Is OFF the new ECO?

[Sidepod]

30k loop today. Wherever I could I switched off. Surprisingly ok. Nothing to extreme obvs, makes ECO feel like turbo when you switch back on again. Good for fitness.

 

[The Hodge]

Errr..No! ?
Did a 28 mile loop yesterday mainly in tour (approx 3000ft climbing) ... only switching to eco on the downs ..so unless you had a massive amount of climbing I can't see why you would want to switch off at all ..on a ride which is just over 18.6miles..

 

[N9VNS]

Why buy an ebike to switch it off? You’d do 30km in eco easily too.

 

[Gary]

Whenever I ride my Emtb with my kids or girlfriend I leave the motor off the entire ride.

 

[Hamina]

I'm planning to replace my battery with same weight decoy battery just make sure I don't cheat when I go for these OFF rides.

 

[blueglide]

I'm planning to replace my battery with same weight decoy battery just make sure I don't cheat when I go for these OFF rides.

I only use my motor maybe 20-30% of the time. Bike rides and handles so well on smoother, flowy trails, that I don't need or want it.

 

[chrismechmaster]

30k loop today. Wherever I could I switched off. Surprisingly ok. Nothing to extreme obvs, makes ECO feel like turbo when you switch back on again. Good for fitness.

I do the same on my sl ??
Can’t do it on the Levo tho ?

 

[Andy.M]

Apart from riding with your kids etc why spend all that money on an ebike to not use it.
Due to heavy overnight rain I chose to ride roads only this morning and did 18 miles non stop hi cadence in eco. Still had a range of 14 miles left.

 

[blueglide]

Apart from riding with your kids etc why spend all that money on an ebike to not use it.
Due to heavy overnight rain I chose to ride roads only this morning and did 18 miles non stop hi cadence in eco. Still had a range of 14 miles left.

For me it's nice knowing it's there. Long climbs and longer rides aren't something I try to avoid knowing I have assistance if needed. At 65 I can ride as long as I want and if I start to tire then I have some assistance so I'm not completely gassed at the end of the day.

 

[Tubby G]

Went on a 40 mile ride today with my girlfriend and had it on eco mode as she’s on a non e bike so wanted to level the playing field. Im absolutely knackered. No way would I ride it ‘off’

 

[Sidepod]

I guess I’m starting to thing I’m over-biked?

 

[Gary]

Went on a 40 mile ride today with my girlfriend and had it on eco mode as she’s on a non e bike so wanted to level the playing field. Im absolutely knackered. No way would I ride it ‘off’

Eco doesn't even come close to levelling the playing field between an Ebike and a normal bike you'd have to be delusional to think it would.

 

[Mteam]

Eco doesn't even come close to levelling the playing field between an Ebike and a normal bike you'd have to be delusional to think it would.

Can't speak for other motors but yep agree, eco on the bosch cx gen4 is still a significant amount of assistance compared to a non ebike

 

[Gary]

It is on all the main mid mount motors

 

[thebarber]

Turn eco down then.
Turn all your settings down.

 

[Tubby G]

Eco doesn't even come close to levelling the playing field between an Ebike and a normal bike you'd have to be delusional to think it would.

Think again Gary. My girlfriend is super fit and weighs around 50kg lighter than me. I’m overweight and unfit. She’s always ahead of me when I’m in Eco mode. Not everyone is like you

 

[Gary]

My point was you're not levelling the playing fields between the bikes though Tubby just the riders
I'm not judging you for your weight or lack of fitness simply stating the facts regarding the bikes. It's great that the Ebike can level out your lack of fitness with hers.
My GF is 14 years younger, 70lb lighter than me and fit and rides a 27lb FS mtb. but I'm a lot stronger her and a far more experienced rider so an ebike switched off actually does level out our efforts when climbing. I still destroy her on the flat and DH. If I ride a normal bike with her I barely raise my HR the entire ride.

Even Eco low is still taking the piss compared to a normal bike Barber.

 

[@ndy]

I ride the 8 miles to my local trail spot with the motor mostly off apart from two 500m short climbs where I use eco & tour briefly, I use the motor a lot more on the way home after 90 mins on the trails, riding with the motor off is no problem on an SL

 

[Tubby G]

My point was you're not levelling the playing fields between the bikes though Tubby just the riders
I'm not judging you for your weight or lack of fitness simply stating the facts regarding the bikes. It's great that the Ebike can level out your lack of fitness with hers.
My GF is 70lb lighter than me and fit and rides a 27lb FS mtb. but I'm a lot stronger her and a far more experienced rider so an ebike switched off actually does level out our efforts when climbing. I still destroy her on the flat and DH. If I ride a normal bike with her I barely raise my HR the entire ride.

