The last 6 months I've been spending all my yime fonishing my geometry MasterCourse, so I've got a bit of a backlog on videos. This was filmed many months ago (it's taking me a bit of time to get through this backlog). I hope that this story will help other people in a similar condition, even if these videos happened a few months ago. There will be more ebikes and more of this story/experiment to come... stay tuned.
Psychology plays a massive role in adapting, I had a nasty MTB crash earlier this year, and it has been extremely difficult to " get back on the horse" so to speak, physically I have recovered but mentally I still am unsure whether I can regain what I have lost. Something that I love (and still do) nearly killed me, I hope next year to try baby steps again, maybe your having similar difficulties. I find it painful to even watch this (any MTB related video, not just this one) anything that reminds me of the joy a used to feel, I have been left with a void in my life.
Getting feedback on e-mtb’s from someone like you with a compromised energy level is very informative. A full series on different bikes would be awesome. I hope e-mtb’s keep you riding.
Your perseverance and open mindedness are inspiring. Continue to find hope in the fact that each day brings something different. Your journey is so helpful to many of us dealing with our own challenges.
I don’t normally watch e-bike content. I wasn’t going to watch but then thought, it’s Steve….It will be great. And I was right. Love your insight and knowledge being applied to e-bikes. You gave me another way to look at e-bikes. You made it interesting. Love your videos, I also love Tess’s insight. You two should do more collaboration. Power couple!!!
I really appreciate both your deep MTB expertise as well as your openess sharing your journey with a changing physical body. I am 69 with titanium knees, two shoulder replacements, an achilles tendon repair, and a bad back (no complaints as I have had a lifetime full of action sports and adventure). I now ride an S-Works Specialized Turbo Levo. You are spot on that eco mode is just enough power to offset the extra bike weight from a peddling perspective.. Same with your observation that the motor power does not really overcome the overall extra bike weight when more dynamic and technical rider input is required. My solution was to go full enduro mode with 180mm forks up front and the Cascade linkage and a new shock to increase the rear travel to 165mm. The Geo got a little slacker but I am super happy with the result. I also installed the heavy Cush Core inserts in so I could get max traction and rim protection. This setup and weight would be impossible on a gravity bike that you expected to peddle but i find it perfect with the full power motor. All these changes allows me to sit down and spin most of the time going uphill and float over tech downhill. Kind of the opposite of a lively hardtail but the eMTB enduro setup absolutely extends my range over flats and steeper terrain. Rasyad
As someone who has had a heart attack and knows he'll never feel 100% again ebikes are an absolute lifesaver when I still want to get out and enjoy a big ride. I had to wait until I was made redundant at work, but for the last couple of years I've been happily managing 40 mile rides with friends. Before my ebike/ post heart attack I was struggling to ride 20 miles comfortably.
I love ebikes. I've only rented a few times, but I can't wait to own one. It's the perfect blend of mountain biking and a motorcycle. I like to get a workout in, but there are places that an ebike just makes better. Bentonville is a great example. The uphills are short and steep, and mostly boring. You can ride SO much more of it on an ebike. Also, vacation....I want to enjoy my vacation 100%, not be wrecked after an awesome ride, and not be able to go out to dinner with the family.
Didn't realize how much I missed your bike reviews and ride videos from HTP. I'm going to miss the Sedona scenery but looking forward to seeing what Bentonville looks like.
I bought a Specialized Levo a couple years ago when I was recovering from Covid (that was my excuse anyway). First ride out, I crashed when the weight of the bike got away from me on a slow speed technical climb. I felt so dumb because of how easy that same obstacle would be on my unassisted bike. The weight takes a lot of conditioning. I like the extra workout on the upper body, but I had to relearn how to ride in some ways. The cool thing is those adjustments seem to make me faster and better when I hop on my other bikes. I also find myself riding in the lower power mode 95% of the time. I wish my Levo had more than 3 power modes, but I can tweak and tune each mode in the app. I think I should have gone with a lighter weight eMTB for the way I ride it. I expect the battery tech to advance to the point of offering similar capacity to my big battery, full power bike. A 38-40 lb bike with a 600 watt hour battery would be pretty sweet!
