- Hi and welcome to this week's ask EMBN
where we'll be talking about travel,
sizing and how to make your E-bike more efficient.
Now, remember, if you've got any questions
for us to simply put them hashtag askEMBN
and hopefully we'll get back to you on the next show.
(electrical crunching)
Adam Kelly, "After getting back into riding
"via E-mountain bikes, Merida E-One Sixty 800."
What a great bike.
"I'm now riding every day, mostly on the
"gravel trails around home as part of
"commuting and going to the shops et cetera.
"Obviously this isn't mountain biking
"but can you give me some tips for setting up
"the bike to be more efficient for that type
"of riding whilst still being capable on proper trails."
That's...
You want your cake and eat it, Adam,
that's quite difficult.
I think, you're going to make your bike
more efficient at commuting, very straight forward,
you're right, just maybe put more air pressure
not in your shock but actually in your tires,
so go up to maybe kind of 40, 50 PSI.
You might want to think about changing
your tires on your bike from, I think,
on the Merida E-One Sixty there's 2.8
minion DHR so maybe go down to something
which is a semi-slick and a harder compound tire as well.
And that way you're going to get a lot more
life out of your battery.
When you talk about air pressure in your fork
and shock, actually talk about shock,
you need to make sure if you're going to
put more air pressure in your shock
then you balance that with the front as well
so that the bike sits correctly.
But try and do the two, maybe you should
think about getting a shock with a lock out
on it and that would be easier but I don't think
you can do...
You can't get a really efficient bike
at commuting and at trail riding
on technical terrain, I'm afraid.
Next up from Sarah Dobb,
"Hi guys, I want to ride like you."
Well, you don't want to ride like me,
maybe you want to ride like Chris.
"As I've never done any of the red routes
"before, should I just go for it and learn
"or do I go and do a course?
"How do you guys learn?"
Well, EMBN has got a ton of videos
on riding skills but I think you're dead right,
I think maybe a trail center is a great
place to go and learn and maybe you can start off
with the blues and progress to the reds
and then onto the blacks.
And I think it's just about more time
on your bike just learning things
bit by bit by bit.
So yeah, more time on your bike,
the better you're going to become
but in the mean time, check out one of
a load of videos that we've done here
on different riding skills.
- When you first swing your leg over
an E-bike, a lot of people think they're slow,
sluggish, not very responsive, especially
if you come across from a lightweight
trail mountain bike, but it's all possible on the E-Bike.
In today's video we're going to show you
transferring those skills from your trail bike
across to your E-bike.
- Lars Bjorgum, I hope I've pronounced your name
correctly there Lars.
"About cassettes or no cassette.
"The chain on my Haibike All Mountaon Pro XDURO
"Bosch Performance CX."
Great Bike.
"Is down to .075 but not quite reaching the .1 mark.
"Once and for all, what is the definite
"advise regarding chain and cassette wear?
"Change both chain and cassette every time
"or two chains per cassette?"
Well, I've actually talked to my colleague
Doddy who is hot on this subject,
and like he mentions it's all down about
how much power you've got through your legs,
what terrain you ride.
Obviously, you know siltier, sandier terrain
is going to wear your chain more.
And actually the type of chain you've got.
So, Doddy recons that you need to replace
it before 0.75, so the sooner the better
to get more out of your cassette and your terrain.
So, here's what Doddy says in the video just down here.
- Now having a chain checker is a really
good thing to have because it's sometimes
possibly to get two or three chains
worth of use out of one cassette if you make sure
you replace your chain before it's completely worn out.
The reason for that is the chain will
minutely stretch over it's time on the bike
and basically all that means is it'll be
contacting different parts of your sprockets
than what it's designed to and of course
that will make it wear out those sprockets.
So what you're looking for is using the
chain checker such as this, so there's a few
different types on the market.
It indicates the amount of stretch on there.
If it's above .75, basically you've got
to replace that chain immediately,
that's really, really worn, and at the same time
you're going to need to replace the cassette as well sadly.
If you've got 10 or few gears on your bike,
say seven, eight, nine or ten speed transmission
you can go up to .75, that's your roof
of where you need to replace it.
If you've got 11 or more gears, it's .5
when you should replace it.
- Audrey Biryukov.
"I want to use my bike for small overnight adventures
"around Oslo, Norway."
Great idea.
"Go to some place, camp there, return the next day."
Yeah, I'm totally with you on that.
"On the one hand, a hardtail can carry more
"camping gear, on the other hand
"full suspension is more comfortable.
"I do not normally do all those jumps and stunts
"but I will go offroad and need to carry
"a tent, sleeping bag and sleeping bag.
"Would you recommend to go for
"a hardtail or a full suspension?"
Audrey, yeah, you know that's what E-bikes
is all about is little adventures like that.
