Author Topic: Cycling  (Read 4640 times)

PonoBill

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Re: Cycling
« Reply #15 on: January 03, 2019, 12:36:13 PM »
I started building e-bikes when my knee went south. I had surgery for a meniscus tear and during recovery, the doc suggested indoor bicycling. I said "how about outdoor" and he said, "the first time you lose your balance and put the wrong leg out you'll be back for another surgery". So I built a recumbent e-trike and put a LOT of miles on it. Wore out at least four front tire pairs and six or seven rear tires. Partly because of high-speed drifts, but also just miles driven.

As others mentioned you can control the load on your knee with the throttle or the assist level. I live in Hood River where the entire town is as steep as a cow's face. My various e-bikes can climb any hill in town on throttle only--I tend to overbuild a little. MORE MOTOR! but anything in the 750-watt range with a mid-drive should be able to climb anything you are likely to tackle with a light load on your knee. In this case, the big advantage of mid-drive is it uses the rear wheel gears, so you can go to granny and climb easily.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

JEG

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Re: Cycling
« Reply #16 on: January 03, 2019, 03:55:09 PM »
I definitely recommend cycling for your bad knees.

RideTheGlide

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Re: Cycling
« Reply #17 on: January 03, 2019, 05:04:53 PM »
I consider myself at the next level myself, but I got bored w/ indoor cycling, and at 68 I need time in the saddle, there is no substitute, so I've gone e-bike.
Power assist is what you make of it, very little or none on the flats and gentle hills, only serious power assist on the serious grades.  Where I live, it's either almost flat, or steep, there is almost no in-between. 
I've got no cartilage left in one knee so I can't standup on the peddles and power crank w/o it hurting like I used to, so now I have to keep my butt on the seat, and then I can go 30 miles no problem, with some steep thrown in.
Rad Rover, 5 power assist levels, 7 gears, 750W power, 26 X 4" tires, 45 miles/charge, depending on how much power you use.

I have been giving thought to that because of knee issues. It isn't just impact that gets to my knees; I seem to only have a limited number of knee bends beyond just a few degrees that I can do in a short amount of time before getting some major joint pain. I have gone on rides that I had to cut short and had a painful return to the start. I can go a lot further on flat terrain. So if I had an e-bike I could use the assist up hills and make it much further and if I hit the limit I can return to the car/house without so much pain. But I keep hearing that most of them are harder to pedal without the assist on, which could at least partially defeat the purpose.
If you leave it on PAS 1 level (Power Assist System) it peddles like any other bike, with no resistance, and uses almost no power, your range could be over 50 miles probably.  If you put it on PAS 0 level, that's walking assist, like if you were to get a flat or something.  I use that level to push my bike up our very steep driveway before my ride, it makes it weightless to push.  E-Bikes have come a long way in the last several years, and the cost has come down quite a bit.  I only paid around $1585 (no extras) about 4 months ago, but they went up $200 for the 2019 models.

It's like getting into SUP, though. Prices are all over the place and it's hard to know which brands are good. The sub $500 ones are likely to be disappointing. There are a bunch in the $800 to $1000 range. The biggest thing I see is the higher priced ones (over $1000) are 48v, have over 10ah+ batteries and 500w motors. Is that the sort of specs to go with?
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Weasels wake

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Re: Cycling
« Reply #18 on: January 03, 2019, 06:02:04 PM »
It really depends on where you plan on riding, if you live in a relatively flat area, you don't need as much power, 500W would probably work for you, but that's just one element.  Lots of cheap mass produced models hitting the market now, it's definitely a current growth market and catching on, so you just have to do your research.  My brand/price parameters were, less than 2K but more than 1K with a good reputation.
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Zooport

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Re: Cycling
« Reply #19 on: January 03, 2019, 07:29:34 PM »
What is your location, Crusinby?  I have a really nice e-bike that I no longer have use for here in North Carolina.  I might let it go fairly reasonably. 
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Cruisinby

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Re: Cycling
« Reply #20 on: January 03, 2019, 08:07:33 PM »
Thanks, but Im in CA.   I'm not really looking for an E-Bike, just wondering how far and how long people ride when rehabilating their knees.    Most days I'm doing 4 miles on a flat smooth surface with good results so far.


PonoBill

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Re: Cycling
« Reply #21 on: January 03, 2019, 08:54:28 PM »
The biggest difference with an e-bike is the distance traveled. I started my rehab with a non-recumbent trike and I was doing about 5-6 miles but frequently overdid it and had to spend downtime icing my knee. I added the mid-motor and a big battery (40AH at 48V) and the distance traveled in the same approximate time jumped to 20-30 miles. That eliminated the boredom of covering the same ground and let me explore a lot more, it also eliminated knee pain since I was never forced to crank hard because I had chosen my route poorly.

If you're just looking for useful rehab distance, you just need to let your body be your guide. I was doing multiple rides daily, frequently 30 miles in the morning and 20 at night. That's about 1 to 1.5 hours each ride. I frequently rode to a nice coffee shop in the morning, had some breakfast, and rode home.

Ride the glide, it's easy to convert a bike you already have, or buy a cheap 200 buck Mongoose from Walmart (or the like) and convert it. We've covered this extensively in older posts. Check out Luna Cycle for reasonable prices for Bafeng mid drive kits and batteries.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

 


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