Hi all.
No real point or question to this post, just rambling about my first months ownership.
New here after only making the move to an ebike two months ago when the other half told me to 'just get one' as I looked over them yet again
As a back story, I am 50 and have ridden bikes, mainly mtbs, for over 30 years. However I appear to have also eaten too much lard and sugar over the same period, which has resulted in me being 120Kg at 6 foot - not good.
Combined with a couple of other health issues, this means that I simply run out of puff and ultimately interest after about 90 minutes of riding.
My theory is an ebike would allow for more riding which would bring the fun back on longer rides and have a by product of losing weight because I'd be out more and for longer. Food obviously plays a part in this, which has also been addressed.
To the bike - after much researching I settled on a Giant Trance XE +1. Mainly as it coped with my weight, has good kit and also similar geometry to my main FS, a mk1 Ibis Ripmo.
So far I've been out about 2 or 3 times a week, including a few 3 hour rides and have now started to explore the higher power settings. Don't really feel the need to go beyond 3/5, which is set to 175% of rider input I believe.
Yesterdays ride involved 16 mile on back roads, which got annoying very quickly. Any slight slope down or relatively flat road had the 15.5mph assist max reached very quickly, even on low assistance. There after I could pedal through it but it felt like the bike was being pulled back by a huge amount of drag on a big bit of elastic.
Today I went out on the Ripmo with my daughter and got an instant shock. The road out of our estate has the slightest of rises and historically has never bothered me at all. This time, the pedalling felt immediately like the +15.5mph on the ebike - instant drag and felt awful. This proves to me that it wasn't the ebike that felt 'rubbish', it was a consequence of not having assistance. If the eeb wasn't an eeb, riding at +15.5mph would probably have felt 'normal', just a bit heavier than other bikes.
Took me around 30 minutes to get back to some sort of normal feeling and enjoyed the ride. The Ripmo is so much lighter and manoeuvrable through the twisties. Felt more in control on the descents but I sure missed the assistance on ups and out of corners.
So I believe there is a place in my riding for both normal and electric bikes right now. If I am honest with myself, I'd love to be 40Kg lighter and have a lightweight ebike - that is my goal.
And to pick up on the main reason for getting the eeb, my weight is now the lowest its been for 4 years and when I finished today my Garmin congratulated me on a new 20 min power output (have a power meter on the Ripmo).
All in all very good all round, still amazed at how good ebikes have become yet more amazed at how weird a non electric bike feels after not riding one for a month.
No real point or question to this post, just rambling about my first months ownership.
New here after only making the move to an ebike two months ago when the other half told me to 'just get one' as I looked over them yet again
As a back story, I am 50 and have ridden bikes, mainly mtbs, for over 30 years. However I appear to have also eaten too much lard and sugar over the same period, which has resulted in me being 120Kg at 6 foot - not good.
Combined with a couple of other health issues, this means that I simply run out of puff and ultimately interest after about 90 minutes of riding.
My theory is an ebike would allow for more riding which would bring the fun back on longer rides and have a by product of losing weight because I'd be out more and for longer. Food obviously plays a part in this, which has also been addressed.
To the bike - after much researching I settled on a Giant Trance XE +1. Mainly as it coped with my weight, has good kit and also similar geometry to my main FS, a mk1 Ibis Ripmo.
So far I've been out about 2 or 3 times a week, including a few 3 hour rides and have now started to explore the higher power settings. Don't really feel the need to go beyond 3/5, which is set to 175% of rider input I believe.
Yesterdays ride involved 16 mile on back roads, which got annoying very quickly. Any slight slope down or relatively flat road had the 15.5mph assist max reached very quickly, even on low assistance. There after I could pedal through it but it felt like the bike was being pulled back by a huge amount of drag on a big bit of elastic.
Today I went out on the Ripmo with my daughter and got an instant shock. The road out of our estate has the slightest of rises and historically has never bothered me at all. This time, the pedalling felt immediately like the +15.5mph on the ebike - instant drag and felt awful. This proves to me that it wasn't the ebike that felt 'rubbish', it was a consequence of not having assistance. If the eeb wasn't an eeb, riding at +15.5mph would probably have felt 'normal', just a bit heavier than other bikes.
Took me around 30 minutes to get back to some sort of normal feeling and enjoyed the ride. The Ripmo is so much lighter and manoeuvrable through the twisties. Felt more in control on the descents but I sure missed the assistance on ups and out of corners.
So I believe there is a place in my riding for both normal and electric bikes right now. If I am honest with myself, I'd love to be 40Kg lighter and have a lightweight ebike - that is my goal.
And to pick up on the main reason for getting the eeb, my weight is now the lowest its been for 4 years and when I finished today my Garmin congratulated me on a new 20 min power output (have a power meter on the Ripmo).
All in all very good all round, still amazed at how good ebikes have become yet more amazed at how weird a non electric bike feels after not riding one for a month.
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