Talk to me about gravel ebikes

I’m thinking that a flat bar gravel bike would be the thing for mrs a to get out and about on in the hilly Chilterns where we now live.

Something not too heavy as it’ll need to be chucked over the odd fence and something relatively not too expensive as it’ll be used intermittently. I was looking at the Ribble gravel Al e (which I swear was cheaper when I looked yesterday). Does anyone have experience with a hub motor like this?

Are there alternatives I should consider?

No experience myself, but I’ve seen Boardman do eeb gravel and hybrid bikes – which are bound to be competitively priced and decent quality.

My nipper has the Mahle setup on his e mountain bike.. seems fine fro him, hasn’t got the outright torque of a mid drive setup, so its more suited to a bike that’s moving, also, you have to pedal faster than the hub to get the assist. so if you bog down without anticipating and shifting up the block and spinning, you lose your asssist. But, you get the weight saving

The Somder El Camino looks nice – they have a sale on at the moment (10% off I think)

I’ll be following this out of general interest. I was thinking a couple of days ago that, if and when I decided to buy an e-bike, I’d have to decide which of my current stable it would replace. I’m not sure the gravel bike is my first priority, so interested to see the options.

Both the Sonder and the Boardman look like great options, thanks! I’ll find a way for her to get a test ride and confirm that it’s a style of bike that would suit her.

On the Halfords website, you can book a 6-hour e-bike trial, but it’s limited currently to certain Carrera and Pendleton models at the mo.

The Boardman flatbar e-gravels look light at ~15.5Kg and you can replace the heavy motor and battery with a ~£90, light cover for a non-assisted ride https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-accessories/electric-bike-parts/boardman-%2F-fazua-e-bike-downtube-cover-336158.html? . But I’ve no idea how Fazua motors compare to Bosch and Shimano.

Max distance on full charge is restricted at 50 miles (says typical 25-30), but being ~10Kg lighter than other e-bikes I’ve looked at, will make the slog of carrying up a flight of stairs less exhausting.

The Boardman (assuming we’re talking about this) seems appealing because it’s mid drive whereas the Sonder and Ribble are both hub drive. Anyone have any opinions on the tradeoffs?

Is it fair to say that hub drive can be lighter but mid drive is generally “better” because it puts the gears between the motor and the wheel?

Gravel e bikes just make so much sense. If I want to smash myself to get super fit I use the roadie. If I just want to have a nice relaxing ride with mates for a pub lunch and to enjoy the outdoors I take the gravel bike. Unfortunately even those ‘relaxing’ rides still have hills. And nothing ruins a relaxing ride like having to put in any kind of effort up a hill. Especially after 2 pints and a burger.

Friend had one of those spesh e gravel things and it was awesome. If I had room and money for one I’d buy in a flash.

I won’t lie, the idea of having it in the shed ready for when I “need” to “borrow” it is appealing too.

We’ve a Merida eSpeeder. Mahle X35.

Tis all the great things. It’s only as heavy as a mountain bike. It’s got enough grunt to help, we’ve still got it set to 60% of maximum power in the app and not needed for more. It’s got 100km range with mrs_oab/8st on board. Comfy with carbonz fork, bars and seatpost. Big up Stirling Cycles who supplied it on cycle to work. We’ve had it a year and it’s brilliant.

Negatives: we’ve had one ride where the system had a wobble, we think the ‘rear wheel removal” connector was loose. The charging connector was designed by the work experience kid on Friday afternoon. It needed some slightly knobblier tyres to give confidence off road. The app isn’t intuitive.

Pics

https://www.flickr.com/photos/88555557@N00/albums/72177720311635143

One last negative: on road and downhill tracks it’s easy to exceed 15.5mph, and as you get to 20mph there is a little resistance from the magnets.

you have to pedal faster than the hub to get the assist. so if you bog down without anticipating and shifting up the block and spinning, you lose your asssist

Mahle doesn’t have a torque sensor, it’s a cadence sensor.

So if you want more assist, drop a gear and spin. This works well on gravel.

I should add, I’ve got the Boardman drop bar, its a little firm to ride..

