Electric bikes are so good now that it seems now really is the right time to think about getting one.
It’s an obvious choice for many to make a regular commute more bearable or for those with slightly limited mobility.
For the most part, companies making E-Bikes are moving away from hub motors and more universally towards crank drive motors (often referred to as pedal assist).
Some of the best reasons to have an E-Bike include the facts that they provide a great commute solution to a car, they are cheaper to maintain that a car or motor bike (for which you would also need a license) and they allow for easier journeys in hilly areas.
Many people have taken to the idea of bringing them on holiday on the back of a mobile home/ camper van, so that they can zip off to the shops, go exploring without taking the van out all the time and not tire themselves out entirely.
They catch a lot of interest as people come in and the questions and statements we hear are many and varied.
But some of the Frequently Asked Questions are as follows:
- How fast does it go?
- How far will it go?
- Is it hard to change the tyre or tube in the rear wheel?
- How much does it weigh?
- Will it help me on the hills?
- Does the battery need to be flat before re-charging?
- Is there a faster version? (Although this is usually put to us in more techy terms by those who have done lots of research).
We have put some crib sheets together so that in store you can see the basic answers to most of these questions are, but in this article we’ll give you some of the answers with a bit more meat to them.
How fast an E-Bike goes is up to you the rider! The motor is limited in this country to 15.5mph. This doesn’t, however, mean that some sort of brake comes on at that speed and holds you there; you can pedal onwards to whatever speed you like. The 15.5mph just refers to the speed where the assist functionality stops.
How far it will go also makes way for a rather vague response. The lowest quoted range of a bike in our store is 125km and the highest is 130km, so within 5 miles, there isn’t all that much difference. However, a true answer is almost impossible to provide as range will depend upon terrain, how hard you’re trying and weather elements like headwinds.
As an extra point following on from mentioning the weather, it is worth stating that sometimes people ask after the waterproof/ weatherproof nature of Electric bikes, so it’s worth covering that here too. Although it seems near on impossible to find an IPX rating, (which is weird) there are plenty of electric mountain bikes these days and there’s no way that’s going to work for more than five minutes in this country if they weren’t really well proofed. Every one we’ve ever sold here has never come back with any issues due to water or dust ingress.
Thankfully with the majority of E-Bikes these days the dreaded rear wheel puncture is no longer an issue. Changing an inner tube in the rear is now no more difficult than you might find it to be with any other bike. Bikes with rear hub motors are bolted in place, so you may need more tools than with the quick release alternatives but the cables split at a junction and they aren’t too much more complicated to remove than a normal rear wheel. However, it always nice to know that the crank driven bikes use standard rear wheels (unless they run alternative gear systems) and that cuts one more variable out.
How heavy the bike is varies quite a lot from manufacturer to manufacturer, but they aren’t ever going to be featherweight. They’re not as heavy as E-Bikes of five years ago but the general rule of thumb is that the crank driven bikes are often lighter as the rest of the bike tends to be more like a standard bike. The lightest battery and motor combination we have on a bike in store is 5.9kg and the heaviest is 6.4kg, so they’re all quite closely matched here too. The overall weight will be affected by what else the bike has on it in terms of gearing and equipment like pannier racks, guards and the gearing.
Whether it will help on the hills or not is mostly down to the rider and what mode they choose to stick the motor in, on max assist every E-Bike we’ve tried makes even the biggest hills feel like pedalling up a slight incline at the most. But in the shortest response possible- yes. They will make hills noticeably easier. We had one particular customer in recently who was marvelling at her new-found ability to now overtake local buses up some hills.
In terms of Battery life the newer battery technology in these bikes has no memory and as such can be charged from any point of battery life.
Getting a faster version is not particularly prudent in this country given the limit on the motor. However, the biggest difference will come from how much torque (power) the motor can provide as this will make some real world difference to how the bike feels to ride and what it can achieve. The in-store options here range from 50Nm of torque through to 75Nm (these figures are constants rather than peak output), so there is enough of a difference there to perhaps make one model more appealing to some than others.
In summary
Overall, electric bikes are starting to make a whole lot of sense for a great many people. Although you still need to be looking to spend upwards of £1000 to get something decent, they are now lighter than they once were and can propel you further on one charge than most people would probably be willing to ride with or without assistance. For those in hilly areas or who perhaps struggle to get the power down for other reasons the added boost is well worth it.
Acronym and jargon breakdown:
Batteries:
La: Lead-acid battery
NiCd: Nickel-cadmium battery
NiMH: Nickel-metal hydride battery
Li-ion: Lithium-ion battery
Li-Po: Lithium Polymer
Motors
Friction: Direct drive to tyre
Front/Rear Hub: Hub motor
Front/Rear Chain: Separate chain drive
Crank: Crank-mounted motor
Bike categories
Pedelec: Power only available when you pedal
E-Bike: Power independent of pedals – usually a twist-grip throttle
Hybrid: Pedelec/E-Bike switchable