Cheating?

[Pale Rider]

Mrs Slick gets close to 70 miles on a single charge with her boch battery and she pretty much canes it.

if she's 'caning' the bike she must be riding above cut off for a lot of the time, or only using the lowest eco level.

Be interesting to see if you could manage a round trip commute on it.

A poster earlier mentions 17.4mph average speed on his ebike.

Good stuff, but it tells us nothing about range because, on average, he's not using any battery power.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Nowt wrong with cheating. Enjoy it.

 

[Slick]

if she's 'caning' the bike she must be riding above cut off for a lot of the time, or only using the lowest eco level.

Be interesting to see if you could manage a round trip commute on it.

A poster earlier mentions 17.4mph average speed on his ebike.

Good stuff, but it tells us nothing about range because, on average, he's not using any battery power.

By caning it I mean on full assist pretty much everywhere.

 

[Eric Olthwaite]

Nowt wrong with cheating. Enjoy it.

Well yes. If cheating was good enough for Coppi, it's good enough for me.

 

[keithmac]

I use my ebike for work, reasonably fit and not ill so should I feel a tinge of guilt?.

 

[theboxers]

Probably a silly question, so forgive me. Many of us are quite proud of our physical capability on a bike - so how do we overcome that sense that having electric assistance is cheating? I ask because I'm tempted to go electric.

When solo riding I will, more often than not, use my e-bike. When riding with my brothers I will, more often than not, use my non assist bike.

I see e-bike as an assist to, not replacement for, effort. I tend to choose routes that are hillier and longer when riding alone. I can, on flat ground, run at over the limit cutoff. However due to my weight I need help going up hills. Anything over 6% and I soon end up struggling with the gearing on my e-bike. Over 8% and I'm grinding to a halt. So that is usually where I end up using my assist. 7% and more gets assist up until my legs and lungs give out . This allows me to work at losing weight and getting fitter as time goes on, it seems to be working.

My brothers, although much younger and lighter than I am, are also less fit. I need to dial my efforts back when riding with them, so see an e-bike as an impediment to the harmony of being out with my brothers riding bikes. At all other times I don't give a shiv.

Get an e-bike or don't. When out and about you don't have to use the assist part of an e-bike and who gives a shiv what others think about using one. If they express displeasure at your use of one it only means they are jealous because they want one and can't get or afford one. Feck em

 

[Pale Rider]

By caning it I mean on full assist pretty much everywhere.

Something a bit odd here.

Ask any Bosch bike rider and he/she will tell you it will do nowhere near 70 miles on full assist Turbo setting.

The Mrs may be comparatively light, but us beefy blokes could easily flatten a 500wh Bosch battery in under 30 miles, particularly if there's some climbing involved.

Some of the latest Bosch Powertube batteries have a slightly larger capacity, but I would expect to need most of two 500wh batteries - 1,000wh - to get 70+ miles on Turbo.

 

[Slick]

Something a bit odd here.

Ask any Bosch bike rider and he/she will tell you it will do nowhere near 70 miles on full assist Turbo setting.

The Mrs may be comparatively light, but us beefy blokes could easily flatten a 500wh Bosch battery in under 30 miles, particularly if there's some climbing involved.

Some of the latest Bosch Powertube batteries have a slightly larger capacity, but I would expect to need most of two 500wh batteries - 1,000wh - to get 70+ miles on Turbo.

She definitely is very much on the lighter side.

 

[Mike_P]

Strava sometimes identifies a ride as a possible ebike one and asks for confirmation. Problem is they have not copied ride segments into the ebike category; there is a way of of doing it off ride data using a third party script. I mistakenly did that after setting the ebike ride public and it resulted in me gaining local legend status on a segment I have only encountered once

 

[gzoom]

Something a bit odd here.

Ask any Bosch bike rider and he/she will tell you it will do nowhere near 70 miles on full assist Turbo setting.

As you say its all about how much or how little you push the bike.

Here is another shorter 'smash it' ride I've done on the eBike. You can see am hardly ever below 15.5mph, its really only the climbs where I need the boost.

For that 20 mile ride I used around 15% of the battery, so 100 miles+ range from a 250wh battery.

However there are also work commutes where am trying to take it as easy as possible and done this. Essentially sat at 15.5mph letting the motor do most of the work. For my commutes I get about 30-40 miles range from the same battery, so about 1/3 the range of when am 'smashing it'. So the 'range' of any eBike isn't just rider dependent, its laziness dependent too!!

And that is the best thing about eBikes, for someone like me I can do as little or as much work as I feel like, which all adds up to more time out on the bike .

 

[youngoldbloke]

As has been pointed out - ride above 15.5 mph, no battery usage, so is irrelevant when talking about range. If I switch off assistance the range of my bike is infinite.

 

[Drago]

Indeed. I can get about 80 miles range out of my ebike, and then I can switch it on, stay in the assistance zone, and get another 30 or 40.

 

[gzoom]

Sub 10kg eBike is here......May not be cheating but cannot be far off. 8.5kg is close to the weight of an aero road bike, now add in extra power for the climbs its certainly close to mechanical dopping.

Climbs are what really makes the difference to average speed, especially in a group. I cannot wait to try one of these things.

https://hps-bike.com/collections/ready-to-ride/products/hps-domestique-ekar-small

 

[Pale Rider]

Sub 10kg eBike is here......May not be cheating but cannot be far off. 8.5kg is close to the weight of an aero road bike, now add in extra power for the climbs its certainly close to mechanical dopping.

Climbs are what really makes the difference to average speed, especially in a group. I cannot wait to try one of these things.

https://hps-bike.com/collections/ready-to-ride/products/hps-domestique-ekar-small

You've no need to wait, the seatpost motor system used in this bike or one very like it, has been around for more than 10 years.

Known as Gruber or Vivax, it was a motor of this type which the Belgian cyclocross lass used and was banned for.

It never really caught on being relatively expensive and having such a weedy power output and range as to have no appeal to the general cyclist.

It was more a marginal gains ebike of relevance only to (cheating) pros.

Seems the Vivax distribution company has recently gone out of business.

Call me a cynic, but I suspect hps has picked up their stock for pennies and is attempting to market it in a carbon dream machine.

https://cyclingtips.com/2020/07/hidden-motor-brand-vivax-has-gone-out-of-business/

 

[welsh dragon]

I am a bit tired of seeing all the same old same old threads asking if using an Ebike is cheating or not.

Who the hell cares. If you want one then buy one. Why do you care what anyone else thinks. It's you're money not theirs.