Commuting bike for 50 mile round trip

Deus · May 1, 2015

Hi Andy,
A 50 mile round trip in my opinion is too far for a daily commute for an e-bike i dont know your fitness level but you will soon get fed up of that kind of mileage every day,you will also have to charge your battery at work for the return journey just to be sure, maybe you should consider a 50cc moped ?

jonathan75 · May 1, 2015

It's going to take 2hrs each way. 1hr 40 plus prep and having to slow down for stuff, go to the loo etc. 4hrs a day is a more than many people spend with their wives, children, or, often, concentrating at their jobs. After a full time job that'll give you time only to wolf something down and go to sleep (bad for weight gain and reflux/sleep quality...) I'm also not sure it's safe to twice daily rush mega miles on the roads in all weathers.

4bound · May 1, 2015

jonathan75 said:
It's going to take 2hrs each way. 1hr 40 plus prep and having to slow down for stuff, go to the loo etc. 4hrs a day is a more than many people spend with their wives, children, or, often, concentrating at their jobs. After a full time job that'll give you time only to wolf something down and go to sleep (bad for weight gain and reflux/sleep quality...) I'm also not sure it's safe to twice daily rush mega miles on the roads in all weathers.

Of course there are lots of people who spend 2hrs each way sitting on a bus or train getting no exercise and then when they get home wondering how to find time to get some exercise! I know when I was cycle commuting I had far more energy than when I was using the car.

I think your ambition is very worthy and to be encouraged. However I also think that if you do this amount of cycling you will either be fit already, or you will get fit before long! This will mean that cycling at 15mph on the flat becomes easily achievable and so you will find that a legal e-bike cuts out of assistance and doesn't help much - less than carrying the extra weight of battery and motor. I know that is what I found when I tried an ebike on a 25 mile round trip on flatish roads. Of course it will make a difference depending on how hilly your route is. I think therefore you need to be looking at s-pedelecs which will assist you above this speed. There are many and I only have experience of one, which is Kalkhoff. These are wonderful bikes, but there are cheaper ones! http://www.50cycles.com/electric-bikes/speed.html . They also have high capacity batteries so you could do the 50 mile without a recharge depending on what power setting you use along the way. I have done 75miles on a charge keeping to the "economy" setting.

S-pedelecs are legal in some European countries, but not in the UK at present. There are also other ways to remove the 15mph limit on other bikes using a dongle, but none of these are legal either.

Nealh · May 1, 2015

My brother used to cycle regularly 20 miles to work on Kalkhoff S -ped, but now has got a putt-putt, I think he now only cycles to work a couple of times a week. To cycle that distance daily you need to be a dedicated fit cyclist, 50 miles is for a leisurely ride out on a niceish day and will be become a chore daily on a an ebike, a new battery of 15ah + will do the job on a slick road type bike with road tyres but eventually in time you will need to charge it at work and use it in a more sparingly mode to preserve power as at the end of a days work you will not want to peddle unassisted.

JohnCade · May 1, 2015

I think your ambition is very worthy and to be encouraged. However I also think that if you do this amount of cycling you will either be fit already, or you will get fit before long! This will mean that cycling at 15mph on the flat becomes easily achievable and so you will find that a legal e-bike cuts out of assistance and doesn't help much

Normal Kalkhoffs which are legal continue assist until a little over 17 mph using the ten percent tolerance in the regs. I find I can pedal past that on the flat quite easily when the bike is up and rolling anyway.

For a long distance commute IMO a Kalkhoff is hard to beat. They may not be the most sporty looking but they are reliable, tough, and will keep going in all weathers. They are also very relaxing to ride and the long wheelbase helps there. Belt drive hub gears ones are as close to maintenance free as any bike is going to be too. You might want to think about mixing the run with the car though and not planning to ride every day.

BTW with the 17ah battery you would’t need to charge at work. I can get 46-48 miles in very hilly terrain on mine in max assist and using it hard.

selrahc1992 · May 1, 2015

asc99c said:
Hi all!

I'm looking to start cycling to work this summer, primarily for fitness but it'll also be nice to save the daily £5 fuel cost. It's a 25 mile each way journey, and although I did manage a 27 mile trail ride last summer it took me nearly 3 hours on my old mountain bike!

So I'm looking for something reliable and reasonably fast. I've already got a mountain bike so this one would be a dedicated road bike. I like the look of the KTM Macina range but they're all fairly heavy. I also like the look of the Cytronex bikes, but I suspect there's not enough battery given my weight and mileage, plus I'd prefer a crank drive (bearing in mind I've never actually ridden either type!)

I'm new to the Pedelec world so thought I'd ask for suggestions. One category of bike I've seen very little of is drop handled road bikes. Cytronex can equip a SuperSix but they don't advertise the price, which probably means it's more than I'd want to spend hopefully under £2000.

