Electric Bike or not?

[Mark N.]

Let’s talk about “exercise” & eBikes: It’s incredibly simple. On a normal pedal bike I burn a certain number of calories on a ride. Then, I’m tired and I’m done. On my eBike I also ride until I’m tired and I’m done. The difference? On the eBike I will have covered 3 times the distance. Saw 3 times the countryside. Climbed 3 times the hills. Had 3 times the fun. Just as tired when I’m done. Burned just as many calories.

[WhiskeySierra]

When you do not seek or need approval, you are at your most powerful.

Please ride your ebikes and enjoy them, some people are never happy. The snobs will eat their words soon enough. Wife and I plan to get two also.

Happy trails.

[Airedale]

Originally Posted by Golfer Guy

What an insensitive statement. Ebikes are a way to get some people with many different medical, physical reasons on a bike out and about enjoying life to the fullest who otherwise would not be able to on a 20 speed road bike. Careful with assumptions.

Personally I absolutely love my RAD Rover.

Exactly!

[2 Piece]

Originally Posted by Tom and Patty

Agreed! I have a brother who is an avid mountain biker.....ie ridden the Leadville 100 five times, Dirty Kanza many times and many other rides to numerous to mention over the last 15 years. I would say he is in awesome shape. Guess he is too out of shape to own and ride the Trek ebike he has added to his stable of Cannondale Scalpels.

Ride an ebike. I guarantee it can get your heart rate to its max and you too can churn 600, 700, or 900 watts of your energy on an ebike.

I guess the saying goes, don’t knock it, till you’ve tried it.

If you can get any where near 600 watts of "your" energy on any kind of bike you need to enter the Tour de France- you would win! I may be wrong but from what I remember those guys only hit mid 400 watts.
My original statement was not meant to be offensive, its was meant to be a comment about the general condition/ shape of the average r/v driver. Why cant they power a pedal bike without electric? Its really not that hard and lets face it most all of the r/v parks and resorts are flat. Remember "motion is lotion".
Enjoy those Specialized bicycles!

[hohenwald48]

Originally Posted by timjet

Not likely as the snobby bikers probably don't made the rules. I suspect the rule makers think that irresponsible ebikers will endanger others by riding to fast.

Regular bike riders far outnumber eBike riders in most locations. The committees that make the rules for state and local governments are more likely to be made up of regular bike riders and the fact is, regular bike riders are probably responsible for acquiring trail funding and performing most trail maintenance and often consider the trails to be "theirs". I suspect they have much more influence in the rule making process than any group of eBike riders.

Government bodies may actually pass the rules but they likely do so with input from the bike (mostly regular bikers) community.

[JMCherry]

We just bought e-bikes this summer and absolutely love them. You can choose between 4 different levels of peddling assistance. If you want more exercise, use less assistance. Note that there are “pedal assist” so you have to pedal. There is throttle “assist” where you can toggle how much assist you want or just throttle only and no pedaling. They can get moving pretty fast. Try them out before you buy. We have the pedal assist.

[Unplanned Tourist]

[Mod Edit]

After 40 years working as a heavy duty mechanic and many crashes with my MX bikes, my old body is hurting!

I got my ebike so I could ride with my wife. She is very fit with her running, x country skiing and riding. Now I can accompany her on rides (as long as she waits for me on the level ), where before she was out on her own.

We take the bikes along on trips also, handy to have, quick to pop into a store or some other place as long as it's not too far. We even rode about 15 miles into a small town to re-supply with gin and beer last summer!
I would never attempt that on a regular bicycle.

Happy Glamping.

[Jake21]

Originally Posted by Mark N.

My commuter eBike ceases to provide any assist at all above 22 mph. My Trek Madone carbon framed road bike on the others hand has no problem moving me at 27mph with only a moderate pedaling cadence.In other words, just because it’s an eBike doesn’t make it fast.

27mph with moderate pedaling cadence? Dang dude. You need to get on a pro team fast. I am watching the Shanghai Crit with the pros and they are busting out the last lap doing 28mph in a group.

[Mark N.]

