Is it worth investing in E Bikes if you have a motorhome?

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 Is it worth investing in E bikes if you have a motorhome?

Our answer would be a definitive YES!

It is not an understatement to say that E bikes have transformed our lives and, in this blog, we consider their advantages and disadvantages, examine what we have learned about using them in conjunction with Florrie (our old caravan) and Bryony (our new motorhome) and offer up some points to consider, if you are thinking of investing in one.

When we converted to E bikes, our bike dealer Craig was keen to point out that E bikes turned you into a daily cyclist. A recent survey, apparently, had shown that 55% of standard road bike owners cycled once or more per week, but it rose to 93% for E bike owners. 

(Update: since we first posted this blog on EBikes, we have all been through difficult lockdown times. During the lockdown, bike sales rose by more than 60% on 2018 figures according to national bike retailers. EBike sales doubled, accounting for 20% of the overall bike market. In addition, since we have been back touring we have noticed far more motorhomers seem to have made the switch to EBikes; no longer are they being seen as a luxury.)   

Almost two years on and actually that survey wasn’t far wrong, where we are concerned. Steve has just completed his 1900th mile on his Trek Powerfly Four and Maggie isn’t far behind him on her Trek Verve 5 hybrid.

 

So, what have we found the advantages of using E bikes to be?

o   They allow us to travel far greater distances each trip that we did on our old bikes and we cycle faster, thus complete a trip more quickly, which then still gives us time in the day to do other things.

o   They are as easy to maintain as our old standard bikes.

o   You only ever have to try ‘turbo mode’ on a hill once to genuinely appreciate an E Bike – they make easy work of hilly terrain.

o   If we forget to charge them and they run out of battery power, we can continue to use them as standard bikes.

o   They are versatile, going through mud, gravel and along rough tracks. Steve has taken his across the roughest Dartmoor terrain on a number of occasions.

o   Teamed with a good quality pannier bag and rack, our E bikes can carry a fair amount of food shopping and/or gear.

o   Easier to cycle on and requiring less effort to pedal, our knees are subject to less physical stress. With four different modes available at the touch of a button, we tend to select the lowest modes necessary for the task in hand, so that we are still physically challenged.

o   So far, we have found them pretty weatherproof.

o   Cheap to charge, dealers tend to agree that it costs on average 1p for 4 miles of distance. Our bikes can, on Eco setting, cover around 50 miles in a day – so around 13 p per day? (Steve managed to cycle 70 miles on one battery charge last year across varied terrain).

Essentially, Ebikes assist your pedalling with electric power. Don't expect them to provide their own propulsion.  Ours came with useful little computer display modules on the left of the handlebar. Each unit shows which assistancemode you are in (eco, tour, sport or turbo); how much battery capacity you have; what speed you are doing; and how far you have travelled. 

 

What is definite, is that they have given us a sense of freedom, an ability to explore off the beaten track, so enabling us to have some real adventures and see an area in a greater depth of detail. We don't need to tow a car on extended tours because the bikes give us easily a 45 mile range out from our motorhome campsite e.g. 22 miles out and back again; or a 45 mile circle around the site in the outer hinterland. 

 

So, what are their disadvantages?

o   Maggie’s bike weighs in at around 21 kgs. Steve’s is a beastie weighing in at 25 kgs. These are heavy bikes! You have to factor this in when calculating your payload allowances. E Bikes can eat in to that total rapidly!

o   Most rear wall mounted bike racks won’t be suitable for a pair of good quality E Bikes – we needed a tow ball mounted bike rack, one that could take the weight – in our case – around 46 kgs worth of bikes! So, factor in the extra cost of a quality bike rack and possibly a tow bar as well, if your vehicle doesn’t have a garage. Our bike rack extends the length of our motorhome and may possibly present a grounding risk on steep hill corners or getting on ferries in the future. 

