Early Electric Bike Experiences

We are running a trial of electric bikes for Talybont-on-Usk Energy here in the Brecon Beacons National Park from April to October this year. The two trial bikes, a Monark Eco and an eZee Sprint arrived here 2 weeks ago, courtesy of Onbike in Presteigne and we (the Prospectors) have now pedalled them (or should I say e-pedalled them) about 160 miles in preparation for the trial proper when local residents will be invited to borrow the bikes to try commuting to their workplace or shops and provide us with feedback on their experiences.

160 miles and several hills behind us, we still feel we are learning about the pros and cons of these two very different bikes. Their user models and riding experience vary hugely depending on the context.

The Monark only provides power when you are pedalling. The rider can select one of 3 power modes at any time but how much assistance you actually get is dependent on how fast you are pedalling. If you are pedalling really fast, the Monark “assumes” (to anthropomorphise for a moment) that you don’t need much help. So, rather strangely, if you feel the Monark is not helping you as much as you would like (on a steep hill say), the trick is to change up a gear or slow down and then you feel the delightful surge as the Monark kicks in with maximum power assist – the slope flattens before you – a magical sensation. Once you get used to the Monark, it feels very natural (we find) to settle for a default power mode (‘medium’ in our case) and then bowl along happily up and down the hilly lanes around here without getting out of breath or thinking at all about the controls. Occasionally, you hit a steeper hill and switch up to maximum power but, most of the time, you can simply forget it’s an e-bike and just enjoy those hill-flattening power surges when they come!

In contrast, the eZee Sprint has a throttle and the rider has to turn the throttle to determine how much power he wants at any point in time. When people first try the bikes, this seems to have instant appeal because the model is simple, they feel in control and they happily whizz up a short slope at a gravity defying speed. The response invariably is ‘wow!’

However, on longer and more challenging rides, we are finding that the eZee model is far from straightforward. For a start, it’s up to the rider to select how much throttle you want at any moment in time – there isn’t a default, ‘set and forget’ mode as seems to happen on the Monark. Also, the main perceived effect of turning the eZee throttle is a sudden increase in speed (regardless of the slope) whereas the effect of power assist on the Monark is a sudden reduction in effort. You only realise later that you are going faster than you normally would. The result is that you tend to speed along on the eZee faster than you need to and it’s difficult (on a 20 mile trip say) to pick a level of power which “feels right” and will make effective use of the battery life over the entire trip. Instead, you feel you are picking a speed which feels right and that somehow is more difficult to gauge. Instead of asking yourself, ‘how much assist do I need for comfortable trip?’, you find yourself asking ‘how fast can I afford to go?’ – two very different questions.

When it comes to hills and battery power, the Monark has a binary model – it gives you exactly the same level of power assist regardless of its current battery level right up to the moment when the battery runs out. When that happens, the power light goes off and no more power is available at all. Fortunately, we’ve found that our Monark will do another 6 or 7 miles of hilly terrain with the low power light flashing before it runs out of juice. During that period, the assist you get is just as good as with a fresh battery.

The eZee actually has a larger battery but it tends to exhaust itself sooner - partly because of the speed you are tempted to travel at as described above. More problematically, the eZee provides you with less power going up hills once the battery is half drained. We have now been caught out twice faced with a steep hill half way through a ride where the Monark happily chugs its way up it (albeit at a steady 5 mph and maximum assist) whilst the eZee will simply no longer provide the rider with enough power to move fast enough not to wobble. And boy those e-bikes (both of them) are heavy to push up a hill. So, with the eZee, you never quite know how much assistance it’s going to be able to give you if and when you encounter a steep hill during a ride and it’s hard to judge how fast to ride the bike to conserve the battery for such eventualities.

In the eZee’s favour, however, it will beat the Monark hands down if you have a short (hilly or flat) commute to work against the clock. On the eZee (if you know your ride is short), you can go for maximum throttle, pedal hard and whizz along at a 15 mph (or more downhill) without losing any pace on the uphill stretches. And, if you are feeling particularly lazy after a hard day at the office, it’s not even necessary to pedal!

These are still early impressions. In 6 months' time, when our Talybont e-Bike trial has run its course, we should have a large and varied numbers of riders who have experienced one or other e-bike for commuting to their workplace or shops. It will be interesting to see how reactions to the two bikes vary. We’ll be busily collecting detailed data, so watch this space.