Do you ride your ebike w/o assist for aerobics?

Before I got into ebikes, I rode an acoustic bike for exercise. Now that I have 2 ebikes, I seldom ride the acoustic bike anymore (16 lb Specialized Carbon Fiber) and can feel the decline.

48V factory Arrow 9, 500W rear hub PAS, 26", 6 spd, 75 lbs
48V Raleigh M80, 500W TSDZ2 mid motor, 26", 8 spd, 41 lbs

The 75 lb PAS Arrow 9 is heavy, gearing is inefficient for pedaling (not fun to pedal) so I use throttle only. The 41 lb Raleigh mid motor was 28 lbs before conversion. I rode it about 5 miles last week with power turned off and surprisingly it was easy to ride and handled just like it was pre conversion.

Couple of days ago, I tried a new way of riding the Raleigh w/o motor assist. I have a brake cutout magnetic switch on one of the brake levers to protect the motor from fighting the brakes before coming to a complete stop. By pulling the lever 1/8", motor is cut off (w/o engaging the brakes, which occurs at 1.25") so I can pedal on 100% of my own effort and get exercise (or conserve battery). If coming onto a hill and don't want to slog up it, I let off the lever and get instant assist. I'll have to see how much I'll be using this new method of riding. I really like it so far.

No, I don't. I just ride my conventional bike. I enjoy the feeling of speed on a bicycle. I find it much more fun to expend energy to make a bike go faster than expend it to pull around a much heavier than necessary ebike.

On my ebike, I might dial in a bit more or less assistance if I want to get more exercise - or I might just pedal harder and go that much faster with the same level of assistance. I like the feeling of speed and covering distance on a bicycle.

I should add though, if you like doing that, have at it. Whatever spins yer spurs and isn't hurting someone seems great to me. Exercise is good.

My commute to work is 15 km and am often short of time, but still want exercise. my solution is minimalist assist (<500W) with small geared hub that freewheels like a normal hybrid commuting bike. I often take it places without battery for pleasure rides with the kids or just going to the corner store. On my power assisted work commute, I can hit speeds of 45kph on level terrain and maintain 25kph up hills if I pedal vigorously. Traffic is horrible, so it would take me 50 min to do the 15 km in a car (not including the hunt for parking spot). By modest assist ebike, I can make the trip in half an hour by filtering through the congestion. The bike cage is a 1 minute walk from my work.

So to make a long story short, I don't generally ride unassisted for aerobics, but my design lends itself to aerobics when assisted.

OP's Q:
Do you ride your ebike w/o assist for aerobics?

A:
No. I pedal hard all the time during riding w/ assist. Pedaling instead of coasting along feels more natural to me, and I suppose out of feelings of guilt if I was to just coast along while the motor does all the work. Plenty of aerobic conditioning. Keeps me in shape for when friends come over on the weekends for our non-ebike rides.

I do see plenty of "coasters" on my rides. Most (to my eyes) look out of shape, riding either fat-tire, small-fat-tire, or rental ebikes. At least they are getting fresh air, and out of cars.

I am using Grin kit, which includes a multi-switch that lets me adjust the assist while riding. I have it set to many small increments, starting with 0 assist. Separately I set a minimum trickle current that just about overcomes motor 'cogging' from the magnets - electronic freewheeling.

I dial the assistance up and down as I feel and the terrain warrants - on the (flat) bike path through the local nature reserve it goes to 0 so I don't bother the walkers, and sometimes it's 0 when I'm riding the flats.

I'll generally adjust the assist so that I am feeling some load while I'm riding. My issue isn't my muscles, it's my joints.

Long ago I read the advice that if I wanted to get into shape quicker, I shouldn't train harder - I should train longer. I'll retire soon, and my goal with my trike is to have that as my main transport, and use it.

The "you must suffer" school isn't about health, it's about Calvinist religious philosophy, used as a club to enforce a social approach.

The gravel bike I built up with a CYC Photon is used more or less like that. I have it set to cut out at 20kph (12mph,) and have the assist limits set at 50/150/300W, so as to only kick in on >5% hills or so, if I choose. Usually end up using around 50-100Wh on a typical 60~120km fun ride here in the Bay Area.

Zambam said:

48V factory Arrow 9, 500W rear hub PAS, 26", 6 spd, 75 lbs

The 75 lb PAS Arrow 9 is heavy, gearing is inefficient for pedaling (not fun to pedal) so I use throttle only.

Click to expand...

Apparently you are not alone. Every picture I see (from a google image search) of the Arrow 9 ebike has the seat slammed all the way down. Literally every single one. Some examples:











Even the guy in this video has the seat on his Arrow 9 slammed:

1000 times out of 1000, I'd ride one of my pedal bikes rather than one of my e-bikes, if there were no motor help.

No, because most of my bikes use direct drive motors and they have really high gearing ratios for the cranks. A minimum tooth count on my cranks is 48T.

My semi recumbent with the 4lbs mid drive is the closest thing to a pedalable ebike. It needs to move from a 8 speed to a 10 speed with a much wider gear ratio spread first though.

For exercise i like my mid drive bike and my acoustic bike that has 700c wheels. The direct drive bikes are very powerful and fast, and you contribute such a small amount of power at 2kw motor power and above.

Back in the old days, I would ride my ebike conversions, some of them, without power. Now it's a new day, but I feel too old to do that, Last year, I put 600 miles on my non-powered bike, but only have 75 miles on it this year, I ride it to keep fitness up, I did wear out a rear tire on it in seven years, probably because it was a cheap Kenda.

Zambam said:

Before I got into ebikes, I rode an acoustic bike for exercise.

Click to expand...

Yeah, and this is where you lost me.. But an even easier approach to your problem op may be to simply refrain from turning on the ebike until you want its aid? thats what i do now ive gotten over the 'honeymoon'.

More for a concern over the long term health of my relatively expensive battery tho so there is a longer delay between recharges are required..

So i will now plod along the flat and down slopes towards town and the shops and reserve precious battery power for the return haul, generally, tho there have been the odd wet windy days i have rushed down at top speed..

ebike4healthandfitness said:

slammed:

Click to expand...

ebike4healthandfitness said:

Apparently you are not alone. Every picture I see (from a google image search) of the Arrow 9 ebike has the seat slammed all the way down. Literally every single one. Some examples:

View attachment 359751

View attachment 359752

View attachment 359753

View attachment 359754

View attachment 359755

Even the guy in this video has the seat on his Arrow 9 slammed:

Click to expand...

Yeah, you will never see the delivery guys pedal the Arrow 9. Another reason is the pedal assist (cadence based) really sucks and is dangerous. You start pedaling from a stop, after 1 revolution the assist kicks in hard and takes off like a bunny rabbit. If you try to make a u turn using pedal assist you will most likely crash.

fill said:

Yeah, and this is where you lost me.. But an even easier approach to your problem op may be to simply refrain from turning on the ebike until you want its aid? thats what i do now ive gotten over the 'honeymoon'.

More for a concern over the long term health of my relatively expensive battery tho so there is a longer delay between recharges are required..

So i will now plod along the flat and down slopes towards town and the shops and reserve precious battery power for the return haul, generally, tho there have been the odd wet windy days i have rushed down at top speed..

Click to expand...

Turning the display on/ off takes time. To turn the display on, feet must be off the pedals otherwise torque sensor calibration will be off kilter. Much easier with the brake lever motor cutout which allows instant motor on / off by moving index finger 1/8 inch.
Since the last full charge, I've been riding in assist level 1 using the brake (motor) cutout as much as I feel like. So far I have 51 miles on the odo and still have 50% battery remaining (48 V 7 Ah UPP battery).