I'm incredibly lazy, I hate climbing, I have absolutely no desire to work out to get stronger or work on my climbing skills, but I love coming down.
Do I buy an ebike next year?
ebikes on the Shore
Posted by: thaaad
I'm incredibly lazy, I hate climbing, I have absolutely no desire to work out to get stronger or work on my climbing skills, but I love coming down.
Do I buy an ebike next year?
Me too.
I went with a Trance-X Advanced and pedal over to Seymour from home now instead of driving the Reign over. Its like cheating on the climbs, except its not.
I did the same thing. Reign to Trance, usually pedal to the trailhead. Can ride everything, but it's challenging.
Trance-X or the like would be a perfect compromise imo.
Posted by: thaaad
I'm incredibly lazy, I hate climbing, I have absolutely no desire to work out to get stronger or work on my climbing skills, but I love coming down.
Do I buy an ebike next year?
I guess it depends on whether you value fitness. I think we can all agree that it's good to stay healthy and fit. If you know you don't like "exercise" but know that the fun of riding downhill is enough to get you to pedal to the top, maybe you keep it that way until you are actually old or debilitated. It will also save you a bunch of cash you can spend on your kid's bike. Also, what kid would want to bike with an out of shape dad who needs a motor to get to the top? I say, stay young as long as you can. Getting old is not for the faint of heart. Doing it well takes lots of work and if you don't put in the time when you are young you will age less well. Getting an ebike will get you to the top of the mountain but will let your body become a heap. I'm saving the ebike for my 80s. Maybe late 70s.
Posted by: RAHrider
Posted by: thaaad
I'm incredibly lazy, I hate climbing, I have absolutely no desire to work out to get stronger or work on my climbing skills, but I love coming down.
Do I buy an ebike next year?
I guess it depends on whether you value fitness. I think we can all agree that it's good to stay healthy and fit. If you know you don't like "exercise" but know that the fun of riding downhill is enough to get you to pedal to the top, maybe you keep it that way until you are actually old or debilitated. It will also save you a bunch of cash you can spend on your kid's bike. Also, what kid would want to bike with an out of shape dad who needs a motor to get to the top? I say, stay young as long as you can. Getting old is not for the faint of heart. Doing it well takes lots of work and if you don't put in the time when you are young you will age less well. Getting an ebike will get you to the top of the mountain but will let your body become a heap. I'm saving the ebike for my 80s. Maybe late 70s.
Well said. I feel like buying a motorized bike = capitulation. It will happen eventually, but hopefully not until I am old. I am only 60 now, so I will keep slowly pedalling my way to the top for as many years as possible.
Posted by: skooks
Well said. I feel like buying a motorized bike = capitulation. It will happen eventually, but hopefully not until I am old. I am only 60 now, so I will keep slowly pedalling my way to the top for as many years as possible.
I agree
use it or lose it
and by the time I can't pedal anymore, I likely will be too afraid of falling to bother with an ebike
Not that relevant to e-“MTB”s but i know a couple boomers who have given up on e bikes because the additional weight makes them difficult to control and handle (on and off the rack, by the coffee shop etc) and has led to injury.
Off road I found that the weight was REALLY cumbersome when not pedaling. Particularly on crazy-steep tech climbs where they’re at their most fun (while rolling).
Posted by: taprider
And by the time I can't pedal anymore, I likely will be too afraid of falling to bother with an ebike.
🍻
Posted by: taprider
Posted by: skooks
Well said. I feel like buying a motorized bike = capitulation. It will happen eventually, but hopefully not until I am old. I am only 60 now, so I will keep slowly pedalling my way to the top for as many years as possible.
I agree
use it or lose it
and by the time I can't pedal anymore, I likely will be too afraid of falling to bother with an ebike
My friend Gary is in his 80s. He hasn’t ridden off road hard for a few years because the downhills are too rough for his old bones. And he is really fit. It’s not just the uphills that will be hard when you’re old.
I just put this here/...
motorized mountain bikes capable of 60 miles without a charge;
While these machines – electric bicycles – are legitimately excellent for use in towns and cities, they do not belong on backcountry trails unless the trails are specifically open to motor vehicles. ..... Motors can be disguised inside the frame. This is unfair to legitimate users of the trails.
There is a burgeoning variety of e bikes available, including powerful mountain bikes that are basically electric motorcycles. They come with names like Rambo and The Weapon. In some ways these are worse than regular dirt bikes because you can’t hear them coming. They sneak up on you.
Electric vehicles in general are a positive trend, with obvious benefits of being quiet and non-polluting. One problem with them is they move stealthily. Mountain bikers in Montana have been mauled and killed by grizzly bears they surprised or actually collided with.
Last edited by: tungsten on Feb. 16, 2021, 7:54 p.m., edited 1 time in total.
Hybrid! No more dead batteries.
Kick start?
Posted by: taprider
Posted by: skooks
Well said. I feel like buying a motorized bike = capitulation. It will happen eventually, but hopefully not until I am old. I am only 60 now, so I will keep slowly pedalling my way to the top for as many years as possible.
I agree
use it or lose it
and by the time I can't pedal anymore, I likely will be too afraid of falling to bother with an ebike
I've tried an e-bike. It was still a good work out. Sure, it was like 3 times easier on the climbs, but I probably rode 3 times the number of laps in about the same amount of time. I spent more time in heart rate zone 3 (on my watch, not sure if that is a universal measurement though), which is supposedly better for weight loss and for for building endurance.
Like any tool I think it all depends on how you use it. If money were not an issue I would likely have both an e-bike and a regular bike.
I say whatever gets you out of the house and lets you have fun in the woods is the right tool for the job.
I rode my regular bike today, brought my dogs with me because it is much easier for the older one to keep up. Short ride, just under 6kms, ~260m elevation gain. In and out in 45 minutes, had a meeting cancel and I had a window. I cooked 550 calories.
When I ride my ebike, I can generally get in 30-40% more trail in the same period of time, and I'll burn about 20% more calories over the same period of time - it's a different kind of workout. Instead of the painful slower cadence, it feels more like riding a road bike or a spin bike. You need to run a cadence north of 70rpm to get into the fun zone on the ebike. My (older) dog doesn't like it as much.
It is what you make it. I think it is most important to have fun on your bike(s) and spend less time taking the piss out of eachother, unless of course it is earned by being a jerk on the trails, but unfortunately those folks exist on every type of bike out there.
A few guys I know have sold their ebikes after a fair amount of proselytizing from them when they first got them. They all came to the same point that more laps in less time wasn't satisfying. Turns out that some difficult climbing contributes in a major way to the satisfaction of a ride, a satisfaction they didn't get on the ebike, which just makes it too easy they said. They also said they didn't like descending on such a heavy bike, which is ironic because the whole draw of the ebike is to do more laps in less time which means more descending on the bike that doesn't descend as well.
That three separate experienced riders in three different places came to the same conclusion is interesting.
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