People often ask whether a bike will be powerful enough to climb hills. This is a hard one to answer objectively. My answer is that the Active Line Plus motor is a pretty good aid to climbing. It got me up these bad boys without much fuss today.
Can an Active Line Plus climb?
- Thread starter Chris M
- Start date
Nice pics Chris, I think the answer to that question is like many things is it depends. I have the Active Line Plus motor in my road racing bike and it has got me up all the on road hills that I have tried in my area without too much effort.
However I have the CX motor in my e-mtb and that just about gets me up some of the inclines on the off road routes I do here in North Wales, there is no way the Active Line Plus would be powerful enough to do this. You would need to be very fit and therefore probably not require an e-bike if you could get up Drum (mountain in North Wales) on a bike fitted with an Active Line Plus motor.
I have to use Turbo mode most of the way up Drum and when I get to the top I am absolutely shattered, to give you some idea how steep it is. Its about 4 miles from my house to the top of Drum. I have a 500 wh battery and I will use about 60% of that energy just doing 4 miles. I can do 50 miles on the road on the same bike using the same amount of energy from the battery.
So as I said it all depends on what you want to do with your bike, if you want to ride off road up very steep hills ie. mountains then you will need to go for a CX equipped bike, the Active Line Plus will not be powerful enough for most people (that need the assistance of a motor).
If on the other hand you have no intention of riding up mountains then I am sure the Active Line Plus motor will be fine for most people.
However I have the CX motor in my e-mtb and that just about gets me up some of the inclines on the off road routes I do here in North Wales, there is no way the Active Line Plus would be powerful enough to do this. You would need to be very fit and therefore probably not require an e-bike if you could get up Drum (mountain in North Wales) on a bike fitted with an Active Line Plus motor.
I have to use Turbo mode most of the way up Drum and when I get to the top I am absolutely shattered, to give you some idea how steep it is. Its about 4 miles from my house to the top of Drum. I have a 500 wh battery and I will use about 60% of that energy just doing 4 miles. I can do 50 miles on the road on the same bike using the same amount of energy from the battery.
So as I said it all depends on what you want to do with your bike, if you want to ride off road up very steep hills ie. mountains then you will need to go for a CX equipped bike, the Active Line Plus will not be powerful enough for most people (that need the assistance of a motor).
If on the other hand you have no intention of riding up mountains then I am sure the Active Line Plus motor will be fine for most people.
Drum is over 2500 ft high, so I am riding from sea level up to that height in 4 miles. You also have to consider the surface you are riding on, its mud, grass, loose rocks, ie difficult surface that saps the energy of both you and the bike battery.
I don't know how steep some of the gradients are but they are a lot steeper than 11%. Put it this way there is a 10% gradient hill about 400 yards long on one of the cycle tracks near me, and I can fly up that at 15 to 16 miles an hour on both my bikes and I wont even be breathing hard. When I get up to the top of Drum I am completely out of breath, you would have to be a very fit rider to ride up Drum using an Active Line Plus equipped bike. In fact if you can do that you probably don't really need a pedelec you will be fine on a conventional bike.
6436 metres long 762 metre climb is on average 11.8%. I am guessing you will have sections at > 17-20%. If you can't climb that with an Active Plus motor you need another cassette on the back... Or a smaller chainring. 
That is why I prefer the Yamaha motors fitted with double chainrings (or my GSM with double) - you can climb anything the Basque Country throws at you. At the moment it is garden season so I have been towing the trailer quite a bit. The other day I pulled 40 kg home from the garden center and up the very short +15% incline behind my flat - 32T on the front and 34T on the rear and I was working harder at keeping the front wheel down than pushing on the pedals (seated of course).
That is why I prefer the Yamaha motors fitted with double chainrings (or my GSM with double) - you can climb anything the Basque Country throws at you. At the moment it is garden season so I have been towing the trailer quite a bit. The other day I pulled 40 kg home from the garden center and up the very short +15% incline behind my flat - 32T on the front and 34T on the rear and I was working harder at keeping the front wheel down than pushing on the pedals (seated of course).
No.....I’m 43 and 18st 11lbs and I get up everything I need to in South Wales, including the tumble, llangynidr, llangattock and black rock
Hi. Thanks for the reply. Do you use up a lot of the battery when climbing all those? I'm not going to be going 'mountain' climbing, just mainly our crumbling potholed roads! Do you use the motor on the flat or save it for the inclines?
cheers,
Stu.
