"Hybrid" versus performance focussed bikes.

Hey Guys,

I have been known for high power bikes. However, my very first E-bike was a human/electric hybrid in the truest sense. That bike is light weight, smooth, and was equally good as a bicycle or E-bike. Since then my E-bikes (and there have been many) have become more and more performance focussed. These performance bikes are alot of fun to ride and to build. It is cool seeing mow much performance can be attained from a given package. I still love performance (and I have another high performance bike in the planning and parts compiling stage right now). However, I am coming around to my roots and loving the two bikes I own that are true hybrids. These bikes are great because exercise can be had while adjusting your speed and/or your level of exercise as you wish. I love being able to sustain a 130 or 140bpm heart rate at 15mph, 20mph, or 25mph all depending on how much throttle I choose to input into the system. I can, also, stop pedalling completely a mile or so before the end of my ride to dry off before entering my destination.

How about you guys? What is your favorite type of bike and why? Do you like performance and rarely ever pedal, or do you prefer a blended system that is equally good as a pedal bike?

Matt

I really like to blast around with my performance Enduro MTB, but there is not much exercise.

So when it comes to commuting or sunday biketours with my girl, I love my current-control 30 lbs commuter. The range is 60-120km on a 460Wh battery. The speed is between 30-38km/h depending on how much exercise I want.
This bike feels like a normal bike with reduced drag, so i can go 80km and it feels like 30km on a bike without assist.
Very nice to cruise around the hole city on sunday and for racing home after a hard day at work.

As an Ebiker and frequent human powered biker, I Love the idea of seamless integration between human and electric power. I have yet to really experience it in the real world though. My builds are all heavy DD hubs and will never really feel like normal bikes with the extra wheel weight. Not to criticize the offerings of the industry since I haven't found the time to implement torque sensing bottom brackets. I did ride a 500watt torque sensing factory ebike from Giant and found the pedal assist to be a little distracting. I was always thinking about what I wanted the motor to do almost like the throttle was just switched to my feet instead of my hands.

Based on my narrow experience (no bottom bracket mid-drive) I like to keep my ebiking separate from my regular biking. The only thing I use the pedals for is precision riding at low speed where the motor would be tricky.

So far, all of my builds have been targeted as work commuters. I break into a sweat easily, even if just casually pedaling. In addition, I don't want to bring an extra set of clothes for changing and showering, as I would have to go to another building to do all that. It's also an all off-road commute with a 32% climb out of a canyon. With those parameters, my build has to be either really high powered and/or have really low gearing. So it's a purpose built e-bike. On weekend''s I like to take my pedal only MTB out on the trails. I like tight technical single track with challenging climbs so it's got to be light and nimble. Plus my fellow riders don't have motors.

I have always leaned toward hybrid E-Bikes, I just cannot always count on my "human" motor 100%, so I like a good solid performance E-Bike that gives me the option to pedal along.

That also is given that I tend to stay in the < 20mph range, so lots of torque from a stop to pass cars while I am in the bike lane is fun, but I don't generally need more than 25 mph, and usually average closer to 15.

I plan on making a lightweight mid-drive ala BBS02 or Lightning Rods after I finish my recumbent, to have something to put on a bike rack and take my dad out on shorter (less than 10 miles) rides in scenic areas like the Columbia Rive Gorge where they have rebuilt some of the historic highway into a bike path.

I would still prefer to ride my recumbent however, so maybe I will just end up packing that into the back of the Saturn Vue, and put my father's lighter E-Bike on the back rack.

Either way, I don't always prefer a high torque heavy E-Bike for cargo, I also like a lightweight, but it's been a while since I built something along those lines, love to do it again tho!