Enrique Povo

I am very happy I decided to buy an e-bike. I get all the exercise I need, I don't waste time (because it takes me only 10 mins more than my commute on my car) and I have incorporated it into my routine. It's much more fun than going to the gym, and possibly cheaper! I don't know what it will be like in the winter, but for the moment it's working for me, weight loss or no.

Yes, I agree that exercising is not a great way to lose weight on its own. The other day I saw this documentary on TV about a woman who only ate a couple of (not very large) bags of crisps each day for years. Although she of course had a lot of health problems, in energy terms she was doing ok. That's how effective the body is in extracting energy from food. Just 40g of nuts pack more energy than a typical e-bike battery! And the body extracts 99% of it.

Thanks very much for the advice. I will get a mirror right away!

You're right, it's not. More joules are sent to the motor than are actually put out in a useful form. That's the efficiency of the electric motor, which is around 80%. But the same is true of your body. You spend more energy than you actually can deliver to the pedals (you breath, you generate heat...). If the efficiency of the body is about the same, then it makes no difference. Of course the body does a lot of other stuff, but the energy consumption of all that other stuff is the same as if you sit on your couch watching TV. Is the body's efficiency 80% or thereabout for pedalling? I don't really know, but the body is a pretty fined-tuned machine, so I'm guessing it must be at least that, if not higher. So the error may be around 10 or 15%, which I think it's pretty good.

I don't know if this topic has already been discussed. In most of the literature, the calories burnt during any exercise are approximate figures: riding, swimming, walking... They tell you it depends on the speed, weight of the person and many other factors. However, we e-bike riders can do much better than that. We have a precise monitoring system that is always watching how much power you provide, which is something that is not normally available with any other sport. You only have to know what is the average assist rate of your bike. If the motor is on during all of the trip, and the assist rate is, let's say 1:1, then when you exhaust your battery you will know that half the energy was provided by it, and the other half by yourself. We do not have to worry about the efficiency of both machines (you and your motor), because they are very similar. So when you have exhausted, say, a 36v 9Ah battery, that means you have spent around 1 million joules, which is 279kcal. That translates into 30g of fat burned. Of course if you sweat you will lose much more, but that's just a question of liquid balance (there's no energy in sweat) and you regain all the liquid lost within a day. Also, forget what people say about the fact that brisk exercise only burns glucose in the blood. Of course it does, but the level of glucose has to be restored (otherwise you die). And the body does that by burning fat in you tissue. So there you have it. In my case it's 30g a day. It may not seem much. You can more than offset that with two pints of beer. But I think it's great. You will actually burn a bit more yet. The muscles on your legs will have to become bigger, and bigger muscles burn more fat even in your sleep, just to stay alive.

Hello, I am 52, overweight, and haven't done exercise or ridden a bicycle in 20 years. But I do need to lose weight and I have decided it would be a good idea to commute 6.2 miles to work. I tried a normal bicycle, but it was too much. I couldn't make it. So I bought an Urban Mover 36SX and I've just started successfully. I love the e-bike concept. However, I am sorry to say that I can't recommend Urban Mover. The bike came with mounting instructions for another model (probably they have just one booklet for all models), so after some puzzling I through away the instructions and figured it out for myself. To my dismay, the adjustable handlebar can't be adjusted (some defect with the nuts). I found the battery-level indicator to be completely useless, as it bounces from empty to 3/4 full when I climb to the top of a small hill. The drag when battery is disconnected is also quite significant. Finally, there is nothing gentle or subtle about the pedal assist controller, and you often notice jerks while pedalling steadily on a flat road. I can't compare with other manufacturers, but I can't believe this is the best you can get for 1000 quid.