www.jonsparks.zenfolio.com
THE SCEPTICS GUIDE TO E-BIKES
Jon Sparks wonders whether an e-bike is truly a quantum leap forward
G
uild member David Lintern, editor of Outdoor
Enthusiast (OE), fi rst approached me to
write about e-bikes in summer 2017. I met a
representative of Cube Bikes at the Cycle Show
that September. I fi rst got my hands on an actual
bike from Cube exactly ten months later. Behind
that bald outline lies something of a saga.
By the time the bike fi nally arrived, I’d also
acquired a second feature commission, this time
for Totally Active. I’d also had my fi rst ride on
an e-bike. It wasn’t a great fi rst impression, but
then it was a cheap conversion, not designed
from scratch as an e-bike. It was also, as a little
research revealed, not legal (see THE RULES).
That wasn’t all that had changed. Something
was aff ecting my ability to climb hills, whether on a
bike or on foot. It turned out that my haemoglobin
was low. This was subsequently traced to a
lymphoma. At time of writing treatment is going
well and haemoglobin back in the normal range.
Back then, it was a mystery, but the e-bike’s long-
delayed arrival looked remarkably timely.
The bike in question: Cube Stereo Hybrid Pro >
4 Outdoor focus | spring 2019
>>>> ARRIVAL OF THE CUBE
Extracting the bike from its box, I was immediately
struck by its sheer weight: around 23kg with
battery. A comparable bike without a motor is
about 10kg lighter. A 23kg bike might be fi ne
around Amsterdam, but for a mountain bike it
seemed morbidly obese. Even lifting it onto the
workstand to tinker with the gears was a struggle.
At this stage I was far from convinced I was
going to enjoy riding this beast but, right from the
fi rst outing, I began to revise my expectations.
Even on the streets of Garstang I could feel what
‘e-assist’ means. If I pressed on the pedals, the
bike responded, not taking over but sharing the
workload. If I stopped pedalling, the eff ect was
instant, almost as if I’d put the brakes on. Spinning
it up to 25kph wasn’t too hard but, above that
threshold, as e-assist cut out, maintaining speed
became dramatically harder.
Still cautious, my fi rst proper ‘mountain’ ride
was on the classic easy trails around Moor Divock,
overlooking Ullswater. The climbs still had me