Injured knee- advice needed on best way to climb hills on Freego Hawk.

[hillwalkinggirl]

I badly injured my knee 3 months ago walking down a mountain, so my husband has bought me a Freego Hawk bike so that I can get out and about. Until the injury I was a fit mountain biker and walker even though I am in my late sixties. Can anyone please advise me the best way to climb hills on it? The Hawk has 3 power levels for pedal assist, a throttle control and 7 gears.
I can ride along the flat using pedal assist for a short distance, and then when the pain gets too bad I switch over to throttle. I would like to be able to get out of the village ( a steep hill ), but am unsure how to go about this.

1. What would be the best gear to use?
2. Should I have pedal assist activated when using the throttle?
3. If my knees are too painful is it OK to use throttle only?
4. Can I start up just using throttle if I have to stop on the hill?

Any other tips would also be appreciated. Normally I would just go out and try but I am feeling a bit anxious as I don't want to cause myself any more problems before the operation.

 

[hillwalkinggirl]

No one going to help me then?

 

[Eaglerider]

Hi Hillwalking Girl,

I'm sorry no one has replied, sometimes a thread can descend the listing quite quickly and is not seen by many.

I also ride a Freego, mine's an Eagle but I think they are very similar to your Hawk. I also have a dodgy knee resulting from an impact injury about 5 years ago. I guess it depends on the nature of your injury as to how is best to proceed. In my case, I can ride for hours on my EBike with very little discomfort. My problems seem to occur if I push really hard on the pedals, after only 10 minutes my Knee gets 'hot' and if I continue, it will swell up and get painful at which stage I cant ride at all for about a week to recover properly.

I think you have about the best bike for your needs as it allows you to be very lazy when you want, or do lots of work if you prefer.

For hill climbing, I find it best to select at least medium, or full assist, and use a lowish gear such that pedal cadence is relatively fast. My knee does'nt mind this too much. If I keep a high gear and push like hell, I get problems. Pedal speed is preferable to high pedal torque, but then it may be different for your injury.

There is another reason why a high pedal cadence is preferred. The motor on your bike will produce its maximum climbing power at around 10 to 12 mph. If you can maintain near that range with a fast pedal cadence, that will provide the most assistance up the hill. As speed drops down to below about 8 mph or less, the power drops off quite fast and you will be obliged to provide more work yourself.

There are crank drive bikes that will climb very steep hills, but they insist that you pedal all the time to get any assistance. I tried one, and was in pain within a half an hour, so there's no advantage there for you.

Throttle only will get you most places, requiring just a little help on the medium to steep hills, although battery usage will be high. Nonetheless, for me, with careful management of my knee problems, and living in a hilly area, my Freego has been fantastic, and is the only way i can contemplate any long distance riding, which was always my preference.

Hope this helps.

 

[Eaglerider]

Ooh! One more thing regarding point number 2.

Ideally, if you're using the pedelec function, the throttle button should be off, (button out). If you want to use the throttle, switch the pedelec function off by pressing the minus button until all three lights are extinguished. Then, press the red button and start using the throttle.

If you have the throttle enabled whilst in pedelec mode, it does seem to reduce power. I have also heard that with both pedelec and throttle being used at once can cause the controller to get confused and switch everything off. I've never had that happen myself, but that's how I operate, and I've had no problems. I've done approaching 1000 miles on it now.

As for starting on a hill with throttle only, this depends on the steepness. I rarely use the throttle from a standstill as it uses a lot of power, and can heat up the motor if you keep doing it. It is an electrically assisted bike, not a moped. 95% of my riding I do on medium or max assist all the time, and hardly use the throttle except when I've had a few, or just feeling like a free ride!

 

[flecc]

As above, a rapid cadence (pedalling rate) is much easier on the knees than slogging slowly in a high gear.

Using throttle only is ok when speed rises, but try to help the bike away from a standstill with pedalling since pulling away on motor only strains these hub motors and shortens their life.

