Electric Bikes

[Doseone]

A neighbour has just let me have a go on his Freego electric bike. It was quite fun and bowls along nicely with the power on. The only thing is that because it is soooo heavy with the battery, suspension forks, disc breaks etc you need the electric power to get up hills!! It does make you wonder whether he'd be better off with just a lighter non powered bike in the first place

 

[simon.r]

I think they have their place. My 78 year old Dad does the vast majority of his cycling on one. His rationale is that the electric bike lets him go about twice as far as a non-powered bike for the same amount of effort

 

[biggs682]

if he is able bodied and in good health then i would say yes

 

[Portex]

When I was working, I used an electric bike every day, particularly useful in Bristol to get up hills ahead of the lycra brigade. Having retired, my cycling is purely for pleasure and exercise and this is where the electric bike is not so good. Because it does a lot of the work for you, it is very difficult to maintain your fitness (and keep the blood pressure down), so I sold the electric bike and bought a lightweight hybrid (Giant Rapid 2) - now my fitness is up again and I get the exercise I require. So - whilst electric bikes are ideal as commuters, they are not so good if you only want to use a bike for fitness thus it depends what the main purpose of cycling is whether you go electric or not.

 

[Electric_Andy]

So - whilst electric bikes are ideal as commuters, they are not so good if you only want to use a bike for fitness thus it depends what the main purpose of cycling is whether you go electric or not.

I couldn't agree more. I bought an Electric because I sold my car, and thought that the battery would give me a higher avergae speed (which it does). For exmaple, the route from home to my parents house is 22 miles of moderate to hilly terrain. On my old MTB it took me 2:10, but on the electric it takes 1:30. It is very slow once the battery cuts out at 15mph, but that's the trade-off. The battery power is very handy when it windy, cold and dark, or when you are hungover and still need to get somewhere!

Re: the fitness benefits - on my commute I am quite lazy so don't pedal very hard, but when I go out for leisure rides I do try and work as hard as I can. I may consider buying a normal road bike for leisure and keep my electric for commuting and errands.