We sell and service Human Power Augmented a.k.a. Electric bikes and ride them enthusiastically ourselves. See also our folding bikes at Folding Bikes West.
We invite you to visit our store, phone or email us. Ours is one of the last Internet shopping cart-free sanctuaries.
Electric Bikes Northwest
4810 17th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107 - Map
ph: 206/547-4621
Email form
Summer Hours:
Monday thru Friday: 11–6
Saturday: 11–4
Of course. However, the motor's power rating tells only part of the story. It is rather a matter of what the system delivers, specifically how much current is put through by the controller, i.e. power where literally 'the rubber meets the road', for how long high power can be sustained without overheating the motor and controller, and how conducive the bike's design is to concurrent pedaling. Hence riding a torque sensing, pedal activated 250 W Giant Twist a cyclist, desirous and comfortable with pedaling moderately, may do as well or better on steep hills than on a throttled bike of higher nominal power.
Most of us everyday riders may be comfortable pedaling up to about 100 W continuously. Very few of us can pedal anywhere near 250 W, except in a burst. While it requires only about 80 W of pedaling effort to maintain 14 mph on level ground several times more power is obviously needed on hills. The same pedaling effort that propels us with such ease on level ground thus becomes woefully inadequate for cresting steep hills. But by adding about 100 W of pedaling to a motor's 250 W you may be able to Watt-wise keep up with Lance Armstrong.
Sure but is an electric bike twice as strong as Lance Armstrong still truly a bicycle? And may such power and weight not overwhelm and leave us with the sense that we are no longer riding a bicycle? Of course we sell mostly to cyclists who enjoy pedaling—mostly concurrently with the motor but on occasion also in power-off mode. We favor augmenting, not replacing, human power.
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