Help! light bike very good on steep hills?

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
19,510
16,448
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
The Woosh Faro is lightweight but you can only take it into trains at off peak time.
 

richtea99

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 8, 2020
434
283
Agreed, Ruth!
'Light' in eBike terms is, I'd say, 14-16Kg, and featherweight is 11-13Kg. In 2021 anyway.
Pricing for light is £2-3k, and featherweight is £4-10k.

If you're reading this in 2031, you'll probably have a chuckle at those weights & prices.
 
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Electric Ruth

Finding my (electric) wheels
Feb 24, 2021
15
2
I'm really pleased with my NCM Milano because it gets me up the hills but I was shocked by the weight (27kg) and there's no way I could take it on a train like I did with my non -electric bike.
Lots of people obsessing about needing a folder for trains - I presume this is a London/South of England thing as I've never encountered it as long as you have the appropriate reservation and tickets in triplicate. Weight is critical though as I wouldn't fancy hanging a 20kg + bike on those hangers they have on some trains or negotiating stairs and escalators which is hard enough with a normal bike.
 
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Deleted member 33385

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I'm really pleased with my NCM Milano because it gets me up the hills but I was shocked by the weight (27kg) and there's no way I could take it on a train like I did with my non -electric bike.
Lots of people obsessing about needing a folder for trains - I presume this is a London/South of England thing as I've never encountered it as long as you have the appropriate reservation and tickets in triplicate. Weight is critical though as I wouldn't fancy hanging a 20kg + bike on those hangers they have on some trains or negotiating stairs and escalators which is hard enough with a normal bike.



My Dahon Helios P8 was 10.7kg before conversion, it's now 22.7kg. I like light folding bikes, far more sensible for trains, planes, automobiles, hovercraft (spacecraft have not been tested, much lighter in space). The better folders can be rolled around when folded - mine still can, even after adding 12kg of Bafang BBS01b kit. It's always best to check specs on websites before buying, the NCM website does state that your bike's weight is 27kg. Looks a solid bike too.
 
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Electric Ruth

Finding my (electric) wheels
Feb 24, 2021
15
2
My Dahon Helios P8 was 10.7kg before conversion, it's now 22.7kg. I like light folding bikes, far more sensible for trains, planes, automobiles, hovercraft (spacecraft have not been tested, much lighter in space). The better folders can be rolled around when folded - mine still can, even after adding 12kg of Bafang BBS01b kit. It's always best to check specs on websites before buying, the NCM website does state that your bike's weight is 27kg. Looks a solid bike too.
I knew exactly how much it weighed before I bought it, what shocked me was what 27kg actually feels like to ride and how it takes all my strength to lift it.
 
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Deleted member 33385

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I knew exactly how much it weighed before I bought it, what shocked me was what 27kg actually feels like to ride and how it takes all my strength to lift it.



Yes, lifting a compact 27kg gym weight is very different to handling a large 27kg bike - there's troublesome leverage, which can be mitigated somewhat, by how you lift it. I used to hoist my heavy old bikes centrally onto my shoulder (at the centre of gravity of the bike) to carry up stairs, but I was strong and young back then, doing that might kill me now. Or my very dodgy knees would buckle, and tumbling downstairs wrapped around the bike would kill me.
 
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Electric Ruth

Finding my (electric) wheels
Feb 24, 2021
15
2
Yes the battery is a significant part of the weight (4.5kg I think). Fortunately, I don't envisage needing to carry it very much and will avoid getting into situations where I will have to (until I've done enough strengthening exercises and look like Gina Carano!)
 

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,125
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Light weight powered bike may be easier to cycle up a hill then a heavy weight one.
Too many variables to discount a lighter bike. A heavier bike all up weight needs a more powerful motor to drag the weight up hill and will use more battery wh.
 
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Deleted member 33385

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Yes the battery is a significant part of the weight (4.5kg I think). Fortunately, I don't envisage needing to carry it very much and will avoid getting into situations where I will have to (until I've done enough strengthening exercises and look like Gina Carano!)

Ms Carano is one mean non-mother! I expect she does the exercises all martial artists do, plus oodles of weight training at the gym. Start with a weight at the gym which you can easily raise and do 10 repetitions of that, do that three or four times. This warms up the muscle, so that you can break it down more effectively and force your body to replace muscle fibres with stronger muscle, which is fast twitch muscle, as opposed to endurance muscle, which ladies have more than men... which explains why women are naturally better at endurance exercises than they usually are (without training) at lifting heavy weights. Once the muscles you want strengthening are warmed up (arms for lifting bikes), increase the weight so that you can just about do 7 of that weight, doing the same exercise. Do that three or four times. Rest. Then increase the weight to the heaviest that you can do 5 of, and do that three or four times and rest. Then pile on more weight and lift as much as you can do 3 repetitions of. Rest a bit. Then lift the heaviest weight you can possibly lift and hold that weight at the most stressful high point of that lift. When you can't hold it any longer, put the weight down. Rest. Do that until you cannot lift that very heaviest weight. Then consume as much protein as you can for about a week (strengthen every week, if you are new to strength training), before you do all that again. Make Sensei Carano proud! And be very very careful, you can injure yourself very badly by following the above instructions, especially if you do it in a cold room. Best hire a personal trainer. You'll ache like mad. If you warm up properly, you won't get muscle strain. If you lift too heavy a weight too early, your muscles will spasm. A bit of pain is good for you ;)

p.s. You can kill yourself by doing the above if you have heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes or any of quite a long lost of other medical problems.
 
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