E-Bikes & The Unpopular Basics of Cycling
Everything that makes traditional cycling easier, more efficient or faster is magnified on an e-bike. The same goes for those things which make a traditional bicycle harder to pedal, less efficient or fast. You cannot get around the basics of cycling just because you have an e-bike. Do not buy an e-bike that does not look like the traditional bike you would choose for the same type of riding.
A few years back, many bicycle racing teams switched from traditional 18-23c tires to 28’s. This may not mean a lot to you. There’s a good chance you’ve never ridden a bike with tires as thin as 23c. The idea was that, on long and rough stages of major tours, cyclists would be more relaxed and have more energy for the sprint to the finish.They could gain a minor, incremental, improvement without sacrificing the efficiency of racing frame geometry. It was NOT because wider tires are as efficient or significantly more comfortable.
Unfortunately, bicycle mfg.’s siezed on this as an opportunity to sell yet another round of bikes that are going out of style as fast as they are introduced. Certainly, any benefits are further marginalized as you go to ever wider tires. Wide bicycle tires and knobbies are for negociating mixed and rough terrain, not comfort.
Comfort is almost exclusively the domain of bicycle geometry, not tires, saddles or suspensions. Even then, if your bike is not properly fit to you, it will not be comfortable (fit is more than just size). There’s a reason distance cyclists do not ride on gel pads, padded saddles or wear thickly padded shorts. They don’t have crazy heavy suspensions or big fat tires either. Their bike is made and fit to be comfortable. Each compromise robs you, the e-bike cyclist, of range, handling, acceleration and stopping power.
This is why no one can give you a factory e-bike that is likely to be as comfortable, efficient or quick as converting the bike you already love. Nearly all have old fashioned freewheels, stamped steel hubs, low end components, bad geometry, worthless suspensions and extra heavy and hard to handle frames. Yesterday, I watched a review of a $6500 bike with quick release wheels. I like QR, but at $6500 a bike should have at least mid-grade components and thru-axles (anyone that has changed a flat on a QR bike with disk brakes knows how much nicer it is with thru-axles).
Your machined aluminum hubs are hard to beat. Nothing beats a steel frame for comfort, but nice relaxed geometry is comfy in any frame material. An aerodynamic riding position gives you better range on an e-bike too (above 15mph, 85% of your energy is spent overcoming aerodynamics). You are going to look long and hard to find an e-bike with the quality deraileur, wheels, headset etc you have if you have a nice bike at all. All those things make any type bicycle safer, more efficient and quick.
This is why I push e-bike conversions and am now offering upgrade packages for factory e-bikes. You can have a more efficient suspension stem, seat and seat post vs a heavy, off road suspension designed for control. You can have high end, machined aluminum hubs with a lightweight cassette specific to your type riding and tire package just for you. It adds just $700 and drops 3#’s from what is already the lightest gravel read e-bike on the market.
Total = $2695.00 (about where our competitors start w/hub drive heavy weights).