First ride in four months

[Cugel]

Don't worry! I have 4 pairs of ear defenders and a vast 3HP dust sucker as well as the face mask.

But this to the side. I feel that you must look up the details of "e-bike" and also "moped" as you seem ignorant about both.

Thank you, "Cugel",

The wise didn't need the word.

I spent twenty years operating a CNC router. Before that, I used planes, chisels hand drills etc. I could do a good job with either.
Guess which gave me the greater satisfaction.
Clue: it wasn't the CNC.

When I retired, I gave up motoring. I don't have to have one just because the rest of the lumpen proletariat are dependant on them.
As with motoring, so with motorised bicycles.

Moped - a contraction of Motorised Pedal Cycle.

I don't need an E- bike. I'm still sound in wind and limb. If you need one due to some disability, or you just want one then crack-on.
It is your choice. No one is telling you not to.
In the meantime, lets just agree to differ on the subject and stay friends
You can ask me again about E-bike in thirty years - I'll be 98 by then; if Im spared.

As you are my friend, I can offer you "A Wonderful E-bike Experience" although you'll have to come to West Wales for it, risking a journey through The Hinterland, where Welsh farmers hunt the English, for fun and pie filling.

You will get hooked on the motor, especially after the fifth 1 in 5 that seems to go on for 25 kilometres (they're actually only half a mile). On return, where you will eventually recover with the help of the ladywife's cake, you will realise that, despite your motor, you have had the hardest ride you've had for at least 10 years.

You'd also realise that if you'd attempted that ride with no motor for the killer-hills, you'd now be having the eyes pecked from your corpse in the ditch at 521 metres above sea level, by a gang of red kites, two ravens and possibly a goshawk. A passing Welsh farmer would "rescue" your bike.

[jimlews]

West Wales ?
I was born and bred in that briar-patch Brer Fox !

[toontra]

I had my first ride yesterday after a few months off due to surgery. The legs seemed to work OK but my heart rate was way up on my previous levels for the same effort (watts) and I was really out of breath on quite a steady pace. It's clearly going to take some effort to get back close to where I was.

Which just goes to show - taking weeks or months off really takes its toll

[Jdsk]

Well done.

Jonathan

[horizon]

Googling suggests you are referring to intermittent high intensity exercise as studied by Dr James Timmons (https://www.qmul.ac.uk/whri/people/acad ... james.html).

I think IHIE is a much better term. Mosely (and others) use HIIT but this seems to be taken from the training world and is inappropriate IMV. In fact, calling it "a short burst of getting a little out of breath and your heart rate up and then back to normal" would be even better. For many people even that is a great start. Cycling is a brilliant way of doing this as it usually combines flat and downhill stretches with some uphill gradient.

I doubt that use of an ebike vs a non-EAPC is a significant barrier to getting the exercise benefit from intermittent high intensity exercise. Just as someone can use the stairs instead of a lift, on an ebike they can use a lower assistance level when climbing a hill. Conversely, someone on a non-EAPC can significantly vary the intensity of riding uphill by using much lower gears.

To some extent I agree - it needn't be. The question for me would be, do you ride an ebike to ameliorate near-impossible distances and gradients (for that person) but still get that heart rate up, or do you use the motor to iron out any exertion? I would have thought that both were common. But a younger person for instance might benefit from knowing that if the motor has saved them from the initial discomfort of greater exertion (even though cycling), then they might have missed an opportunity for better health and increased fitness. Hence my original post.

[Cowsham]

To some extent I agree - it needn't be. The question for me would be, do you ride an ebike to ameliorate near-impossible distances and gradients (for that person) but still get that heart rate up, or do you use the motor to iron out any exertion? I would have thought that both were common. But a younger person for instance might benefit from knowing that if the motor has saved them from the initial discomfort of greater exertion (even though cycling), then they might have missed an opportunity for better health and increased fitness. Hence my original post.

Ameliorate ! Even your paragraphs want to be harder to write -- I'd put "help ride". Even with the space there's less characters involved. Sorry not taking the p -- just when it's funny it's funny especially in the context here.

[Mick F]

I did a 25mile ride on Friday.

Here in the valley and up to Tavistock, and thence to Plymouth via Route 27 down the old railway path through two tunnels. Called in at Wetherspoon's for a couple of beers, then up through the city to the station for the train back. Then down into the valley and home.

Two issues.

One, I'm not getting any younger, and the ride out of the valley up and up and then down and up again to Tavistock, then up out of the town to R27 was hard work for me. By the time I was heading down to Plymouth, there was a cold headwind. Hard work and I got rather cold despite layers and wind-proof stuff. Initially, I was too warm, but finished at home almost freezing to death!

Got home, and I was knackered and cold.

Second issue, was all the way along R27 people smiled and said Hello and Good Morning, and I said likewise and even initiated it.
Very friendly and happy people - dog walkers, cyclists, walkers, families, old and young alike. Bell dinging and people giving way to me as well as them giving way to me too. Happily and happy people.

Trouble is, the nearer I got to the city, the less people even acknowledged me or others. Blanked me, and other people too. It was very obvious indeed, and sad too. Great pity that city folk are so reserved.

[kylecycler]

It's like the difference between the village where I live and the town where I used to live - in the village everybody says hello to everybody else even if you don't know each other, but if you say hello to someone you don't know in the town they're like, 'Do I know you?'. They don't say that but they don't tend to reply unless they know you - they're not so friendly. I don't know why that is.

