bkkboy

My girl friend wants to cycle the Danube River in Austria with me in June. The path is 99.9% flat for 350 km. She is thinking about renting an electric bike. Would an electric bike be advantageous on perfectly flat road?

late

Either way, she should do some riding to get used to being on the bike day after day, for hours at a time.

If you're a cyclist, and she's not, get her the ebike so she can keep up. But make sure she does some riding to get ready first.

RB1-luvr

what "late" said. all effected parts of the body should be trained ahead of time in order to better enjoy it. The electric bike is probably a good idea to level the playing field.

cat0020

The river may be flat, but for land traffic there are still bridges, ramps, to travel over the river.
They may not be long hills, but over 350km, how many of those do you think you will encounter?
Every little bit help when you're on a long cycling trip, an ebike will allow you to be less tired when you get off the bike,
have more energy to enjoy things that you do "off the bike".

2old

Sounds like a blast, she would benefit from the "e" and you'll enjoy the experience more too. The comments by late and RB are salient.

linberl

Even on the flats, if riders have different levels, it can make it more enjoyable. My first experience with "e" was to keep up with my adult son who got tired of waiting for me every few blocks, lol. He rides between 20-24mph and even when he slowed down, I still was behind. The motor allowed us to more or less ride together most of the time; this would be something that would be essential I would think on a vacation sightseeing trip. Also, if one rider has more stamina and can ride longer the e-assist can compensate for that as well. What it won't do is make sitting on a saddle for long periods more comfortable - that's something you need to prepare ahead of time. Nothing wrecks a trip more than a sore butt. In fact, I highly encourage taking her saddle with you to put on any rentals once you find one that is comfortable.

portals

If you're not used to riding a bike than regardless of how comfy the seat she will be in pain after a few miles and it will only get worse....

Some training would be sensible in advance to let the muscles know what's coming.

roadcrankr

Check the e-bike's range to ensure the battery lasts each day's distance.
No doubt, some pedaling by her will extend the range, but if she simply twists the throttle, range will suffer.
See if the renter will supply a spare battery. And, of course, a charger.

tds101 

Man, let her get some saddle time in to acclimate herself to riding, get that ebike rental, and enjoy the time out and about. It sounds like a total blast!!!

late

I did a semester abroad in Vienna. They have a park called the Vienna Wood, it's a great place to walk, but it makes most parks look like postage stamps. The only place I want to listen to classical music is Vienna.

There is a desert called Salzburger Knockerln. My spelling is bad, but it's great if you can find it. There is also Sacher Torte at the famous Cafe Sacher. Austria does a really good job with deserts.

Try their Hungarian Goulash at a good restaurant.

Give the art museums a pass.

lex further

she should definitely get herself an e bike and you can a good speed the whole way through.

Calsun

I rode that area in 2007 and at age 67 it was not at all difficult. Wind is more of a factor and I never encountered wind, even in the afternoon. It is a very nice area to bicycle and the motorists are much friendlier than one encounters in the United States. We spent a few days in Salzburg and it became our favorite city in the world. It has wide bridges that are for use only by pedestrians and cyclists and so one sees many old people out doing their shopping on bicycles.

tempocyclist

^ This! She won't be a happy bunny if she has to pedal a hefty eBike with a flat battery towards the end of a long day in the saddle. A spare battery, or range extender, may be what you're after.

poiuyt

Speaking of personal experience (I'm often riding with someone who has an e-trekking bike with 50mm tires, and I was using more conventional bikes), the answer depends mostly on your level: if you are even a bit trained, and she's not, there's a compromise. The limit of 25km/h is easily reached with a well set up regular bike and a bit of training (and even more with tail wind). And for her, going above 25km/h will be hard no matter what, with some exceptions, e-bikes come with large comfy tires, that are not efficient. One of the aspects with e-bikes that is understated is that you somehow adapt to the lower effort (lower heart rate), so once the assistance stops it's getting significantly harder, which makes going faster than 25km/h even harder. Like if you are alternating springs and walks. Note that is would not be true with America e-bikes that are limited to 20mph (32km/h). If you are not using a road bike, your cruising speed is probably between 25 and 32km/h, so that would be a non-issue.

It's doable, but with some conditions:
- make sure that the e-bike has road tires (not in the sense 25mm at 8 bars, in the sense with a road tread pattern), and that they are inflated enough (otherwise the range will become an issue).
- if you prefer to be in the front to have "some exercice", it's good to have a mirror to avoid constantly watching back constantly, it's very fast to drop someone with an e-bike, and she might suffer just to try to follow you.
- a solution is let her go in the front, but it's not a position I did like: because you tend to go faster, you'll be spontaneously in her wake, which means lower wind resistance, so you'll ride close to her with hands on the brakes all the time. Also people with limited biking experience tend to behave "randomly", so being close requires good reflexes.

Of course, if your pace is below 25km/h, it doesn't apply, and it's a fine combination. My best experience with combinations of electric/non-electric is more in hilly regions, less an issue to only brake downhill, and pedal hard uphill and maintaining a cruising speed lower than your natural one.

Notice in the first sentence, I wrote "I was using conventional bikes": the reason being I bought in the meantime an e-bike to commute. When I'm riding with this person, I'm now using the e-bike too, but with a lower level of assistance. Ultimately, it's easier to stay together when the two bikes have similar a configuration, and e-bikes offer the advantage of providing different levels of assistance.

My recommendation would to experiment a bit a home before doing it. Doing 350km on a bike that is not your own is something to do without a minimum preparation, especially if not trained. Even with an e-bike, she will have sore muscles with 60km/day.

sande005

And...e-bikes can be heavy to very heavy. So starting up takes more "oomph" of either muscle or electrons. An up grade at a road crossing with traffic can be interesting without knowing ahead of time what gear/power setting to start with. It is no joy to pedal when one no longer has assist. I still am amazed at the difference in my spring/summer riding regimen - start with the e-bike, and as I get back in shape need less and less assist. Switching to my good, but not great, road bike, and suddenly everything is SO much easier.....but it wouldn't have been without that "weight training" to begin with. So if she's not in good biking shape to begin, make sure to always stay within the distance a charge will last.

Smaug1

Yeah, go for it!
The last bike ride I went on with the Mrs., she had an eBike and I had my acoustic bike. I didn't have to wait for her and she didn't have to get her butt kicked by grades or winds.

One question though; will there be chances to charge the eBike over that run or does the battery have to last the whole time? I assume you wouldn't even consider it if there weren't charging opportunities along the way. Or battery swapping stations.

Calsun

When I was doing multi day tours with a girl friend who lacked my strength and endurance I simply was the lead rider and so her level of effort was greatly reduced. When I draft another rider I can be in a higher gear with lower RPMs and maintain the same pace.

An electric bike depends on pedal assistance from the rider. The bikes my wife and I use weigh only 27 lbs and provide 25% power assist which helps on steep grades but primarily when we encounter a 15 MPH headwind (which is often where we ride).

The battery charge in our bikes last us for a distance of 100 miles at the 25% power assist setting. If the battery was dead we could still ride with little difficulty. Much unlike the 50-70 pound e-bikes that are being sold.

Air drag is what the rider expends most of their energy overcoming on flat ground. At 20 mph the air drag is 4 times as great as at 10 mph and takes 4x the energy to overcome. If you do not mind blocking the wind and possibly a slower pace (and enjoying the surroundings) then your companion does not need an e-bike.