E road bike

[ColinJ]

I am always shouting the benefits of electric bikes. But as I said, I do not see the point of an electric road bike. I just cannot see it as just another e bike. For me electric bikes are a way to get out in the open without having to expend too much energy and just take it easy.

I really don't get that!

Any cycling can be fairly easy if you gear low enough and ride slow enough. I can't see what difference it makes where or what you will be riding.

If you want motor assistance then it makes sense to have it everywhere.

But which market is the electric road bike aimed at? Who is going to buy one? Who is going to pay 3 grand for one?

The market for people who would like some help to do long, strenuous rides that they otherwise wouldn't be able to do, and who have several thousand pounds to spend on the bike to give them that help!

Over this kind of terrain, for example ...

@Pale Rider used his trusty ebike to join a group of us on a ride over those hills. He wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise.

He took the photo below, which shows his bike on the right of the picture ...

 

[steveindenmark]

Colin, I have owned electric bikes and know exactly what they can be used for. but I am still struggling why you would use an electric road bike as opposed to the bike in your photo or a "regular" electric bike.

I see electric bikes every day over here in Denmark but I doubt if I will ever see an electric road bike. I don't think there is a market for one, but I may be wrong.

 

[roadrash]

so imagine someone who enjoys his or her roadbike who no longer has the energy for a hilly ride for whatever reason , do you think that person would go looking at ebikes and think ooh look an electric road bike , but never mind, I think I will buy a step through framed ebike instead...., cmon steve it isn't hard to understand why someone would want one.

 

[ColinJ]

Colin, I have owned electric bikes and know exactly what they can be used for. but I am still struggling why you would use an electric road bike as opposed to the bike in the photo or a "regular" electric bike.

I see electric bikes every day over here in Denmark but I doubt if I will ever see an electric road bike. I don't think there is a market forone, but I may be wrong.

Ah, I was more focussed on the road vs path vs trail than the type of bike!

I can still see the desire for an e-road bike, for the reason that roadrash gave. I saw one on the Gadget Show a few years ago. It was a modified Cannondale and they tested it on Holme Moss (a whacking big hill in West Yorkshire). It only weighed about 21 pounds and felt very much like an ordinary road bike when the motor assist was not being used. So, most of the time a rider could whiz about on it just like any other road bike. When the assistance is needed, for example - trying to keep up with fitter riders over big climbs like Holme Moss, it is there. It makes sense to me!

As for the types of bikes in Denmark ... we have more hills than the whole of Denmark within a 10 km radius of here, up to 3 times the height of Denmark's highest hill, and 4 times the gradient! If I were buying an ebike for round here it would definitely be a road bike version.

To enter the Top 12, the following criteria must be met:

• The hill must have a grade of at least 5 % in average
  
• The total ascend must exceed 75 meters vertically from bottom to top
• The whole climb must lie on a public, paved road

You'd hardly worry what you were riding up those hills!

 

[Dave 123]

Cant have been , i only had a go on it this morning

pulling off at junctions as a relaxation technique is what I meant....

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/stress-relief-in-the-workplace.212567/

 

[Pale Rider]

The difference is the same as the difference between a road push bike and a mountain push bike, only assisted.

So it's the same as a proper cyclist who thinks a road route would be tough on his mountain bike, but doable on his road bike.

The Giant Road E has the Yamaha crank drive motor and battery.

Many mountain/hybrid ebikes have the same.

The difference is, for the same human input, the roadie ebike will go a bit further and a bit faster.

Thus the reason to buy one is very similar to a mountain bike owner who wants a roadie - a bit more speed and distance, bit lighter, rolls better, etc,

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/giant-road-e-review-47443/

 

[Smokin Joe]

I'd happily have an electric assist road bike. At 64 years young and having been there, done that, etc etc, hills no longer turn me on. Something that would shove me up the damn things so I could enjoy the rest of the ride would get the thumbs up.

 

[keithmac]

Thats the point, use the assit on the hills and turn it off (or ride above it) on the flats.

I'd love to try one but couldn't justify buying one as it wouldn't get used enough.

 

[User16625]

They sound great for commuting. Ideally you would disable the 15mph limiter for the power assist to make it a potentially viable alternative to internal combustion.

 

[jarlrmai]

They sound great for commuting. Ideally you would disable the 15mph limiter for the power assist to make it a potentially viable alternative to internal combustion.

Except that is illegal unless you register it as you would a moped.