 

[mike killay]

Hi Hillwalking Girl,





There are crank drive bikes that will climb very steep hills, but they insist that you pedal all the time to get any assistance. I tried one, and was in pain within a half an hour, so there's no advantage there for you.

Not the Tonaro which has a proper throttle which can be used at any time. In fact I have removed the pedelec from my bike. I get up 1 in 5 hills in bottom gear with the barest minimum of pedalling, I have not tried it but I suspect that it would crawl up without any pedalling.

 

[muckymits]

As above, a rapid cadence (pedalling rate) is much easier on the knees than slogging slowly in a high gear.

Using throttle only is ok when speed rises, but try to help the bike away from a standstill with pedalling since pulling away on motor only strains these hub motors and shortens their life.

And burns battery connection out I like the Powabike idea of throttle coming in at 3mph

 

[Eaglerider]

Not the Tonaro which has a proper throttle which can be used at any time. In fact I have removed the pedelec from my bike. I get up 1 in 5 hills in bottom gear with the barest minimum of pedalling, I have not tried it but I suspect that it would crawl up without any pedalling.

That's a good point. The Tonaro might well be the ultimate bike for dodgy knees.

 

[mike killay]

That's a good point. The Tonaro might well be the ultimate bike for dodgy knees.

That is my case, I have a sort of moving dodginess, sometimes the right knee, sometimes the left or the right hip.
Last night, the Tonaro brought me home from the pub up the fairly steep hill that I live on at a steady 5mph with no pedalling.

 

[hillwalkinggirl]

Hi Hillwalking Girl,

I'm sorry no one has replied, sometimes a thread can descend the listing quite quickly and is not seen by many.

I also ride a Freego, mine's an Eagle but I think they are very similar to your Hawk. I also have a dodgy knee resulting from an impact injury about 5 years ago. I guess it depends on the nature of your injury as to how is best to proceed. In my case, I can ride for hours on my EBike with very little discomfort. My problems seem to occur if I push really hard on the pedals, after only 10 minutes my Knee gets 'hot' and if I continue, it will swell up and get painful at which stage I cant ride at all for about a week to recover properly.

I think you have about the best bike for your needs as it allows you to be very lazy when you want, or do lots of work if you prefer.

For hill climbing, I find it best to select at least medium, or full assist, and use a lowish gear such that pedal cadence is relatively fast. My knee does'nt mind this too much. If I keep a high gear and push like hell, I get problems. Pedal speed is preferable to high pedal torque, but then it may be different for your injury.

There is another reason why a high pedal cadence is preferred. The motor on your bike will produce its maximum climbing power at around 10 to 12 mph. If you can maintain near that range with a fast pedal cadence, that will provide the most assistance up the hill. As speed drops down to below about 8 mph or less, the power drops off quite fast and you will be obliged to provide more work yourself.

There are crank drive bikes that will climb very steep hills, but they insist that you pedal all the time to get any assistance. I tried one, and was in pain within a half an hour, so there's no advantage there for you.

Throttle only will get you most places, requiring just a little help on the medium to steep hills, although battery usage will be high. Nonetheless, for me, with careful management of my knee problems, and living in a hilly area, my Freego has been fantastic, and is the only way i can contemplate any long distance riding, which was always my preference.

Hope this helps.

Ooh! One more thing regarding point number 2.

Ideally, if you're using the pedelec function, the throttle button should be off, (button out). If you want to use the throttle, switch the pedelec function off by pressing the minus button until all three lights are extinguished. Then, press the red button and start using the throttle.

If you have the throttle enabled whilst in pedelec mode, it does seem to reduce power. I have also heard that with both pedelec and throttle being used at once can cause the controller to get confused and switch everything off. I've never had that happen myself, but that's how I operate, and I've had no problems. I've done approaching 1000 miles on it now.