Myself and Doddy did one in the summer
where he got five star and I stayed in a field
with some sheep and just a sleeping bag
so I guess it depends how much kit
you want to carry because you can go
super, super lightweight.
When it comes to the choice of hardtail
or full suspension, well that really depends on
the type of full suspension bike you go
because if you've got a lock out on your
full suspension then it really doesn't make
much difference to be honest with you.
In terms of the space, I guess there's loads of
bike packing kit which you can get.
I really don't think it matters what type
of bike you've got, I think it's all about
that spirit of getting out there and exploring
and I think just working it out and trying to
kind of narrow it down to the essentials
that you need to take with you,
so the less kit the better.
I mean, I've...
Do you know what, I've read a lot of climbing
books recently and it's incredible
how lightweight those guys go
when they're on like the north face
of the Eiger and stuff like that.
So, however, in the mean time, as I said
me and Doddy did a camping piece back in the summer
and this is what we packed for our trip.
What does it take to prepare for a
multi day E-bike trip?
Is it simply a case of your credit card
and some chewing gum to replace a toothbrush?
Let's take a look.
Now, this is a question we've had in from Grzes D too.
Two questions, first one is,
"How about 29+ tires for an E-bike, that would be
"definitely a hoot to ride.
"What are your thoughts?
"Have you ever rode anything with that wheel size?"
And the second question is,
"What are your thoughts on conversion kits
"to turn your existing bike into an E-bike?"
I don't know the answer to the first question
I've not ridden 29+, I can imagine those
are monumentally big and the problem with those
kind of tires is...
I mean they are good, they definitely
cushion you from any impact and you know rocks
and roots on the terrain but when it comes to cornering,
the problem is when you run the kind of
pressures a lot of people recommend,
the sub 20 pound, they do tend
to lose their support in corners.
So I think 29 tire by itself,
I say 29, 2.6 or 2.8, is ample.
I think if you're suggesting it's going to be
bigger than that, I'm not so sure.
But yeah, if you, for example, our Canyon Spectral Ons
have got 2.8 Maxxis Minion DHR's on the back
and up front is a 2.5 and that's probably big enough.
And your second question regards to
converting your mountain bike to an E-bike,
there's loads of kits out there from
Paradox Hermes, you've got Bafang, I mean
Bafang have got like a BBS01 and a BBS02 and a BBSHD.
Now they range from 250 watts up to 750 watts.
We've also had kits from LIFT-MTB in France here
so there's loads on the market.
We've actually got a video coming up
in the next week on fitting an after market
E-bike motor to your bike so keep an eye out for that
and that'll explain everything you need to know
about converting your bike.
Ian Wright is asking a question about suspension.
Ian says "I'm in the market to upgrade
"my suspension, do I look at the same
"manufacturer as the ones fitted or branch out?
"I'm concerned with the rear suspension shock length
"mainly as the front forks seem to be more standard."
So, when it comes to upgrading I'd like to
probably know what fork and shock absorber
you've got on the back to start with.
I mean the good brands out there obviously
are Rockshox, Fox, Manitou, they make some
really good kit so if you do do that
I would definitely pair the front with the back
because it comes down to a different company
philosophy and how they make their down pin.
Yeah, you're concerned about your shock length,
I mean your shock length is your shock length
basically, you cannot go fitting a different
shock length to your bike, simply because
it's going to alter the geometry and it's not
going to make the bike handle as well as it should do.
For example, if you put a shock that's longer in there
it's going to heighten the bottom bracket
and what effect that has is it makes the bike
handle really poorly in the corners.
At the same time, if you put a shock in there
that's too short, the danger of your bottom
brackets being too low and therefore
your cranks hitting the ground.
And finally, Oliver Hawkins.
"I'm getting the new 2019 Levo, however
"I'm six foot, I am in between the large and extra large."
No, I'd actually go for the extra large.
"The large reach is only 455, I think you are both
"around my height, what size do you guys ride
"on the new 2019 Levo?
"What do you recommend?"
Right, I've ridden both of them in every model.
I can actually...
I'd probably go towards the extra large
if you're six foot simply because
if you feel it's a little bit too big,
and I don't think it is too big,
I think you can simply lower the stem
in the stirrup, put that slammer down
onto the head tube and then slide the seat further forward.
I think XL for a six foot rider is bang on,
however you could ride an L if you wanted to.
The problem I find with a lot of riders,
they tend to base their judgements on the bikes
they've had before and sometimes if they've got
older bikes then when you move up to a new bike
you find it's a little bit too big but I think
it just comes to, you become
accustomed to the size of your bike.
Like I said earlier, my wife rides and extra large
Levo because she's actually used to riding bigger bikes
and she doesn't find it awkward at all.
So yeah, I think extra large.
Thanks for your questions this week folks,
don't forget to send us in more of your
questions by hashtagging askEMBN.
If you want to see more videos out of
the workshop and out of the studios,
check out our electric mountain bike adventure
which we did recently.
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