Electric bikes

[Pat "5mph"]

Some time ago on my commute I'd seen the most cool, fully loaded touring bikes, ridden by an elderly couple.
Cool looking bikes, I tell them.
Yes, yes, we are going on an outing, we love the fresh air ...we are 85, you know? Those are electrical assisted, to give us a wee help up the hills, we love riding our bikes.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Some time ago on my commute I'd seen the most cool, fully loaded touring bikes, ridden by an elderly couple.
Cool looking bikes, I tell them.
Yes, yes, we are going on an outing, we love the fresh air ...we are 85, you know? Those are electrical assisted, to give us a wee help up the hills, we love riding our bikes.

 

[F70100]

Mrs F70100 just got one. She doesn't do "sport" (she'll happily labour all day in her garden though) but wanted to be able to come out cycling with me without feeling that she would be slowing me down/going to get left at the bottom of a hill/ etc.

Still early days but she is getting out with me and says she's enjoying it, and so am I!

 

[nickyboy]

Yeah, why not? I'm fit enough now to cycle around the Peak District and enjoy the cycling. But that won't be forever and there will come a time when it becomes just too hard to be enjoyable (hopefully quite a long way off!)
At that time I'd buy an electric assist. As TMN says, you only use the assist on the hills, then pedal as normal on the flat and downhills. That way I'd still get reasonable exercise and be able to enjoy the countryside.
Brian Robinson now rides an electric assist to let him get up the big hills in these parts. He's an ex-TdF stage winner so if it's good enough for him it'll certainly be good enough for me

 

[Drago]

Lance is an ex Tour winner. If drug Cheating is good enough for him...

You catch my drift. Just because someone else does something has never struck me as a justification for doing it myself, although I concur fully with the concept of using them to assist ageing bonds and tendons up the hills.

 

[albion]

I expect that electric bikes will become very popular with the general public when the new solid state batteries that are being developed become available in the not too distant future...

And what happened to ultra-capacitors always 'coming soon' ?

 

[summerdays]

I've contemplated it in the winter months when I'm struggling with iron levels, though I had a good winter this time so didn't end up hiring one which was my intention (you can do a 1 month loan from the council). I worry I would become a lazy cyclist, but when it's really hard and you end up in tears feeling you can't get up a small hill then electric assist sounds wonderful. I don't want to add lots of weight, and would rather have less weight/power and only use it where I really need it and not be held back the rest of the time by carrying power I didn't need.

I see them daily on my commute some regulars and some you only see once.

 

[Racing roadkill]

And what happened to ultra-capacitors always 'coming soon' ?

That's the world of high tech for you, it's always "the next x years are going to see this (insert techy thing) take over the universe". Only the horizon always seems to move more quickly than the techy thing does.

 

[Pale Rider]

I have both e and ordinary bikes.

Nothing can match the pleasure of riding an ordinary lightweight bike in favourable conditions.

E bikes are heavy, which makes the cycling experience not as pure.

But they do calm the headwinds, flatten the hills (to a degree) and give range.

I hacked after Nicky on the Llandudno recce for 80+ miles, and have done a handful of other rides of similar length.

Battery capacity and weight is the weak point of ebikes, as it is with other electrically powered vehicles.

A lumpy bottle battery is OK for about 20 miles, but you need to carry a lot more capacity than that for a day ride.

Very easy to overload the bike, and it's unwieldy at A gates and other obstacles.

Batteries were big and heavy when they were invented more than 200 years ago, and they still are big and heavy - I cannot see that changing in the foreseeable future.

 

[Tim Hall]

Batteries were big and heavy when they were invented more than 200 years ago, and they still are big and heavy - I cannot see that changing in the foreseeable future.

I'd say batteries these days are smaller and lighter than they were 200 years ago. Or there the same size, but have greater capacity. Looking at the energy density of a lead acid battery, wikipedia says is 0.56MJ/l, while a Li Ion battery is between 0.9MJ/l and 2.63MJ/l. At the worst case that's almost twice as good. At the best it's over 4.5 times as good.

 

[glenn forger]

Locked my steed up next to one of these a few days ago:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/hopper-shopper-electric-bike-blue/761-4756.prd

Quite funky.

 

[Oldbloke]

There are 2 of them at our house, Maz has arthritic knees so I fitted an electric front wheel kit to her Dawes Geneva and was highly impressed, so much so that I wanted one for trailer dragging duties (I have been known to carry 50Kg of building supplies on the trailer and we live on top of a hill/ridge)
However I then had a fall and broke my Femur which didn't knit back together with the first intermedullary nail (bloody big pin inserted inside the bone) so they took that out and drilled the inside of the bone to the same size as an even bigger pin. During a session with the physiotherapist he put me on an exercise bike and was shocked at how well I did on it (until I told him that I was a fulltime cyclist) and said "Its a pity you haven't got one of these at home as well, how about joining a Gym" so I toyed with that idea then thought about bolting one of my bikes onto a 'turbo trainer' then had the brainwave of getting a trike. Trouble was I could ride it along the ridge but if I went down the hill I couldn't get back up so I bought an electric front wheel kit for that.(it will eventually go onto one of my MTBs that I use for pulling the trailer once I can get back to riding 2 wheelers again)
In short I think e-bikes are fantastic but there are some ugly ones out there, far better to convert a normal bike using a kit like this.

interesting, @raleighnut. I'm thinking of fitting a kit to Mrs OB's bike. Can you recommend one?

 

[HarryTheDog]

I ride a bike to keep my wieght down and save money so would not consider a electric bike. They are becoming more popular and down in our works car park 3 regularly turn up, a go bike, a Smart bike and a electric MTB HAIBIKE. They are all around the 2,000 mark.( the HAI bike probably more)
I have spoken to 2 of the owners. They bought them purely for the convenience of a short commute in London and are not interested in the fitness aspect at all, just works for their commute, nothing wrong physically with the people, they could ride normal bikes but have no interest at all in cycling, So totally different ättitude to "real cyclists".

 

[raleighnut]

interesting, @raleighnut. I'm thinking of fitting a kit to Mrs OB's bike. Can you recommend one?

I have used 2 of the kits imported/branded by Cyclotricity, one from the importer but I found the aftersales to be a bit crap so the second one came from a retailer (at the same price though) these were the firm I got the second one from
http://www.electric-bike-conversions.co.uk/
I went for the pannier battery option and left off the assist computer/handlebar unit so mine is throttle operation only but the wiring loom is there so I could retro-fit it if I wanted but it means that I can choose not to use up the battery power when I am in town and just pootling along at walking speed but still pedalling. (The front wheel simply 'freewheels' when the motor is not powered or the bike/trike is travelling faster than the legally powered speed and is actually pretty 'free running' when riding without power assist. i.e. There is no drag when not in use

 

[Pale Rider]

Locked my steed up next to one of these a few days ago:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/hopper-shopper-electric-bike-blue/761-4756.prd

Quite funky.

Towards the other end of the price scale, here's a pic of my Rose/Bosch trekking bike: