bikeleo

After a minor bout with cancer, and the earth continuing to circle the sun, the days of my wife and I riding together on conventional bike is pretty much over. She's been riding her e-bike for a few years, and the times she has ridden it, with my on my road or gravel bike have been quite enjoyable. I can go as fast as I want, and she can easily keep up. As I get older , I'm also slowing down, and taking longer to recover from any little annoyance, like the knee pain I developed from fixing my deck, and the hills seem to be getting steeper every year.
So, I'm also considering an E-bike so it will be easier for us to ride together. I still plan on riding my regular bikes as well.

Who else rides an E-bike? Do you enjoy it? Do you feel like less of a cyclist?

Enjoy the Ride!

spdntrxi

Got an E-Bike for the wife. (Pivot E-Vault to be specific).. Gravel capable and pretty light 31lbs with battery. Got the full SRAM Force XPLR 1x package.. so reverb dropper and Ruby ultimate fork with 40mm travel. It's super fun for recovery rides where I want to go far with little effort, but I still get my heart rate in Z2 ..power I doubt but pretty close to Z2.

It's also great to run errands... I have a seatpost rack and panniers for shopping etc etc. I'm not quite sure when I will get my own, but they are a blast.

Speedskater

We have a friend, she was a cyclecross competitor, then a pro cycling domestic. Now she cross-country ski races in the over 40 group. She got an E-bike with a back seat for the kids. She uses it to do her shopping.

John E

There are a lot of those in my neighborhood. It's cool that parents are using them to drop the kiddies at the elementary school down the street.

Mtracer

I don't have one, yet. But my wife does and it allows us to ride together. I definitely expect to get one someday, and probably not that far off (2-5 years). Not to replace my regular bikes, but to augment them. I can still make any climbs I want to, so I don't NEED one yet. I think they are great. I don't think they are cheating. They are just different and the great thing is for some people, like for my wife, it is the difference between riding or not riding.

I've seen some nice road ebikes. I can definitely see myself getting one of those when the climbs on my regular routes become too much for me.

Classtime 

When I run with my runner wife, she slows down for me and we run together. I don’t ride a scooter to keep up.

https://www.bikeforums.net/electric-bikes/

Calsun

Where we live it is often very windy and I have never liked fighting a head wind. If I grind my way up a hill I know I can coast and recover on the downhill section but that does not apply with wind except in the very rare situation that there is a tailwind.

With our Class III road bikes a head wind can be ignored as the bike motor is providing assistance. I first bought two Class II ebikes but quickly replaced them with the Class III ones that can provide pedal assist at speeds up to 28 mph. The bike motors only provide assistance when the rider is actively pedaling but I can adjust how much assistance I want and change it while riding. The Class III bikes I bought weigh under 27 lbs and so no issues with lifting them up on a bike rack.

JustaJoe

I have had a Specialized Turbo Vado 3.0 for a year+ now (+2600mi) and absolutely love it! Previously I had another ebike (cadence sensor, hub motor) which I quickly "outgrew." This process really rekindled my love for bicycling, to the point of riding 5-6 days a week year round and migrating to riding a regular human-power-only bike more often.

I don't feel like a cyclist because my riding is 100% recreational for my fitness and mental health, I don't own any lycra or spandex, I wear Oboz shoes, no Strava account, and very often my clothes don't match. I do consider myself a passionate recreational bicyclist, if that counts for anything.

The torque-based sensor still requires one to work. Most often, I have power set to 5-10% of my 50nm motor. For some severe hills, I bump it to Sport mode (40-70% assist), and very rarely to full power mode. My wife has observed the changes to my body and brain and she is now riding an ebike as well, albeit even more casually and not as frequently.

Bald Paul

More and more people in the groups I ride with are now on e-bikes. If they weren't, they most likely wouldn't be riding at all. I don't ride one, but have no issues with them. (I do have issues with some of the younger people who think that because they can go fast, it means they can almost crash into you.)
My friend is retiring and moving south. I got her an e-bike so she will be able to ride with us.

Biker395 

Not on my visible horizon, but:

(1) Would love to talk my SO into one.

(2) I have a friend that rides in the mountains and can really use one. We’ve been talking among ourselves about it and may pony up for one as a group.

(3) At some point, I’ll probably get one. Just not in the foreseeable future.

When I do, will I still consider myself a cyclist? Tough question. I think I will consider myself a different kind of cyclist, as cycling means different things to different people.

Up to now, I’ve been a commuter, a recreational cyclist, and a long distance endurance cyclist. I’m more or less retired now, so I’m not a commuter cyclist anymore. I cycle recreationally, but with goals … things like amount of climb and distance. And we do regular sufferfests, just to see if we can do them. We have pix of each other dropping our heads down over the handlebars. lol. And then there is the endurance cycling … where the goal is to ride a good long distance.

If I were riding an ebike, I would not consider myself those kind of cyclists anymore, as he e-assist renders that stuff a bit irrelevant.

It wouldn’t stop me from buying one, though.

Wildwood 

Yes. One 'e', a dozen regulars.
1. E puts me on the road more often.
2. E allows for more enjoyable recovery rides.
3. E allows me to focus on fit and form, less on exertion.
4. E takes me further.
5. E slays the steeps that drain my reserves for other daily jobs.
6. E is fun, so are the other bikes.
7. Being the newest bike purchase, it was past time to try modern-ness = discs, electronic shifting, hidden cables)
8. At 73 yo, Life is too short not to experience ALL of the Big Cycling Universe.
9. E-carpe-diem
edit: To answer a @bikeleo question = I am more, not less, of a cyclist.
enough words = this thread needs pics.

X-35 ebikemotion rear hub motor assists up to about 14 mph, then shuts off with no noticeable drag.

