I am thinking of coming over to the dark side.

[fossyant]

Those Ribble E Gravel bikes look great, and quite cheap. You'd struggle to tell it's an ebike. This would give you a bit of everything.

 

[Cycleops]

Seems some of the premium ebikes are beginning to look like motorbikes. This is the latest Canyon:
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/B8khvyBByKG4qhdYJ22a55-1200-80.jpg.webp

 

[Dave7]

Those Ribble E Gravel bikes look great, and quite cheap. You'd struggle to tell it's an ebike. This would give you a bit of everything.

They do look nice.
My main priority is comfort for my neck and therefore more upright.
I did borrow a gravel drop bar a couple of years ago and was well impressed.

 

[keithmac]

Hub motor is quieter and dare I say possibly more reliable?.

I built an MTB with mid drive motor and use my Gtech hub drive for commuting.

As much as I like the MTB, hand on heart the Gtech Hub drive just does the business with no faf and no noise.

 

[Drago]

Quick question, if you are doing 28 kph won't the motor have cut out so you are getting no assist at all.?

Yes.

 

[keithmac]

If you're legal anything after 15.5mph is all legs, you can either stay under that or buy a lighter ebike and use the grunt for the hills.

My Gtech weights in at 15kg, 5ah battery, the MTB 20 ish but 15ah battery and more grunt.

 

[gzoom]

Quick question, if you are doing 28 kph won't the motor have cut out so you are getting no assist at all.?

Yes, what I've found essentially by having the extra boost up hills it raises your average speed alot, on the flat the extra weight of the eBike isn't a huge penalty especially as I have aero bars fitted, it also means when I get to the flat bits my legs are no where near as tired so can push harder.

This is the effect of having the electrical support up a hill, over 500watts total peak power output for a near 15% gradient ...

....but because I was actually contributing less than 200watts, I could maintain near 300watts on the flat sections for longer - I haven't worked out my FTP but I suspect is well below 200watts, so essentially the electrical assistance is allowing me to go into the anaerobic zones for longer during short rides without suffering too badly for it as overall.

I see my eBike as much of a fitness tool as my road bike, but just with the option of been ultra lazy if I wanted too. Oh I've also never had a powermeter before, but the mid mount eBikes I think can all provide these kind of figures, great if you are a number geek .

 

[gzoom]

As much as I like the MTB, hand on heart the Gtech Hub drive just does the business with no faf and no noise.

View attachment 554414

Belt drive stuff looks interesting, certainly appealing in current weather interms of maintenance, what kind of climbing power do you get?