Electric Bikes
Northwest

Riding Up Hills

Hardly surprising: Being able to ride 'comfortably and enjoyably' up hills is an often cited reason for wanting an electric bike.

Most of us leisure riders seem comfortable pedaling somewhere between 50 and 100 Watt 'continuously' on our regular bike. 80 W of pedaling is miraculously all that's needed to glide along on level ground at 14 mph.

Of course, the pedaling effort that propels us with such ease on level ground proves woefully inadequate uphill.

Few of us can but briefly maintain 20 mph on level ground for which 170 W of pedaling is needed. While 170 W will propel an average weight rider up a 'moderately steep' hill of 7%, he or she shall crest at only 5 mph.

However in partnership with a stoic 250 W electric motor, such as in the Giant Twist, the average weight rider shall manage the same 7% hill at 10 mph—while exerting no more concurrent pedaling effort than a comfortable 50 to 100 W. The leisurely rider thus commands, with modest to moderate concurrent pedaling, a combined 300-350 W of power.

Nevertheless there is strong interest in twice the power for cresting steep hills with little or no pedaling or at a dramatically faster clip than what the 250 W class can offer. For these customers we offer the following truly 'hill flattening' models:

• 750 W iZip Express
• 600 W Stromer
• 500 W iZip Ultra
• 500 W iZip E3 Metro

Copyright © 2011 EbikesNW

September 2011

Gliding Up Hills

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