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Spoke Safety: a Technology That Will Make Streets Safer—for Everyone

The Sea Otter Classic is the largest cycling event in the world and aside from all the athletes who hope to stand on the podium, or just to finish, roughly 350 bike companies from around the world display their products in the expo area for riders to check out. Everyone present wants to convince attendees that their product will change the rider’s life for the better. Very few products can live up to such a claim, but this past weekend Electric Bike Report saw something that exceeds its hype.

Bosch releases first Smart System update, debuts new SmartphoneGrip

Last August Bosch launched the Smart System, a family of electric bike drive components and a new app poised to be the German motor maker’s launchpad towards a more connected e-bike future.

Aside from some new hardware (namely a larger battery), the most notable “smart” feature launched with the new Smart System was its ability to do over-the-air updates, allowing riders to update their bike’s software through the freshly released Bosch eBike Flow app.

Bosch today pushed the first update out to its ridership, marking the first time Bosch users will be able to utilize one of the most touted features of the new system.

The new smartphone grip mounts in place of the Kiox display.

Alongside the update, Bosch released the new SmartphoneGrip that, with some new additions to the eBike Flow app, turn your smartphone into a handlebar-mounted heads-up display that tracks your metrics and can help navigate.

The Coolest New E-Bikes We Saw at Sea Otter Classic 2022

The arrival of the Sea Otter Classic each year means it’s new bike time, as many major brands use the annual mass gathering of racers, enthusiasts and industry folk as a great opportunity for a high-visibility bike release.

This year proved no different, and the event’s massive expo area was crammed with new releases (and even a few new brands) showing off the latest and greatest offerings in their lineups. We saw several new and newly-refreshed eMTBs and a not necessarily brand new (but new to us) electric commuter bike with one of the most interesting suspension designs we’ve ever seen.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of the new e-bikes rolled out at Sea Otter this year, but these are the bikes that caught the Electric Bike Report team’s eye the most .

The Coolest Electric Cargo Bikes at Sea Otter Classic 2022

Electric bikes are great for lots of things, but perhaps where they shine the most (aside from zipping effortlessly up hills) is in their ability to haul heavy loads.

Be it people, groceries or even the components of a rolling small business, electric cargo bikes have become critical tools for those who wish to pedal lots of weight from one place to the next. Whatever they’re being used for, they’ve become wickedly popular.

At this year’s Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California, electric cargo bikes had a notably increased presence in the event’s expo area. There weren’t tons of them on show, but the fact they were being featured at all at the traditionally racing and high-performance oriented event made us perk up.

Electric Bike Report scoured the expo area for the coolest electric cargo bikes we could find, here’s what we came up with:

Sea Otter Classic 2022: E-Bike Accessories You Should Buy Right Now

Electric bikes are a gateway drug. The e-bike purchase itself is easy to plan and budget for, but it’s all the little items — the gloves, the lights, the bags — that get you.

Suddenly, before you know it, your garage will likely be flush with not just the e-bike you saved for, but with a host of other unplanned purchases you quickly realized you didn’t just simply want, you needed. If you’ve managed to fight the urge to buy a bunch of accessories alongside your bike, I commend you and highly suggest you move on from this post, because the 2022 Sea Otter Classic was chock-full of drool worthy items.

There are an innumerable number of cool trinkets on show at this year’s Sea Otter, including a big armful of items being designed specifically for the special use case of e-bikes. We saw saddles that push the limits of design and materials, super secure locks that yell when they’re tampered with and can be unlocked with your phone, we even saw specially-designed chain lube (because yes, e-bikes even need special maintenance).

Here’s our picks of some of the most exciting e-bike specific accessories that the Electric Bike Report staff saw on show this year.

Sea Otter Classic 2022: Best E-Bike Rated Helmets On Show

Though there is no specific safety standard for electric bike helmets in the United States, we’re seeing more and more “e-bike rated helmets” showing up on shelves in the U.S.

If you’re skeptical, I don’t blame you. From tires to seats and drivetrains to bike wash, it seems like there’s an e-bike specific something for anything. But when it comes to helmets (and, quite honestly, many of the components listed above), there actually is reason behind the e-bike specific rating.

The NTA-8776 safety standard is a Dutch-concocted designation given to bicycle helmets with heightened safety features designed to protect riders against the higher possible speeds capable on e-bikes. It’s a standard that’s really only applicable in Europe, but it’s something we’ve been seeing more and more in helmets sold on the U.S. market.

Electric Bike Report scoured the expo area at the 2022 Sea Otter Classic for e-bike rated helmets and found some pretty killer options, including popular helmets from some of the biggest names in the biz.

Ebike News: Van Moof New 5-series, Swytch Pocket Battery and Much More!

As a website with mainly US readers and also a good proportion of European ones, EBR tends not to report so much on what is happening directly in Asia. But a couple of smaller news stories this week demonstrate just how things change – and also perhaps how they stay the same.

Firstly we report on a couple of motor systems on display at the 2022 Taipei Cycle Show that show how more advanced and more reasonably priced motors might be making their way to western markets soon. For years the east was known for making basic – but often very effective – budget hub motors typified by the likes of Bafang. But good quality Bafang mid-drives are now appearing on more and more e-bikes in western markets.

And now Hyena looks to be developing lightweight hub motor systems with frame integrated batteries – perhaps similar to Mahle – and KHGears are looking to produce a downtube motor system – perhaps similar to Fazua – for western e-bike markets. No doubt these new systems would look to undercut their western developed counterparts on price. Yet at the same time as eastern companies increasingly target the west with evermore sophisticated motor systems, the Deloitte report we look at shows, ironically, how China’s own e-bike market still dwarfs that of the US and Europe combined as it has done for many years.

