Hi,
I thought I would share this mornings ride as it really showed up the plus side of ebikes (and it has to be said a big minus,ie,range).
The picture :
Me,50 (last oct) 80 kg (12% body fat ) powerful ( been a personal trainer for 30 years ) Fairly fit (gave up smoking last march ) 4th knee op last summer (too much heavy squatting and rugby )hence to move to ebikes. Bike is a Kalkhoff bs10 ,350w.400 kw battery ,Bosch speed pedelec that weighed 20.25kg on the scales this morning.
My client ,27, 68 kg (9% body fat ) average gym strength. seriously fit, never smoked and no injuries. Bike is a Giant TCR3 advanced full carbon with ultegra plus mega trick wheels, carbon seat post. carbon clipins etc. Weighed in this morning at 7.21 kg.
The Route is one that I made past the gym where Iam based 3.3 miles laps all left turns,1 set of lights at the bottom of the only hill ,total climb is 107ft each lap, half of the lap is through a quiet industrial estate the other on main but fairly quiet main road. We tend to do around 8-10 laps on a Saturday morning and have been doing HRM training since Christmas. I use sport setting (3 out of 4 )
We are remarkably close each week, each of us has managed to push our average speed up to just on 20 mph, neck and neck on the flats, I blitz him on the climb and then he comes hurtling past me on the descent doing over 40 whilst Iam struggling with cadence at around 31mph.
However ,today was a different story, he is on annual leave and asked to do an extra session as it was sunny.
Yeah it was sunny but god the wind!!!! Endomondo said the wind averaged 25 mph sse but the gusts were extraordinary, you know the ones which make the heart skip a few beats, looking back on our previous rides the wind has been between 7-10 mph .
We started off together neck and neck as normal but after 0.5 of a mile the road turns slightly to the left and bang, the wind started, and I just left him for dead and never saw him again until I lapped him. My average just down to 19.0 mph but I had to work much, much harder to achieve it, my average hr was up to 143 instead of around 130 and several times my hr hit 170 when the gusts literally tried to stop me in my tracks. He averaged 14.8 mph with his average hr at 170 up from the usual 150 with max approaching 200!
We managed 22.3 miles before my battery went dead and this was only using level 3, god only knows how few I would have got if I had been using L4! I normally do the 30 miles and have about 6 or 7 miles left of range to get me home. Let me tell you it was a sobering reminder how much help you get from any ebike when you have to cycle the 2.4 miles home in that wind with a dead battery, I was lucky to see 11 mph.
As I type this Iam aware that Iam more tired than normal and my knees are sore (probably from the unassisted ride home) but I have just had a text from my client which reads "totally shattered, am going back to bed!"
I thought I would share this mornings ride as it really showed up the plus side of ebikes (and it has to be said a big minus,ie,range).
The picture :
Me,50 (last oct) 80 kg (12% body fat ) powerful ( been a personal trainer for 30 years ) Fairly fit (gave up smoking last march ) 4th knee op last summer (too much heavy squatting and rugby )hence to move to ebikes. Bike is a Kalkhoff bs10 ,350w.400 kw battery ,Bosch speed pedelec that weighed 20.25kg on the scales this morning.
My client ,27, 68 kg (9% body fat ) average gym strength. seriously fit, never smoked and no injuries. Bike is a Giant TCR3 advanced full carbon with ultegra plus mega trick wheels, carbon seat post. carbon clipins etc. Weighed in this morning at 7.21 kg.
The Route is one that I made past the gym where Iam based 3.3 miles laps all left turns,1 set of lights at the bottom of the only hill ,total climb is 107ft each lap, half of the lap is through a quiet industrial estate the other on main but fairly quiet main road. We tend to do around 8-10 laps on a Saturday morning and have been doing HRM training since Christmas. I use sport setting (3 out of 4 )
We are remarkably close each week, each of us has managed to push our average speed up to just on 20 mph, neck and neck on the flats, I blitz him on the climb and then he comes hurtling past me on the descent doing over 40 whilst Iam struggling with cadence at around 31mph.
However ,today was a different story, he is on annual leave and asked to do an extra session as it was sunny.
Yeah it was sunny but god the wind!!!! Endomondo said the wind averaged 25 mph sse but the gusts were extraordinary, you know the ones which make the heart skip a few beats, looking back on our previous rides the wind has been between 7-10 mph .
We started off together neck and neck as normal but after 0.5 of a mile the road turns slightly to the left and bang, the wind started, and I just left him for dead and never saw him again until I lapped him. My average just down to 19.0 mph but I had to work much, much harder to achieve it, my average hr was up to 143 instead of around 130 and several times my hr hit 170 when the gusts literally tried to stop me in my tracks. He averaged 14.8 mph with his average hr at 170 up from the usual 150 with max approaching 200!
We managed 22.3 miles before my battery went dead and this was only using level 3, god only knows how few I would have got if I had been using L4! I normally do the 30 miles and have about 6 or 7 miles left of range to get me home. Let me tell you it was a sobering reminder how much help you get from any ebike when you have to cycle the 2.4 miles home in that wind with a dead battery, I was lucky to see 11 mph.
As I type this Iam aware that Iam more tired than normal and my knees are sore (probably from the unassisted ride home) but I have just had a text from my client which reads "totally shattered, am going back to bed!"
