Which bike for hills for a heavier person?

[Evoke]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to lose a bit of weight and due to family life, having the time to cycle is non existent so was looking to start cycling to work. The hiccup with that is that the commute involves a 25% gradient that left me in a panting mess when I tried it out as I haven’t cycled in over 10 years so was looking at investing in an electric bike.

Any suggestions? I’m about 105kg and 5’10”. I would like a crossbar ideally. I thought a cross bike with a MTB frame with road tyres would be the way to go but I’m open to suggestions. I understand a crank drive bike would be better for hills but my concern with that is I’d have something somewhat unusable should the battery go flat or I have an electrical issue so perhaps a rear hub drive? The commute is about 6 miles each way on road but there’s very little flat. The 25% gradient is about a mile or so of the commute. All other gradients are reasonably gentle but sustained.

I was looking at buying a Woosh ebike using my workplace’s cycle to work scheme but my workplace uses Cyclescheme for this, which Woosh don’t work with. I was also looking at a BH ebike but I understand from searching the web that their build quality and customer service was lacking, albeit these posts were from a few years ago. Any suggestions I can acquire via Cyclescheme for say around £1500 or less?

 

[KwikFold]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to lose a bit of weight and due to family life, having the time to cycle is non existent so was looking to start cycling to work. The hiccup with that is that the commute involves a 25% gradient that left me in a panting mess when I tried it out as I haven’t cycled in over 10 years so was looking at investing in an electric bike.

Any suggestions? I’m about 105kg and 5’10”. I would like a crossbar ideally. I thought a cross bike with a MTB frame with road tyres would be the way to go but I’m open to suggestions. I understand a crank drive bike would be better for hills but my concern with that is I’d have something somewhat unusable should the battery go flat or I have an electrical issue so perhaps a rear hub drive? The commute is about 6 miles each way on road but there’s very little flat. The 25% gradient is about a mile or so of the commute. All other gradients are reasonably gentle but sustained.

I was looking at buying a Woosh ebike using my workplace’s cycle to work scheme but my workplace uses Cyclescheme for this, which Woosh don’t work with. I was also looking at a BH ebike but I understand from searching the web that their build quality and customer service was lacking, albeit these posts were from a few years ago. Any suggestions I can acquire via Cyclescheme for say around £1500 or less?

Does your work place participate in the Green Commute Initiative?
Please see the below link, where you can find out:

https://greencommuteinitiative.uk

It is almost impossible to get an e-bike through the cyclescheme due to the £1000 threshold.

However e-bikes retailing under £1000, can often be problematic on such steep gradients.

Also have you considered a folding bike if so check out KwikFold, we have a meeting with GCI, so you may be able to get one through this avenue in due course.

https://www.kwikfold.co.uk/shop

 

[Evoke]

Thanks for the response. I’ll take a look. I have checked and I can fund anything over the £1000 myself. Others in my workplace have managed to do so anyway by paying the difference.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Are you sure it's 25%? A hill that steep is very rare on the road.

 

[Evoke]

Are you sure it's 25%? A hill that steep is very rare on the road.

Yep. I have just checked. It actually reaches 30% very briefly. I have double checked the distances though and it only exceeds 20% for about half a mile. The rest is in the teens. It is a country backlane rather than a main road.

 

[RobF]

A crank bike with a flat battery is no more or less unusable than a hub bike with a flat battery.

Of greater concern is the big hill, however steep it is.

I think you need to test a bike on it to make sure you can get to the top.

 

[Evoke]

A crank bike with a flat battery is no more or less unusable than a hub bike with a flat battery.

Of greater concern is the big hill, however steep it is.

I think you need to test a bike on it to make sure you can get to the top.

I was starting to work this out from my research last night.

From what I can determine, a crank drive would be the way forward. I haven’t had the chance to sit down to do the math on the expected performance at the wheel, which is also somewhat difficult as there doesn’t appear to be much out there in terms of motor output curves. A brushless motor is fairly straightforward in its response but it’s a case of what the controller is outputting.

 

[ianboydsnr]

I would think that you’re going to need something very well built to survive a mile at 25%, every time it’s used, because if going to work involves that, you’re going to be coasting all the way home,
Is there not a easier road to take?

Otherwise you may be better off using a more expensive emtb

 

[Woosh]

Otherwise you may be better off using a more expensive emtb

expensive emtb requires you putting in at least 25% of the energy, a lot more knackering than riding up with a Bafang BBS kit.
Convert your bike with a BBSHD - you can pedal backward going up that hill if you like.