As for starting on a hill with throttle only, this depends on the steepness. I rarely use the throttle from a standstill as it uses a lot of power, and can heat up the motor if you keep doing it. It is an electrically assisted bike, not a moped. 95% of my riding I do on medium or max assist all the time, and hardly use the throttle except when I've had a few, or just feeling like a free ride!

Thank you so much Eaglerider for a very comprehensive answer. I will try out your suggestions tomorrow. I have been using the pedelec and the throttle at the same time and this afternoon I did come across the problem of a confused controller, as neither the pedelec or the throttle seemed to function straight away and I thought that the bike was malfunctioning. I started off again on just the throttle and everything seemed to work OK after that. I will try a low gear and full power tomorrow to attempt to get out of the village.

Will any type of speed / mileometer work on these bikes or does it need to be a specific one?

 

[hillwalkinggirl]

Thank you all for replying to my post.

 

[Eaglerider]

Reagarding speedometers and cycle computers. Initially I had a Halfords wireless jobby, it worked for a brief while but then seemed to go bonkers whenever the bike motor cuts in.

It fell off one day and got run over, so I bought a Halfords 'wired' unit that appears not to suffer any interferance that I experienced with the 'wireless' version.

 

[Hugh]

Flecc's right (as ever ) about cadence. It's far better to keep your legs spinning reasonably fast without putting too much load on them. Plugging away in a high gear may suit some Tour de France cyclists (think Jan Ullrich compared with Armstrong, with added drugs of course!) but it's really hard on the knees.

I speak from bitter experience, having had 4 arthroscopies on my righht knee over the last 20 years, plus a major accident that mashed up the same leg. I'm still cycling..........

Good luck.

Hugh

 

[hillwalkinggirl]

Thank you for the reply. I was considering buying a wireless one but I've read a few other comments about them going crazy when the motor cuts in, so I think it will probably be a wired one.

 

[hillwalkinggirl]

Thank you Hugh. I'm glad to hear you're still cycling. I'm waiting for an arthroscopy on my leg for a torn medial meniscus and torn medial collateral ligament, and must admit I'm feeling a bit nervous about it, in case it doesn't improve things. You've given me a bit of hope now.

Flecc's right (as ever ) about cadence. It's far better to keep your legs spinning reasonably fast without putting too much load on them. Plugging away in a high gear may suit some Tour de France cyclists (think Jan Ullrich compared with Armstrong, with added drugs of course!) but it's really hard on the knees.

I speak from bitter experience, having had 4 arthroscopies on my righht knee over the last 20 years, plus a major accident that mashed up the same leg. I'm still cycling..........

Good luck.

Hugh

 

[steve.c]

Hi Hillwalkinggirl. I agree with Eaglerider in all of his well put points ( and I also have a Freego Eagle) in saying that a higher cadance is better for most people and also that there's no load on your knees (not like running) which is ideal for you and like you I suffer from my knees and the tendons in my hips are shredding,down to running up to 130 miles a week ) but the way I get up the hill is to stand on the pedals in about 5th or 6th gear and push ?? I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but it works for me. Also I rarely use the throttle and like Eaglerider if you push the throttle button in and pedal the power is down by about 40% so don't use both together.
Hope it all works out for you and in the Freego Hawk you have a great bike so keep trying. Regards Steve.

 

[hillwalkinggirl]

Thank you Steve for your comments. Probably not a good idea though for me to stand on the pedals though as consultant and physio told me not to walk uphill or downhill as it would put pressure on my knee and hip. I presume they wouldn't think much of the idea of me powering uphill standing on the pedals. It's just so frustrating - it would be lovely to be able to cycle properly again.

 

[gray198]

Hillwalkinggirl,
I too have got a Freego Eagle. I see that Eaglerider and others have given you good advice regarding your initial question. On the question of speedo, I bought one from Aldi for £4.99. Works perfectly and has 3year gaurantee so well worth a look if you have an Aldi nearby. They were on sale 2 weeks ago

regards gray