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Cont: Electric Vehicles II

Rolfe said:
I haven't yet failed to get up anything I've tackled, but I think I can see where nemesis is going to strike. Look at these contour lines.

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Hard to tell how steep that is. But maybe it's because I'm dumb.

I'd bet money that a 250 watt or even a 500 watt Ebike couldn't climb the hill in my earlier post. It is a 14.8% grade for about a half a mile. I still never forget driving up it in this old truck my father gave me. A 1960 Ford pickup with 3 speed manual transmission. You could only get to the top of the hill by downshiftting into first.
 
acbytesla said:
Hard to tell how steep that is. But maybe it's because I'm dumb.

I'd bet money that a 250 watt or even a 500 watt Ebike couldn't climb the hill in my earlier post. It is a 14.8% grade for about a half a mile. I still never forget driving up it in this old truck my father gave me. A 1960 Ford pickup with 3 speed manual transmission. You could only get to the top of the hill by downshiftting into first.
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The minor road (marked "Cross Borders Drove Road") leaves the A701 (the red road) just below the 225-metre contour line. The tarred road ends just below the 320-metre line. That section of road is slightly over 1 km. Very roughly the whole thing in that case is about 10%, but as you can see the gradient isn't uniform, and in particular between 280 and 295 metres the lines are very close together. The part between 245 and 265 metres looks damn steep as well.

I'll let you know how I get on!
 
Rolfe said:
The minor road (marked "Cross Borders Drove Road") leaves the A701 (the red road) just below the 225-metre contour line. The tarred road ends just below the 320-metre line. That section of road is slightly over 1 km. Very roughly the whole thing in that case is about 10%, but as you can see the gradient isn't uniform, and in particular between 280 and 295 metres the lines are very close together. The part between 245 and 265 metres looks damn steep as well.

I'll let you know how I get on!
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Let me know!

I looked up your bike on the Ribble website. If it had a 500 watt or bigger motor I'd buy it. The website has it listed at 15KG which is 33 lbs. Which I think is perfect. Most of the bikes I keep looking at are 45+lbs. Some as much as 60. I don't want that either. I really want a E-bike that is a bicycle I can get the exercise I need. But I also dread the hills around here.
 
Well, if a more powerful motor version had been available I'd have bought it, but that's not legal here. It rides very well as a bike without even switching it on. It's lowest gear is lower than that of my previous bike, and the highest gear is higher, and it's lighter. It just, as you say, levels the hills.

I was just thinking, that minor road I highlighted, with the steep gradient, is exactly what you were talking about. Straight up the side of something that was the shoulder of a glacier. The difference is that after you've passed the half-dozen or so houses, it's only an access road to a forest. Not a main thoroughfare.
 
Rolfe said:
Well, if a more powerful motor version had been available I'd have bought it, but that's not legal here. It rides very well as a bike without even switching it on. It's lowest gear is lower than that of my previous bike, and the highest gear is higher, and it's lighter. It just, as you say, levels the hills.

I was just thinking, that minor road I highlighted, with the steep gradient, is exactly what you were talking about. Straight up the side of something that was the shoulder of a glacier. The difference is that after you've passed the half-dozen or so houses, it's only an access road to a forest. Not a main thoroughfare.
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I get it. It's what is legal. It looks like a great bike. But bikes are as personal as they get. What's a fit for one rider isn't a fit for another.
 
Rolfe said:
Can't you find something similar but with a more powerful motor where you are?
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Bigger motor would probably require a bigger battery which in turn leads to a heavier bike which requires a bigger motor and so on....
 
I was thinking that. Although, maybe not necessarily. If you're only using the top assist level occasionally for steep hills, you may not be hammering the battery all that much. In addition, there's an optional 200 watt-hour range extender battery that you can take on and off, depending on whether you're anticipating heavy use. I've not yet needed to get off the bike because of the steepness of a hill, though that will undoubtedly happen when I have a shot at the graveyard road. I wouldn't need more power most of the time, just occasionally.
 
The Don said:
Bigger motor would probably require a bigger battery which in turn leads to a heavier bike which requires a bigger motor and so on....
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Everything on a bike or a vehicle is a compromise. Weight, motor size, battery, upright, range, tire size, price, etc. My problem is I want it all. The perfect bike for the price of a McDonald's Happy Meal. Never seem to be able to find one.
 
Electric vehicles x2. This was even easier than I was expecting. I needed to get the bike into the car to take it to Peebles for the maintenance check-up on Tuesday. The weather forecast for tomorrow is atrocious so I thought I'd better tackle the job now while it was only drizzling.

The lad at Ribble cycles who helped me put the bike in the car when I collected it said, you know, I think you could get that in there without even taking the wheel off. I knew I had six feet (180 cm) to play with with the front seat pushed forward (that's the length of the air mattress I put there for camping) and the intact bike measured up at less than that. Someone on the MG EVs forum suggested trying it rear wheel first, and that seemed like a good idea.

1739113471184.png

1739113492877.png

It was an easy lift because the bike is so light, and with the front wheel still on it was a balanced load, without the handlebars flailing wildly and the mudguard threatening to bend out of shape. The best lifting position also kept me well away from the chain, which was a good thing. I just tossed it in and grinned.

World, oyster. As I said, I can charge the bike from the car's battery, so I can stay away indefinitely.
 