Love that you're finally on an e-bike. I'm 57 and it was getting harder to ride as much as I wanted to, and I hated that. To add some context, I'm a lifelong powerlifter and to this day can still bench 275+ at 175 lbs. I say that not to brag but to emphasize that I'm not that lazy middle-aged man, but a victim of just aging. So I purchased a Devinci eTroy Lite and love it so much! I can ride consecutive days with little to no pain. For your channel, why don't you break down the different e-bike motors and not just how they ride, but also the technical differences, possible repairs, and, most importantly, reliability-something that's barely mentioned. As a lifelong fitness person, you may have overdone it. The key in fitness is to listen to your body and take your time. Maybe ride for 45 or 30 minutes max, and I know the struggle-our minds tell us to keep going, and our bodies say no way. Just listen to how excited you were to get out and ride, take it slow, and just enjoy being outdoors. Stay strong, you got this!"
Your wife made a very insightful analysis. Having an eBike doesn’t mean that the bike motor is going to induce necessary skills. Steve with all your knowledge and skills, you can be the perfect ambassador reviewing eBikes and how skilled MTB’ers should look at this motorized sport.
According to my experiences a basic e-mtb (which isn't blowing up into pieces after the first trail) can save you 20 bpm (lower heart rate). This is really practical if you are not in the form, or you was ill, or you are doing rehab. Personally I wouldn't jump with an ebike to avoid big impachts, but it is nice for normal trail riding.
Great to see you riding again. Personally, I ride a few different bikes, one of them being an ebike. Is it different from the others? Yes. Each bike has its own character and that's the reason to have them. I ride a lot of tech and its still quite a challenge , even on the ebike. There is still the repetitive motions as the other bikes, so your joints are going to feel it. As far as cardio is concerned, you get to pick your level. Good luck cracking the code technique wise! I know you'll figure it out. Enjoy!
I'm 62 and ride my ebike 3 to 4 times a week sometimes more 😊 it definitely has kept me riding , its like the boost in power is the incentive to keep me interested
I've been riding my e-bike off and on for about 6 months. A 2024 Santa Cruz Heckler, so similar to the Iso although with a Shimano EP801 assist. It's set to the 8 level and I usually run it in level 3/8, which gives me a decent amount of assist to keep up with my faster riding buddy. Personally, I've found that I want to run clipless pedals with the e-bike since you basically need to constantly pedal. Clipless allows me to ride through pedal-strikes easier. The bike came with 165 cranks and I definitely get a lot of pedal strikes. A set of 5 Dev 155 cranks is one my list of upgrades. I have the "over-run" set to maximum which helps a lot with getting up technical climbing sections. My Heckler weights about 50 lbs., but I came from old-school DH racing from the 90s/00s, so man-handling a big, heavy bike is not foreign to me. That said, when more full-power bikes with long range drop to the 40 lb. range - over high 30s even - I'll look into upgrading. An e-bike can definitely feel like a different sport. When you get healthy again, it'll be interesting to see what you can do on it and with others on e-bikes. I think one benefit of moving to NWA will be you should have options there to test ride a lot of different bikes on soon to be familiar trails. Thank you to Ibis!!
I use a hub drive e-bike for my commute. The thing is a tank and not the easiest to ride vs my analogs. But I've definitely gotten fitter riding that beast 5000+km in a year for work. The assistance just makes you go faster doesn't help with the efforts to get up to speed hahaha.
awesome, glad to see back with a bike video, i know you have been hurting and zero energy. I was thinking when you said hardtail with motor...they need to make a super light carbon or aluminum ebike with the like the Fazua or Bosch light one. Most of the ebike hard-tails aren't very nice, they seem bottom of the line. Or a steel one like the gearbox size motor, but with steel bike there is no where for a battery.
yeah, most ebike hardtails are aiming to be budget and don't seem that great. I'm not super interested in them. I am interested in an egravel bike though.