Difficult question to answer as its often hard to tell from pictures and videos too for that matter how steep something is. If your thinking of buying a bike with say an Active Line Plus motor or a CX motor then see if you LBS will let you try out both on some decent hills. Lots of bike shops now have some e-mtb demonstrators.
The hills Chris showed us did not look too bad but as mentioned it can be difficult to tell from pictures. I am older than you and not all that fit but I can get up some very steep on road hills using the ALP motor.
Off road and riding up steep mountains then the vast majority of people who need a pedelec are going to need a CX or similar type of motor to get up them.
I am sure I could get up Drum (mountain mentioned previously) on an mtb with an ALP motor but it would take me ages to do it as I would have to stop to recover either half way up or at the top of each of the numerous very steep sections on the way up. I can ride up no stop with the CX motor, although I have to admit I am wiped out when I get to the top and have to rest for a good 10 mins or so before I am ready to ride again.
If you look at the torque ratings for the ALP and the CX, 50 Nm compared to 75 Nm. Then it does not seem to be much of a difference but in percentage terms that is a huge increase in available power. I would guess that the vast amount of people using pedelecs don't need that 75 Nm (unless they are looking to de-restrict) and hence the ALP motor will be just what they need.
I can understand that and I am sure riding style plays a big part in this. If your someone that wants to ride with the motor off most of the time and then just use it for the hills then the ALP will be the better option I am sure.
It sounds as if the ALP will do just what you want. Also much better range with other factors being equal.
See https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/service/range-assistant/
See https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/service/range-assistant/
My Haibike Sduro FullSeven 3.0 has the Yamaha PW-SE (70NM) motor (zero drag above 15.5 mph) and it works extremely well in Standard mode on my steep hills in West Wales. 12% hills are commonplace locally and some are considerably steeper.
I have only had to resort to High mode for a short distance on part of a very steep hill just to move at a decent speed. I think I probably would have been okay in Standard mode, but at a reduced speed.
Stumac62 makes a good point about choosing a motor, like my Yamaha PW-SE or a Bosch ALP, which is drag-free above the cutoff limit.
The key point as Nev, myself and others have made is to take a shortlisted ebike to your favourite steep hill and TRY before you BUY!
I have only had to resort to High mode for a short distance on part of a very steep hill just to move at a decent speed. I think I probably would have been okay in Standard mode, but at a reduced speed.
Stumac62 makes a good point about choosing a motor, like my Yamaha PW-SE or a Bosch ALP, which is drag-free above the cutoff limit.
The key point as Nev, myself and others have made is to take a shortlisted ebike to your favourite steep hill and TRY before you BUY!
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Hi Eagle. Thanks for your explanations. I'm going to test a Giant entour with a Yamaha motor tomorrow - weather permitting as the shop said I can't test ride it in the rain (why? surely a shop test bike can be allowed to get wet, but there your go, it's their bike!). I really like the Cube bikes but haven't got a local dealer stocking them.
Stu.
The hills in the photos are steep. The small track is one that I never managed to do on a manual bike. The other photos are Clent Hill near Birmingham. I have ridden up there on a manual on a number of occasions but that was over 20 years ago. On the manual it was granny ring all the way and ages getting my breath and legs back at the top. Now at 63 it's smiles all the way up and only a bit out of breath at the top. It is certainly less effort than walking up there and had enough energy to take photos at the top.
Thanks Chris. Did you use the motor on different modes as you went up?
Sounds like the Active Line Pro will be perfect for me then
To be honest on the steep bits I just go straight to turbo. Obviously the CX does provide quite a lot more power so will be the better motor when the going gets really tough. My brother has just bought a bike with a CX Motor so one day soon I will see what they are like side by side. I expect he will leave me on the hills but I might get a bit back on the flat when we are above 25kph. The CX certainly gives a lot more oomph when you start off. From what my bro has said you can feel the CX motor cut out when you get to 25kph whereas the ALP seems to gently reduce assistance in an almost unnoticeable way. That could of course just be different perceptions.
So, are you out of the saddle charging up the hills with the motor on Turbo or is it more comfortable that that?
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