Any thoughts on this bike ?

[TheDoctor]

That Cannondale has a 38T chainring, no? That gives a bottom gear of 28.5", almost identical to my 34T/32T for a bottom gear of 28.7". A somewhat unfit and overweight cyclist can get that up most hills, and that's without help from a motor.

 

[Legomutton]

FWIW, my Cube has an identically toothed chainring and cassette to the Cannondale. The Cube has a Bosch ALP engine which might have a bit more grunt on hills than a light-assist bike, against that I am not a strong pedaller which I why I have moved to e-bikes.

Granted I am not in the Peak District either, and there is one short steep hill near here where I have dropped to third using Sport. I am new to e-biking and have only put 130 miles on the Cube so far.

Far from needing a lower gear, I have yet to use first or second and could so far have managed without third (I only cycle on roads). On the other hand, I have considered fitting a slightly bigger chain ring as 9th could usefully be a bit longer with a tailwind! In the end I decided not to bother - I can get to 20-21mph and that's fast enough for my purposes. I think my maximum comfortable cadence is about 70-75.

I'd say it's worth giving the standard set-up a try first, you might not need to do anything depending on your use. Bottom gear is about 29" in old money or 2.38 metres of development, so not mountain-bike low but not high either.

 

[Dave7]

That Cannondale has a 38T chainring, no? That gives a bottom gear of 28.5", almost identical to my 34T/32T for a bottom gear of 28.7". A somewhat unfit and overweight cyclist can get that up most hills, and that's without help from a motor.

Now that is the point at which I get lost .
I like what you are saying but I don't understand it.

 

[CXRAndy]

Now that is the point at which I get lost .
I like what you are saying but I don't understand it.

when looking at gear ratios, gear inches is a number that indicates how far the wheel moves across the ground for one pedal rotation.

So in the case of gears for better hill climbing the smaller gear inch number, the easier it will be to pedal up hill

I say easier, but not necessarily faster.

With an ebike, it will be easier and faster. However there will be a hill which is too steep and the motor won't have enough torque , due to the gearing of the bike not sufficiently low enough to maintain a high enough pedal cadence.


On my road non ebike, it has a triple crank set My lowest gear inches is 17".

I can cycle up ridiculously steep gradients like >30% and still maintain a decent pedal cadence.

Most road bikes have around 28" for their lowest gear

 

[Legomutton]

when looking at gear ratios, gear inches is a number that indicates how far the wheel moves across the ground for one pedal rotation.

Gear inches is actually what would be the the diameter of the big wheel on an equivalent penny farthing, so with a 28-29"" gear you will get roughly one revolution of the wheel for each revolution of the pedals (as near as 36 teeth is to 38 teeth i.e. nearly the same). You'll actually travel about 2.3-2.4 metres, being the metric way of expressing gearing and in this case a bit over the circumference of the wheel.

EDIT: If it makes any more sense, your top gear (38/11) will be about 95", so like riding a penny farthing with an 8 foot diameter wheel - which of course you couldn't unless you had around a 48" inside leg.

 

[Milkfloat]

@Dave7 Not sure how tall you are, but you may want to pounce on this ASAP https://www.thebikefactory.co.uk/shop/bikes/sub/electric/lapierre-exelius-600-4291/option/

 

[CXRAndy]

@Dave7 Not sure how tall you are, but you may want to pounce on this ASAP https://www.thebikefactory.co.uk/shop/bikes/sub/electric/lapierre-exelius-600-4291/option/

Its gone, unless Dave got in there quick

 

[Milkfloat]

Its gone, unless Dave got in there quick

Snooze you lose. At that price it was not going to hang around for long.

 

[T4tomo]

With a single ring at the front the range of gears is limited by the rear cassette, and the 36 may not provide a low enough gear for climbs.

There shouldn't be a problem with the highest gear.

Bear in mind this is a light assist ebike, so the motor will not drag you up anything steep without a fair amount of effort.

I think another member on here bought this bike and decided to fit a wider range cassette.

Its very similar gearing to my gravel bike (human only powered), with same lowest ratio, which is absolutely fine for on road hill climbing anywhere, with some assist from the motor you will sail up the worst that the UK can throw at you.

On a 700c wheeled bike, if you are getting close to 1:1 between front and back teeth, that is a pretty low gear. You only need to go lower than that for a loaded up touring bike or MTB-ing off road.

 

[Pale Rider]

some assist from the motor you will sail up the worst that the UK can throw at you.

You might be able to do that, but on my Bosch bike I failed to get up Boltby Bank in north Yorkshire (twice - grr), and I doubt I would get up the likes of Hardknott and several of the other named UK hard climbs.

Of course ebikes assist climbing, but when the going gets really tough their weight counts against them.

I doubt Dave intends to do any 25%+ climbs, but with a light assist motor and an older rider with some health problems an option of a lower bottom gear would be sensible.

Each to his own, but Dave may have higher expectations than just being able to struggle up his steepest hills.

More pleasurable being able to whirr up in good order using moderate effort.

 

[T4tomo]

You might be able to do that, but on my Bosch bike I failed to get up Boltby Bank in north Yorkshire (twice - grr), and I doubt I would get up the likes of Hardknott and several of the other named UK hard climbs.

Of course ebikes assist climbing, but when the going gets really tough their weight counts against them.

I doubt Dave intends to do any 25%+ climbs, but with a light assist motor and an older rider with some health problems an option of a lower bottom gear would be sensible.

Each to his own, but Dave may have higher expectations than just being able to struggle up his steepest hills.

More pleasurable being able to whirr up in good order using moderate effort.

So what gearing and weight of ebike do you have?

 

[Pale Rider]

So what gearing and weight of ebike do you have?

Riese and Muller bikes are known to be built like tanks, and mine is twin battery so all up I expect it's 25-27kg.

Standard Rohloff gear hub, but I don't know how many teeth I've got at either end.

When I bought the bike first struck me as not very low, certainly no crawler gear, although probably as low as the roadie had who passed me on the way up.

Some roadies, bless 'em, do repeats of Boltby for training, which is a good effort.

Were I doing lots of Boltbys I'd probably lower my first gear a bit - I rarely use 14th at the top.

On t'other hand, were I doing lots of Boltbys I'd probably manage to get up it eventually.

Both my failures were close, bur definitely still no cigar.

 

[T4tomo]

Riese and Muller bikes are known to be built like tanks, and mine is twin battery so all up I expect it's 25-27kg.

Standard Rohloff gear hub, but I don't know how many teeth I've got at either end

Excellent, so your advice to Dave on gearing ratios was based on your experience of a bike that is approx twice as heavy as the one he is considering, without knowledge of what gear inches range you have on it? 😂🤔

 

[CXRAndy]

Excellent, so your advice to Dave on gearing ratios was based on your experience of a bike that is approx twice as heavy as the one he is considering, without knowledge of what gear inches range you have on it? 😂🤔

I believe @Pale Rider was replying to your question of the bike he used.

Weight of an e-bike is largely irrelevant, rider weight could easily cancel bike weight differences.
Gearing, torque are far more important.

I expect my rider+bike+panniers+kit weight will be in excess of 150kg

 

[Pale Rider]

Excellent, so your advice to Dave on gearing ratios was based on your experience of a bike that is approx twice as heavy as the one he is considering, without knowledge of what gear inches range you have on it? 😂🤔

Ignorant and incorrect assertion.

My advice to Dave was based on my knowledge of bicycle gearing gained from riding bikes on and off for more than 50 years, and my knowledge of ebikes gained over more than 10 years.

It was also based on the incorrect assumption there wouldn't be some stupid knacker hanging around the forum waiting to snipe.