Before the start of the cycling season, I set a personal goal of putting 500 miles on my e-bike by July 1st. It wasn’t a well-calculated goal, it was an “I think I can do it” goal. But it has motivated me to go out even when conditions haven’t been ideal. During the heat wave this past week, for example (temperature in the 90’s, high humidity). Or when it’s been muddy. It has also motivated me to make up miles when I couldn’t go out on a given day.
Weather permitting, I will make my goal. I haven’t reset my trip odometer since the start of the season.
My typical daily ride is 8.5 to 9 miles; to town and back. On some days it might be as little as 5.2 (to the dairy farm and back), on others I’ve done a bit over 20.
At the start of the season, I was always riding at pedal assist level ‘ECO 4’, and occasionally using the throttle on steep hills. I haven’t used the throttle in at least 4 weeks (I’ve lost track). And many of my rides are now at ‘ECO 3’ pedal assist. I’ve never used the ‘SPORT’ assist levels so I don’t know what they’re like. But my goal isn’t speed, it’s enjoyment and exercise. I pedal hard as long as I can, then back off to let my legs recover, then go hard again. Since my typical route is now well-known, I know what I can do cadence and torque wise without needing throttle, and keep pushing myself.
My e-bike is very heavy. I haven’t put in on the scale, but according to the manufacturer, it was about 88 lbs as configured. It’s a fat-tire bike (26×4″ tires), full suspension, with a rear fender, rear rack, dropper seat post and a front light. It’s mid-drive, with a 910Wh battery and a rack for the extender battery. It’s almost 4X the weight of my old rigid mountain bike.
I’m getting as much exercise as I get on my acoustic bikes, if I trust the numbers from my Apple Watch. The exercise is different, however. It’s been almost all legs. This is mostly due to it taking time for me to adapt to pedal assist and full suspension; it still feels very awkward to pedal out of the saddle. I’m getting more comfortable, I think I’ll be out of the saddle while pedaling more frequently by the end of July. Locking out the front suspension while riding roads would make pedaling out of the saddle less awkward, but I’m avoiding that just to see if I can adapt by the end of the season. It’s not the front suspension alone that makes it awkward, it’s the combination of suspension and torque-sensing assist. I’ll get there, but at the moment it’s still awkward. Especially given the fact that this is my first non-ridgid bike. I’m an old BMXer (at one point long ago I was ranked 74 out of more than 13,000 in the Expert class for my age group), so I kept riding rigid bikes as long as I could.
I’m going further than I do on my acoustic bikes (which are both fully rigid). While part of this is due to the pedal assist allowing higher average speeds with the same effort, the big part for me is just the comfort. I have arthritis in my right hand and wrist from a long-ago car accident, and the rigid bikes induce enough pain on the dirt roads I ride to shorten my rides. There’s only so much pain/tingling/numbness I can tolerate before it becomes a little bit scary to keep riding. I could probably remedy some of this by moving my rear derailleur shifter and rear brake to the left side so I could ride left-hand-only more often, but then I’d be making big mental adjustments every time I rode the bike with swapped levers. Not worth it when I have a fully suspended e-bike on hand that I can use for the bulk of my rides. I’m not just covering more ground, I’m on the bike longer (more minutes).
I seem to be burning anywhere from 330 to 900 calories per ride, depending on the length of the ride. 900 is uncommon (those few 20 mile rides). I’m not sure of my average. If I had to guess, my median is around 400 calories. I do know that I’ve lost somewhere around 8 pounds, so the calorie tracking from my Apple Watch and counting intake calories (roughly) is working for weight loss. Given that my weight loss target was 20 to 25 pounds, I still have a long way to go. But… it’s working.
I’m not going to get to ‘fighting weight’ (which for me would be around 145 pounds); I’m too old for that. But can I get from where I was at the start of the season (about 180 pounds) to say 160 or 155 pounds? I think so, but it won’t be easy. I’m 5’8″. This morning the scale said 169 pounds.
Short horizon, I need a new mileage goal. Michigan summers are unpredictable weather-wise. We had a very warm spring (as did much of the northern hemisphere), which was good and bad cycling-wise. So far I’ve been able to tolerate the 90+F humid days, by staying hydrated and keeping my average speed a little over 15 mph (the breeze helps a lot). And while we’ve had some rainy days, it hasn’t been too bad (the rain doesn’t bother me, it’s cleaning all the mud off the e-bike that puts a damper on some days).
But I’m going to be bold and say “Reach 1000 miles for the season by September 1”. I honestly don’t think I’ll get there since that means about 60 miles a week, but it’s just a goal. I’ll have to bump my average ride a bit, which isn’t a big deal. The hard part will be the make-up days, and I can’t predict how many of those I’ll need since it depends on weather and other factors.
Anyone who remembers enjoying cycling in their youth but feels like they can’t do it now due to age, weight, cardio fitness, whatever… take a ride on a e-bike. It might change your perspective. I was very out of shape when I started. And I’m still a long way from ‘fit’. But I haven’t had this much fun getting exercise since I was young, and with the right bike, you can ramp up from zero effort to whatever level you want at whatever pace suits you. I think it’s a game-changer for a lot of us. And as a bonus… a lot of my small errands are now done on my bike, not in a vehicle. Trips to the local dairy farm for milk, trips to the local party store or pub… it’s a lot more fun, it’s a much smaller carbon footprint, and it’s way less expensive than gasoline or EV charging. Moving a 45 to 85 pound bicycle uses a lot less energy than moving a many-thousand pound vehicle, even if you don’t pedal at all!
I’m going to have to figure out what I’ll do when winter rolls around. I do have a set of studded tires, but due to climate change, they haven’t been useful yet. We don’t get nice long periods of frozen ground in Southeast Michigan much these days. It’s more sloppy slushy muddy stuff that makes cycling a lot less fun simply because the ratio of time spent cleaning the bike versus actually riding is too high. :(. I did break out my old training jumprope recently, but I’m not yet sure how much rope jumping my old joints can tolerate and I need a new rope (one that can tolerate concrete in my garage for longer than my leather ones).
Get out there and ride!