- Now, you might have seen a recent video,
that me and the Don did, 'Are E-Bikes Fast.'
Well, we know that they're fast,
but how in fact, to make them faster?
There's many mechanical ways to do this,
but there's also some human ones too.
These are a few of them.
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Now, two of the most important human elements,
that will enable you to get your E-Bike going faster,
are losing weight and eating properly.
Yeah, I'm sorry to say, but losing weight,
has a huge impact on the power weight on your E-Bike.
My 60 kilo daughter always,
absolutely smokes me on the climb so, yeah,
that's the state of affairs I'm afraid.
When it comes to eating, don't forget,
that an E-Bike really is a massive workout.
So don't underestimate how much energy
you're gonna be using on your E-Bike ride.
Stock up regularly, keep watered and don't get hungry.
One other way of increasing the speed of your E-Bike,
is to go and section a track.
And in this way you need to work out the flow,
the pace and the speed of the track.
Go back again and try different bike setups as well,
to work out the comfort levels while you're riding it,
and of course, that speed.
And finally, try different techniques,
when you're doing that section of track.
In fact, go and follow some faster riders.
Watch what they're doing,
watch they're techniques on certain sections.
Right, let's get into some of the mechanical elements,
that's gonna build some pace into your E-Bike.
First up, suspension, make sure your suspension,
is set up for you and your weight.
Sag is really key to this, you're looking at about
20% sag up front, and 30% on the rear.
If you're in any doubt about this,
have a look at your fork leg
and it usually gives you a good guide.
If your bike is too soft you're gonna be rocking,
quite a lot front and rear, simply because,
there's not enough support in the system.
The alternative is if you're bike is set up too firmly,
then it's not gonna be getting involved
in all those collisions, it's not gonna be diving
into all those holes in the track.
Now rebound is a really crucial setup factor,
when it comes to building some pace into your bike.
If you're rebound is too slow,
you're bike simply won't react quick enough in the big hits.
And if you go through successive hits
and you're rebounds not working,
then your suspension will probably pack up,
or simply not work at all.
The way to work out if you're rebound is quick enough,
is to wind your dials all the way in,
so that the suspension is going really slowly,
and then wind them out, about four or five clicks,
depending on your weight.
The key thing here is actually look
on your manufacturer's website,
because most of them have got a base setup,
which you should really tune in to.
Cockpit setup, what on earth has that got to do,
with building pace into your E-Bike?
Well, it's all about confidence really.
That fine tuned setup is gonna really give you
that position which can enable you to attack those sections,
without being compromised by an ill fitting cockpit setup.
We're looking at such things as,
how high are your bars, how wide are your bars,
what stem have you got on there?
Because, what you don't want,
is for your body to be bucking and diving
because you're stem is too long
and you're handlebars are too low.
So, what part do tyres play,
in increasing the pace of your E-Bike?
Well, you could say that soft compound tyres are slow,
and hard compound tyres are fast.
But it's not quite as simple as that.
Tyres are terrain specific, so you need
to be really dialed into what tyre suits you,
and the terrain you ride.
On the fine tuning side of things,
you need to be looking at the tyre pressures on your bike.
Too low a pressure means a lack of precision,
no support in the corners and slow rolling speed.
Whereas a tyre that's too hard
means there's lack of traction there.
However, what you could do is actually,
run those harder tyres.
It's gonna be a more nervy ride,
but ultimately it's gonna be faster.
One thing you might want to bare in mind is,
if your tyre's getting worn out,
you could actually cut out the center nobs of your tyre,
to have like a semi slick, which means,
in dry conditions you're gonna be super fast.
So tyres in general are gonna have
a massive effect on comfort, fatigue, grip and speed.
There is nothing worse than noise,
to distract you on technical descents.
Has something snapped, is your de-railer about to fall off?
The sources can come from anywhere,
but primarily it's gonna be your cables and your chain.
Up front it's quite common, make sure that your cables
are really snug and neat up there,
and if you've got internal cable routing,
make sure it's tight where it enters the down tube.
And finally that chain, it makes a hell of a racket.
So get some tape on the chain-stay,
or some rubber protection to keep that noise down,
and make sure you ride on a super quiet bike
and all you can feel is the sound of those tyres.
So there could be some really, really simple things.
Things that are making your life difficult,
taking speed out of your bike.
Things such as the brakes rubbing on the caliper.
Now that's really gonna slow your wheels down,
but it's usually a really simple fix.
Loosen the bolts on your caliper,
pull the lever in and then re-tighten those bolts
and you should get a free spinning wheel,
which is gonna increase the speed of your bike.
And finally, give your bike some love.
Now, I'm really guilty of this,
but cleaning your bike is gonna take the weight off it
and lubing it is gonna make it faster rolling.
So yeah, don't forget about that element,
of bike maintenance to increase that speed.
I hope you liked this video.
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