Tomm Willians

The wife and I both have Turbo Levo SL’s for MTB and I have a Pivot E Vault while she has a Trek Domane Plus for road or gravel riding. As I’ve grown older and a life of injuries ( both of us) has caught up, it’s a great option.
Both the Pivot and Trek use the Fazua which permits motor removal thus becoming a normal bike. That is how we ride them a majority of the time.

One interesting and humorous thing about the debate over e-bikes is them being so easy to ride they should not be considered real bikes. We have our Fazuas programmed so that the assistance barely even compensates for the additional weight/ drag of the system. My Pivot is no easier to ride (and no harder) than the Specialized Diverge it replaced. Now of course yes I can turn the power up quite easily but that’s not what I’m after.
Some might say “ then why even have an ebike?” That answer being I’m due for major back surgery later this year that is going to have me laid up well into 2024. This is particularly painful to me as I’ve worked diligently the last two-three years improving my cycling and making good gains. Now it’s going to be a fight back at 63 years old that will be more than tough, thus an Ebike to help me.

It’s still real cycling to me.

Calsun

Research on e-bike riders who migrated from their road and mountain bikes found that they rode 50% further with their rides. A friend who is an avid mountain trail rider now will do and extra loop or two with the e-bike and so is getting a lot more conditioning overall for his body.

In city traffic I find it safest to go with the flow of motorists and than means maintaining a speed of around 25 mph. When I was younger that was not a problem but at my current age I need the pedal assist from the e-bike motor to keep up with the auto traffic.

Wildwood 

60 years of progress, but still muchly the same.
I like variety, but at some advanced age - it is worth buying upgrades instead of riding up grades, regardless of one’s source.

Wildwood 

I chose rear hub motor on a road style bike because I was concerned about chain & cassette life with crank based systems, when used routinely on very hilly/steep roads. My opinion comes from 2 mountain bike owners who love their bikes and climb/descend tough terrain, but hate the drivetrain maintenance (they compared to 125cc dirt motorcycles).

the rear hub motor applies additional power directly to the wheel/tire not adding those watts to the entire drivetrain. I also liked the philosophy behind Orbea’s slogan of ‘just enough’ of a boost.

The feature I would wish for in my rear hub system is to have a motor that applies a declining level of power beyond 14mph, instead at shutting off at that speed.

LeeG

I had to ebike my Clem Smith with a Bafang bbshd as I was overweight and I live on a ridge. It serves as a utlity vehicle instead of using a noisy side by side to get around. As I started to lose weight every once in awhile I’d trash the derailleur riding it like a motorcycle through scrub so I’d leave it unrepaired for a month and ride the mountain bike. My riding is 90% trails by myself. Lost about thirty lbs. There are dozens of more appropriate bikes for recreational fast urban riding than this set up. I have another midrive kit I’m going to put on a LHT.

bikeleo

That sounds like a very interesting project! Looking forward to a report on how it goes.

LeeG

Will do. The BBSHD essentially turns my bike into a scooter. I need to figure out the programming. It doesn’t have torque sensing so I have to be careful on the power setting. For battery life and an enjoyable pedaling effort I can do all the riding I need at the 3 of 9 level setting..If I go to a higher power setting for steep hills or high pavement speeds I have to remember to bring the level down to 1 when coming to a stop or I’ll careen off in whatever direction starting off again. I’ve had a few slap stick moments getting familar with it. The other kit is a Tongshen which has a torque sensor.

spdntrxi

I have the same e-vault.. but xplr dropper and ultimate fork. Yeah it's still a workout for sure.

Calsun

After having to put together a bulky special flat tire repair kit for out two Class II e-bikes with rear hub drives, with the replacement bikes I purposely chose Class III bikes with mid-drive and tire repairs on the road are no more difficult than with a regular non-bike. Where we ride we can be 30 miles or more from our vehicle and so we need to be able to repair a flat where it occurs and not back at the house. 30 miles would make for a long walk back to the car. Rear hub drive power trains are less expensive to manufacture but are not optimum for someone who wants a pedal assist that results in a bike feeling like a normal bike when riding. Our Creo Turbo SL provide that experience and are also the lightest e-bikes around at 27 lbs in total.

Classtime 

Normal bikes look and feel like normal bikes. I don’t have to get a special electric motorized bicycle to achieve that. I would have to get a special motorized bicycle to go 28mph without wheelsucking or descending

jon c. 

I ride solo and am strictly a recreational rider so I have no need for a motorized bike now. I expect the day will come, but hopefully not to soon.

I would like to get my wife on one though, or get a conversion kit for her now idle road bike. Ebike technology is still evolving so I hope the conversion kits get better with time.

BlazingPedals

I don't have one but several of the guys in my group do. One is 70-ish, the others are 80+, so I'm sure that's a major factor in getting them. They still consider themselves cyclists; they just use the motors as assist and it mostly keeps them from being dropped on climbs. The official rule is, electric bikes have to pull into the wind. And they don't get bragging rights for sign sprints.

bruce19

E-boles have their niche. It's not one I'm interested in at the moment but there's nothing wrong with them IMO. If you're on a bike,having fun and getting exercise.......good.

delbiker1 

I do not have one, my 60 plus year old sister has had one for a couple of months. She has been visiting me in coastal Delaware, and has been riding it a lot, in a numerous different areas . She has a pedal assist, folding bike that she is thrilled with. She would never have been cycling with out such a bike. I have been able to help her with getting bags and beach stuff secure, routes with less traffic, and gave her a helmet. She does not have to pay $3 an hour for parking in Bethany Beach. What she has is good for her. Out of curiosity, I have been looking at a few road/gravel type ebikes.