Ebikes are a great way to help keep fitness whilst taking pressure off joints.
I have ridden pushbikes up until about 20 years ago. I've always loved riding pushbikes, but nowadays, the knees, heart and lungs aren't what they used to be, and neither is my weight!
However, now that the ebike has been developed I can see why they are so popular and Stephanie and I purchased one for each of us to help us stay fit and enjoy more of the outdoors.
I find walking rather boring as the scenery changes very slowly. Riding a pushbike on the other hand is not only a good cardio workout, but takes you through a much bigger variety of scenery and terrain in the same space of time.
An E-bike also adds another couple dimensions in that it can take the pressure off your joints and "levels out" hill climbs. In fact, an E-bike can, depending on what setting you choose, provide as much or as little (down to zero) assstance!
We purchased the NCM Prague mountain bikes with 21 speeds, disc brakes and front suspension.
The main reason we chose them was the reviews were excellent for an entry level E-bike, and since we weren't sure how we would go with them we didn't want to spend a fortune!
As it turned out, they are an awesome bike, and fantastic value for money!!!
We purchased from Sydney Electric Bikes in Engadine. They have a ride before you decide policy and Andrew tested 3-4 bikes before deciding on the Prague.
Our bikes have 6 power levels. Setting it to 0 means you are using no battery power at all and it's all you - which can be challenging up hills since the bike with battery weighs about 25kg!
Settings 1 through 6 will ONLY assist while you are turning the pedals - these are "pedal assist" bikes - which means we have to do at least some work. Setting 1 will take you to approx 8km/h, if we pedal faster and go beyond 8km/h, then there is zero assistance and no battery is used. Setting 2 gets us to 12km/h, setting 3 to 15km/h, setting 4 to 18km/h, setting 5 to 22km/h and setting 6 will get to a top speed of 25km/h.
Even though Andrew has hit 45km/h down hill in top gear, normally, we sit on level 1 but are doing about 12-17km/h - which means no battery assist unless we hit a hill and slow down to less than 8km/h as a result. Sometimes, we will go to level 2 up hills to get there a bit quicker.
A full battery will get us around 140km range - depending on the terrain. Our NCM Pragues run a 36V system, whereas many other bikes run 48V systems. The main difference is range (km) that they can travel. However, since we only use the battery when we need to, the 36V with 140km range is plenty for us.
A typical ride for us on a weekend is around 25-30km, and Sydney has some awesome rides to do.
There are bike tracks everywhere and though we are new to this recreational riding thing, we have ridden from Thirroul to Wollongong along the coastal shared cycleway (pedestrians and bikes). We have ridden around Homebush Bay to Parramatta then to Ryde and back to Homebush bay. The Cook's river cycle way goes from Homebush to Kurnell and we have done two lengths of it - Tempe to Strathfield and return, Sans Souci to Tempe and return. We also do the Chipping Norton Lakes run periodically.
Below are just some of the routes we have taken. They have been recorded using the "Ride with GPS" app.
The photo directly above was taken at Bulli where we stopped for lunch on the return leg from Wollongong back to Thirroul ride. It was a top day and the track was awesome!
We are still building up fitness and plan to take our bikes with us when caravanning in the future - just to add another dimension to our holidays.Sometime in May/June, we will look at getting a bike rack fitted to the A-frame of the van for this purpose.
The E-bikes make a huge difference for us because we do not have to put excess strain on knee joints etc and it saves us busting our lungs and hearts getting up hills! Love the E-bikes.
Andrew has ridden approx 1000km in the last few months and feels better for it.