Love the video! Thanks for sharing. One of my favorite things about the Ari Nebo Peak with the Fazua Ride 60 motor is the ability to custom tune the assist mode in terms of how rapidly or how gradually the assist ramps up. The bike itself is only 42lbs with pedals, so it feels MUCH more like a regular bike. I have no issues with the bike launching me into features before I'm ready. It would be the PERFECT bike for Bentonville. Contact Rich Drew and I bet he would let you borrow one to try out!
@@BigBrainParty Mine is 44.3 lbs with Time Speciale 10 pedals and Cushcore Pro front and rear. The one the Loam Wolf tested for their light eMTB shootout was 41.0 lbs. It was the lightest of the bikes they tested. Only the Norco Fluid VLT was close in weight. The others were in the the 45-46 lb range.
I ride a Giant Trance E+ and I find that my average heart rate is about the same as a non ebike, it doesn’t spike as much on climbs so I never get really gassed and feel like I want to stop. Like you I find that the ebike is faster but not necessarily more fun due to the weight. My upper body feels it more due the weight as well. You mentioned that it felt like the bike didn’t coast as well, my Giant has a Yamaha motor and it must have some sort of clutch because I can hear it releasing when I stop pedaling and the bike freewheels and coasts like a normal bike.
There definitely needs to be more E-bike access, but they need to be classified as motorized bicycles as well, because that's what they are. The analytical look at E-bikes and E-bike riding is enlightening, there is a real need for E-bike access advocates, coaches, and trainers to get the best out of the platform.
100% on the ebike power zones. I just got one a few months ago. The same Bosch motor, and almost only use tour+ on single track. The high power modes are to much for techy stuff. Turbo and emtb are nice for fire roads though!
Nice to see you getting out riding. I wonder if would be better to have a lightweight e bike rather than a full fat, as the lighter weight could work to your advantage and if you aren't doing big miles, then you don't need the battery capacity. I ride a 2022 Orbea Rise. The lighter weight (19kg, 42lb), makes it feel more like a normal fs bike. As I've got older (66 now). I don't ride the technical stuff, but just longer trails. Add to that I'm a short guy at 5'6" 167cm, so the bigger bikes feel more of a handful to ride.
I do like the rise a lot. I've filmed a couple more videos on different ebikes and my experience on them. I look forward to editing and releasing those
@@BigBrainParty Edited my comment to "if you aren't doing big miles" not 'are' lol. The newer versions are full power as well I believe. Plenty of other brand also are making lighter ebikes now, although I have looked at them yet. Also mine is the carbon version. The aluminium as available with a larger battery, but I got mine as a last years model, so a lot cheaper than retail.
Great video. For me, I tend to put out the same amount of energy, whether I’m riding an Ebike or non-Ebike. So, when I ride my Ebike, I ride a lot faster. Which gives me more of an upper body workout. At 59, I can definitely feel I’m getting more of an upper body workout. GET CHECKED FOR A CONDITION CALLED CHIARI MALFORMATION.
Great to see you back on the bike! Curious how you calculate your body battery-is it based on HR/HRV or just gut feeling? Got diagnosed with mast cell activation/long covid recently. So I'm currently trying to figure out pacing methods.
You need a different skill for E-Bike. Breaking, turning, climbing and gearing is totally different. I just bought an E-Bike and I got soar back as well. When you can go further in shorter time you use more energy than you think.
The last 6 months I've been spending all my yime fonishing my geometry MasterCourse, so I've got a bit of a backlog on videos.
This was filmed many months ago (it's taking me a bit of time to get through this backlog).
I hope that this story will help other people in a similar condition, even if these videos happened a few months ago.
There will be more ebikes and more of this story/experiment to come... stay tuned.
Psychology plays a massive role in adapting, I had a nasty MTB crash earlier this year, and it has been extremely difficult to " get back on the horse" so to speak, physically I have recovered but mentally I still am unsure whether I can regain what I have lost. Something that I love (and still do) nearly killed me, I hope next year to try baby steps again, maybe your having similar difficulties.
I find it painful to even watch this (any MTB related video, not just this one) anything that reminds me of the joy a used to feel, I have been left with a void in my life.
Im so sorry to hear about your struggles. I definitely underestimated the mental toll my illness would take on me.
