post-op.

She’s also using it for commuting too, now she doesn’t have to worry about getting hot & sweaty – one less car on the road 👍

They look nice the Decoy, congrats!

Everyone who I stopped and chatted to yesterday at Gisburn were on ebikes. you could tell because they still had energy left for pleasant conversation hehe 🙂

I have a Turbo Levo SL and can’t sing it’s praises highly enough. Just enough power to flatten the HR peaks yet light enough to throw over a gate. I now only have one MTB, the Levo, plus 4 drop bar bikes.

I’m in the queue to get a Whyte E-150. Ridden a Levo, Kenevo and the Whyte a few times now. Couldn’t stop grinning. I reckon I’ll go out more often and explore more. Keeping a hardtail for when I fancy getting back to basics.

you can still cycle your old bike. It’s not embargoed. 😆

Thats just the thing. Riding a very slow,
14km of gentle rolling off-road, leaves me all done in. Yesterday, 6km in I know I needed to turn back.. i want some hope of being able to ride those bikes once more…

Don’t own a mtb at the moment. Have hired e-mtbs a few times at trail centers and still intend to on a regular basis.

My experience is they completely flattern the hills. No suprise there and passing hyperventilaters inially makes me feel relieved of that.

On the other hand I categorically don’t get the same ‘buzz’ or post ride feeling of achievement like ‘the old days’.

I see it as akin to riding on the flat at a steady pace, with of course amazing views I wouldn’t otherwise get to and some fast decents. Nothing wrong with that, a great day out.

If I want to feel like I’ve pushed myself and get an endorfin rush, I take the gravel bike out on a more manageable route.

Would owning an E bike make you bid a fond adieu to your other manual variety bikes 😕 Especially for those of us with health issues who feel we need to put in the effort to feel you’re making a difference to health or fitness, or would you find that you use the electric for everything, even a 5 min jaunt to the shops.

I dont want to see it as effectively a powered wheelchair.
Without the chair bit.
Takes time to get the right bikes and all set up with the bits you like set as you like, just to throw them by the wayside, or hold on to them as a psychological crutch 😕

Sorry getting a bit gloomy there 🙂

^^^ the new breed of light, lower powered ones are not far away from non ebikes. I have some health issues, rode 3 out the past 4 days, 2 hrs plus each day, ebike, then gravel bike then ebike, they’re all bikes 😜

I am going to post on a thread with some real actual useful relevance. I thing this might be a first

I proper fkd my leg up so could not ride without electric assistance. No possibility or improvement as it was a degenerative injury.

Bought an E-Bike and could ride with friends again which after a year in bed / wheel chair was amazing. I was back riding with friends at an acceptable pace rather than ‘No, we don’t mind waiting, AGAIN’ which they never said but you could feel a couple of operations earlier.

Now I can ride a non-assisted bike and did nearly 22 miles at family friendly pace. It nearly killed me without the battery to fall back on but I made it.

Anyway, to answer your 2 questions.

1) No, an e-bike is not as much fun as a normal bike until you adjust and realise that blasting across slight climbs and levels with boost on is very similar to pedalling fast through slight downhills unassisted. You need to adjust your expectations.

2) Yes. Damn right Yes!!! When I got out of the wheelchair I could not push a pedal down. 3 months later I could ride on the flat. A year later I was riding my off road fixie a bit. I have recently ridden over 20 miles unassisted.

Forget the prejudice. If you can afford it, get an e-bike and I will not recommend Badd ASS Bikes in Germany who do a little thing that fits over the wheel sensor and changes the limit from 15.5 to 46.5 mph without requiring any wires cut and cannot be detected for warranty.

E bikes are not for me at the moment. At the moment…

For you, it sounds like you’ve made a bloody sensible decision. You’ve also bought about the best looking E-MTB yet made you lucky sod.

I reckon you’ll love it mate and get you’ll fitter as a lovely side effect of riding it.

When you go back on your other bikes it’ll feel like you’ve got new legs/lungs!😁

I bought a Heckler and its brought back my love of cycling, I had basically quit 3 years ago. Now I am riding 2-3 times a week. What I find is that as my fitness is returning, I am just going harder and faster, dont feel at all anymore like I am taking it easy. Im shot after a ride, but so much fitter than I remember been in a long time.

The other thing is, the country where I live is all wild riding, no trail centres or anything like that, so e-bikes are a fantastic tool to find new routes and explore, you can plunge down new trails without the fear of “if this goes nowhere we will be pushing all the way back up” – we have found amazing new trails because of this.

I don’t know about the fitness side of things but i do know, the more and more i ride them, the more i dislike riding them. Latest was an Orbea WildFS thing… horrific item to ride, clattery, heavy, non-responsive, just all over the place. Sure, when you put some power down it FLIES… but doing a drop line, god it’s just bloody terrible.
I’ve now ridden 5 decent spec E-bikes and they’re all just awful to me.

I can still see some appeal from the context of yesterday at FoD, where it would be useful to get up the fireroad slog easier for sure…. but i’d want a proper bike waiting at the top for me.

🤦‍♂️

1). Do you get the same degree of pleasure and satisfaction on an e-bike?
2). Have you found that the e-bike has improved your fitness or made regaining some of what you lost, easier?

