more power needed

[Ian]

I'd guess it to be about 20% from the photos, but it looks very long and would be a severe challenge to most e-bikes.

 

[flecc]

That's my judgement too, 20%, possibly 22%, a gradient which I regularly climb with my Q bike on a 50" gear, unless the battery is low when the 35" bottom gear is necessary. Of production e-bikes, only a few of the more powerful could manage it with an average rider.
.

 

[frank9755]

That is a steep hill! Electric bikes are not that great at really steep hills. Ironically, you might have a better chance of getting up it with a non-electric bike with low gearing.

 

[Footie]

Your hill is about the same as the one I have to conquer every time I take a trip to Tesco's (none flat Cornwall). I have a 36v, hub drive, look-alike mountain bike and I have to pedal hard all the way. I am nearly always starting to fail as I reach the summit (Edmond Hillary eat your heart out) and I power for the next 100 yards while I get my breath back then start peddling again
I can nearly always feel my knees hurting when I get off at Tesco's.
However, I know from past trials - when I did it with an ordinary mountain bike (incedently, that nearly killed me and shot my knees for two weeks) - it's a lot easier with an electric one and my ebike is the only bike ever there
.

 

[coops]

From the steepness its clear why you might struggle up that hill a415, but the weight of the bike you have @ close to 40kg, in addition to any extra weight you may be carrying (sorry, not intended to cause offence, but its an important factor ) are against you as more weight requires proportionally more power uphill. Also any factor which reduces the pedalling contribution you can make e.g. inadequate low gears or resistance which makes it hard work pedalling, also makes it harder to climb hills (I'd be interested to hear how easy/hard you find pedalling with or without power on that bike, compared to a normal bike ).

How well do you find you & the bike can climb lesser hills? Also, is there an alternative route you can take to skirt round constitution hill which avoid that steep slope? If there is, and even if its a longer route, if there's less climb involved you'll probably find you can get more range from the battery due to lower power consumption .

Stuart.

 

[Jeremy]

After a bit of digging about I managed to find it on the OS map.

The very top of the street is 86m AMSL, the very bottom is 21m AMSL and the length of the hill from top to bottom is 375m.

That makes the gradient 17.3%, so certainly a very steep hill!

Jeremy

 

[Ian]

A technique that can be used with non-pedelec bikes is to "walk" the bike up the hill while applying power, it is actually easier than walking without the bike and certainly easier than pushing a conventional cycle up such a hill.

It is important to remember that electric bicycles are not intended to be motorcycles, they are simply bicycles that give the rider a limited amount of assistance and as such do have limits.

 

[flecc]

Here's the link to the thread on hill measurement the simple low cost way.
.

 

[keithhazel]

A technique that can be used with non-pedelec bikes is to "walk" the bike up the hill while applying power, it is actually easier than walking without the bike and certainly easier than pushing a conventional cycle up such a hill.

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another technique that can be used is to knock on the scout hut and give a young man 2 bob for shoving your bike up the hill...

 

[Ian]

another technique that can be used is to knock on the scout hut and give a young man 2 bob for shoving your bike up the hill...

Even better Keith, I like it. But is 2 bob still 10p or has inflation taken its toll.

 

[keithhazel]

i think with trade descritions act and all..if they say "bob a job" then who am i to argue...