Getting feedback on e-mtb’s from someone like you with a compromised energy level is very informative. A full series on different bikes would be awesome. I hope e-mtb’s keep you riding.
I agree-I'd love to see the same detail and experimentation that Steve applied to hardtails applied to e-bikes!
Your perseverance and open mindedness are inspiring. Continue to find hope in the fact that each day brings something different. Your journey is so helpful to many of us dealing with our own challenges.
I don’t normally watch e-bike content. I wasn’t going to watch but then thought, it’s Steve….It will be great. And I was right. Love your insight and knowledge being applied to e-bikes. You gave me another way to look at e-bikes. You made it interesting. Love your videos, I also love Tess’s insight. You two should do more collaboration. Power couple!!!
Thank you so much for giving it a chance and for the kindnesses
This is great to see. Love the support your getting , we should all be so lucky to have the support.
I really appreciate both your deep MTB expertise as well as your openess sharing your journey with a changing physical body. I am 69 with titanium knees, two shoulder replacements, an achilles tendon repair, and a bad back (no complaints as I have had a lifetime full of action sports and adventure). I now ride an S-Works Specialized Turbo Levo. You are spot on that eco mode is just enough power to offset the extra bike weight from a peddling perspective.. Same with your observation that the motor power does not really overcome the overall extra bike weight when more dynamic and technical rider input is required. My solution was to go full enduro mode with 180mm forks up front and the Cascade linkage and a new shock to increase the rear travel to 165mm. The Geo got a little slacker but I am super happy with the result. I also installed the heavy Cush Core inserts in so I could get max traction and rim protection. This setup and weight would be impossible on a gravity bike that you expected to peddle but i find it perfect with the full power motor. All these changes allows me to sit down and spin most of the time going uphill and float over tech downhill. Kind of the opposite of a lively hardtail but the eMTB enduro setup absolutely extends my range over flats and steeper terrain. Rasyad
Get well soon Steve. Lot of fans here in SoCal wishing you well.
As someone who has had a heart attack and knows he'll never feel 100% again ebikes are an absolute lifesaver when I still want to get out and enjoy a big ride. I had to wait until I was made redundant at work, but for the last couple of years I've been happily managing 40 mile rides with friends. Before my ebike/ post heart attack I was struggling to ride 20 miles comfortably.
Truly inspirational to see your resilience.
I love ebikes. I've only rented a few times, but I can't wait to own one. It's the perfect blend of mountain biking and a motorcycle. I like to get a workout in, but there are places that an ebike just makes better. Bentonville is a great example. The uphills are short and steep, and mostly boring. You can ride SO much more of it on an ebike. Also, vacation....I want to enjoy my vacation 100%, not be wrecked after an awesome ride, and not be able to go out to dinner with the family.
Didn't realize how much I missed your bike reviews and ride videos from HTP. I'm going to miss the Sedona scenery but looking forward to seeing what Bentonville looks like.
I bought a Specialized Levo a couple years ago when I was recovering from Covid (that was my excuse anyway). First ride out, I crashed when the weight of the bike got away from me on a slow speed technical climb. I felt so dumb because of how easy that same obstacle would be on my unassisted bike.
The weight takes a lot of conditioning. I like the extra workout on the upper body, but I had to relearn how to ride in some ways. The cool thing is those adjustments seem to make me faster and better when I hop on my other bikes.
I also find myself riding in the lower power mode 95% of the time. I wish my Levo had more than 3 power modes, but I can tweak and tune each mode in the app. I think I should have gone with a lighter weight eMTB for the way I ride it. I expect the battery tech to advance to the point of offering similar capacity to my big battery, full power bike. A 38-40 lb bike with a 600 watt hour battery would be pretty sweet!
Love that you're finally on an e-bike. I'm 57 and it was getting harder to ride as much as I wanted to, and I hated that. To add some context, I'm a lifelong powerlifter and to this day can still bench 275+ at 175 lbs. I say that not to brag but to emphasize that I'm not that lazy middle-aged man, but a victim of just aging.
