UKC

Having been riding an EMTB for the past 2 1/2 yrs now I've come to the conclusion that there are pluses and minusus for this mode of transport. These are as follows :-

Pros :-

Ease of climbing

Ease of riding into a headwind

Riding thro muddy/ heavy ground much less effort.

Cons :-

Limited range due to life of battery, 630WH on my Merrida with a Shimano 85Nm drive unit . I get Approx 30/35 miles with 4000ft of climbing on a typical cx ride in the yorkshire dales/pennines where i do most of my rides. I mostly ride in trail mode,  rarely use Turbo or Eco. I would like to add i weigh 80kg and am 75yrs old, one of my mates who only weighs 67kg and gets another 10/15 miles on his e bike. 

Weight 25kg compared to 12kg for my Spesh Stumpjumper.

I find that Bike handling is much more difficult with the added weight

I imagine it could be Expensive if anything goes wrong with drive or battery.

Type of ride (It must in my case be bridleways or byways with linking road sections).I would stuggle lifting the thing over stiles or locked gates etc.

Speed :- My bike is limited to15mph on the flat. It goes a lot quicker down hill tho.

Chain wear :- I've noticed that the Chain wears/stretches a lot faster on E bikes. I change the chain every 500mls or if you leave it too long its having to replace the full drive train.

Bike out of action whilst charging battery 7hrs to fully charge from empty.

With all that, I love my emtb it helps me enjoy my rides without too much effort. I would just like to get a bit more range without the expence of forking out for a range extender battery or going on a diet.

I'd like to know what anyone on here who has similar experiences.

Alan

Similar to what you mention in most respects.

My Moustache mtb is actually very easy to ride, well balanced and feels alot lighter than it is. Rule of thumb for safe distance when planning routes on mine is minimum of 32 miles on 500 Wh battery, but I don’t spare use of the power for that. I’ve had less of course on expected hard usage routes but also a lot more of 50+ on easier routes.

I also have a updated (quick) charger for mine which re charges battery in some 3.5 hours.

I run Bosch setups; tested Shimano and much preferred the Bosch setup. Have you checked to see if there is software and firmware updates for your bike? Bosch issue updates regularly and some can be noticeably beneficial. One changed one of the power setting (sport) to a new emtb setting which incorporated all the power range covering from tour, sport and turbo under the one setting based on the torque on the pedals. This improved economy overall as well as saving changing modes regularly; other updates improved battery usage performance to increase economy as well, and responsiveness, etc, etc.

2nd batteries are used by quite a few depending on the riding being done. Yes they are expensive new, but second hand/reconditioned ones are available (as well as non OEM ones which are probably be considered with caution).

As you know running an e bike is more expensive but what price is the fun you can have!

Edit: different motors have different characteristics and have their most economical usage at a certain cadence range. If you pedal in the range the motor is designed for it will be more economical than outwith.

Pedalling assistance cuts off above 15mph, but I find that I can usually pedal quite happily on *truly* flat ground at higher speeds than that (barring mean headwinds).  It's on the uphills that the assistance speed limit really becomes a factor.

I struggled getting mine over gates/stiles to begin with, but with a bit of practise I got the knack of it.  Like all static lifting, start from the legs.  All of which said, it is undoubtedly easier negotiating equestrian-friendly gates, of which there is a decent preponderance round here, I'm happy to say.  Push comes to shove, popping the battery off may make it easier to negotiate a particularly awkward barrier with no easy/short alternative route.

(The worst obstacles round my way are on an area of army land - with public access allowed - which has a fair number of things which look like exceptionally wide stiles but with a broad, rounded top bar.   It's far too much of a reach to lift the bike all the way over when standing on the ground: you can't start off from close to the fence line because of the stile step, and the broad top bar would would force you to lean even further, with arms fully extended, while manoeuvring a rather awkwardly-shaped 25kg mass on the other side of the 'fence'.  Maybe OK for Geoff Capes but not at all practical for me.  Lifting the bike on to the stile step doesn't help because the step is not wide enough to allow you to stand on it facing the side of the bike to lift it over the top bar.  I've no idea what the actual function of these things is supposed to be but they are extremely effective hindrances to eMTBing!)

I found this out the hard way, having to replace the whole caboodle at 950km.  It was made even more expensive by my stripping the extractor thread on the drive side pedal crank arm, due to ignorance, after which neither of the usual fallback removal techniques - gear puller (snapped) or blowtorch - proved effective, so in the end I had to resort to splitting the splined part of the pedal as carefully as possible (which was still pretty brutal) while trying not to damage the drive shaft from the motor.  And then buying a new set of pedal cranks.

Chain manufacturers like KMC do list e-bike-specific chains which are supposedly more stretch-resistant than ordinary chains - and unsurprisingly are more expensive - but I've read varying reports of their vfm vs following a regime of checking the state of an ordinary chain on a sufficiently regular basis.

If lifting over stiles is the case then you are probably riding on public footpaths and giving bikers a bad name, especially in the National Parks.

