RasterWeb!

In the post I Rode an eBike! I wrote about my first “tests” riding an ebike. This post goes a bit more in-depth as it’s been a few weeks. As usual, this is for my own benefit, as I’m sure I’ll look back at this post, but maybe you’ll also find it useful?

When I first rode the ebike I wanted to do some tests to see what it was like riding it unpowered. I had read posts from people saying “Battery died, had to ride home 5 miles and it was hell!” or something along those lines. These ebikes tend to be heavy, especially with no power and a battery attached. I found that riding the ebike was a bit slower than my old Trek, but it’s a heavier bike, with wider tires, so that’s to be expected.

Typically when I ride (fun ride or ride to work) I try to go for a bit with no pedal assist. That means it’s just me pedaling, no motor. I usually get close to a mile on no-motor/pedal-power when headed to work. It is uphill for the first two miles (though not terrible) so I kick on the pedal assist… also, I do need to get to work.

For today’s ride I did 5 miles with no pedal assist (or “PAS 0” as I call it below.) It’s not terrible, but the hills can be rough. I mean, rougher than my Trek, because of the extra weight. But here’s the thing, and it’s a weird thing…

When I ride in PAS 0 for a while, and switch to PAS 1, it feels natural. That is, PAS 1 feels like what it should be riding a bike. It’s still work, you’re still pedaling quite a bit, but you get a little extra help, especially going up hills. While some people love going uphill, I do not. It’s one of my least favorite parts of riding a bike. Okay, but here’s the weird thing…

When you go from using pedal assist to NOT using pedal assist, you feel like you are working twice as hard! This is the weirdest thing. I tested it again today. Ride for a while with any pedal assist level and then turn it off and you feel like the bike is purposefully slowing you down. Like it’s pulling you backwards while you try to pedal forward. And it’s not even like when you start without pedal assist, it’s like negative pedal assist. I’m telling you, it’s the weirdest damn thing. It’s probably all in the mind.

So let’s talk about the need for speed. I guess it’s a video game, but I’m talking about the phrase people say. People who like to race, go fast, seek thrills, whatever. When I started riding last year I had no goal to go fast. I mean like faster than 15mph. When I started I was averaging less than 10 miles per hour. I eventually worked that up to 10, then 11, and it’s not quite at 12 now, though some rides are 12mph but I’m not at 13 yet. Often I’d have about 30 minutes to ride in the morning so I’d try to get in 5 miles, so I’d try to ride a bit faster. I’d usually get a good workout and get 5 miles in. All good.

Okay, so today I did three rides. This is not totally scientific, as I did three five mile rides one after another, and the route was not the same, so… whatever, they are numbers.

	PAS 0	PAS 1	PAS 2
Time	26:03	22:57	19:40
Avg Speed (mph)	11.56	13.17	15.39
Avg Heart Rate (bpm)	111	110	103
Max Heart Rate (bpm)	132	130	121
Kilocalories (kcal)	179	232	147

As mentioned, I started with no pedal assist (PAS 0) and only kicked it to PAS 1 for about 30 seconds to get up a hill. PAS is great for hills! After five miles I turned on PAS 1, and it’s like a normal ride. It feels natural, it feels right, it feels good. I’m still working the pedals, still pushing hard, but not so hard I’m totally wearing myself out. One thing they say about ebikes is that you’ll ride more and ride farther, and this is correct.

After five more miles I jumped to PAS 2 and it’s even easier. I won’t say “it’s too easy” because it’s all relative. PAS 2 is great for “I’m cruising around, I don’t care if I’m pushing myself to reach goals, I just want to ride!” Honestly. sometimes in PAS 2 I feel like the bike is going a little faster than I need it to. At least on one of my “fun rides” that is. So I find the numbers interesting, but not totally surprising. If I was riding my Trek I probably would not have done 15 miles, and if I did I’d be pretty exhausted afterwards. (My long “Trek rides” tend to be 10 to 12 miles.)

I haven’t mentioned PAS 3. Level 3 is great for rides to work, when I want to get there fast, when I need to ride on Hampton (especially up the huge hill) when I’m on the part of the parkway where there is no traffic and no one else around. Now it is possible to tune the PAS levels, and I’ve done that a little, but haven’t extensively adjusted them.

Anyway, I find this all very interesting.

One more important note! When I talk about my speed (in mph) the data all comes from my iPhone which I use to track my rides. The speed may not be accurate! Now that I’ve been a bike with a real speedometer I can see my phone is often quite off from the bike. I’ve stuck with phone data here for consistency.

Disclaimer! I did ride a DIY ebike inside Bucketworks at the first BarCampMilwaukee in 2006… and haven’t ridden one since. Until now.

Matt loaned me his ebike while my Trek is in the shop and it’s been very interesting, and… a lot of fun! Honestly I would have never considered owning an ebike but now I find myself doing a lot of research and figuring out if I can get one. (I mean when I will get one.)

This post will mostly be about my experience riding Matt’s ebike for the first time. (It’s a Ride1Up LMT’D V1 from 2023, btw.)

Dana dropped me off at Matt’s house and he gave me a quick overview of the bike, and I rode two miles home. I used the pedal assist at level 1, and hit the throttle a few times. I was flying. It was wild. I got home pretty quick.

The next day I went for three rides to get a feel for things. Oh, the first thing I should note is that the heel of my left foot hit the (beefy!) kickstand a few times. I think the pedal are bit narrower than my Trek, which also has a skinny little kickstand, so it was just a matter of moving my foot a little and it hasn’t really happened since then.

Okay, first ride! I rode 5 miles, one of my normal routes (well, half of it) and it’s a heavy bike, my speed was a little under my normal pace, which should be expected. But overall riding it with no motor was doable, just a little slower. I really wanted to see what riding an ebike with just my legs powering it would be like.

After 5 miles I stopped, decided to do a second ride, switched on the Pedal Assist at level 1 and it was like WOW, this feels good. I was able to go my normal speed (my normal Trek bike speed) and a bit faster. And most importantly, pedaling was easier.

But now I have to talk about “cheating”… I was worried that riding an ebike would be cheating. As in, one of the main reasons I ride is to get exercise, and if the motor is doing the work instead of my legs, am I exercising anymore? Well, first of all there are no rules, so there’s no cheating. Second of all, it’s still exercise. In fact people have told me it might even be more exercise, because people who ride ebikes tend to ride more… more minutes and more miles.

So the thing about the motor is that it assists you. It is called Pedal Assist after all. I took hills that would have had me slowing to a crawl (climb?) with relative ease. It was still work, I still pedaled like heck, but I didn’t feel like I was completely running myself down. Which is good. Especially with my knee…

Yeah, my knee occasionally acts up. I’ve canceled rides because of it. Earlier this year I was doing physical therapy for it. It’s actually difficult for me to go up a flight of stairs, so you know… maybe an ebike with pedal assist is something that will ensure I can keep riding.

And finally after the two rides I did a third ride where this time I used the throttle, cranked up the pedal assist level, and let it rip. It was sort of too easy (cheating? LOL) if my primary goal was to get exercise, as I felt like I was letting the bike do all the work.

Okay, that was Day 1. (Day 0 was just riding home from Matt’s of course.)

I’ll have a more comprehensive look at the tests I did on the second day in another post. Stay Tuned!