First ride in four months

[cycle tramp]

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!

What's the ignominy of pushing a bike up a hill? After all it's an exercise which promotes bone density.

[Cugel]

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!

What's the ignominy of pushing a bike up a hill? After all it's an exercise which promotes bone density.

Some of us have been installed with the never-walk mantra, from long years of fearing a severe mocking for doing so by them skinnier bluddy club mates when out in the depths of The Pennines and its the fifth geet big hill, perhaps Fleet Moss or that Buttertubs. (Or even Crackpot, aptly named).

But in practice, why not a bit of walking? I suppose, though, a time and fitness level will arrive when you spend more time walking up hills than riding the bike, during a ride. After all, it takes hardly any time to go down, especially when one has developed the skills to be a demon descender like Mick. (And me. Oh yes I am).

I'd rather have that motor for the worst hills. Why take a bike if you just want a walk?

***********
That Mick is stubborn o' the opinions and the only way we'll get him to accept the e-bike is to forcibly put him on one, with a rope or even leather straps, until he has to ride it up Porlock Hill to find some scissors. He will have a volte face and then get the fervour of the converted. Well, he will if I goes for a ride with him on one as I'll go on & on & on 'til he agrees with me.

[cycle tramp]

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!

What's the ignominy of pushing a bike up a hill? After all it's an exercise which promotes bone density.

Some of us have been installed with the never-walk mantra, from long years of fearing a severe mocking for doing so by them skinnier bluddy club mates when out in the depths of The Pennines and its the fifth geet big hill, perhaps Fleet Moss or that Buttertubs. (Or even Crackpot, aptly named).

But in practice, why not a bit of walking? I suppose, though, a time and fitness level will arrive when you spend more time walking up hills than riding the bike, during a ride. After all, it takes hardly any time to go down, especially when one has developed the skills to be a demon descender like Mick. (And me. Oh yes I am).

I'd rather have that motor for the worst hills. Why take a bike if you just want a walk?

I think if I needed a motor I'd get my motorcycle license out of the moth balls and at least be in a position of matching the speed of motor traffic...

[millimole]

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!

What's the ignominy of pushing a bike up a hill? After all it's an exercise which promotes bone density.

I've got a few club magazines from the 1970s (CTC Northern Section / Metropolitan Division) where the run reports regularly mention walking up hills.
Refusing to walk is something that seems to have become 'a thing' round about the mid 1980s at a guess.

[Grandad]

Perhaps related to the increasing availability of much lower gears and their usage not being frowned upon.

[SwiftyDoesIt]

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!

What's the ignominy of pushing a bike up a hill? After all it's an exercise which promotes bone density.

I've got a few club magazines from the 1970s (CTC Northern Section / Metropolitan Division) where the run reports regularly mention walking up hills.
Refusing to walk is something that seems to have become 'a thing' round about the mid 1980s at a guess.

Part super ego attack. part ego, part fear, all stemming from trauma that people haven't dealt with.
Worrying about what others might think, what your image presents to others due to not being able to get up an incline or even complete an event/ride happens quite a lot from pure observation and reading comments on forums for 20 years.
I read not long back horrible comments about a pro female cyclist whom just stopped and decided not to carry on, to protect herself, absolutely well done to her. And a few years further back on a tour of Britain stage, going up a very steep and wet (water running down the road) Lake District stage, riders were doing 3mph at best and struggling badl at the front of the peleton, an old duffer at the side of the road it seemed, was walking faster. If a rider had got off and decided to walk/ do a Froomey, they'd have caught the breakaway a few seconds up the road
I tend not to walk, I tend to stop, catch my breath, have a drink/wipe brow (I often carry an absorbant micro cotton towel for really hot days (which feels better than use of a glove/sleeve) and set off again, rinse and repeat. I can walk prett fast, even uphill -more speed at times than on the bike it feels but I'd rather have a little recovery multiple times than walk. I also don't bite off more than I can chew, I'm mostly doing it for enjoyment (aside from some parts of of commuting/utility), certainl not as a punishment/masochistic/ego reasons.

[pjclinch]

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!

What's the ignominy of pushing a bike up a hill? After all it's an exercise which promotes bone density.

Look at cyclocross racing and you see that even this chap isn't averse to getting off and pushing from time to time...



If pushing is okay for the 'cross and road World Champion, it's okay for me too!

Pete.

[fastpedaller]

I can see the benefits to some of a 'lecy help', but also agree to a large extent with Mick's comments. Some questions....... It is mentioned above about an orbea bike that only provides a little assistance when really needed (maybe I've not understood fully?), but what of the energy lost by carrying the extra electric parts (mainly battery I guess) around for the rest of the ride? I guess that is applicable to all electric -assist bikes. A very low gear will get us up a steep hill, or walk if it's too steep - is there really a benefit with electric (apart from maybe the convenience of pressing a button rather than walking) ?

[rareposter]

I can see the benefits to some of a 'lecy help', but also agree to a large extent with Mick's comments. Some questions....... It is mentioned above about an orbea bike that only provides a little assistance when really needed (maybe I've not understood fully?), but what of the energy lost by carrying the extra electric parts (mainly battery I guess) around for the rest of the ride? I guess that is applicable to all electric -assist bikes. A very low gear will get us up a steep hill, or walk if it's too steep - is there really a benefit with electric (apart from maybe the convenience of pressing a button rather than walking) ?

