Ebike, the game changer.... well, for now

[weeksy]

Nope. But not impossible to design to fit into the bike. Presumably most people would only take them on longer trips anyway.

Actually, another point is charging time. Unless rapid, would you get much charge during a tea & cake stop?

I think batteries take 6-10 hours to full charge. So in an hour of cake, you'd only get maybe 15% charge currently.

[Ditchfinder]

Latest Shimano one can go to 80% in 2 hours - now that's still a lot of cake but

[Crosshair]

If you eat that much cake you won’t need the battery power

[Taff]

Some places like BPW and fod do offer charging and I think most manufacturers offer 2 different chargers, normal and fast charge. Bosch certainly do.

[Couchy]

Carrying a second battery is a non issue in a backpack designed for it, there’s room in there for the Bosch charger too as it isn’t that big. I can’t see any world where I’d need to carry my charger though as I don’t do multiple day rides. If I do it’s in one area so I’d have the car/van with me

[weeksy]

Carrying a second battery is a non issue in a backpack designed for it, there’s room in there for the Bosch charger too as it isn’t that big. I can’t see any world where I’d need to carry my charger though as I don’t do multiple day rides. If I do it’s in one area so I’d have the car/van with me

Apart from the £600 and the weight lol

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I'm on a couple of EMTB groups on Facebook, very few people complain about range, those that found it an issue bought a second battery - EMTB range is a non-issue, increased range is just a marketing thing, reduced weight would be more use.

[Couchy]

Carrying a second battery is a non issue in a backpack designed for it, there’s room in there for the Bosch charger too as it isn’t that big. I can’t see any world where I’d need to carry my charger though as I don’t do multiple day rides. If I do it’s in one area so I’d have the car/van with me

Apart from the £600 and the weight lol

Poor people don’t have ebikes

I was worried about the weight but once in the backpack and on my back it’s not at all noticeable. Takes 2 mins to swap on trail, some ebikes need tools to swap but mine was chosen as it doesn’t.

[irie]

Carrying a second battery is a non issue in a backpack designed for it, there’s room in there for the Bosch charger too as it isn’t that big. I can’t see any world where I’d need to carry my charger though as I don’t do multiple day rides. If I do it’s in one area so I’d have the car/van with me

Apart from the £600 and the weight lol

Poor people don’t have ebikes

I was worried about the weight but once in the backpack and on my back it’s not at all noticeable. Takes 2 mins to swap on trail, some ebikes need tools to swap but mine was chosen as it doesn’t.

But if you forget your key you're buggered

[Couchy]

Apart from the £600 and the weight lol

Poor people don’t have ebikes

I was worried about the weight but once in the backpack and on my back it’s not at all noticeable. Takes 2 mins to swap on trail, some ebikes need tools to swap but mine was chosen as it doesn’t.

But if you forget your key you're buggered

Yup I’ve got one fixed to the backpack I carry the battery in for that exact reason

[Mussels]

Before anyone gets too enthusiastic about fixing things to bikes I found that carrying heavy stuff attached to a bike for lots of miles breaks things. My main problem was carrying a lock suitable for London, enough bumps and it would knacker whatever it touched.
Even my panniers broke luggage racks after enough time, I was doing thousands of miles a year but over a tough track the problems will happen quicker.

[irie]

Before anyone gets too enthusiastic about fixing things to bikes I found that carrying heavy stuff attached to a bike for lots of miles breaks things. My main problem was carrying a lock suitable for London, enough bumps and it would knacker whatever it touched.
Even my panniers broke luggage racks after enough time, I was doing thousands of miles a year but over a tough track the problems will happen quicker.

What was the eBike, what were you carrying, and where did the bike break?

[Mussels]

Before anyone gets too enthusiastic about fixing things to bikes I found that carrying heavy stuff attached to a bike for lots of miles breaks things. My main problem was carrying a lock suitable for London, enough bumps and it would knacker whatever it touched.
Even my panniers broke luggage racks after enough time, I was doing thousands of miles a year but over a tough track the problems will happen quicker.

What was the eBike, what were you carrying and where did the bike break?