 

[ianboydsnr]

expensive emtb requires you putting in at least 25% of the energy, a lot more knackering than riding up with a Bafang BBS kit.

I got the impression that they wanted to lose weight, so wanted to put some cycling effort in, only less than using a non ebike, because if it’s made real easy going up, then its certainly going to be real easy going down with or without motor,
75% less would seem like a lot,
Or did I understand it incorrectly

 

[RobF]

expensive emtb requires you putting in at least 25% of the energy, a lot more knackering than riding up with a Bafang BBS kit.
Convert your bike with a BBSHD - you can pedal backward going up that hill if you like.

Are you saying a BBSHD would get a rider up 30 per cent on throttle alone?

That's some poke, my Bosch bikes would need lowest gear and significant effort - in my terms - from me.

 

[Woosh]

Or did I understand it incorrectly

I don't sell BBSHD - there is no conflict of interest but on long steep hills, you need to be fit to ride a conventional (Bosch) pedelec. Chinese kits are less demanding, they let you put in as much effort as you like. You can still lose weight.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Are you saying a BBSHD would get a rider up 30 per cent on throttle alone?

That's some poke, my Bosch bikes would need lowest gear and significant effort - in my terms - from me.

The BBSHD has approximately 2.66 times the power of your bike (double the current and 1.33 times the voltage. You will be providing about 200w and your motor about 500w, so you have 700w of climbing power. The BBSHD has 1333W of climbing power without pedalling, so if you can get up that hill, the BBSHD wouldn't even know that it's there. that's the difference between an electric winch and a tame Bosch pedelec.

 

[ianboydsnr]

The BBSHD has approximately 2.66 times the power of your bike (double the current and 1.33 times the voltage. You will be providing about 200w and your motor about 500w, so you have 700w of climbing power. The BBSHD has 1333W of climbing power without pedalling, so if you can get up that hill, the BBSHD wouldn't even know that it's there. that's the difference between an electric winch and a tame Bosch pedelec.

Doesn’t that make it an electric motorcycle, that needs registered and insured?

 

[flecc]

Doesn’t that make it an electric motorcycle, that needs registered and insured?

One can just spin without pedal effort to keep it running. That complies with the law, there's no specification that torque force has to be applied to the pedals.
.

 

[Woosh]

One can just spin without pedal effort to keep it running. That complies with the law, there's no specification that torque force has to be applied to the pedals.
.

it still needs a label and as far as I know, no importer would want to stick their neck out to provide it for those high powered CD kits. Bafang do not provide a legal sticker for them.

 

[RobF]

The BBSHD has approximately 2.66 times the power of your bike (double the current and 1.33 times the voltage. You will be providing about 200w and your motor about 500w, so you have 700w of climbing power. The BBSHD has 1333W of climbing power without pedalling, so if you can get up that hill, the BBSHD wouldn't even know that it's there. that's the difference between an electric winch and a tame Bosch pedelec.

Phew, glad I got the tame Bosch pedelec.

No doubt I would have needed a battery the size of a suitcase to get anywhere.

Could have been an expensive mistake, given I didn't really have a clue what I was buying when I bought my first ebike.

Quite common to see these high powered bikes for sale when owners realise that, apart from pulling a few stupid wheelies, they are next useless.

 

[Woosh]

No doubt I would have needed a battery the size of a suitcase to get anywhere.

large capacity batteries are not needed, only high amps capable. Power consumption at the same speed for the same road and rider remains approximately same so range does not suffer much.

 

[RobF]

large capacity batteries are not needed, only high amps capable. Power consumption at the same speed for the same road and rider remains approximately same so range does not suffer much.

The phrase 'you don't get owt for nowt' was never more true than with batteries.

Barrelling up 30 per cent climbs on a throttle will use, to use a technical term, lots of juice.

Given that two Bosch batteries will barely do 100 miles, with twice the power you would need four/five 'standard' size batteries to get one of these 1,000w contraptions to do any distance.

A petrol moped would be a far better solution.

 

[ianboydsnr]

I have just done the local 25% climb, it might be steeper in places, but I can climb it at 5mph on a non electric mountain bike, whatever wattage I put out is nowhere near enough to zoom up,

That was nowhere near a mile climb though, but I can’t help feeling that another 500w would be plenty to get up at a decent pace, of course that depends whether he is as fit,

Of course he could go the illegal rout and limit the assist, but I thought the more torque the harder it is on the chain and gears, on a crank drive, and the bigger the drive in the wheel, on a wheel drive.