ok, just been thought the stats on my Garmin, and here are the results.
Bike used was a 2014 KTM Macina Action mountain bike - 29er with Bosch Active drive. It had standard mountain bike tyres.
Conditions were similar to the previous day when I'd ridden a standard road race bike home.
Homeward bound.
Normal Bike: 55.13 minutes. Average Speed of 17.3mph and average heart rate of 152
looks like I had a bit more of a headwind when I rode home on Sunday, because last night with the eBike I did.
45.25 minutes. Average Speed of 20.8mph, but I had to work harder for it, average heart rate was 163
For the ride into work.
Normal bike takes 1 hour 13 minutes. average speed of 12.5mph average heart rate of 156
eBike took 1 hour exactly, average speed of 14.9 mph with an average heart rate of 158
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so basically it knocks 10 minutes off each way, using a similar amount of energy. I went pretty hard, keeping my heart rate at about the level I'd normally commute to see the effect.
its was only a bit quicker on the climbs... 2 minutes on a 13 minute climb. Because I normally go pretty hard on the climbs. So it looks like most of the time was made up on the slow speed sections where I'm accelerating away from lights etc etc.
Personally its made me realise there is little point in road legal e Road Bikes, ie 700c wheels with drop handlebars and skinny tyres. They simple roll to fast that I'd be over the speed for support for so much of the time that it wouldn't be worth having.
Having a mountain bike means the riding is more comfortable and more fun and actually a bit safer in traffic. I'm sure if my commute was more stoppy starty, there would be even more advantages.
But I was impressed, I've saved essentially 20 minutes off my commute per day, using the same amount of energy. So if I used this bike every day, that would give me 1 hour 40 extra per week of my life at home to do something better then commuting.
Or equally I could ease off a bit on the effort I put in, so the ride takes the same amount of time, but I'll be using loads less effort which will mean I'm fresher in the evenings or weekends to go on actual rides.
For a quick estimate how much faster on e-bike, this is my calculation:
distance: 15.9 miles (25.59km), elevation: 1165ft (355.1m), total energy required on a crank drive at optimal gear selection: 25.59*6.3 + 355.1*0.465=326.32WH
These are WH at battery (burn) level, transfer yield at 0.8 is built in.
A good cyclist burns 132W, your cycling ability is much higher than this, at nearly double a good cyclist, so I leave your case for later, I just calculate with normal cyclist profile, the Bosch motor burns 511W, on a derestricted Bosch bike, in ideal conditions (no stoppage), your combined power is 643W, it would take you just 30 minutes to complete the journey.
Without GPS information, assuming 10% average gradient on the hills, 3.5km and 22 km flat roads, the climb will take 15 minutes.
On a restricted bike, the flat section takes 52 minutes at 25km/h. On an unrestricted bike, you can do the same flat section in half the time, 30 minutes.
You should be home in 1 hour 7 minutes with a legal bike, 45 minutes with a derestricted Bosch bike.
With a derestricted 8-Fun BPM and a throttle, you can get home in about 45 minutes without pedalling.
In view that most commutes are within 30 minutes and most of it is flat anyway, good cyclists won't benefit from motorisation unless the bike is derestricted.
The main benefit is to arrive fresh, pink and not hot.