Thanks

Andy

a lot depends on the kind of roads involved. i have a 12 mile commute - 38 minutes by fast pedelec (and faster than a car) - but i dont do it because its a dangerous road with fast cars without a shoulder and (t o a lesser extent) the crap british weather. if tehre were a cycle path i'd do it all teh time. how long does it take by car and is it safe would be two key questions for me. after that i'd either fit a good kit (ive got an oxydrive) to a really good mountain bike with relaxed geometry and fast tyres, or get soomething liek a kalkhof as johncade suggests (anything cheaper and i fear you'll be fixing it weekly)

JohnCade · May 1, 2015

asc99c said:
Just looking on Strava it's actually 21 miles by bike (by car I head round the motorway). My mate is apparently down to 1:15 with his TT which is averaging 17.6 mph, so I take the point about the speed limits on a standard ebike being a problem.

My hope is to get to a point where I can do the journey unassisted, which is part of the reason I like the Cytronex kit.

I'm not getting rid of my car so I'm not necessarily looking to cycle every day. I've been trying to get to the gym 3 days a week and was initially looking at replacing the hour there with the bike.

As I said my Kalkhoff assists up to 17.3 mph and cuts out imperceptibly. On flats and downhills it goes faster and on rises it slows into the assist range and at 17 mph boosts me along again. So holding that speed is easy unless the road is steep uphill.

in practise the much higher acceleration to your cruising speed and higher uphill speed will increase the average quite a lot when using an e bike. Even one which cuts out at 15.5 mph. But the almost two miles per hour extra over most standard cut outs with the Kalkhoff makes a big difference too. Even if it doesn’t sound like much. Many bikes cut out very abruptly like riding into water BTW and that can be tiring.

You don’t say what sort of terrain your route is.

SteveRuss · May 1, 2015

JohnCade said:
Normal Kalkhoffs which are legal continue assist until a little over 17 mph using the ten percent tolerance in the regs. I find I can pedal past that on the flat quite easily when the bike is up and rolling anyway.

For a long distance commute IMO a Kalkhoff is hard to beat. They may not be the most sporty looking but they are reliable, tough, and will keep going in all weathers. They are also very relaxing to ride and the long wheelbase helps there. Belt drive hub gears ones are as close to maintenance free as any bike is going to be too. You might want to think about mixing the run with the car though and not planning to ride every day.

BTW with the 17ah battery you would’t need to charge at work. I can get 46-48 miles in very hilly terrain on mine in max assist and using it hard.

This is pretty much my experience as well.

My Kalkhoff Pro Connect Alfine 8G is a fine machine with currently one of the best ranges for a Pedalec. Just come down from £2099 to £1890 or there abouts. I have a £100 code for family and friends as well.

As far as the ride distance is concerned, it's more the thought of being out in the rain an hour and a half and what that may do to your mental health

I try and ride about 35miles a day on mine (usually for leisure) but not when it's raining generally. Be good for you though and if it doesn't work out you'll have a great weekend touring machine.

Ride as many as you can.

D8ve · May 2, 2015

And from left field. Here I come with a recumbent fitted with an electric kit could cruse at 20 on flat 15 uphill and fast down hill?
It's a mile eating option.
Note I was able to do 25kph ave on a manual recumbent. If it had a kit fitted then I think 20 mph average would have been easily achievable.

Dave

mfj197 · May 3, 2015

Have you thought about a conversion? I'm doing an identical distance commute on my crank drive conversion of a flat bar road bike. Have done it every day bar one for the last three weeks since I finished it and it's been great fun - clocked up over 600 Mike's so far. Takes a smidgeon over an hour and I do need to charge at work - if I'd made a larger battery I wouldn't need to but I am happy doing so.

The distance is perfectly possible by ebike, although not great if it has a hard 15mph cutoff as it just takes too long (1 hour 30 when I tried it). I occasionally did the whole distance on my old road bike and the fastest I did the journey in was 1 hour 15, but I could only do that journey once a week because I was completely knackered. With my ebike I still get good exercise but can do it day in day out, so our one car stays at home with my wife and kids.

Michael

mfj197 · May 4, 2015

I bought a bike to do the conversion. I was seriously considering a KTM or Haibike but then realised I could build what is a better bike for my use (lighter, faster and more powerful) for much less money. The purchase price of the KTM was £2k and the proprietary nature of the Bosch system meant that other costs like spare batteries were also sky high.

Also maintainability is important at these sorts of mileages and here the conversion wins again: the Bafang crank drive motor is fully maintainable oneself whereas the Bosch motor has to be sent back for maintenance, and having a good standard bike means that even if a drive fails completely I can just put another one of a different type on, even changing to hub drive if I wish. Plus - what might have been the decider - I thought I'd have a ball doing it (I was right!).

This last point is probably the most important. If you are a person who has an engineering bent and likes this sort of thing then it's a lot of fun, but if you're not then it could be a chore. I thoroughly enjoyed working on a brand new bike, like playing with Lego where everything works and isn't siezed through years of misuse!

Michael

Commuting bike for 50 mile round trip

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