The "nice beige upholstery" is actually aftermarket seat covers from AliExpress, in fake leather. (The car's original upholstery, completely hidden by the seat covers, is dark grey fabric with rather fetching blue stitching.) Also, I do have these seat back protector pieces (came with the boot liner from a company in England), although one has slipped a bit because the velcro on the back, which is designed to hold them on the original cloth upholstery, doesn't stick to the fake leather.
 
Well it looks like a great E-bike. Rolfe. It also sounds like you are happy with it.

One of things that keeps me from buying one is I really don't know what kind of E-bike I actually want. What kind of riding I will actually do. Do I get a Mtn-ebike like my neighbor for the trails? Or a road bike like yours. There are so many choices I am afflicted with paralysis by analysis. The size of the motor, hub or mid drive, fat tire or thinner road tires. Etc.
 
Mine is actually marketed as a hybrid, not a road bike, and in its one foray off the tarred road it did pretty well.

My absolute deal-breaker was that it had to be light enough to lift into my car. I also wanted it to look and ride like a normal bike. I had a short list of five or six, but most of them were crossed off pretty easily, one for simply being twice the price of anything else! There was a Chinese-made one (Fiido) which looked pretty good, had things like a prop stand and lights and so on. I nearly bought it as the first one I saw advertised, although it was 17.5 kg, but then it turned out they were out of stock so I looked around a bit more and that was when I saw the Ribble. I think it's less than 15 kg to be honest, the lad in the shop said 13-14 kg depending on how it's configured.

You obviously have a much wider choice than we have here, but maybe your first choice is whether you want one bike that will do everything, or whether your off-road and your on-road requirements are so different that you should be thinking about two bikes, one for each purpose. If you're really going to be mountain biking seriously you probably need a bike made for that, but if you just want to ride off-road on gravel tracks, a hybrid will do very well and double as a road bike.
 
acbytesla said:
Well it looks like a great E-bike. Rolfe. It also sounds like you are happy with it.

One of things that keeps me from buying one is I really don't know what kind of E-bike I actually want. What kind of riding I will actually do. Do I get a Mtn-ebike like my neighbor for the trails? Or a road bike like yours. There are so many choices I am afflicted with paralysis by analysis. The size of the motor, hub or mid drive, fat tire or thinner road tires. Etc.
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I've been looking at a four wheeler, off road, electric bike.

I can see myself riding the trails, with my little doggo on board, on one of those things.

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A four-wheeled bike? That's something of a contradiction in terms, no?

These are very different animals, and considering I go places where there's just room for one wheel to get past, they certainly wouldn't do me. Are they road-legal where you are?
 
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I imagine it depends a lot on where you ride, but most of the places I've ridden over the years would not be well served with a quad, which would either be inconveniently wide or would not track well on single-track trails, or both. If your roads have very generous shoulders, it might be all right there, and some bike trails on old tow paths and the like are wide enough, but where I live that's not the case.

You can't stand on the pedals of a recumbent, so the only way to get up a steep slope is with gearing. You can do it, and many do, but you can likely expect to go slowly and do a lot of spinning.
 
You don't need to stand on the pedals of a recumbent, you can brace against the seat back when going up hills.
 
Rolfe said:
Mine is actually marketed as a hybrid, not a road bike, and in its one foray off the tarred road it did pretty well.

My absolute deal-breaker was that it had to be light enough to lift into my car. I also wanted it to look and ride like a normal bike. I had a short list of five or six, but most of them were crossed off pretty easily, one for simply being twice the price of anything else! There was a Chinese-made one (Fiido) which looked pretty good, had things like a prop stand and lights and so on. I nearly bought it as the first one I saw advertised, although it was 17.5 kg, but then it turned out they were out of stock so I looked around a bit more and that was when I saw the Ribble. I think it's less than 15 kg to be honest, the lad in the shop said 13-14 kg depending on how it's configured.

You obviously have a much wider choice than we have here, but maybe your first choice is whether you want one bike that will do everything, or whether your off-road and your on-road requirements are so different that you should be thinking about two bikes, one for each purpose. If you're really going to be mountain biking seriously you probably need a bike made for that, but if you just want to ride off-road on gravel tracks, a hybrid will do very well and double as a road bike.
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I know. It's the Ribble Hybrid AL. The website says it is 15 kg. Maybe they got it wrong. Even at 15 kg, it is still much lighter than most of the Ebikes I have looked at. Still it seems very much like a road bike. Not exactly my super light racing bike with sew-ups. But also not really meant for trail riding either. Looks great for those paved country roads and occasional dirt road.

But you're right, there really isn't a perfect Ebike for all conditions. Having different ebikes for different kinds of riding would be ideal. But money is a factor.
 
I wasn't able to find a weight quoted on the web site, where did you see it? I was getting slightly contradictory information in different places. My previous bike is 15.7 kg and this one definitely feels lighter to pick up, but I haven't actually weighed it. I will do that once the accessories have been fitted.

It does seem more like a road bike, rather more so than my previous bike, but in fact the difference is probably just the width of the tyres. Last time I had new tyres fitted they put quite chunky ones on. I don't know if the Ribble would take chunkier tyres, there's something about that on the web site though.

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The Giant was sold as a hybrid too, I recall, and it has done just fine on paths and tracks. The one foray I did with the Ribble on to a very rough track was very reassuring, despite the narrower tyres.
 
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