What I've found when I've been getting back into the cycling is that I'm not expending any more or less effort than before, just going slower, and even then it's hard to tell since I'm just riding on my own. As I get fitter I'll go faster with the same effort, you just have to accept that either way - it won't get any easier, or not much anyway. My hybrid has a triple 48/38/28 chainset with an 11-32 cassette so I'm never running out of gears, even fully laden, which helps.

Staying warm can be a problem, right enough, especially my feet. I use flat pedals so I'll need to buy a pair of proper winter hiking shoes, maybe even one size bigger than I normally take to let me wear extra socks. I often go for a long walk before a ride - warms me up and lets me judge how many or few layers to wear on the ride. Sometimes if you aren't warm to begin with you never get warm and then you get cold.

Keep at it anyway, Mick. I think the only problem is if we try too soon to do the same as we were doing before. I've never stopped cycling because I cycle for transport - haven't run a car for years and don't use public transport - but I haven't done long rides since before Covid. I know if I build the rides up slowly, though, it'll come. Longest ride in recent weeks was about 40 miles.

We're past the shortest day now so the weather's bound to pick up - years are like that!

[dodger1]

Bought a Boardman e-bike a few months back after resisting for years as a "purist". Very glad I did. I too have a very steep hill just outside my house and, although I've always managed it in lowest gear and by weaving, the difference now is I can ride straight up without being totally knackered. I also find I'm riding a bit further than before and the relatively short range of the battery means I still cycle with the motor turned off for a fair part of my journeys. Definitely recommend.

[Mick F]

I planned on a ride today, but the weather forecast is horrid, though looking out of the front window, it belies the forecast.
Also, the roads are flooded and wet due to the relentless rains we've had for months.

Friday looks the best bet as we will be entering a dry spell ............ at last.

[Cugel]

I planned on a ride today, but the weather forecast is horrid, though looking out of the front window, it belies the forecast.
Also, the roads are flooded and wet due to the relentless rains we've had for months.

Friday looks the best bet as we will be entering a dry spell ............ at last.

A dry but cold spell it'll be, thugh. Especially after all the wet, with lots of field run-off going on for days after the rain ceases, slippery road conditions become an increased risk. Back roads with lots of potentially frozen leaf slime and farm muck are particularly risky at this time of year in the cold dry spells.

Despite being a fair-weather cyclist these days (I'm going soft with age, like a Perl Wen cheese) I try to get out in the milder wet spells at least once a week. Plenty hills keep me warm, although I have to get to the next one as fast as possible as the downhills can still chill an old chap (or chap an old cyclist) who's a bit damp. It feels less risky than the very cold weather rides.

The cold dry spells frighten me more now. Once a fall on the frost or ice would see me bounce or just bend a bit but now I fear a snap. I hear tales, now and then, of just such snapped cyclists that were former clubmates or otherwise known at one time or another through cycling. Some recover with an artificial hip but for others it' the event that begins to kill them.

[Airsporter1st]

MickF, I've looked at the area where you live and it looks a challenge even for someone who's cycled most of their life.

I'm sure it's not what you'd ideally want but the idea of a road ebike might work.

You could limit use of the motor to the steepest hills and use your legs alone for 'easier' sections.

I live somewhere fairly flat and use a non assisted bike but if we holiday in hilly parts I take the ebike.
Like many others I decried the coming of the ebike but eventually realised they do have their uses.

This option shouted out at me when I read the description of the route.

Jonathan

That's four recommendations for a Mick e-bike in the thread so far.

However, Mick strikes me as a chap who'll not easily change his mind. Wot he needs is "an e-bike “experience". Mind, it would need to be the right ebike - perhaps a lightweight tourer style rather than a-one o' them Bosch-equipped bike-tanks.

If only you lived in West Wales, Mick. What a time you would have trying one of me fine e-cheaters up and down the many mynydds! Off to the e-bike shop you'd be rushin'.

I agree. I’ve said on here before that I live at the top of a hill locally known as ‘cardiac hill’. I have an Orbea (Mahle system) which in their parlance ‘provides just enough assistance’. The installation is such that most people don’t realise its an e-bike. When not actively assisting, the system provides negligible drag and I only need to use it on the climb back home. As a result, I am now able to cycle longer distances without having to face the ignominy of having to get off and push the last bit of my journey!

[Grandad]

That mirrors my experience. As a life long mileage recording nerd I have drawn a line and do not now count any done on the Orbea

[Mick F]

Said it many many times on here .................

I cycle coz I can.
If I need assistance to cycle, I won't bother.

What about walking?
I can walk, and what if I need assistance to walk?
What then?
Mobility scooter?

Sorry, I'm an independent and active aerobic sort of chap who enjoys being out and about. Cycling "lights my candle" ............. and walking similarly.

[Airsporter1st]

Said it many many times on here .................

I cycle coz I can.
If I need assistance to cycle, I won't bother.

What about walking?
I can walk, and what if I need assistance to walk?
What then?
Mobility scooter?

Sorry, I'm an independent and active aerobic sort of chap who enjoys being out and about. Cycling "lights my candle" ............. and walking similarly.

Understood - but I feel there is a world of difference between getting the odd boost up a steep hill and needing/using assistance throughout the ride. On average, I get a boost for around 14% of my ride, but as a result tend to cover double the distance than I would if I could not count on that help.

Similarly, my wife enjoys being out and about, but needs the occasional bit of help walking up steps. If she applied your logic, she’d stay home.

Each to their own, of course and no criticism intended.