Electric bikes - steep hills

saker75

Hi all,

My partner and I are thinking about buying a pair of electric bikes. 

There is one very steep hill that we'd use regularly. It's a very twisty country road. Does this look achievable and, if so, what sort of bikes should we be looking at? 

Thanks

Wyndham

It's certainly achievable, but the bigger your motor the easier it will be. And the bigger your motor the more expensive it will be.

I have a Trek Allant 8 and do hills like your example on a reasonably regular basis. Depending how I'm feeling I either do them on maximum assistance, or sometimes push myself more and put the assistance level down. I'm trying to get fitter - but that's harder in winter than in summer.

What sort of budget do you have? I'd also recommend talking to a good bike shop about what you want to do and they will be able to help with recommendations. As the bike shop will also service the bike for you, a good relationship is key. You can do your own servicing to a certain extent, but when it comes to the electronics, that needs specialist equipment, so it's quite different to a 'normal' bike.

powerspowers

Agree with a suggestion to talk to a knowledgeable bike shop. 

I have a forme ebike and it would manage that but would reduce my battery a bar or 2 so taking the range down to around 30 miles- which is more than enough for me but might not for others. 

The only time I’ve struggled on a hill was edge hill in kineton with around 20kg of luggage including a bottle of champagne! 

https://climbfinder.com/en/climbs/edge-hill-kineton

saker75

Thank you. We haven’t set a budget because I don’t really know where to begin - I suppose I was thinking about £2kea but don’t know. We’ll speak to a bike shop. Thanks for your responses.

Markben2222

Hi,

I bought a Trek powerfly 4 ebike, I am a large person and can go up any hills or mountains on this bike, great battery life get about 85 miles to the charge not bad seeing it carries 18 stone, would keep away from Carrera ebike, ony use to get 15 miles tops each charge, had Trek bike now for three years and not had a single issue. 

saker75

Markben2222 said:

Hi,

I bought a Trek powerfly 4 ebike, I am a large person and can go up any hills or mountains on this bike, great battery life get about 85 miles to the charge not bad seeing it carries 18 stone, would keep away from Carrera ebike, ony use to get 15 miles tops each charge, had Trek bike now for three years and not had a single issue. 

I’m a similar weight. That’s very useful to know.

chris_n

I live in the Alps where that wouldn't be called a hill. I have a regular route that rises 1Km over a 10Km stretch of road (with a 2km flat bit in the middle). Most of the hire ebikes round here are Bosch powered mountain bikes, mine is Yamaha powered and they all manage fine but with that sort of climb still require quite a bit of user input.
You can't legally get a bigger motor, they are all nominally rated at 250W to be legal anyway.

Herzlos

9% is steep but it's not insurmountable. You could do it on a non electric bike with a low enough gear and a bit of practice.

I'd try and get something from a dedicated bike shop, as they'll have the better bikes and advice, and may even allow you a test run.

Failing that I'd go for one of the high street places like Halfords or Decathlon as the ranges are decent enough (for Halfords you want to skip Apollo and look at Carerra or Voodoo). I'd avoid anything online as a lot of the imported stuff is garbage.

Decathlon isn't dedicated to bikes but does a pretty good range and you can hire some of their e-bikes for a day, so it may be worth hiring something and then giving the hill a try.

saker75

Thanks. It's a very long hill and even driving up it you're in 2nd gear going around some of the bends. But @chris_n has put it in context! When we've made the move I'll speak to a local bike shop there.