[Music]
more and more people are buying e-bikes
all the time so if you are one of them
or you're thinking about joining the
world of e-bikes and this video is for
you what we wish we'd known about
e-bikes when we started
[Music]
now it's not just things that we've
learned we've also worked with bosch the
e-bike industry powerhouse pun very much
intended and also ebike veteran steve
jones from our sister channel embn has
given us some tips as well
[Music]
we'll start with a basic but very
important one an e-bike will only power
your bike when you're pedaling the
harder you pedal the more power it will
give you which is very natural sensation
it's just like what you do on an
ordinary bike only with a bit more oomph
now e-bikes typically have different
modes which tailor exactly how much
extra oomph you get so on this bosch
bike in addition to off
i've got eco
tour
sport
and turbo
now exactly how much extra power you get
depends on the motor type that you've
got so on this bike i've got a
performance line at cx
and so when i'm in eco mode
i get 60 percent of my own power extra
and then in tour i get 140
then 200 of my own power
before finally in turbo mode
i get
340
extra
of course the more power you ask for
from your e-bike the faster it's gonna
drain your battery however recent
advances in technology mean that you can
now get real-world range prediction as
well as just knowing how much is left
in here
what's even cooler though is that if
you've got a route planned on the head
unit it'll be able to tell you if you've
got enough battery left for you to be
able to reach your destination with
assistance if you haven't you simply
knock it down a mode and see the range
shoot up and if you do happen to have an
absolute epic day planned on the bike
you could always take a leaf out the
e-mountain bikers book just take a spare
battery with you
when e-bikes first came out i'll admit
i thought they might make people a bit
lazy which clearly in hindsight is a bit
stupid and as i've written more and more
e-bikes i've realized that no matter
what your fitness level
you will always do some kind of exercise
on them and how hard you exercise is
entirely up to you
it's not just my own experience though
there's give me this remarkable insight
but there's a whole load of scientific
research that backs it up in fact the
latest systematic overview of all of
that evite literature
says that e-bikes have more health
benefits from exercise than walking and
whilst not quite as effective as regular
cycling clearly having a motor means
that more people are then able to cycle
more of the time
in more places
or
as the science would have it e-cycling
can improve cardio respiratory fitness
in physically inactive individuals now
if you want to be a little bit more
engaged with the fitness theme over and
above just getting on the bike and
pedaling it's quite likely that your
e-bike will be able to help here too
so they can generate all sorts of
interesting bits of data like
how far you've been riding and how long
you've been riding for and how fast
you've been riding but also some more
advanced metrics too like your power
output and even on this one connecting
up via bluetooth to a wearable device
like a heart rate monitor and then you
can connect it up to apple health or
google fit
it's not like your car can do that is it
actually it might be able to i don't
know but what's it gonna tell you you
have been sat on your ass for 35 minutes
and have burned
four calories
[Music]
now when i was talking about range
prediction earlier on i sort of casually
glossed over the fact that my phone was
connected to my bike but let's take a
moment
how cool is that so on many of the new
bosch equipped bikes you'll find that
the head units enable you to connect
your phone up via bluetooth to open up a
whole load of connected functions and in
some cases like the button i've been
riding around on my phone itself became
my head unit using their kobe app now
all the functions on there for me i
think navigation is probably the most
useful now you can use bosch's own root
finding app or you could connect up a
strava or a commute and get a route from
there
and then of course there are also other
more phone oriented functions like
actually making phone calls or my new
favorite listening to music
we'll go back to another fundamental one
now and that is that just for every
country in the world e-bikes are
governed by laws that restrict how fast
they can go before the motor isn't able
to give you assistance anymore it's
considered to be really important to be
able to distinguish between a pedal
assist bike like this one and your more
conventional throttle style motorbike
now depending on where you live that
speed will vary in europe for example
above 25k an hour and it's all you in
america it'll vary state by state but
you'll be able to get at least 20 miles
an hour
security is a big deal you've got your
amazing new bike clearly you want to
look after it a big chunky lock is going
to be a worthwhile investment but if you
look you might find that the e-bike
itself has some built-in security
features as well so again for example on
this bosch nylon head unit there's a
lock function which means that when i
remove the head unit from the bike
the bike cannot function as an e-bike
anymore so the motor becomes completely
disabled and it won't reactivate again
until you put this very same head unit
back on now the bike itself isn't
completely immobilized but it's pretty
worthless without a motor
until your head unit gets back on
e-bikes are a sizeable investment for
many of us they might be replacing a car
not for every journey granted but
hopefully for lots of them so one of the
features i really like is the fact that
the bike itself can work out how much
money you've saved by riding it as
opposed to driving your car for that
particular journey so hopefully then
over time you could maybe treat yourself
so instead of going to a petrol station
to fill up on fuel you could
eat cake instead
winning
[Music]
most of us will probably buy our e-bike
ride our e-bike love our e-bike
and then that's that that's the end of
the story but
for many of you
who like tinkering it'll be worth
knowing that on many bikes you can
actually customize the performance of
your motor so whereas the different
modes come as standard on some bikes you
can actually tune them so if you want
more power on sport mode you can get
exactly that so you can tune your e-bike
to suit your style and also your needs
so
where we are now it's incredibly hilly
and so it would definitely be worth
having more power in sport mode as well
as as much power as possible in turbo
mode but if you live somewhere flatter
you could tune them so they're perhaps a
little bit less powerful but you get
more range it's also worth noting that
you could tune them so that you actually
get the kind of workout that you might
want as well bear in mind you've got
your power output on there you've got
your cadence the bike can effectively
learn how fit you are and then you can
tailor the outputs to make sure it's
working for you
[Music]
i confess
i had assumed that an e-bike would take
quite a lot of servicing to keep it on
the road but no apparently that is not
the case so all the traditional bike
bits of course behave and wear out like
traditional bike bits but the actual
e-bike specific stuff the motor and the
battery will just last they're sealed
and they'll keep on going so the motor
apparently will last as long as the
battery and that could give you anywhere
between 30 to 50 000 kilometers of
riding
which sounds like an awful lot in many
respects it's a little bit like a car
isn't it so your tyres will wear out and
need replacing and here your chain might
need replacing every thousand kilometers
or so but the engine the motor
just keep on trucking
[Music]
lastly and i think this probably comes
back to my initial e-bike skepticism but
i wish i'd known how much fun they were
from the outset and i've been lucky
enough to ride a fair few now on gcn and
i'll be honest i've had a blast
every single time what's
also cool is how
they can make even the most mundane
tasks buzzing around the city actually
good fun and
the amount of stuff you can carry on
some e-bikes as well it's just
remarkable to the point where you can
really genuinely start to consider
replacing your car
for most journeys around town
now yes
an e-bike won't keep you dry
but come on
waterproof clothing will keep you dry
and given that you can even get weather
updates
on your head unit there's no excuse for
getting caught out
waterproof jacket waterproof trousers
waterproof shoes
boom
away you go
so there we go 10 things you might not
have known about e-bikes i certainly
didn't know all of them that's for sure
but i'm sure there's plenty that we've
missed so let us know in the comment
section down below and please if you
enjoyed this video give it a big thumbs
up