They were early Wisper bikes, the first was a BSO with a motor but the second was much better. I broke so much stuff I got to know the MD quite well and did testing for them, I'd break a bit and they would see how it could be improved.
They were both hard tails, I've snapped most parts at some point and a couple of kg strapped to any part of the frame caused damage over time.
The biggest lesson I learnt was cheap rims are very fragile even if well built by hand, I went through loads of them until I went to a tandem specialist.

[irie]

Before anyone gets too enthusiastic about fixing things to bikes I found that carrying heavy stuff attached to a bike for lots of miles breaks things. My main problem was carrying a lock suitable for London, enough bumps and it would knacker whatever it touched.
Even my panniers broke luggage racks after enough time, I was doing thousands of miles a year but over a tough track the problems will happen quicker.

What was the eBike, what were you carrying and where did the bike break?

They were early Wisper bikes, the first was a BSO with a motor but the second was much better. I broke so much stuff I got to know the MD quite well and did testing for them, I'd break a bit and they would see how it could be improved.
They were both hard tails, I've snapped most parts at some point and a couple of kg strapped to any part of the frame caused damage over time.
The biggest lesson I learnt was cheap rims are very fragile even if well built by hand, I went through loads of them until I went to a tandem specialist.

From the above description the bikes described sound like early (step thru?) commuter bikes?

Looking at the Wisper website the "Wayfarer Mountain M9" eMTB, although hardtail, looks more comparable* to the FS eMTB's in this thread?

* but the website does say " (*Not suitable for competition, extreme down-hill riding or high drops)".

[Mussels]

They weren't step through, normal MTB type frames stretched so the battery sat in front of the back wheel.
The newest one was 11 years ago so designs will have changed by now.

[irie]

They weren't step through, normal MTB type frames stretched so the battery sat in front of the back wheel.
The newest one was 11 years ago so designs will have changed by now.

So I guess that 11 years later there's virtually no risk of similar breakages.

[weeksy]

the new game changer ?

https://singletrackworld.com/charged/20 ... he-decade/

You may have seen the new e-bike from Trek launch this week. It’s called the Trek Fuel EXe and it’s a Very Interesting Bike. We’d go as far to say that it’s probably going to be the most significant bike launched this decade.

We’ll explain why shortly. In the meantime, a quick 101 about what the Trek Fuel EXe actually is.

The headline news is that it only weighs around 18kg (40lbs) but still gives out 50Nm of pedal assist power. And it gives out this power by a new-to-MTB player in the motor scene, called TQ.

The bike itself is a 140mm rear travel trail bike with 150mm forks up front.

For those of you not yet au fait with Nm, the Fuel EXe’s top power level of 50Nm is pretty much like a full-power e-bike’s middle assist setting.

You can think of the Fuel EXe as a regular e-bike that’s had its Boost/Turbo mode removed.

You can also think of it as a regular e-bike that’s had its half its battery lopped off. The battery is 360Wh, which is around half the capacity of modern e-MTBs that come with 720-750Wh capacity.

The TQ drive unit is significantly more compact than other motors too. The claimed weight of it is 1.85kg. Regardless of its weight, it’s clearly really flipping small. This has allowed Trek to make the back end of the bike (chainstays in other words) very normal, at 440mm in length.

You can pop to Trek’s website to read all the detail you want. We’re here to discuss what this bike means for the bigger picture.

[MingtheMerciless]

I've not ridden an E-Bike-Lite so I'm just gleaning this from reviews but ridden on their own the reviewers of the Levo-SL like it, but you miss the extra range and power when riding with a full fat E-Bike crowd, they do give you a good/hard workout trying too keep up.

On Mrs M's full fat Levo, you do notice the weight on twisty stuff when cornering on Friston singletrack, there is a definite turn and wait for it to grip sensation but I tend to modify my cornering for less corner speed but rely on the turbo stomp to accelerate out of the corner (compared to the Curtis/Speccy Enduro - 32lb ish). On rockier steeper stuff it does have less "dance" but feels just as quick.

I see EBL's for some as a steeping stone to a full EB as age or injuries march on. Personally, I'll go full EB, big battery and 150-160 travel with a proven "less unreliable" motor system like Bosch or Shitmano.

[Mr Moofo]

Mate has a Levo SL - but now wishes he had gone full power.
The same will go for most of those buying the Trek ...

[weeksy]

Go on. Why's that? Not convinced I agree, but I don't really do ebikes as we know