Great as an ebike, plenty of power to spin out on most climbs. build is a little agricultural. not as quick on all out pedalling on roads etc as my Nukeproof Digger

Be aware though, no one want s to buy one second hand. I’ve been trying to sell mine for months, and even at a bike reseller they essentially offered me the value of the battery and nothing more

In our house we’ve a Mahle equipped Ribble and a Fazua based Whyte gravel bike. Both have the advantage of lightness but the trade off is that they’re more suited to being used for occasional assistance on a ride than the ‘always on’ some of our friends have on their (10kg heavier) bikes. Neither of us would swap for a heavier bike. Neither of us notices any resistance from the mother/system

One advantage of the Fazua, alluded to above, is the battery and motor are removable, so easier to charge even if you can’t take your bike indoors and rideable 4kg lighter if you use the blanking cover, and lighter to lift. On the Mahle, however, the charging ‘issue’ can be overcome using the range extender

Range is a difficult thing to define as it depends on how you use it. On the 5 Ferries (62miles, 4,500 feet) a couple of months ago, my wife (Mahle) used all her battery and c30% of the range extender and I (Fazua) used about 80%. One ride last week (42 miles and 3,300 feet), she didn’t use her motor and I used about 10%.

I had a Spesh Creo, which came in road or gravel versions, from new in summer 2020 till last week. Mine was the road version, but frames and basis spec the same, both have Futureshock etc.

I sold it as I wasn’t using it at all anymore, however I bought it in poor health and it served a great purpose. Range wise, it was good for about 60 miles on the internal battery, 100 with extender. I rode it round Arran on the internal battery and had about 6% battery left at end of the loop.

i have 2 regular gravel bikes, a road bike and a light eMTB (Spesh Levo SL), my next e-bike, whenever that maybe, will be a gravel one.

I have a Vitus gravel bike with the Fazua motor that I mainly ride in the Peak. I can rarely get more than 30 miles out of a charge only doing about 7+800 metres of climbing. I weigh 80-85 kg while a mate who weighs 5-6 Kg less with a lighter bike gets more miles to the charge but still not as much as some of the figures above. Must be tyres, pressure etc.

I have the gravel Al-e , in drop-bar format (flatbar wasn’t available at the time, but I might have considered it, if it had been)

It was mainly bought for keeping up with my younger cycling friends on bike packing trips, but has proven to be a great bike for big days out on less gnarly off road routes.

Battery usage is dependent on your usage patterns and terrain, but is very impressive.

So glad I bought it.

Sounds like I should not be too concerned about having a hub motor and choose based on other factors? I think the geometry and slightly more off road bias of the Sonder would be most appropriate so perhaps that’s the one to look at first.

As someone who knows nothing about these bikes and hasn’t ridden any of them, I would feel more attracted to a bike which could take a standard wheelset.

As someone who knows nothing about these bikes and hasn’t ridden any of them, I would feel more attracted to a bike which could take a standard wheelset.

Our Merida would. It is standard bold through axle sizing – just happens to have a heavier steel axle with bolt on, rather than alloy with a hex or QR system.

And presumably the hub motor is just a hub with bigger flanges so it can be rebuilt like any other wheel.

My pal hired an Orbea gravel ebike in Majorca and was raving about it.

And presumably the hub motor is just a hub with bigger flanges so it can be rebuilt like any other wheel.

Correct. Big hub, big flanges, big steel threaded bar axle through it. But standard spacing, standard diameter of axle.
edit:ignore me

The Cube NuLane / Nu Road looks interesting

CUBE NULANE HYBRID C:62 RACE 400X SAGEBRUSHGREEN/PRISM 2025

carbon frame, bosch SX mid drive motor and should come in around 15Kg – starting at £2700 for a base Nu Lane

Looked at the Ribble CGR AL-E at the back end of last year as a commute bike, but then saw a Lapierre E Crosshill 5.2 for a lot less than the Ribble and with the same spec. Preferred the colour (1970’s Porsche Brown) of the Lapierre and the understated branding which was important to me to avoid attention from the undesirables in London. Love the bike – and done over 4000 miles on it since December. Battery packed up after 900 miles and 2 months but was replaced under warranty and no issues since. Great fun for exploring bridle-paths on the way home during the summer. As other have said the Mahle system works best in more of a spinning gear.