Electric Bikeitis.... a condition to be avoided

[Oldjohnw]

I am getting more used to my cannondale ( I think) after a few more rides. This forced exercise outing each day has seen so many of us out there on our bikes. Whilst riding the local lanes I have seen many cyclists , the mamils naturally but also many folk who probably wouldn't normally venture out to these places on their mountain bikes etc. All excellent stuff though. Also it seems in this surreal atmosphere that we are much friendlier as we pass whether on bikes or jogging or walking. There is more effort in saying 'hello' and such. Long may this continue afterwards.

I think there is a little learning curve in using an ebike. There must be a tendency for many to switch to Eco mode and ride off into the sunset. However for me at this stage I am still wanting the best of both worlds. An ordinary bike with the associated effort and then the ability to switch to that extra 'gear' that cost all that money. I haven't got this right yet. In think it is a mental thing as well as physical. I have naturally been looking at the battery readout on the computer on my bars. After 68 miles I saw a reduction of the first bar on the graphic. Aprrox 20% of the battery I believe. I was beginning to wonder if this indicator was in fact working.
The mental thing!........ I know I have a crazy desire to save as much of the power as possible. So I probably sweat a little too much on the inclines before I go to Eco. This is barmy I know because I will never use the whole battery on one outing.
Having a kitkat on a bench in a deserted village this afternoon I started off only to find an immediate hill. This would have caused me some breathing issues normally so I turned on the Tour mode and 'boy' I shot up the hill. I then felt slightly guilty. How stupid is that ? So I have to adapt mentally and physically to this new machine.
However there is no doubt that this is the way forward for me. I have some serious health issues which would mean I would ride my ridgeback less and less .This bike is very smooth and after the Bosch cutting out at one stage because I was pedalling over the magic 15mph I felt no drag or resistance to my cadence. How cool is that?
Anthony

Sounds like my experience. I now have no guilt.

[Cugel]

I am getting more used to my cannondale ( I think) after a few more rides. This forced exercise outing each day has seen so many of us out there on our bikes. Whilst riding the local lanes I have seen many cyclists , the mamils naturally but also many folk who probably wouldn't normally venture out to these places on their mountain bikes etc. All excellent stuff though. Also it seems in this surreal atmosphere that we are much friendlier as we pass whether on bikes or jogging or walking. There is more effort in saying 'hello' and such. Long may this continue afterwards.

I think there is a little learning curve in using an ebike. There must be a tendency for many to switch to Eco mode and ride off into the sunset. However for me at this stage I am still wanting the best of both worlds. An ordinary bike with the associated effort and then the ability to switch to that extra 'gear' that cost all that money. I haven't got this right yet. In think it is a mental thing as well as physical. I have naturally been looking at the battery readout on the computer on my bars. After 68 miles I saw a reduction of the first bar on the graphic. Aprrox 20% of the battery I believe. I was beginning to wonder if this indicator was in fact working.
The mental thing!........ I know I have a crazy desire to save as much of the power as possible. So I probably sweat a little too much on the inclines before I go to Eco. This is barmy I know because I will never use the whole battery on one outing.
Having a kitkat on a bench in a deserted village this afternoon I started off only to find an immediate hill. This would have caused me some breathing issues normally so I turned on the Tour mode and 'boy' I shot up the hill. I then felt slightly guilty. How stupid is that ? So I have to adapt mentally and physically to this new machine.
However there is no doubt that this is the way forward for me. I have some serious health issues which would mean I would ride my ridgeback less and less .This bike is very smooth and after the Bosch cutting out at one stage because I was pedalling over the magic 15mph I felt no drag or resistance to my cadence. How cool is that?
Anthony

The power of cultural norms and assumptions, eh!? Of course there is the desire to remain a cyclist rather than an electric motor bike rider amongst many who buy an e-bike for the sort of reasons you mention: a problem with health or perhaps the degree of fitness falling off for some other reason. But that motor is there to be used to suit you, not some imagined directive from The Rules or what the racing cyclist up the street might think.