(Update: we had a horrid realisation not so long ago when we put the motorhome on a weigh station. Whilst we were well inside the 3.5T overall weight, the bikes, tow bar and bike rack caused the rear axle weight limit to be exceeded by 60Kg. Thus we had to up-plate the motorhome and fit semi airbag suspension as well as new tyres on all wheels. You can find a post about what we did here https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2021/05/up-plating-your-motorhome-and-fitting.html  )

o   If you are thinking of storing them in a garage – will the handles fit through the door? Will you have the height for them? Will they be easy to get in and out given what else you store in the garage?

o   You get what you pay for and the key issues here with E Bikes are battery life and motor quality. Our Bikes have 400- and 500-watt batteries and top of the line Bosch motors. The batteries can be charged fully in around 4 – 5 hours off an EHU. We haven’t tried charging them off the 12v system in Bryony. We doubt if that could even be done without installing an inverter. Thus, there are implications for your managing where and when you charge E Bikes when on tour. )Battery capacities on Ebikes do vary, starting from 250Wh. We would recommend get the biggest battery capacity you can afford because it will will, on the whole, give you further cycle range.)

o   Basic E Bikes start at £500 but various reports suggest they can be unreliable. Reasonable ones can be bought from £1100. Expect to pay £2000+ for really decent E Bikes. Most cheaper bikes have hub motors on the rear wheel, along with throttles. More expensive bikes tend to have centre located motors which directly drive the pedals. (With the centre of gravity being much lower on such bikes, stability is much better for riders). When we talk to dealers, they recommend the centre located motors. 

o   It is hard work cycling an E Bike up a hill when its battery is depleted!

o   Security – E bikes are expensive and a prime target for thieves, so you need to give careful consideration to how you will secure them on a rack, especially from an insurance cover point of view. Our Thule bike rack has ‘locking arms’ and it also locks onto the tow ball so it can’t be lifted off. In addition, we secure the bikes to the tow frame and to the bike rack with several Gold Secure ‘D Locks’, some half inch braided steel cables and link chains and then two ‘ear piecing’ sound alarms. Unless we are about to use them, the bikes are also covered with two durable bike covers held in place by rope and bungees. This is a lot of extra weight and hassle but our aim here is to slow down and inconvenience any potential bike thieves.

(Update: on our recent tour of mid Wales, we went canoeing on the River Wye and left the motorhome in a car park. When we returned, someone had tried to remove the bikes. The rear tyre on mine had been deflated and its spindle unscrewed in an attempt to remove the wheel. Only our elaborate security measures had stopped the bikes from being stolen. It clearly was taking too much time to try and remove all the locks and so whoever it was left). 

o   E Bikes come with some hefty insurance cover costs and occasionally some ‘definite musts’ and ‘restrictions’ in the small print!

 

Additional things to consider

It is easy to forget the additional things – pannier bags, a toolkit, bike helmets, bike covers, security locks, a good set of road lights etc. It all adds up and comes out of that critical payload availability figure. We found after our first trip out that mudguards were essential, especially if you dont want to waste time cleaning off the back of your waterproofs! It is also worth noting that as the law stands currently in the UK, you have to be aged 14+ to ride a E Bike and their speed is limited to around 15.7 mph.

Regarding battery positions on ebikes - some come built into the frame; others are lift off ones - located on the frame or a pannier over the rear wheel. Our personal view is that batteries which can be lifted out and off the bike are more versatile because you don't then have to charge the whole bike in situ. 

 

We are using our existing ‘older’ E Bikes but there are now some great alternatives out there for motorhomers and if we were starting from scratch, we would seriously look at some of the folding E bike options, saving weight, space and possibly having to fit a tow bar to carry them on a rack. 

In saying this, it seems to us that the battery and the motor are the things you must think about carefully, followed by deciding what you will use the bike for. Battery size, for example, determines your range and affects the weight of the bike. This last issue is also a major consideration because it dictates how you transport your bike on your motorhome. 

(I recently called in an an EBike shop on our recent Wales tour and was startled at the sheer range and price variations. I could have bought a bike in any shape, size and budget. From hybrid to mountain bikes, from road bikes to folding ones. however, for a decent bike, with a decent motor and battery, it was noticeable that prices had hiked upwards. I would have had to drop £3500 to replace my current bike, which cost substantially less than that two years ago.  

