eRoad and eGravel Bikes - two things to know before buying

[AUbicycles]

After long deliberation, I was able to publish this eRoad bike review on BNA.

Are Electric Road bikes coming? Testing the Storck e:nario with compact Fazua ebike motor

The reason for deliberation is that it is more than a review of the Storck e:nario eRoad bike and compact Fazua motor, rather my test ride highlight two immediate things that buyers need to be aware of before purchasing. All of the details are in the article and I will gladly follow-up here or in the article comment if there are any questions.

I was already aware of the two 'limiting' factors and there is a good chance that you know them or can easily guess, but riding an eRoad bike made it even more obvious - so this is explored within the article.


Christopher

[10speedsemiracer]

nicely written, and today I learned something (which should have been obvious) re the tapered drop-off of assist when 25kmh is reached.

[NOVISCOTT]

The 25km/h cut off is what essentially makes a "sports oriented" (for lack of a better term) roadbike a waste.
A commuter or e-mtb is the only practical market. I love my e-mtb, but I would never replace my roadbike with an e-roadie.
Even then, the 25km/h limit is too low. 20mph (32kmph) would be the ideal sweet spot without being too quick and it would not have e-bikes moving any faster than anybody else. I'd even bet it would cut down significantly on the number of modified e-bikes getting about.

[AUbicycles]

As a point of discussion, if the purpose was just for the hills and otherwise not used for flats / downhill - would that be an option?

Would 7kg battery + motor be too much additional weight... or is there a sweet-spot (like 3 kg load acceptable)?

[RonK]

Everyone seems to have an opinion, but how many have ridden an e-road bike? I think many of the opinions I hear are not at all informed, simply people expressing their biases.

I had the chance to ride an Orbea Gain on some of my regular rides. It weighs a smidge over 11kg and at a glance you would be hard put to notice it's an e-bike unless you spotted the tiny hub motor nestled between the brake disc and cassette.

So that makes it lighter than the Salsa Fargo which has been my regular ride since my Kuota Kredo became too uncomfortable for my arthritic shoulders.

On the flats it was not at all difficult to propel the Gain to speeds beyond the 25kph assistance cutout and keep up with the bunch riding at close to 30kph pace.

But come to a hill and it's see you later folks, I'll wait for you at the top.

Nearly all the major manufacturers now offer an e-road bike, and many are now also offering e-gravel bikes. I doubt they would be doing that unless they believed there is a significant sales potential.

No doubt e-road bikes will continue to get lighter and lighter, range improved and control systems refined.

For myself, I find the Willier Jena Hybrid very lustworthy.

https://www.wilier.com/en/products/worl ... ena-hybrid

[NOVISCOTT]

Everyone seems to have an opinion, but how many have ridden an e-road bike? I think many of the opinions I hear are not at all informed, simply people expressing their biases.

To each their own. But in my opinion I think it's a lot of $$ extra over a regular bike where the only benefit are those hills tackled at less than 25km/h. I'm not a seasoned rider by any stretch, nor am I particularly fit, but the amount of time spent at less that 25km/h on my roadbike is tiny. Less than 10% for commutes on the M2. Maybe a touch more on the M7 path when out of condition but not substantial. Hardly worth the cost and I question the effort overall saved from the hills when pushing more weight along the rest of the time. Especially all those slight up gradients at 25+ km/h.

So no. I haven't ridden an e-roadbike. But I do have an E-mtb and a roadbike. In my opinion, I don't need to ride an e-roadie to see its limited benefit