Testing any kind of bike (or car for that matter) is a strange thing if you ask me. Bikes and cars are some of the biggest investments in a person's life yet a 15 min test drive (and hopefully some research) is enough for us to decide what we will drive to work in every day for potentially 15 years...
When my father was deciding which e-bike system to buy 4 years ago, he had no choice but to select based on "rides around the block" and word of mouth on a relatively untested technology. That being said, somehow he had decided he was getting one even before trying any.
I however, want to answer the questions:
- Do I want an e-bike at all?
- If so, now or later?
- Which kind?
- How would the investment of an e-bike impact my need for a car or future car purchases?
- What is my use-case and justification for an e-bike?
- What have I not considered?
Fortunately, the Abus/Momentum initiative I mentioned in my last blog post allowed me to borrow a bike for almost 2 weeks (I'm on my second rental now). So back in June that is what my wife and I did. She booked the EVO MD-2 and I took the Ohm Urban.
Our 2 bikes
Right out of the gate when we picked up our bikes it became clear our 2 models were the best options in the fleet (the purchase price should have tipped me off).
Though both bikes had serous pedal assist power, the Ohm had more and just seemed less like a bike and more like a "vehicle". The power in both was impressive, the power of the Ohm,.. insane. I'm a strong cyclist so with my actual leg power the 4th mode allows you to ride 40+k/h uphill.
The Ohm also has a "turbo boost" (that is what I call it), which allows you to actually not pedal and get power for a few seconds. I found this a nice feature for starting from a stop light if I had not geared down or I just was lazy and needed some umph to get balanced and start pedaling. This feature should not be under-rated (it is part of all Bionix implementations unless I am mistaken).
The EVO-2 doesn't have shocks but I was surprised to look at the relative weights,.. the EVO is not much lighter but the Ohm's tires and shocks give you an almost motocross sort of feeling. The Ohm is a cadillac for sure, but it also has $1500 higher price tag.
For specs on these bikes go here:
First Impressions
The first thing anyone on an e-bike wants to do is get a sense of how much battery power they have. Range anxiety is a legit thing when your bike is heavy enough to be a boat anchor without the pedal assist. I could pedal the Ohm powerless but only on flat or downhill.
With both bikes it became clear that the 125+ km range estimates are for optimal conditions. If you rode full tilt in the 4th mode,... it would be less than half of that (but to be fair the readouts help you understand that and the distance is a variable,.. I do not feel like I was mislead).
Full tilt you can easily get the Ohm up to 45kph on the flat. However, it is rare you can do that in a city. It is fun to play with doing that in a safe situation but realistically the real advantage is not increasing average speed by riding everywhere faster, but rather by reducing the pain of the things that slow you down: hills. Hills hills hills are what e-bikes are about.
I'm a natural hill climber on a bike but I also am pretty analytical about route planning,. it became obvious that the flattest route was not always the "best route" for a commute. I had to reprogram my mind for this new capability.
On our first charge, another key difference was discovered. The EVO has a huge charger AND you have to remove the battery. The Ohm plugs in like your laptop.
After riding them a while
Good:
- Clearly e-bikes are "a thing". People interested in them or that also own them want to talk to you and try it, and they are almost always impressed. I have heard very few non-success stories, the usual jist being that it allowed people to do more for less effort and still stay active and leave the car at home.
- The shocks made every speed bump a sweet jump!
- I can still get a leg workout but sweat much less and get where I need to go
Bad:
- They are so expensive,.. we didn't want to leave them anywhere (yes, even with an Abus lock). Years ago I thwarted a failed attempt to steal a part off my dad's bike outside of a restaurant. E-bikes look different and the battery alone you probably have to remove and take with you.
- They are also heavy. I constantly found myself wondering if Ohm could have made the bike lighter and more "like a bike".
Ugly:
- These things are as expensive as a second hand car.
- People give you dirty looks when you ride by fast. I tried not to use much assist when on regular bike routes and still think pedal assist is nowhere near as dweeby as people with the fake pedals riding electric scooters but noone will agree until the try one and realize it is still a bike requiring work.
What next?
Despite having a blast riding these bikes, I still hadn't really answered my questions. Namely, what would make it worth investing 4-5k? That is what I'm setting out to do on my second "borrow" from the program.
Looking back, I think of all the trips and people I did them with (many of these I did solo) and sure they were not all super exciting adventures,.. but the whole experience was what mattered. Owls, history, and just something to do after work instead of TV. It was good enough for me to seriously consider walking the gaps between the 5th edition, and the lists in editions 6 and 7.
