Ebike weight - does it make a difference ?

[daddyo]

My Focus 9.6 NINE with just the frame battery weighs 20.4kg. The new Focus with the 625Whr battery and Bosch motor in alloy frame weighs 24.7kg. OK, I know its only 4.3kg, but there is a straw that breaks the camel's back and that is the straw that will break mine.
Even with the TEC pac fitted, the bike is still more than 2kg lighter and it has 12% more Whr.

Also, another reason to have a lighter emtb is that the same battery will propel a lighter load further.

Yep , I agree. I have the same Focus model and boy was it a difference coming from a Bulls with a weight of 25.6 kg. I think an ebike weight of around 20 kg is good and I look forward to some proper progress in that area when weight will come down by say 20%. If anyhing now all the new models weigh around 25 kg as batteries are growing bigger and heavier...

 

[Gary]

1.5kg difference, which is only the weight of the liquid in a full large water bottle.

Dude. I don't know where you get your waterbottle or what sort of water you have but a standard cycling waterbottle is 500ml.
And 1ml of water = 1g
I'll let you do the arithmetic ?

 

[CjP]

I think he’s telling the truth Gary.

 

[Gary]

What set me off on this £1/gm thing was when I was going to replace a saddle that had been OE on the bike. The saddle was part of a range from WTB and the saddle I bought eventually was £60 cheaper and conveniently was 60gm heavier. I have noticed this before many times. The psychologists would call this confirmation bias, ie that I only look for / see / notice examples that confirm my assumption.

You really don't need to be a psychologist to realise you're only looking for examples to fit a tired old cliche (that simply isn't true)
Saddles as light as 175g can be bought online for £7 delivered.

 

[TheBikePilot]

You really don't need to be a psychologist to realise you're only looking for examples to fit a tired old cliche (that simply isn't true)
Saddles as light as 175g can be bought online for £7 delivered.

£7.99 delivered here..

 

[KeithR]

Dude. I don't know where you get your waterbottle or what sort of water you have but a standard cycling waterbottle is 500ml.
And 1ml of water = 1g
I'll let you do the arithmetic ?

That'll be why I said large water bottle, Gary. Made a point of doing so, in fact.

One of these, for example.

And - as we seem to agree- 1.5 litres weighs 1.5 kg.

 

[KeithR]

I think he’s telling the truth Gary.

View attachment 38901

Yeah, I even double-checked Google before I posted, just to make sure that 1.5 litre bottles (of which I have several myself from way back) were still A Thing...

 

[Gary]

Yeah, I even double-checked Google before I posted, just to make sure that 1.5 litre bottles (of which I have several myself from way back) were still A Thing...

Shame you didn't bother scrolling down to the dimensions of the 1500ml bottle you found with your Google search.
If you had you may have realised that 1500ml bottle won't fit in any bicycle waterbottle cage.
And even if a cycle bottle cage were available for such a ridiculously large bottle it almost certainly would not in many Emtb frame's front triangles.

 

[Gary]

900ml and 1ltr cycle specific waterbottles are available.
They're both pretty unstable for off road use when full and mounted in a frame fitting cage.

 

[Eddy Current]

Yes. Massively
Sub 22.6kg or 50lb is a lot more playful and fun to throw around than 24kg ever will be.
I kinda hate riding Eebs that weigh much more than 50lb

Same happen when you down on 20 kgs, it’s another noticeable steep.

Weight matters less if you’re on fast trails kinda bike park etc, but lighter is always better. Having said that if just you want to ride out there and not looking for push more than the necessary , don’t get obsessed with weight.

 

[Norcalsl]

Riding a light bike is like ballet. Riding a heavy one is like playing on the offensive line in (American) football. One is not inherently better than the other. Just different experiences.

 

[TheRealPoMo]

I think riding the eMTB is more like riding a horse. Yes it provides most of the power but controlling it and rising out of the saddle exercises muscles you forgot you had.
That's compared to an analogue road bike....never rode a modern analogue MTB.

 

[Gary]

don’t get obsessed with weight

Yeah. I'm far from obsessed with weight. But I also genuinely wouldn't even want an Ebike weighing over 50lb

 

[Gary]

Riding a massively overweight bike is like riding anything massively overweight. ?

