Hi.
Andy here.
Just ordered my first e-bike - a 2019 CUBE Touring Hybrid One 500.
After a couple of months' research and humming and hawing I settled on this as it's got the quiet (and zero resist) 3rd gen Activeline Plus motor, a 500W battery and comes with stuff like mudguards, rack and lights already on board. It also looks well built and I like the semi-integrated look of the battery and the bike's lines.
I got it for £1570 from an actual B&M bike shop on a Black Friday deal (though it won't actually be in stock for a few weeks). I could have got it £50 cheaper from Bikester, but I'm no bike techie and prefer being able to drive to the actual bikeshop that sold me it both to pick it up and to take it back if anything goes seriously wrong.
My bike use isn't very hard-core. I won't be commuting with it (I live 5 minutes from a train station and the cycle commuting would be a death trap) and I don't like cycling on busy roads at all.
I in my early fifties and live 400 yards off the TransPennine Cycle Route (near Stockport) and for 20 odd years have used an old 1993 Marin Muirwoods MTB that I inherited from a friend I used to own a house with (he emigrated to Oz and left me the bike). It's an old steel thing (18kg) but basically bombproof. I haven't ever had a puncture on it and wouldn't have a clue what to do if I did. It needed a new chain about a year ago and otherwise is exactly as I inherited it.
My family (despite my having bought bikes for them all) don't really like cycling.
I have a 15km circuit I have done hundreds of times for fitness and have discoved perhaps a dozen other 'routes' from my house over the years - all of which are basically on cyclepaths, river and canal banks, through parks or on very quiet roads. These range from the basic circuit - which takes about 45mins usually and is almost all on the flat - to ones ranging up into the high peak (Glossop etc.) or down the Chesire plains as far as Lymm and back about 70km).
I do the longer ones on weekends - often on Sunday mornings when everyone else in the house (including the three dogs) is in bed drowsing.
This year (and last to a lesser extent) my health and fitness hasn't been as good as usual and I've also put on far too much weight (I'm over 15st which is about 2st more than usual), so I'm struggling more than I usually do on the rides.
After my next door neighboor dropped dead on his MTB in Snowdonia about 5 years ago I have been very strict on not hitting Heart Rate Max on rides - I have a good bluetooth HR monitor, link it to Strava and if my heart rate gets above about 160-165 just ease off until it falls back (my HRM is about 175 under normal circumstances). With less fitness and added weight this year this has meant that any longish hill is a bit tortuous - I can get up most of them keeping the HR under 165 but really slowly and the longer rides up into the High Peak become real no-no's and have dropped off my routes. It also makes any significant elevations stressful and not fun to ride.
However the ride that convince me a wanted an e-bike was one on a very hot Summer Sunday earlier this year - and was my favourite 'escape from it all' ride down to Lymm and back. This follows the River Mersey until the Bridgewater Canal and then proceeds canalside then down a country lane onto a cycle path all the way down to Lymm. Where I rest up for an hour and come back. I have done it many times before and it's almost all flat and about 70km. And beautiful waterside cycling on goodish tracks for the most part.
But that day I had underestimated the heat. When I set off it was nice but by the time I got to Lymm it had already been a hard slog, it was scorching and I was basically 'blown'.
I rested up, gobbled some water and ice cream and set off back, but at the first gentle turn of the pedals my HRM said I was hitting HR Max
With no trains to help for more than 2 hours I instead tortuously ground my way back along the route all the way back home at a snail's pace through the heat of the day and arrived home feeling that has been torture rather than fun. And I kept thinking - an ebike would have avoided this...so here I am.
So the purpose of the e-bike is to assist me up relaltively small elevations, allow me to enjoy routes I have already found but have been avoiding this year and to explore new routes and roam further afield. If I could convince any of my family members to us the ebike to cycle short routes with me so much the better, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
My only thoughts on upgrading the bike at this point are to perhaps swap the tyres out for Marathon Pluses (I really don't want a puncture) and to look at a compatible water bottle and on bike security systems.
What I suppose I like to know is what the realistic range is going to be and whether I'll be able to pedal it unassisted on flat tarmac cycle tracks and so extend the range by just using assistance on the off road type tracks and for uphills.
I know it's 5kg heavier than the Marin, but it's going to have bigger wheels and probably significantly less rolling resistance (as well as effectively wider gearing to choose from as it has 9 gears and I only ever use the Marin's middle seven.
Also recommendations on bike insurance would be handy.
Anyway I'll post updates as and when I get the bike and what it's like in real world use...
