- Very often in the rush to get outside riding our e-bikes
we might forget a few basic set up points.
But they're not so much mistakes, as oversights,
in the excitement to get outside. So let's take a look at a
few of them.
So guys a lot of tips I'm gonna talk about today
are actually e-bike specific because what can sometimes
happen, you can actually lend your e-bike out to a friend
who's never ridden an e-bike before and expect the set up
to be exactly the same as a conventional bike, but that is
simply not the case.
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Now the first one is handlebar position.
On no end of occasions, I've come back and a friend's
borrowed my e-bike and I tipped the handlebar forwards.
And the reason for that is because when you ride a
conventional bike, you're stood on the paddles and when
you're going up those banks, you're actually lean in over
the front of the bike. Now on an e-bike that's simply
not the case, when you're doing climbs more often than not
you're sat on the seat, and the handlebar needs to be in the
optimal position. So having it forwards, is actually gonna
push you forwards, which means less traction on that
back tyre. Now when I say the handlebar is too far forwards,
what I mean is it's actually forwards of the vertical
position. So when you get side on to your bike, the central
part of the handlebar should be vertical.
Obviously there's gonna be back sweep on the handlebar but
that central piece needs to be in the vertical position.
On the other end of the spectrum, you can actually have your
handlebar too far backwards, which means it's leaning
backwards from vertical, and what then is that when you do a
new climbing on your e-bike you're too far back of the bike
which means that front wheel is gonna be caught in the air
far too often.
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Right number two is lever position.
Now as you can see I'm on this flat single track and
I'm riding, I got my hands on the brakes.
And it's actually quite a natural position to have the
levers pointing down like that. However, what happens when
you're going up or down the hill.
Now if you've got those levers in that downward position
and you're tackling a short sharp bank
those downward levers are actually pretty comfortable
However keep those levers in that same downward position
and when you start going downhill then you're gotta
increasingly curve your wrists over the front of the bike
to get hold of those levers.
So the sweet spot of your levers, where you put them.
Well we're all different ways, but I tend to find it they
tend to work best when they're slightly down from the
horizontal position which makes it a very natural feeling
when you're stood up paddling down through single track
when you're descending or when you're climbing sat down.
So there you go, slightly down from horizontal.
Now one other thing, I should mention about levers before
we go off the subject is don't over tight them
because if you come off, if the lever's got a little bit of
movement in them, it simply moves on the handlebar
rather than bends the lever.
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Now we're gonna move on now to stem, first thing with stems
is again don't over tight that as well.
When you rotate your handlebars, it should be good free
movement there on the front wheel on front wheel on the
front four because if you over tighten the stem it's gonna
grind, wear out your headset and make your
steering absolutely horrendous.
Now the second thing on your stem is make sure you get
your stem in the right position.
You can adjust the height of the stem by way of the spacage
which come either under it or on top of it.
What I suggest is you should experiment with your stem
position is because there's a sweet spot there for everybody
I want to touch on something really quickly, and that's the
length of your stem under which the handle bars.
Now obviously a lot of you resort to the bike shop or
just bike online.
Now what it comes down to is that the size of your bike
is something that is fixed, however the fit of your bike
is something that you can alter.
Now it comes down to very simple things, you know, maybe
you feel a little bit stretched out on your bike
You know maybe you got a 70mm or 80mm stem on there
bring it back, put 40 or 50 on there, the same time
I see a load of people riding with these handlebars out here
you know maybe go from 800mm down to a 760mm bar.
These things are fixed, you can find the sweet spot of your
bike just by altering a few component parts in it.
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Now this is a classic you might well have lent
your e-bike to your mate, who happens to be a down hiller
He brings the bike back and the seat is pointing in the air.
Yeah, it's a cool thing to do, it's what down hillers do
it's their most comfortable position.
On an e-bike it's a no no because that's simply gonna be
forcing your weight over the back of your bike and that
front wheel is gonna be pouring in the air.
The same time you might well have lent your bike
to a super tall rider and bike's come back and the seat is
all the way back in the rails, again this is something you
want to avoid and need by. You want a good central balanced
position, not one that's just biased forwards or rearwards.
Seat type really is something that affects the way you ride
Now a lot of downhillers obviously like to have their seat
low down which means you can maneuver that bike underneath
you quite easily. And the same applies on an e-bike too and
even more so because when you got a seat that is low down
you can actually move your body forwards and backwards a lot
easier, than when your seat is right up in the air.
Because you actually quite affects position when your seat's
up there, obviously it depends if you got a dropper post or
not but make sure that your seat is actually quite a long
way down in the slider there and not upwards which means
you haven't got that range of movement
on your body on your rear bike.
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Now finally tyres, I want to talk about tyres specifically
because there's another video which you can find on that
subject. But things such as tyre pressure, now obviously
this depends on the individual, I'm about 90 kilos and I
tend to run about 25ps to 35ps in my tyres if they're tubes.
If they're tubeless I tend to go up two or three PSI more.
But something else which is really important on your tyre
is make sure that they're seated correctly on the rim
because a lot of the time when you re-fit a tyre, after you
got a punch job maybe you fit in a new tyre, then make sure
that bead is correctly seated on the rim there, otherwise
the tyre is gonna be wobbling around which is gonna affect
your grip levels and stability on your bike.
So there you go, that's some basic set up mistakes on your
e-bike and how to avoid them. If you want to see a video
on more advanced cockpit and fit techniques with your e-bike
check the videos down there. If you're looking more
tyres there's a in depth tyre video I can go on and on and
on about tyres just down here.
Last note, if you got more set up mistakes, I'm sure there's
hundreds out there. Leave your comments below,
give a thumbs up if you like this video and click on the
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