Oh, and just to add: I don't find any major issues with handling due to the extra weight.  Maybe that's because I tend to keep my tyres in contact with the ground as much as possible, compared to some folks.  And it is a lot easier to control on steep descents now that I've upgraded the frankly inadequate OEM stoppers.  I find that the higher assistance modes are a positive handicap in technical climbs: in eMTB and Turbo modes the assistance has a tendency to kick in at low speeds with very minor pedal input, so for example when negotiating a steep hairpin it will either throw you off balance or send you heading towards the scenery rather than getting round the turn.  At trail centres, therefore, I usually stick to Eco or Tour modes - although for despatching boring stretches of uphill fire road Turbo mode is a real boon.

What I do find is that the assistance allows me to ride for longer, at exertion levels I am comfortable with, rather than having to beast myself on the most strenuous pitches and end up knackered rather than actually exhausted.  My fitness watch says I use more calories on a long session on the eMTB than I used to doing the shorter, but longest I cold manage, sessions on the ordinary bike.  And despite the fact that the motor is helping with the pedalling, I actually end up with tireder legs after a long session on the eMTB than I used to after exercising to my limit on the ordinary bike. Go figure.

The killer for me, and why I just bought a bog standard leg powered bike, are locked gates.  Getting the thing over a high gate is essential as the ruddy things are just about everywhere.  Weight has to be low.

First day out, Braes of Doune, all were openable.

I've had a normal "trail" E-bike for 3 years now and have been considering getting an EMtB.

My finding is:

Pros; ease of riding in various conditions, absolutely! Also carrying stuff. I use it for shopping and other things. Also great for distances. I use it in eco mode mostly and have cycled 34 miles without using half the battery (750wH).

Cons: weight. It is a bugger to lift over obstacles but managable. Handling. Fine most of the time but weight distribution makes it trickier in situations where it is icy or you need swifter reactions.

It's simple for me.  At 75 years of age I wouldn't still be mountain biking if I did not have my Orbea Wild.  It was getting that the downhill reward was far outweighed by the uphill effort so I gave up.  Then I discovered electric mountain bikes. I don't really do the long rides anymore, preferring the bike park downhills, so the range of the battery is less important. My energy runs out well before the bikes.  For all that I would swap it tomorrow for a pair of 21 year old legs.

I live in the Peak and I used to have the same problem with turbo mode, losing control or almost looping it. With trial and error I evolved a way of using turbo mode. As you approach a technical climb you need to change right down the cassette early, until the pedalling input smoothly matches the assistance. You will then be able to climb much faster and more easily, changing up gears as required. Using this method I’ve managed climbs I had never previously done and back in the day I finished in the top ten overall in the Karrimor north of England cross country race series, so I was fairly proficient at technical climbs. If you’re more tired on an e bike as opposed to a conventional bike, I feel you aren’t either going far enough or trying hard enough. I bought an e bike because I can no longer undertake the harder rides that I used to, but now go up to 30/40 miles over hard going with minimal effort and it’s very enjoyable.  

I'm really in two minds about eMTBs. It's great that they get people out who might otherwise not be able to ride in the mountains, but I don't think it's ok to have motorised transport in the wild and rough places that we value. 

No objections to eMTBs in trail centres (even if they do cheat on Strava on the climbs) and I think they are a great idea on the roads. 

I like the challenge of the climbs on a mtb , especially technical ones where you’re not sure if you’ll make it without spinning out or losing momentum before an obstacle.   An emtb would remove that challenge and therefore the enjoyment for me.  
 

Fir me a 35 mile mtn bike outing would be a good outing, and I would not see that distance as causing range anxiety.  For a road bike outing that is obviously a short ride and you would get range anxiety.

I don't understand some of the objections to EMTB's.  There are still technical challenges riding uphill, indeed with an EMTB most people spend more time on the bike than with a none electric and face technicalities that none EMTB's have to dismount and push up so you could argue more technicalities to be enjoyed.  Riding downhills is not an issue and the extra weight can be a benefit. Not being able to lift them over locked gates is valid but should there be locked gates on permissible bridleways and trails? I can sympathise with the view that there should not be a place in remote countryside for motorised vehicles but EMTB's are in reality no more intrusive than ordinary bikes and to most people indistinguishable from them. Banning them would prohibit a large number of enthusiasts from appreciating something that they would not otherwise experience. There is a very low noise level on mine and I suspect that braking hard, skidding and spinning do far more harm than the fact that there is a motor for assistance. The bike is NOT limited to 15 MPH, it's the amount of assistance that is limited.

I would be interested to know how many on this forum who have a dislike of them have actually tried one? Over the past 2 or 3 years I have seen them appearing in increasing numbers at trail centres and suspect that, for that style of riding at least, they are near perfect. You spend ALL of your time on the bike and not pushing and the uphill's become enjoyable rather than a knackering chore.

For sure motorbiking is fun, but it isn't mountain biking. 

The reason people like them so much is it makes mountain biking easier. 

latest full sus e-mtbs are as light as my Al hardtail (~15kg)