Originally Posted by Jake21

27mph with moderate pedaling cadence? Dang dude. You need to get on a pro team fast. I am watching the Shanghai Crit with the pros and they are busting out the last lap doing 28mph in a group.

And please understand, my definition of "moderate" is not anything near "out of the saddle" or breathless. Also, nowhere near my "average" road speed on flat terrain and no wind. That's more like 18-20 mph if I'm doing a fairly long ride (30+ miles). But yeah, my Trek Madone 5.2 will easily carry me at 27 during a sub-sprint effort. I can't maintain that for too long and for sure.

[babock]

It's not ok to ride fast around horses or hikers. It's the park service people that are doing the banning. Not bike riders.

Bottom line, parks are considering them to be motorized. Keep that in mind if you buy one and expecting them to be used on all trails. Not going to happen.

And don't shoot me...I am just the messenger. If you don't want it be that way, talk to your Congress person.

If you really want to know the law that applies, look at the Travel Management Rule, law 36 CFR 212.

Personally, I would never buy an e-bike if I was planning on using it on trails where motorized vehicles are banned, which just happens to be a LOT of trails.

[Seymour2Lane]

Originally Posted by BounderRob

Mike,
Would you be kind enough to provide a list of the other items you purchased from Luna to make the conversion? We also have Specialized Comfort bikes and I am intrigued by this idea (as opposed to buying new ebikes), and I'd like to understand the cost to compare. Luna has a long list of accessories on the website.... Also, did you do the work yourself?

Thanks in advance.
Rob W

Rob,
Sorry for the slow response. I did the install with help from my buddy Bones who is a bike nut and is now building his 3rd ebike. The options I chose were the gear sensor which has since failed (so did 2 of Bones'). We just let off the throttle/stop pedaling during shifts which works fine. I would not order the gear sensor. I chose the thumb throttle and installed it on the left side where the front derailleur shifter was. The front derailleur is removed along with the crank set to install the mid-drive motor.
The included brake sensor was not installed.
The battery bracket was installed using the water bottle studs on the downtube. Quite secure.
The stock chain ring in the kit works fine for me. Some find it to be heavy and ugly and order one of the fancy bling rings.
The 300W smart charger will charge the battery in about 2hrs. Works great.
We did the install in about 4 hrs with no customizing required.
Yeah, yeah but what did it cost he asked? My Luna Cycle bill was about $1500.
Hope this is helpful. Mike

[2 Piece]

Originally Posted by stepside454

We have friends who bought E bikes , because doc said he needed exercise, they aren’t getting any exercise

exactly. ride around in coaches or tow vehicles all day, go to a "flat" campground/ rv park, then get on an ebike to ride to camp store. That aint no exercise. Pedal bicycles are the absolute best form or exercise a person can get, low impact high cardio. Even people with hip and knee replacement can ride, I mean once you have those hip and knee replacements one of the very first things they do in rehab is put you on a stationary bicycle! If only people would just try pedaling a bicycle for a couple weeks. It will be hard at first because they need to condition leg muscles, but it will get easier every day because they will be getting stronger. I just want all rv'ers to live a long, Healthy, and active lifestyle but in order to do so you need exercise, no way around it. Have to get heart rate up for at least 15 minutes a day. Go to a bicycle shop, not a big box store, test ride some pedal bicycle (they are Not all the same) pick one out and get a proper "fitting" to the bicycle and start enjoying the ride knowing you are also getting some really good exercise.

[2 Piece]

Here is a nice little minute and a half video that may interest you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEhpUov-adU

[Colin59]

For those interested in building their own, Lunacycle currently has the BBS HD kit on sal for $700 and you can add the battery for $500 for a 52 V nominal. They also have complete bikes for sale. For folding bikes they have one at $1699 (with the smaller BBS02 motor - which is fine for normal trails and commuting if your not goin up a lot of long steep hills...
I built my wife's e bike conversion with a BBS02 and 48 V battery and did mine with the BBS02 a custom FOC controller and 72V battery with off road switch to engage the extra power (a fun engineering project!)