Even Eco low is still taking the piss compared to a normal bike Barber.

When the gf stays at mine she uses my other eBike. Same Bosch motor, same battery. Last weekend we did a 30 mile ride. I finished the ride on 1 bar of battery and 1 mile range left. She finished on 3 bars and 45 mile range left.

Eco levels the playing field for us when I stay at hers and she uses her non e mtb. If I switch to tour or above then I’ll fly past her, in Eco I struggle. Today’s ride she burned 1000 calories, I burned 2600

 

[Marley]

Rode 56 miles of trails this week and never once considered turning off the assistants.

I do however run in eco mostly and as fatigue sets in nearing the end , I'll boost it for the grin.

 

[Gary]

@Tubby G
I used to have 2 Emtbs as well. My GF doesn't really like riding them (too big n heavy to be fun basically). I have lots of normal bikes too, She has 3 so there are always plenty bikes for us to ride at mine or hers
Out of interest. How are you measuring the calories? I think I'd struggle to burn anywhere near 2600kcal on an Ebike ride. My longer offroad commute both ways is 40miles and a couple of thousand feet ascent and it burns less than 2000 even on a normal bike. I'm never hammering it though.

 

[Tubby G]

@Tubby G
I used to have 2 Emtbs as well. My GF doesn't really like riding them (too big n heavy to be fun basically). I have lots of normal bikes too, She has 3 so there are always plenty bikes for us to ride at mine or hers
Out of interest. How are you measuring the calories? I think I'd struggle to burn anywhere near 2600kcal on an Ebike ride. My longer offroad commute both ways is 40miles and a couple of thousand feet ascent and it burns less than 2000 even on a normal bike. I'm never hammering it though.

I have an Edge 130 on the bike to track the GPS but I don’t trust Strava’s calorie count on emtb setting as it doesn’t know what power mode you’re using so therefore cannot be accurate. I also have a Garmin Instinct watch. I just see how many calories I’ve burned on the watch without setting it to track the ride, as the watch also has HR monitor so is more accurate. I look at the calories burned before setting off, and how many at end of ride. Strangely, today, the calories matched Strava’s, but usually Strava is way off

I lost all my fitness after having cancer and spending 3 years on chemo pills, it kind of wiped me out. I also stopped riding mtb’s and went for motorbikes instead. Having the ebikes means we can keep at the same pace regardless of fitness levels, and hopefully I’ll get fitter once again

 

[Gary]

I have an Edge 130 on the bike to track the GPS but I don’t trust Strava’s calorie count on emtb setting as it doesn’t know what power mode you’re using so therefore cannot be accurate. I also have a Garmin Instinct watch. I just see how many calories I’ve burned on the watch without setting it to track the ride, as the watch also has HR monitor so is more accurate. I look at the calories burned before setting off, and how many at end of ride. Strangely, today, the calories matched Strava’s, but usually Strava is way off

Ah... ok. your Edge 130 calories will probably be way off as as you say it doesn't know what assistance the motor is outputing.
If you want to find a reasonably accurate calorie count for your rides with the Edge GPS you'd need to use a garmin ANT+ HR strap. and you also need to input your correct riding weight and HR zones into Garmin connect.
Strava's calorie count does a fairly decent guestimate based on the ride profile, bike and rider weight for normal bikes. but iobviously it won't be tracking any motor assistance data at all. It also doesn't take into account poor/difficult conditions or the extra effort of riding agressively etc unless combined with HR or power meter.
I don't know much about garmin watches or how accurate their calorie count may be. But I'd have thought they'd give a fairly good gauge combined with rider/bike weight and HR zones.

I lost all my fitness after having cancer and spending 3 years on chemo pills, it kind of wiped me out. I also stopped riding mtb’s and went for motorbikes instead. Having the ebikes means we can keep at the same pace regardless of fitness levels, and hopefully I’ll get fitter once again

Keep at it man. So long as you're enjoying it your fitness should return. The only thing I find Ebikes bad for fitness wise is top end efforts and sprints as it's harder to put in those with a moto. keeping riding normal bikes helps me with that.