Not as much fun as you thought it would be and you'd need to be pissed out your mind to pay for the privilege.

 

[Shjay]

Lighten the rear end too.
Eventually you'll have an overall lighter well balanced bike ?

The bike is well balanced now! Think front end was too heavy with coil spring & heavy tyre, not much to lighten rear end bike RRazor tyre 1X10 etc

 

[Eddy Current]

I associate most things in mountain biking to women. I prefer lighter women for a good ride. But some dudes like the big dump trucks..... same same tho. One just stays down and the other you throw all over the place in the air.

We called this man handling it. Now it’s probably called domestic violence.

So I prefer lighter bikes for domestic violence.

Some chubby like the Flyon can be very fun in certain situations.

 

[Waynemarlow]

How does the saying go about built for comfort and built for speed, I guess bikes are the same.

 

[mtbninja]

I'm going to say "yes". I have a Rail 7 and the only thing I regret about buying it is that I didn't spend the extra on the 9.7 for the weight saving. A lighter bike is more agile but the get a decent weight saving without sacrificing reliability you'll end up spending a bomb. Wheels is a good place to lose weight, but at a significant cost.

I've dropped 30KG this year, it's certainly made a difference...

Small weight savings eg lighter wheels or xtr over xt drivetrain may not be worth it, and carbon rims in my opinion (for my riding) is just something expensive to damage. A carbon frame over alloy frame can make a big difference, I noticed that on a demo, but it comes down to how yo uride.

If you need the bike to be light, nimble and more playful, the weight of the frame and maybe rims will make a difference. Unless you race then the grams you save on components otherwise are a waste of money

 

[Staley50]

I ride an Alpkit EVOL Eagle alu.converted to BAFANG HD. Weighs around 25 kilos incl. battery. I love it! Also here in Norway, early autumn farmers still have there livestock grazing. So some lifting over locked gates etc. 70 years young and arms like Popeye?

 

[jeroen]

Also here in Norway, early autumn farmers still have there livestock grazing. So some lifting over locked gates etc.

I know this problem all too well.... sometimes it is easier to lift the bike than to do the whole dance with unlocking the gate/cable and re-locking it.

70 years young and arms like Popeye?

And that age, is exactly why a bike is great: still have to do quite some muscle work, so that hopefully when we get to that age, we can still ride



Separately to that quote: having a too heavy bike has another disadvantage: transport by car. Quite a few cars have weight limits of only a silly 45kg on the ball of the hitch, which means, with a bike rack, you got 40kg if lucky, and thus only 20kg if you want to take 2 bikes, which means with a bike sub 25kg, if you remove the battery (~3kg) and the front wheel, you barely get around those limits.

Roof rack options are not much better, as then you really need to be popeye to put the bikes on the roof, and if you ride EV car, big bikes on the roof are no good for battery range.... (if you think ebike battery range anxiety is real, try driving a car that won't move an inch when the battery is flat, at least bike you can still peddle further, then again... most EVs do 400km+++)

 

[TheBikePilot]

I know this problem all too well.... sometimes it is easier to lift the bike than to do the whole dance with unlocking the gate/cable and re-locking it.



And that age, is exactly why a bike is great: still have to do quite some muscle work, so that hopefully when we get to that age, we can still ride



Separately to that quote: having a too heavy bike has another disadvantage: transport by car. Quite a few cars have weight limits of only a silly 45kg on the ball of the hitch, which means, with a bike rack, you got 40kg if lucky, and thus only 20kg if you want to take 2 bikes, which means with a bike sub 25kg, if you remove the battery (~3kg) and the front wheel, you barely get around those limits.

Roof rack options are not much better, as then you really need to be popeye to put the bikes on the roof, and if you ride EV car, big bikes on the roof are no good for battery range.... (if you think ebike battery range anxiety is real, try driving a car that won't move an inch when the battery is flat, at least bike you can still peddle further, then again... most EVs do 400km+++)

The Tesla has a Caravan mode which amends the Range Calculation and disables the rear sensors.

 

[Doomanic]

Most EVs do 400KM + ???