Most e-bikes come with a number of assistance levels. Eco, Tour, Sport and Turbo (as with my e-cargo bike) for example although the naming differs a bit between manufacturers.

Some of them (like that Orbea) you can remove the battery and ride completely unassisted, the motor disengages so there's no resistance and you're simply riding a relatively normal bike albeit slightly heavier. Or you can leave the battery in but ride it turned off.

Benefits with electric? You can ride further and/or faster, you can ride more frequently (many people with e-bikes find that they do more riding than they would on a regular bike), you can carry more luggage, you can get up that one really tough hill that you'd normally avoid...

In my commuting days (pre-Covid, 5 days a week in an office), I was doing about 14 miles each way. I couldn't do that 5 days a week it was simply too tiring, I'd reach the weekend and not want to look at a bike! But an e-bike, where I could have done the route in the same time at half the effort, would have been amazing.

They're absolute game changers, I don't get the hatred for them at all. It's not "cheating", it's not some attack on the "purity" of cycling. You're still cycling. You still have to pedal. But it just means that an older rider, someone less mobile etc can still carry on doing so. Hugely enabling tools for many people.

[Jdsk]

Well said. And saved me some typing.

: - )

Jonathan

[fastpedaller]

I'm not a hater.... just trying to understand how much benefit is available vs the possible penalty of carrying the extra weight for the journey. I guess it's very difficult to quantify and will of course depend on the battery capacity and length of journey. For someone doing an 80 mile ride there may not be much benefit, but if doing an 80 mile ride the rider will be pretty fit anyway?

[Cugel]

I can see the benefits to some of a 'lecy help', but also agree to a large extent with Mick's comments. Some questions....... It is mentioned above about an orbea bike that only provides a little assistance when really needed (maybe I've not understood fully?), but what of the energy lost by carrying the extra electric parts (mainly battery I guess) around for the rest of the ride? I guess that is applicable to all electric -assist bikes. A very low gear will get us up a steep hill, or walk if it's too steep - is there really a benefit with electric (apart from maybe the convenience of pressing a button rather than walking) ?

The extra weight of an e-bike compared to an unpowered bike of similar or identical design isn't very much. It can vary from +3 kg to +6 kg. Some designs allow the battery (heaviest part of the system) and even the motor to be removed, leaving an ordinary bile with maybe +1 kg of extra weight over its unmotored equivalent design. These additional weights are nothing significant, in terms of the additional rider power needed to ride the bike.

An example: I have an e-bike that weighs 13.5 kg with the motor & battery in; 10.5 kg without them in but an empty motor/battery case inserted into the frame instead (which is a very handy carrier for cakes and clothing).

Most e-bikes can actually be programmed by the user via some sort of app to set various levels of assistance, as well as the relationship between varying rider power levels that invoke varying motor power additions. For example, I generally use the motor only when going up hills at the lowest assist level I've set of maximum +75 watts. To get the full 75 watts from the motor I have to input at least 150 watts at the pedals. If I input less, the motor power decreases too, on a sliding scale down to 100 watts from me = 0 watts from the motor.

These motor-to-rider power relationships can be set at whatever you like; and generally there are three or four such relationships available at the press of a button. The highest I have set means the motor will give 200 watts if I input 75 watts at the pedals. This is my "get you home if bonked" setting which I've never had to use. The middle setting will see the motor give me 150 watts if I input 225 watts at the pedals. This is my "eyeballs out get up the long steep hills without dying" setting, used rarely and often not at all on a particular ride.

I spend most of my pedal-pushing time of a ride with the motor off and disengaged. I can generally get between 150 - 200 km from one battery charge of 250 WH, so a battery charge lasts me for 3 or 4 typical +/- 50 km rides.

If I lived in the flatlands, I wouldn't have a motor. But as I live in the ultra-hilly hinterlands of West Wales, the motor is often the difference between getting home exhausted and getting home with just a fine endorphin glow. In fact, I'll tackle any route now, no matter how many black arrows on it, as the e-bike gives confidence you won't go phut miles from home.

Oh, and I still go out on 50% of my rides (the easier ones) on other bikes with no motor in them.

[Jdsk]

I'm not a hater.... just trying to understand how much benefit is available vs the possible penalty of carrying the extra weight for the journey. I guess it's very difficult to quantify and will of course depend on the battery capacity and length of journey. For someone doing an 80 mile ride there may not be much benefit, but if doing an 80 mile ride the rider will be pretty fit anyway?

The partner of one of my children bought an Orbea Gain D40. The immediate effects were that he commuted all of the time rather than sometimes and that he could keep up when they visit us in Oxfordshire from their home in east London.

I thought that it wasn't proper cycling until we had a chat with some French cyclists on a top in the Massif Central. That ability to keep up with a stronger group was the decisive issue.

Jonathan

[colin54]

I don't get how this thread about Mick going for a ride has become full of unasked for advice about electric bikes, which he's stated he's not interested in. I'm sure he knows where the sub-section of the forum is regarding electric bikes should he become interested in the future.

[Jdsk]

It started with:

...Hard part is getting out of the valley.
Head west and it's steep, though sort of ok afterwards.
Head east, it's not so steep, but it's hilly afterwards.

which led to helpful suggestions that electrical assistance could make the difference in enabling those longer rides by taking the edge off the steepest climbs.

Jonathan