Hi again.
The last couple of weeks I've been enjoying an Ebike.Ive had some great fun on it and climbed many steep hills that I wouldn't of enjoyed on my road bike.Ive also managed to get some longer rides in too ,without feeling it to much the next day in the old knees.Whats there not to like?
Well there are a few things that make me feel I want to get back on my road bike again and the biggest things are convenience simplicity and the challenge.
As for convenience the conventional pedal powered Specialized road bike is always ready to grab and go.No battery to recharge, or the need to clip it into the bike.
The reason for the battery not being left on the the bike is for safety reasons.I keep the bike in the house but the battery lives in the shed and gets charged in there too ,as I'm paranoid about it burning the house down (irrational thinking I know)
So to me ,it's not what I would say a grab and go type of bike.
Also when charging the battery in the evening I feel like I'm tied to hanging around the house just so that I can keep an eye on it.I don't feel comfortable leaving it doing it's thing for 4/5 hours whilst I'm out and about or even taking a couple of hours of shut eye.
The weight of it to has some draw backs.Its a hulk of a thing to get in and out of the house as mine is a split level from front to back.If I lived in a flat it would be just impractical.
What about the simplicity I mentioned earlier.
Again the ordinary pedal bike is so much easier to work on if something goes wrong whilst out on the road.A rear wheel puncture on it is as easy to sort as the front wheel.A new tube ,thorn out of the tyre and your on your way again.On the fat Ebike with a hub motor it's going to be a real faff.The wheel doesn't have a QR screwer and the thought of carrying a spanner unclipping the motor connectors and carrying a big old spare inner tube and a mini pump that would take an absolute age to inflate the tyre doesn't seem much fun to me.
There's also the electrical side of things to consider too but I probably think these issues would be few and far between.
Finally what about the challenge in mentioned.
Well Ebike has been exceptional at holding a good average speed over the miles.I would say I've been cycling slightly faster on it than my road bike (not by much)
On the flats and going down hill the road bike is really quick compared to the Ebike but on the climbs the Ebike has a much better advantage.It feels like the Ebike will travel virtually at the same speed over anything as opposed to the wildly fluctuating speeds of the road bike
I'm finding I'm missing the thrill of the faster down hill bursts and the slower slogs whilst negotiating a hill.It almost becomes boring just being stuck at more or less one continuous speed.
Out of the 55 miles I did on the Ebike today I never got out of breath once whilst if I was to of done the same on the road bike I would of certainly been catching my breath.To me I like the challenge to some extent.
However everything said, the Ebike has been fantastic and I have found myself actually enjoying my surroundings more instead of being hunched down low looking out for the massive pot holes along the road that like to destroy skinny wheel sets.
I'm still sitting on the fence as to what I like the best (and don't get me started on range anxiety 🤣🤣)
The last couple of weeks I've been enjoying an Ebike.Ive had some great fun on it and climbed many steep hills that I wouldn't of enjoyed on my road bike.Ive also managed to get some longer rides in too ,without feeling it to much the next day in the old knees.Whats there not to like?
Well there are a few things that make me feel I want to get back on my road bike again and the biggest things are convenience simplicity and the challenge.
As for convenience the conventional pedal powered Specialized road bike is always ready to grab and go.No battery to recharge, or the need to clip it into the bike.
The reason for the battery not being left on the the bike is for safety reasons.I keep the bike in the house but the battery lives in the shed and gets charged in there too ,as I'm paranoid about it burning the house down (irrational thinking I know)
So to me ,it's not what I would say a grab and go type of bike.
Also when charging the battery in the evening I feel like I'm tied to hanging around the house just so that I can keep an eye on it.I don't feel comfortable leaving it doing it's thing for 4/5 hours whilst I'm out and about or even taking a couple of hours of shut eye.
The weight of it to has some draw backs.Its a hulk of a thing to get in and out of the house as mine is a split level from front to back.If I lived in a flat it would be just impractical.
What about the simplicity I mentioned earlier.
Again the ordinary pedal bike is so much easier to work on if something goes wrong whilst out on the road.A rear wheel puncture on it is as easy to sort as the front wheel.A new tube ,thorn out of the tyre and your on your way again.On the fat Ebike with a hub motor it's going to be a real faff.The wheel doesn't have a QR screwer and the thought of carrying a spanner unclipping the motor connectors and carrying a big old spare inner tube and a mini pump that would take an absolute age to inflate the tyre doesn't seem much fun to me.
There's also the electrical side of things to consider too but I probably think these issues would be few and far between.
Finally what about the challenge in mentioned.
Well Ebike has been exceptional at holding a good average speed over the miles.I would say I've been cycling slightly faster on it than my road bike (not by much)
On the flats and going down hill the road bike is really quick compared to the Ebike but on the climbs the Ebike has a much better advantage.It feels like the Ebike will travel virtually at the same speed over anything as opposed to the wildly fluctuating speeds of the road bike
I'm finding I'm missing the thrill of the faster down hill bursts and the slower slogs whilst negotiating a hill.It almost becomes boring just being stuck at more or less one continuous speed.
Out of the 55 miles I did on the Ebike today I never got out of breath once whilst if I was to of done the same on the road bike I would of certainly been catching my breath.To me I like the challenge to some extent.
However everything said, the Ebike has been fantastic and I have found myself actually enjoying my surroundings more instead of being hunched down low looking out for the massive pot holes along the road that like to destroy skinny wheel sets.
I'm still sitting on the fence as to what I like the best (and don't get me started on range anxiety 🤣🤣)