 

[Tubby G]

Ah... ok. your Edge 130 calories will probably be way off as as you say it doesn't know what assistance the motor is outputing.
If you want to find a reasonably accurate calorie count for your rides with the Edge GPS you'd need to use a garmin ANT+ HR strap. and you also need to input your correct riding weight and HR zones into Garmin connect.
Strava's calorie count does a fairly decent guestimate based on the ride profile, bike and rider weight for normal bikes. but iobviously it won't be tracking any motor assistance data at all. It also doesn't take into account poor/difficult conditions or the extra effort of riding agressively etc unless combined with HR or power meter.
I don't know much about garmin watches or how accurate their calorie count may be. But I'd have thought they'd give a fairly good gauge combined with rider/bike weight and HR zones.


Keep at it man. So long as you're enjoying it your fitness should return. The only thing I find Ebikes bad for fitness wise is top end efforts and sprints as it's harder to put in those with a moto. keeping riding normal bikes helps me with that.

I can link my watch to the Edge by broadcasting heart rate but to be honest it’s a bit of a faff & drains the watch’s battery and I’m not really that arsed about calories and all the stats anyway, I just like looking at the pretty gps patterns, elevations, max speeds on descents etc

 

[Mabman]

Never use eco or sport the lower two of 4 selections because as others have alluded to why have the power if you don't use it. I have all my 20+ mile rides with a 12ah/576wh 21700 cell battery, from the house down now so that I can use turbo whenever I want to. Dial it down in the twisty woodsy stuff because it can get too rowdy but mostly turbo granny on the ups, cause my lowest gear is a 42/50, and we have steep mostly messy ups here. Always amazes me the amount of traction available....

 

[B1rdie]

I never ride the ebike on off mode. Even on downhill.
Today went for a long ride and took a spare battery at around 30km and 1.000 feet climb I stoped to change it and had yet another 15 km with 700 meter climb to get back home.
When turned the new battery on and it failed to light the display on... I tried again and after it failed again I was already farting in fear...
Thats because I had a blasting and gave all I could pn tha firs 1,5 hour of riding, passing every other bikersI had met, more than 30, including pro level xc teams
There was no chance I could pedal that bike back home under a scorching summer sun. Fortunately it lighted at the third attempt and I could quickly leave that smelly part of the trail before anyone passed...

 

[Norcalsl]

I think all this talk about riding unassisted needs context, namely, what ebike are you riding? With carbon rims, lighter tires, etc, I've reduced the weight of my Levo SL to 36 lbs. Basically, the same weight as an analog enduro bike. Another thing is drag. The SL motor decouples in off mode and there is no noticeable drag. I think this is atypical for ebikes. Riding my SL unassisted is not the same as riding a 44 lbs ebike with drag. So why did I buy an ebike? Simple. To take the suffering out of steep climbs. I usually use Eco mode (25-35%) when assisted. Might not seem like much but It makes a big difference on steep climbs. I use trail mode only on the longer climbs. I ride more because of this. It is more pleasurable, and I can ride further in a given amount of time. I try to ride as much unassisted as possible because I want to stay fit. I only weigh 155 lbs. so that is a factor also. To each his own.

 

[Sidepod]

Interesting one this. My own e-story is essentially getting back into mtb after 20yrs but not via an acoustic so I have no ref point in terms of weight. When I move my old acoustic out of the way in the workshop I’m amazed at how light it feels.

I’m reasonably fit, not bike fit but I’m getting there. I run a lot and weigh in at 75kg.

I am starting to wonder how much of e power is only necessary to overcome the bikes weight. Do we go up hills easier or just faster?

I love going bonkers in higher power levels up hill but I do feel guilty if I just make it easier through laziness. (*No accusations of general laziness in the e-community were made during the typing of this post).

 

[grimmprincess]

I haven't once used Eco and I never will.

 

[Zimmerframe]

I like to do a "re-adjustment" ride once in a while .. actually "like" probably isn't the right word.

Did one last week - motor off. Kenevo, DH22 tyres. 50% road 50% off road - forest, mud, fields. 10km's , 150m , 50 minutes.

Had to stop on one climb for a 2 minute rest on the way back as I thought my legs were going to explode out of my ears. Very stupidly rode across a ploughed field at the end as a shortcut - that was not pleasant.

To describe the experience in three words "Horrible,Horrible,Horrible". The worst bit is the start when you're convinced something is broken or stuck - like both brakes.

But the next day .... with the power back on - WOW - it FLIES !