You can get more useful information about E bikes at these sites:

https://www.bicycling.com/skills-tips/a20044021/13-things-about-e-bikes/

https://www.rutlandcycling.com/pages/e-bike-buying-guide/ebikes-vs-regular-bikes.aspx

https://www.raleigh.co.uk/gb/en/electric-bike-knowledge/how-do-electric-bikes-work/

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/electric-bikes/article/electric-bikes-everything-you-need-to-know-a5UTk3O02pO0

(Note: we are not affiliated to, nor do we gain anything, from any of the above websites in any way).

We hope this post gives you some things to consider if you are thinking of getting E Bikes. If we have missed anything out, drop us a comment and we will update the post accordingly. If you have any photos of you enjoying your E Bikes whilst out motorhoming, then send us a ‘postcard, a photo with caption. We would love to share it on our ‘postcards from other motorhomers’ blog.

 

In the meantime, stay well, stay safe, take care out there and have fun motorhoming.

 

Steve and Maggie

 

If you would like to find out ore about who we are then visit these sites:

https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2020/10/welcome-to-our-blog.html

https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2020/11/who-are-main-characters-in-our-blog.html

(Update: We have now used our Ebikes to cycle extensively around Norfolk, Exmoor, The Llangollen Canal, much of  the Land's End and Lizard areas as well as extensive areas of North Wales and the South Wales Valleys and Brecon Beacons. We really wouldn't be without them.  Back home, we are out on them at least twice a week.) 

Postscript:

there has been an interesting discussion about E bike and motorhomes on the Autosleepers owners forum recently. The discussion centred on how to carry heavy E bikes and whether you needed to use a tow rack or a wall mounting frame. 

Here are some useful additional websites with alternative ways of carrying your E bikes

https://www.fiammastore.com/Fiamma-Carry-Bikes-For-Motorhomes/Fiamma-Carry-Bike-Lift-77

https://www.alko-tech.com/uk/velo-iii

One contributor suggested an interesting combination - a Dave Cooper trail bike rack on the tow ball and then a wall mounted rack above - thus distributing the weight across the wall and tow ball

http://www.davecooper.co.uk/bike-racks/motorcycle-racks

You can find details of the Autosleeper Owners Forum here 

https://www.autosleeper-ownersforum.com/

Postscript 2 - Caring for your E Bike batteries

We have now done nearly 3000 miles on our E Bikes and at least 1000 of that has been since we've had Bryony. We are learning that battery care is as important as bike cleaning! A new battery for my bike would currently set me back around £500. 

Our batteries are Bosch lithium ion ones and so they degrade very slowly over time. To get the best out of ours we are doing the following:

• avoiding extremes of temperature because over time these temperature extremes will reduce the charging capacity of the battery. We always charge them indoors or in the motorhome and we store them indoors when not using the bikes. With an optimum operating temperature of around 18 - 20C, extreme heat is bad and thinking ahead to when we start touring down in the Mediterranean, we know that we can't store the batteries directly in the sun or an unventilated motorhome! Extreme cold will affect range performance on the day and if stored outside in extreme cold will also reduce battery capacity. 
• keep your battery terminals clean. Our batteries are waterproof - tested in rain and through some 'deeper than we initially thought' fords and puddles. Don't use a pressure hose on the bikes or batteries. Clean any muck on the terminals on the battery or the frame with a soft brush and cloth. 
• our instruction book tells us to avoid vibration and shock to the batteries - ironic given mine is a mountain bike designed to go off trail across places like Dartmoor! We haven't quite worked out how to get around this issue yet. 
• we recharge the battery back to its full 5 bar level immediately after every bike ride even if the battery still has plenty of charge and then we disconnect it from the charger unit. Charging is done indoors using the correct charger pack. We could charge them by plugging the charger directly into the bike frame but we have never bothered. We always take the batteries off after a ride as a habit. 
• if you are storing your battery for a long period of time e.g. four months then Bosch recommend in their booklet to store the battery with a 30 - 60% charge. 
• we cannot talk about other batteries as we dont have experience of anything other than the Bosch ones. However, any battery manufacturer claiming high battery life and a huge number of recharge cycles, is probably best to be avoided. Stick to well known brand makes - they may be more expensive but remember 'you get what you pay for'.