It helps to have an external benchmark available rather than to have to conjure one up from your own head (with all those cultural assumptions unconsciously affecting you, perhaps detrimentally as you describe). The ladywife bought an e-bike so she could ride at a pace similar to my normal pace on an unpowered bike, so that our rides together don't feel like a slow dawdle to me or an absolute-exhaustion trial to her. Effectively, I'm the benchmark by which she judges when to switch her motor on and to what degree of assistance.

At the moment you can't have such a benchmark (unless you've got a fitter/faster member of your close family you want to ride with) but perhaps you can imagine one? Of course, he or she might have those same cultural assumptions about not "cheating" by using the motor "too much".

Cugel

[jezer]

I have recently joined the ebike brigade, having bought a Ribble CGR using their bike builder system. The whole process of speccing up the bike to my exact requirements was a big plus. I’ve only had the bike for a couple of weeks, but have used it almost every day for my permitted exercise during the current crisis. For the first few rides I enjoyed the novelty of sailing up our local hills on full power, much to the discust of Mrs Jezer, who has so far eschewed any electric assistance as cheating. I have now become more selective and use full power on only the steepest and longest hills. The only downside so far are long waits at hilltops for Mrs J to arrive

[Grandad]

It helps to have an external benchmark available rather than to have to conjure one up from your own head

In your case it does, in my case - and that of several other posters - the benchmark is the response of the heart when riding up a hill. Or is this also within your definition of external?

[Oldjohnw]

My measure is the sheer exhuberance of being able to actually cycle reasonable distances.

[Cugel]

It helps to have an external benchmark available rather than to have to conjure one up from your own head

In your case it does, in my case - and that of several other posters - the benchmark is the response of the heart when riding up a hill. Or is this also within your definition of external?

That's something like the "best" (!) benchmark to have in that it's an internal one that's not a lot different from the more mundane internal benchmark of striving cyclists everywhere (press on the pedals 'til it's too hard).

As the OP's original remarks conveyed, it's very easy to be seduced by the ease the motor brings, so that you end up making it too easy and losing - not gaining - the fitness you seek to retain or achieve by having an e-bike rather than a motorbike. But it's also easy for those who recognise the danger of being something of a passenger on the e-bike to regard the motor as cheating or a last resort. It isn't.

Many posts in this sub-topic have illustrated, though, the pleasure and even joy of those who have used an e-bike to continue cycling when they perhaps couldn't do (not as they wish, at least) otherwise. Cycling, not motorcycling. Others seem to want that electric motorbike, though, seeking after huge power or fixes to their machine to enable assistance well above 15mph - or other ways of riding that can't really be described as "cycling" with any accuracy.

Cugel

[al_yrpal]

Another visit to the bloodsucker this morning, as usual forgot to take in my pee sample Blood pressure reading was excellent. Massive queue for the surgery's phamacy right round the car park, apparently the panic buyers have turned their attention from their massive stocks of bogrolls to hoard medicines! Continued on for a spin around the Devon Hills looking for some free range eggs. Strange sights of lone walkers everywhere in places that previously were usually deserted. Mostly peddling unassisted, occasional ECO and very occasional SPORT only on the steepest gradients.

Jezer, are you trying for divorce?

Al

[Antbrewer]

Hi Al,
Glad to hear your bloods are okay. Bet you forgot to mention that it was the Bosch input into your system that's obviously helping.

I too was out again on the Neo 1. Sorry to keep harping on about it.
Alex and I did only just shy of 20 miles. A lovely route through the local lanes. when I am riding with her there is a measure of calmness about me? I don 't feel the need to tear up the hills ( such as they are ) but just ride and chat. She refuses to bash along and consequently I feel better at the end too.
I have a NHS hospital background so I am very familiar with my anatomy but I fail to see how the Bosch is attached to my lungs. Perhaps it is wireless? Whatever it certainly it improves my vital capacity.
Keep going Al
Anthony