Challenges and electric bikes

[kapelmuur]

I'm the person who originally enquired about whether e-bikes could be used in the 50km challenge and I'm grateful that they are. I found that after hitting 70 my strength and endurance started to diminish rapidly and the e-bike has prolonged my enjoyment of cycling and enabled me to ride more challenging routes than I could manage without assistance.

As previously pointed out, e-bikes still have to be pedalled and the assistance is proportional to the manual effort. Plus at speeds over about 15mph the motor cuts out and you're pedalling an additional 5kg of battery dead weight!

I log all my assisted rides as e-bike on Strava and I find that my assisted performances are similar to unassisted rides I was logging when I started cycling 10 years ago.

 

[ianrauk]

Being the keeper and monitor of the 100 miles challenge. I have no problems with someone using an e bike for qualifying rides. And in agreement with my fellow log keeper of the metric challenge @13 rider , as long as the bike is legal pedal assist only then all is good and you're more then welcome to join the challenge.
However a couple of the imperial challenge rules are that, its one continuous ride (cafe stops/breaks etc excepted) with no home stops allowed.
So you will probably need a bit more more planning in regards to taking a spare battery or having to conserve your battery power.

 

[ColinJ]

So you will probably need a bit more more planning in regards to taking a spare battery or having to conserve your battery power.

@Pale Rider used to bring a spare battery for our 100 mile rides.

 

[ianrauk]

@Pale Rider used to bring a spare battery for our 100 mile rides.

He did on one of my London to Brighton rides too. However, it does depends on whether the bike in question does have a removable battery or not.

 

[ColinJ]

He did on one of my London to Brighton rides too. However, it does depends on whether the bike in question does have a removable battery or not.

Indeed. I don't need an e-bike (yet!) but if I ever get one I would prefer one with a hidden battery, though they often have a more limited range and can't be swapped out on the road.

I reckon that we are due some massive improvements in battery technology. If they could develop (say) a threefold increase in energy density it might make an imperial century on one charge of an internal battery a realistic possibility.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Specialized claim their road bikes have a range of 195km with an additional battery that goes in a bottle cage. The bikes also look very nice, but are very expensive.