So I purchased a Devinci eTroy Lite and love it so much! I can ride consecutive days with little to no pain. For your channel, why don't you break down the different e-bike motors and not just how they ride, but also the technical differences, possible repairs, and, most importantly, reliability-something that's barely mentioned.
As a lifelong fitness person, you may have overdone it. The key in fitness is to listen to your body and take your time. Maybe ride for 45 or 30 minutes max, and I know the struggle-our minds tell us to keep going, and our bodies say no way. Just listen to how excited you were to get out and ride, take it slow, and just enjoy being outdoors. Stay strong, you got this!"
Emtb allows friends to ride together!
So glad you can still get out and ride. That e-bike is really quiet. It seems like a great option. Cheers!
Thanks for this video. I am going thru chronic illness too . I was thinking same n ur video helped me .
Love the truck camper!
Your wife made a very insightful analysis. Having an eBike doesn’t mean that the bike motor is going to induce necessary skills.
Steve with all your knowledge and skills, you can be the perfect ambassador reviewing eBikes and how skilled MTB’ers should look at this motorized sport.
According to my experiences a basic e-mtb (which isn't blowing up into pieces after the first trail) can save you 20 bpm (lower heart rate). This is really practical if you are not in the form, or you was ill, or you are doing rehab. Personally I wouldn't jump with an ebike to avoid big impachts, but it is nice for normal trail riding.
You're back on the Trail again. That's great and you will get used to the bike. Wishing you all the best❤
Loved seeing you back out on the bike 👍
Great to see you riding again. Personally, I ride a few different bikes, one of them being an ebike. Is it different from the others? Yes. Each bike has its own character and that's the reason to have them. I ride a lot of tech and its still quite a challenge , even on the ebike. There is still the repetitive motions as the other bikes, so your joints are going to feel it. As far as cardio is concerned, you get to pick your level.
Good luck cracking the code technique wise! I know you'll figure it out. Enjoy!
I'm 62 and ride my ebike 3 to 4 times a week sometimes more 😊 it definitely has kept me riding , its like the boost in power is the incentive to keep me interested
I am 59 and my ebike makes me feel 29 again. Time Machine!
I've been riding my e-bike off and on for about 6 months. A 2024 Santa Cruz Heckler, so similar to the Iso although with a Shimano EP801 assist. It's set to the 8 level and I usually run it in level 3/8, which gives me a decent amount of assist to keep up with my faster riding buddy.
Personally, I've found that I want to run clipless pedals with the e-bike since you basically need to constantly pedal. Clipless allows me to ride through pedal-strikes easier. The bike came with 165 cranks and I definitely get a lot of pedal strikes. A set of 5 Dev 155 cranks is one my list of upgrades.
I have the "over-run" set to maximum which helps a lot with getting up technical climbing sections. My Heckler weights about 50 lbs., but I came from old-school DH racing from the 90s/00s, so man-handling a big, heavy bike is not foreign to me. That said, when more full-power bikes with long range drop to the 40 lb. range - over high 30s even - I'll look into upgrading.
An e-bike can definitely feel like a different sport. When you get healthy again, it'll be interesting to see what you can do on it and with others on e-bikes. I think one benefit of moving to NWA will be you should have options there to test ride a lot of different bikes on soon to be familiar trails.
Thank you to Ibis!!
100%
Awesome Steve, you got this.
I use a hub drive e-bike for my commute. The thing is a tank and not the easiest to ride vs my analogs. But I've definitely gotten fitter riding that beast 5000+km in a year for work. The assistance just makes you go faster doesn't help with the efforts to get up to speed hahaha.
awesome, glad to see back with a bike video, i know you have been hurting and zero energy. I was thinking when you said hardtail with motor...they need to make a super light carbon or aluminum ebike with the like the Fazua or Bosch light one. Most of the ebike hard-tails aren't very nice, they seem bottom of the line. Or a steel one like the gearbox size motor, but with steel bike there is no where for a battery.
yeah, most ebike hardtails are aiming to be budget and don't seem that great. I'm not super interested in them. I am interested in an egravel bike though.
