Despite the threat of heavy showers and blustery winds, I joined this group of nine riders for a tour of various eco-thingy sites in Swindon. Rather than bore you with a load of enviro fluff, I will explain the reasoning behind my choice of machine, and how that choice panned out on the ride. No photos, I didn't bother to take a camera.
Hub-motored machines like to accelerate straight up to their assistance ramp-down, generally around fifteen mph. When riding in the company of un-powered bikes, this means constantly using the brake switches to stop those unwanted surges of assistance. With this in mind, I decided to ride my Panasonic powered Kalkhoff Sahel. This choice proved correct during the ride.
The ride leader was a really nice guy, but unfortunately his knowledge of Swindon's network of safe cycling routes wasn't so good, meaning the group often came to a very quick halt. With the exception of my own machine which has the Alfine 8 speed geared hub, all the other machines had derailleur gears, I'm sure you can imagine there was a lot of gear-crunching going on when they tried to re-start in top gear. No such problems for myself, as the Alfine can change gear whilst stationary.
From the experiences gained on this group ride, I would say a crank-drive/hub-geared machine is possibly the best configuration when in the company of un-powered bikes.
A golden opportunity to demonstrate the hill-climbing ability of an E-bike presented itself half-way through the ride. When the lead rider hollered over his shoulder "you need to get into a low gear, there's a steep hill just round the corner". This is one of my regular routes, I was already in 3rd gear and prepared for the 1:5 path climbing up to the ridge. All but one of the other riders were caught out by the sudden upslope. This was my chance to demonstrate the Panasonics effortless hill-climbing ability. With my ears filled with the sound of chains crashing across cog-sets, I carefully weaved my way through the struggling group, finally passing the lead rider half-way up the incline, with one hand in my pocket.
Surprisingly, no mention was made of 'cheating', In fact my performance was rewarded with good-natured cheers and "go for it Bob", "look at him going up that hill" and " he's just cruising up it". I think It's safe to say they were mightily impressed. Furthermore, there are now nine people in Swindon who now realise that a sixty-nine year-old can easily keep up with riders in their 30's and 40's with a little electric assistance. Needless to say, as my electric bike was so well received, I will occasionally join the Sunday social bike rides organised by this group, and in doing so, further promote the use of electrically assisted bikes.
All the best
Bob
