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I Love Bicycling

I Love Bicycling is a website that is geared towards cycling for beginners with road cycling tips, training articles, nutrition tips, weight loss, how to’s and bike repair articles.

The Best E-Bike For Every Cycling Application

November 4, 2016 by Josh Friedman

electric-cargo-bike

E-bikes are making a surge in the cycling world. From pedal assisting up a steep climb to speeding up your commute to getting you to your destination without breaking a sweat, the benefits are myriad. If an e-bike can keep you from walking up the hill in the woods or out of your car for your commute, it may be worth it to explore why you may want an e-bike.

For the Commute

If you live in a totally flat place like Amsterdam an e-bike might be overkill. For the rest of the world with hills and E-bike can deliver you to your job without being a sweaty mess. Because an e-bike is still a bike with pedals, you can smash on your way home and get as sweaty as you like, getting your exercise for the day. You may even get a little extra sweaty because the motor and battery will make the E-bike heavier than your regular bike. Remember that by riding any bike, including an e-bike, you will be keeping another car off of the road. In particularly congested areas, you can dramatically speed your commute with an e-bike.

The Faraday Porteur has everything you need in a commuting e-bike – fenders, a low maintenance belt drive and internal hub, commute specific tires and a built in headlamp to light the way. It has an up to date retro style to it too, just in case you are into the aesthetics of your commute. When you are passing all of those cars, you want to let them know that you are a cool kid too.

For Cargo

Pedaling to pick up a big load may be no problem, but the way home may leave you grunting and swearing. A little pedal assist could do the trick to get you home without wanting to swear off bikes forever. Cargo bikes can be significantly heavier than a standard bike. The electric assist may even be a welcome addition addition if you are pedaling the bike empty in a hilly place. You can also use your cargo e-bike to haul your kids around town without strapping them into a car.

Urban Arrow Family cargo bike, Bosch 400W 10Amp, Nuvinci, disc, rear rack

There are a few different styles of cargo bikes. If you are going to get an E-bike, get one that can carry a big load, you will want a long bike or bakfiets in that case. The Urban Arrow Family Cargo Bike is a premium bakfiets with electric assist, a disc brake in the front to slow down that heavy load and a Nuvinci internal-gear rear hub.

Mountain Biking

Bombing down a sweet trail is a great thrill, but pedaling your long travel bike back up the hill can be a drag. With e-bike technology becoming smaller and more efficient, there is a burgeoning market for motorized mountain bikes to take the sting out of the ascent to the top of the trail. There is some debate whether E-bikes can use certain trails. If you do get one, check your trail accesThe before going hitting the trail.

untitledelectric-mtn-bike

The Specialized S-Works Turbo Levo FSR 6Fattie is a top-shelf E-mountain bike. It is equipped with parts you would expect on an S-Works mountain bike, with the addition of a motor to provide up to an additional five hundred thirty watts when needed.

Road and Touring

E-bikes are even making an appearance in sport road riding, and it is not for racing. That is clearly illegal. Road e-bikes are for those looking for a little help keeping up or cresting big climbs. This can be especially helpful when loaded touring. Whatever your reason for getting a road E-bike, there are more an more options out there, even from major bike manufacturers.

Road-E+

The Giant Road E+ has the spec of a mid-range alloy road racing bike. That downtube is not aerodynamically shaped, though. That is the battery pack and motor to give you that extra kick out on the road.

The E-Bike For Any Application

Technological advances have made the battery and motor designs cheaper and smaller. This has created a small explosion of available e-bikes for people to choose from. A pedal assist bike is no longer an at-home hack job. It is a fully polished complete bike ready to ride.

Why Every Cyclist Should Own an E-Bike

June 6, 2014 by Lee Agur

Why Every Cyclist Should Own an E-Bike

why every cyclist should own and e-bikeOK Ok… before you come back with a snide comment and disown me for good… All I have to ask you is… have you tried one? If not, then you don’t have an opinion, you are just speculating… I am a pretty intense cyclist that cycles for the exercise, but after riding an e-bike I was a pretty big fan and will likely be picking one up next year! Read on to learn how I got converted…

First of all I rode an awesome PEDAL ASSIST e-bike, the Cube Stereo Hybrid 120 Pro 29 (not available in North America yet… coming soon) riding a quality e-bike undoubtedly made a big difference. But honestly here is why I particularly enjoyed it:

Fun

This bike has 250 watts of extra power, I went up a 7% grade at 25km/h for over 20 minutes. That means that if Nairo Quintana (or any amazing climber from the Pro Tour) were there I would give them a nice little wave as I passed them.

Not only does it climb very quickly, but I found the descents surprisingly fun, with 50 lbs to throw around I thought that it was going to feel extremely heavy and bulky, but it was not a major factor. The geometry lead to a smooth stable ride with lots of stopping power.

Ideal for Recovery Days

why every cyclist should own and e-bike
The Cube Stereo Hybrid I rode – no one even knew it was an e-bike on the trail.

This bike has 5 settings: turbo, sport, tour, economy and off so you are able to adjust it to how much work you want to do. So, if it is a recovery day but you still want to go for an epic ride, summit some massive mountain or go long distance or more importantly be able to keep up with your friends/family you are able to with as little OR as much effort as you desire.

I actually went out for a recovery ride up one of my favourite mountains and came up on 30 cyclists from one of the local bike shops, as I approached them zig zagging up the steep trail they politely got off the to let me pass, but I said “don’t worry about it.” I pointed the e-bike straight up the hill and powered past all of them (off trail) while they wondered what the hell was going on (they didn’t even know it was an e-bike). I knew quite a few of them and they yelled out to me “you are cheating,” not because they thought I was on an e-bike but because I was off route while passing them. A week later I told them what really had happened.

I normally have an aching lower back from the hard climb, but this time I arrived fresh at the top ready to work on my downhill skills!

Injury

Is an injury keeping you sidelined? Not anymore… We tested out someone with a knee injury that prevented them from biking because of the pressure it took to go uphills! With the “Turbo” setting, it made it easy enough for them to go up 8%+ grades with no pain.

Equalizer

Cycle with whoever you want to! My mother is in her sixties and she is not a cyclist, but guess what? We still had an awesome ride… she would yell “turbo” and speed past me up the hill as I was flat out… I couldn’t keep up… when she was feeling nice she put it in “sport” mode and it was all I had in me to stay with her on the climbs.

I had the bike for nearly a month and if I wasn’t riding it then I would put someone who was slower on it so I could still have a workout and an enjoyable ride. Anyone who rode it could not stop smiling, especially my fiancee and my mother who could not believe they were waiting for me. Than in itself sold the bike for me never mind the rest of the benefits.

Do you ride an e-bike? Would you? Leave a comment in the section below.

If you like downhill riding, here is a quick look at the bike in action:

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