1. Absolutely yes, possibly even more so, as someone who races gravity disciplines it means less time going up, and more runs going down. I live in an area now where I have can ride 4 or 5 times a week & can easily do 1000m + vertical every ride. last week was over 10k vertical & my legs were dead.

2. Depends, I am reasonably fit and I can work as hard on an ebike as I can on an analogue bike. The difference is if i’m toast from a heavy week of riding I can ease off and still get some riding in.

I don’t know about the fitness side of things but i do know, the more and more i ride them, the more i dislike riding them. Latest was an Orbea WildFS thing… horrific item to ride, clattery, heavy, non-responsive, just all over the place. Sure, when you put some power down it FLIES… but doing a drop line, god it’s just bloody terrible.
I’ve now ridden 5 decent spec E-bikes and they’re all just awful to me.

In the politest way, I think this reflects on you, rather than the bikes. We can all look on the world of social media and see people absolutely ripping on ebikes. Mine that’s due to arrive is ~20kg – i’ve had DH bikes that were heavier than that. I’m lucky/unlucky enough to ride with some absolute pinners, all on ebikes & again, no issues with throwing them around.

Sounds like you are more unfit than you think…so rather than beat yourself up about not being able to do what you used to, just go out for a ride and see if you can add on another mile each time…start small and build up.

The e-bike will help that (and the extra weight of the bike will also help with strengthening)…so get out and start enjoying the riding again.

Accept you won’t be going far or extreme for now, but in a couple of months time you’ll be riding much further and probably faster as well.

It will take time but it will return.

In the politest way, I think this reflects on you, rather than the bikes.

We can all look on the world of social media and see people absolutely ripping on ebikes

And once again we have this “If you don’t like Ebikes you must be rubbish”… Which, maybe i am, maybe you’re better than me, but i’m reasonably representative of your average MTBer, arguably better than a fair few.

They’re usually guys like Danny Mc, who not only are awesome on EVERY bike, but are also being paid to say they’re great.

Even the guy with the Orbea rode my G-160 and told me how brilliant it was after riding it and how much better than his Orbea… but, he’ll be sticking with his Ebike.

Thank you for all your input and support as well. Very much appreciated!

@cbike Could you give me some background on the Shimano motor issues you have experienced…?

I’m also considering an eBike, primarily because the mate I ride with has now got one and I can see now how many more runs we would be able to get in on a day without being ruined the next day. I also can’t see any signs of it hampering him in any way at all.

It’ll also allow a free choice of location as the heinous climbs stop being so much of an issue. Just left with 2 problems now.
1. Which bike and how to test ride
2. How to then pay for it 🙁

jamj1974
Subscriber
I couldn’t recommend a Shimano system in good faith.

Let’s suppose I have ordered a bike (Not in stock yet) with a Shimano Steps motor…? What are the issues…?

No idea what his issue is, but I have an e-8000 that 2 years old done 2000+ miles and hasn’t missed a beat. That said the 1st (shimano) bike I ordered was faulty out of the box, and could not be fixed by the manufacturer/shimano (talking to the supplier, neither ghost/shimano could find their arse with their own hands, where this bike concerned) & I ended up with a completely different bike. Simply your e-bike may break, whether it’s made by bosch/shimano/Brose (between us, we’ve had them all and had failures on all), and your probably have to wait a longer time to get it fixed than a manual bike, it sucks but it’ll only get better. I’m struggling to see a reason to ride my manual bike, unless I’m riding with other manual bikes, which as the majority of my friends went “E” is very little. No I don’t get the endorphin rush from completing a hard climb, but that was never a draw for me, if it is maybe they aren’t for you. That said I’ve probably ridden more trails in the last 3 years, than I have in the previous 15 years of manual mtb-ing, which to me is a major win.

I have had 4 e-bikes with Shimano 8000. Never had a single problem, in fact I still have one with 2,000 miles on the clock, done mostly in Turbo. Shimano = bulletproof in my experience.

I still ride exposed battery. Lighter bike, more central weight distribution. Just bought a NOS Commencal from their website for £4,000, same spec as a £6k in-frame bike. I prefer exposed batteries at 500w. I take a spare 500w battery if I want a long ride.

And yes, I still go out on unassisted bikes. I regularly do 2-4 hr road rides in the North York Moors. Hilly.

And once again we have this “If you don’t like Ebikes you must be rubbish”… Which, maybe i am, maybe you’re better than me, but i’m reasonably representative of your average MTBer, arguably better than a fair few.

They’re usually guys like Danny Mc, who not only are awesome on EVERY bike, but are also being paid to say they’re great.

Congratulations on jumping to a lot of conclusions there.

But, you don’t like them, so they must be rubbish, right?

Yes, Danny is frighteningly good on any bike, as are the likes of the Surrey Massiv hitting stuff on these terrible, clattery, heavy, non responsive ebikes that 99.5% of the MTB population couldn’t hit on any normal bike.

Which kinda proves the point – the bike isn’t the issue…

I think e-Bikes are wonderful things, especially for folks with health issues. It sounds like they’d also be great if you mostly ride trail centres as you’re likely to be able to get twice as many runs in as otherwise.

I don’t have any specific health issues (yet!) other than being overweight and under-fit – both of which are fixable and entirely under my control – but I’d be concerned that for someone like me an eBike would just become an excuse for not getting any fitter, so I’ve no intention of even trying one at the moment. I do expect that’ll change at some point in the future though.