Ha ha ha ha ha. Teslas and other premium (read expensive) maybe, and the very latest Zoes and Leafs might get close but the early ones would barely do 150KM in real use. A lot of them can’t have tow bars either.

 

[Endoguru]

I’m 64 and I enjoy steep, rough trails and jumping, not that I’m sending huge jumps. I chose a YT Decoy Pro Race because it is fairly light, which helps in the air, and it has good geometry for descending. I rode a friends HaiBike which is much heavier and it wasn’t noticeable except for jumping. If you are a wheels on the ground rider, I don’t think weight matters much with Ebikes.

 

[jeroen]

Most EVs do 400KM + ???

Ha ha ha ha ha. Teslas and other premium (read expensive) maybe

You did not get a 100kW battery for your bike now did you?


Of course, you pay for the battery size. Typical ~600W battery will go for 1000 EUR/USD, and for a cheap-ish bike that can third of the prize of a bike... same with a car, you get a 30k car, you get a 10k battery, thus yeah your range will be limited (though you'll also have a lighter car...).

<offtopic>
Also, Tesla... if you want an ipad on wheels, yeah fine (they last week finally got actual traffic sign recognition, in a car supposed to be full self driving), but if you actually want a car that drives like a car and can even finish a few laps on a circuit you have to look elsewhere... same as with bikes, there are bikes and there are bikes, there are cars... and then there are cars

Though.... totally outside of 99.99999% of this worlds league, the current coolest "EV" (not fully EV, but zero emission due to possibility of using alcohol as a fuel, next to the battery) has to be the Koenigsegggeggeggegg Gemera: The Gemera - Koenigsegg
</offtopic>

 

[RickBullotta]

My POV is that total weight does matter, but perhaps more important is weight distribution. Some eMTBs are very "nose heavy" which makes for crap handling in the air (some you can get used to, some just nose dive) and a tendency to understeer.

 

[philippe1]

New 2021 BULLS SONIC EVO models with the new Shimano EP8/750 Wh – Design fireworks

BULLS have expanded their portfolio and announced the new BULLS SONIC EVO AMS and BULLS SONIC EVO ENS for 2021, both equipped with new Shimano EP8 motor.

ebike-mtb.com

Bulls bikes 2021, lightweight despite 750 wh removeble battery at a good price.

 

[Bellefield]

if you are racing or if you want to make the bike last longer in turbo then yes its worth it. Think of it the other way, just imagine what the performance would be if you added another 20kg to the bike, the battery would burn quicker, you would need to put more wattage from your own legs to push the bike forward at the same speed. I know its marginal gains and sometimes taking a dump before the ride will give you a decent weight saving, but if you are racing or after a PB then its worth doing (in my view).

 

[Pan]

I am relatively new to emtb, here my 2 cents.

With one xception, and altough the general rule is that lighter is better, unless you are a very experienced rider, the weight does not make a great difference on emtb’s.

If you are an xperienced rider you know to what xtent loosing 1kg means in terms of ´swing weight’ and have a clear opinion on what is best for your riding desires. The additional cost to loose extra weight only makes sense if you are aiming higher performance wise. If not it is show & luxury, and if you can afford it, go for it, you will appreciate it to some point xtent, yolo.

The single exception is your body mass. The weight of full fat for a 90kg rider like me is one thing but a different story for my wife at 60 kg. That is why she got an SL. Relatively speaking it is still a much heavyer bike for her. The momentum difference will be greater for the lighter rider, especially as speed and G’s increase.

 

[Gary]

So you honestly don't think a beginner looking to progress/improve through learning basic skills. for example manuals, bunny hops and jumping would see any benefit switching from a dog heavy 25kg Ebike to something in the 21kg range?

It doesn't actually cost any more to choose an off the shelf 22kg Ebike than the hordes of 25kg Ebikes.

I agree that a 17kg SL is going to be far more manageable for the average 60kg woman than a 23kg full motor Levo and bike weight to rider weight ratio for the two of you is fairly similar.
It's not as simple as that though, Strength (especially upper body and core) and body mass are two entirely different things though.

 

[maynard]

My bike is hovering around the 22kg mark . I think I could of got it down to 21 maybe even 20 at significant cost . Anyways I have decided to lose weight of my already sexy body .