gattm99

So we've got a few nice rides in with her on the e-bike and me on my road bike.

• On the flats I'm fine, I can draft if I have too and keep up.
  
• On the downhills I'm dropping her bad. She's sitting straight up and feathering the brakes, I'm hoping she gets a bit more comfortable.
  
• On the climbs I'm being destroyed. It's demoralizing for her to just come flying by me.

RANGE: 12.5 AH battery, so far we've got about 35 miles on it and it still shows 3 bars of battery left. She always pedals and almost never uses the throttle. Usually leaves in on assist mode 2-3.

I've pedaled it up to 30mph with a tailwind and found I could hold 30 with medium effort. On my road bike I can hit 30 in the same tailwind for about 10 seconds.

One of the best investments I've ever made for us to do things together.

2old

Which bike? Good range.

tegnamo

I always figured I'd be a similar scenario with my wife, but it turns out I want the eBike too! I can just leave it in a lower assist mode, or if I'm hauling all the stuff in panniers, I can still keep up with her on her eBike!

Maxacceleration

Same thing here. The wife wanted one and we both got one! lol We pedal along pretty well. If I stay on eco (lowest power), she can do the mid power and keep up smartly. Great bikes (Haibikes). They will go for about a 100 miles on eco power (the range on many of these is incredible). Ours only power out to 20mph, which really is plenty. You can blend in this way. If you're pedaling out to 30mph, its obvious you are doping lol. Most wife's don't want to go 30mph on their bicycle anyway (based on the women I have ridden with). I would call that more of a male ego style of riding. But thats ok. Just don't blow it for other ebikers!
We are (and I really am) enjoying our pedal assist bikes.

gattm99

THere's a thread below where I converted it.

NoPhart

I agree that ebikes are great for leveling the playing field for different fitness levels riding together. I went to your build thread to see what bike and motor you put together; Schwinn city bike with V brakes and Bafang mid-drive.

My first thought is how scary going 30mph would be for “me” with low-end V brakes and not disc brakes. Could this be part of your wife’s hesitation on her downhill speed? Possibly along with the style of bike and experience?

I ride a couple BBS02-B 750W/48V mid-drives and love them. Great way to go for people having trouble climbing and handling head winds like I have; although I have improved dramatically in the last two years returning to riding with an ebike.

I try not to demoralize riders I ride with that are under pedal power only. Holding back on climbing speed is hard to do when you can climb faster with the assist. Gearing plays a big roll in this. I found when riding off-road I had to climb faster than my pedaling friends because my lowest gear wasn’t as low as there’s. On the street my low gear works well for speeds they can do. That’s a function of how steep the hill is. On steep hills where they have to go slow just to climb it, I have to keep a speed that allows the motor rpm to be correct, thus in my low gear I climb the same speed on steep hills as I do on less steep ones.