Andy here.
Just ordered my first e-bike - a 2019 CUBE Touring Hybrid One 500.
After a couple of months' research and humming and hawing I settled on this as it's got the quiet (and zero resist) 3rd gen Activeline Plus motor, a 500W battery and comes with stuff like mudguards, rack and lights already on board. It also looks well built and I like the semi-integrated look of the battery and the bike's lines.
I got it for £1570 from an actual B&M bike shop on a Black Friday deal (though it won't actually be in stock for a few weeks). I could have got it £50 cheaper from Bikester, but I'm no bike techie and prefer being able to drive to the actual bikeshop that sold me it both to pick it up and to take it back if anything goes seriously wrong.
My bike use isn't very hard-core. I won't be commuting with it (I live 5 minutes from a train station and the cycle commuting would be a death trap) and I don't like cycling on busy roads at all.
I in my early fifties and live 400 yards off the TransPennine Cycle Route (near Stockport) and for 20 odd years have used an old 1993 Marin Muirwoods MTB that I inherited from a friend I used to own a house with (he emigrated to Oz and left me the bike). It's an old steel thing (18kg) but basically bombproof. I haven't ever had a puncture on it and wouldn't have a clue what to do if I did. It needed a new chain about a year ago and otherwise is exactly as I inherited it.
My family (despite my having bought bikes for them all) don't really like cycling.
I have a 15km circuit I have done hundreds of times for fitness and have discoved perhaps a dozen other 'routes' from my house over the years - all of which are basically on cyclepaths, river and canal banks, through parks or on very quiet roads. These range from the basic circuit - which takes about 45mins usually and is almost all on the flat - to ones ranging up into the high peak (Glossop etc.) or down the Chesire plains as far as Lymm and back about 70km).
I do the longer ones on weekends - often on Sunday mornings when everyone else in the house (including the three dogs) is in bed drowsing.
This year (and last to a lesser extent) my health and fitness hasn't been as good as usual and I've also put on far too much weight (I'm over 15st which is about 2st more than usual), so I'm struggling more than I usually do on the rides.
After my next door neighboor dropped dead on his MTB in Snowdonia about 5 years ago I have been very strict on not hitting Heart Rate Max on rides - I have a good bluetooth HR monitor, link it to Strava and if my heart rate gets above about 160-165 just ease off until it falls back (my HRM is about 175 under normal circumstances). With less fitness and added weight this year this has meant that any longish hill is a bit tortuous - I can get up most of them keeping the HR under 165 but really slowly and the longer rides up into the High Peak become real no-no's and have dropped off my routes. It also makes any significant elevations stressful and not fun to ride.
However the ride that convince me a wanted an e-bike was one on a very hot Summer Sunday earlier this year - and was my favourite 'escape from it all' ride down to Lymm and back. This follows the River Mersey until the Bridgewater Canal and then proceeds canalside then down a country lane onto a cycle path all the way down to Lymm. Where I rest up for an hour and come back. I have done it many times before and it's almost all flat and about 70km. And beautiful waterside cycling on goodish tracks for the most part.
But that day I had underestimated the heat. When I set off it was nice but by the time I got to Lymm it had already been a hard slog, it was scorching and I was basically 'blown'.
I rested up, gobbled some water and ice cream and set off back, but at the first gentle turn of the pedals my HRM said I was hitting HR Max
With no trains to help for more than 2 hours I instead tortuously ground my way back along the route all the way back home at a snail's pace through the heat of the day and arrived home feeling that has been torture rather than fun. And I kept thinking - an ebike would have avoided this...so here I am.
So the purpose of the e-bike is to assist me up relaltively small elevations, allow me to enjoy routes I have already found but have been avoiding this year and to explore new routes and roam further afield. If I could convince any of my family members to us the ebike to cycle short routes with me so much the better, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
My only thoughts on upgrading the bike at this point are to perhaps swap the tyres out for Marathon Pluses (I really don't want a puncture) and to look at a compatible water bottle and on bike security systems.
What I suppose I like to know is what the realistic range is going to be and whether I'll be able to pedal it unassisted on flat tarmac cycle tracks and so extend the range by just using assistance on the off road type tracks and for uphills.
I know it's 5kg heavier than the Marin, but it's going to have bigger wheels and probably significantly less rolling resistance (as well as effectively wider gearing to choose from as it has 9 gears and I only ever use the Marin's middle seven.
Also recommendations on bike insurance would be handy.
Anyway I'll post updates as and when I get the bike and what it's like in real world use...