Love the video! Thanks for sharing. One of my favorite things about the Ari Nebo Peak with the Fazua Ride 60 motor is the ability to custom tune the assist mode in terms of how rapidly or how gradually the assist ramps up. The bike itself is only 42lbs with pedals, so it feels MUCH more like a regular bike. I have no issues with the bike launching me into features before I'm ready. It would be the PERFECT bike for Bentonville. Contact Rich Drew and I bet he would let you borrow one to try out!
I've rode one since filming this. it's a cool bike! Aren't they more like 45lbs?
@@BigBrainParty Mine is 44.3 lbs with Time Speciale 10 pedals and Cushcore Pro front and rear. The one the Loam Wolf tested for their light eMTB shootout was 41.0 lbs. It was the lightest of the bikes they tested. Only the Norco Fluid VLT was close in weight. The others were in the the 45-46 lb range.
I ride a Giant Trance E+ and I find that my average heart rate is about the same as a non ebike, it doesn’t spike as much on climbs so I never get really gassed and feel like I want to stop. Like you I find that the ebike is faster but not necessarily more fun due to the weight. My upper body feels it more due the weight as well. You mentioned that it felt like the bike didn’t coast as well, my Giant has a Yamaha motor and it must have some sort of clutch because I can hear it releasing when I stop pedaling and the bike freewheels and coasts like a normal bike.
There definitely needs to be more E-bike access, but they need to be classified as motorized bicycles as well, because that's what they are. The analytical look at E-bikes and E-bike riding is enlightening, there is a real need for E-bike access advocates, coaches, and trainers to get the best out of the platform.
I wholeheartedly agree
100% on the ebike power zones. I just got one a few months ago. The same Bosch motor, and almost only use tour+ on single track. The high power modes are to much for techy stuff. Turbo and emtb are nice for fire roads though!
I've really enjoyed tweaking the power curves in the app, it made the bikes so much more usable.
Keep pedaling bro
Nice to see you getting out riding. I wonder if would be better to have a lightweight e bike rather than a full fat, as the lighter weight could work to your advantage and if you aren't doing big miles, then you don't need the battery capacity. I ride a 2022 Orbea Rise. The lighter weight (19kg, 42lb), makes it feel more like a normal fs bike. As I've got older (66 now). I don't ride the technical stuff, but just longer trails. Add to that I'm a short guy at 5'6" 167cm, so the bigger bikes feel more of a handful to ride.
Totally agree. I just posted a similar comment.
I do like the rise a lot. I've filmed a couple more videos on different ebikes and my experience on them. I look forward to editing and releasing those
@@BigBrainParty Edited my comment to "if you aren't doing big miles" not 'are' lol. The newer versions are full power as well I believe. Plenty of other brand also are making lighter ebikes now, although I have looked at them yet. Also mine is the carbon version. The aluminium as available with a larger battery, but I got mine as a last years model, so a lot cheaper than retail.
Great video. For me, I tend to put out the same amount of energy, whether I’m riding an Ebike or non-Ebike. So, when I ride my Ebike, I ride a lot faster. Which gives me more of an upper body workout. At 59, I can definitely feel I’m getting more of an upper body workout. GET CHECKED FOR A CONDITION CALLED CHIARI MALFORMATION.
Great to see you back on the bike! Curious how you calculate your body battery-is it based on HR/HRV or just gut feeling?
Got diagnosed with mast cell activation/long covid recently. So I'm currently trying to figure out pacing methods.
Gut feeling, there's nothing technical at all about it. Some days i feel like a 2, and on really good days i feel like a 30.
@@BigBrainParty I can relate to that. Wishing you lots of 30+ days coming up soon! :)
Thank Ibis you can still shred my friend.
would some light stretching / yoga pre ride help with the feeling of tension?
How did the recovery go?
I talk about that at the end of the video
What is that body battery gauge on the screen? Kinda interested in what type of tech?
Its not tech, it's just an icon i created to show how the ride was influencing my energy levels
You need a different skill for E-Bike. Breaking, turning, climbing and gearing is totally different. I just bought an E-Bike and I got soar back as well. When you can go further in shorter time you use more energy than you think.