In this week’s e-bike news:

Van Moof’s all-new 5-series e-bikes
Swytch’s new pocket sized battery
Canyon to use bigger battery and all-carbon frame in 2002 Spectral:ON
Himiway Pro Escape battery capacity increase
New motor systems shown by Hyena and KHGears at Taipei
Japanese electric flying machine makes a public appearance
Market overview from the US, Europe and China

How Much Does it Cost to Charge Your Electric Bike?

How much electricity does an e-bike use?

The best way to answer this question is to look at the amount of energy e-bikes typically use and to compare that to other means of transport to show just how economical they are in power consumption terms – very little by most measures!

Comparing watts is the best way of measuring and comparing when answering the question; it’s really handy as not only is it a measure of electrical energy but it’s also a measure of energy consumed by any type of movement, from walking to flying and everything in between. As watts is a measure of instantaneous power, watt-hours are an even more useful measure – they are simply the number of watts an e-bike (or anything else) consumes in an hour – hence watt hours (Wh).

Watt hours are also commonly used to measure how much electrical energy is in an e-bike battery. 1000 Wh batteries are large for an e-bike but not uncommon. For ease of comparison let’s assume a 1000Wh (or 1 kilowatt hour – kWh) e-bike battery can take a single rider 100km (around 60 miles) – that’s quite feasible based on the many real-world tests EBR has done with our electric bike reviews.

Now let’s compare that measure of traveling 100km on 1kWh of electricity to other ways of getting around in the following graphic, all based on figures found at the Without Hot Air website.

Of course, many of the other means of transport here don’t use electricity but they all use energy extracted from various fuels at rates that can be equated to kWh. So an e-bike uses around one twenty fifth of the electrical energy used by an electric car to move and one fiftieth of the energy used by a plane. These are of course very rough figures based on averages and assumptions; but the point remains, e-bikes use very, very little electrical energy when compared to alternatives.

Now let’s look at just how much that electricity needed to recharge your e-bike will cost.

E-Bike Fitness: How to Burn Calories and Lose Weight

Let’s get one myth cleared up straight away (which you probably know already if you are reading this article); using an e-bike is not ‘cheating’ nor is it ‘lazy’ as some detractors have claimed.

If you are an extremely fit non-e-bike rider and suddenly swap to riding an e-bike that you ride on full power all the time there may indeed be some fitness loss – but who does that? Very few, I would hazard a guess.

Whatever your circumstances, e-biking gives you exercise. And exercise, in whatever form, means burning calories.

There is much evidence pointing to the fact that e-bikes promote more active lifestyles than riders previously had, perhaps replacing a car, train or bus journey or simply encouraging riders to get out and about more often.

It all comes down to the fact that riding an e-bike is easy, convenient, and fun and so one of the easiest ways to get and stay active and burn calories. In other words, at the most basic level simply getting out on a bike or an e-bike as much as you can simply has to be a good thing.

But what if you want to maximize the number of calories you burn on an e-bike? A bit of background knowledge and some riding tips will go a long way to helping you burn the most calories possible whilst out on your e-bike.

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How many calories can you burn riding an e-bike?

First off don’t get confused by terminology; calories refers to food calories in fitness and health-based articles such as this one. They are also abbreviated as cals and kcals. You may occasionally see reference to large calories which is also what food calories are.

These distinctions have been made because early scientific reference was to small calories, a much smaller unit of measurement and one that started to be used in early scientific experiments that sought to more accurately quantify energy.

You may get more exercise (especially on a very hilly ride) with a ‘regular’ bike than with an e-bike. This article from Average Joe Cyclist compares the same hilly ride done on a regular bike then done on an e-bike. It found that 444 calories were burned with the e-bike over the course of a one-hour ride and 552 calories on the same route with the same e-bike but with electric assistance turned off.

Yes – the regular bike gave more exercise on an hour per hour basis, but there are a couple of important points to add.

Firstly, riding with electrical assistance resulted in burning only 20% fewer calories and as the article notes ‘burning 440 calories in an hour is a big deal – done regularly, this kind of calorie burn could result in significant weight loss.’

Secondly, this is comparing riding the two bikes for the same amount of time; all the evidence suggests that e-bikers ride longer and more often than regular bikers – so, in the long run, may well burn more calories.

That figure of 440 calories per hour of course relates to a particular individual on a particular e-bike over a particular course. The figure will vary wildly depending on the above factors and several others including the individual’s weight and fitness, how much pedal effort they are capable of, or choose to put in, the power settings used and weather conditions and so on.

However, there does seem to be a broadly accepted range of how many calories you can burn e-biking. This helpful Canyon article comes up with figures for riding a non-electric bike at between 200 and 600 calories per hour, adding ‘Using an electrical motor for support results in a lower training effort and reduces calorie consumption proportionally. Sports medicine specialists assume 300 calories per hour for an average level of effort’. The article puts the e-bike range of calorie burning at between 100 and 600 calories.

How can I maximize the number of calories burned on an e-bike?

Given that it is extremely difficult to measure very accurately the number of calories you are burning on an e-bike it’s probably best not to get too hung up on trying to quantify the actual figure but to adopt riding habits that mean you are going to burn more rather than fewer calories, as set out below:

Adjust your power setting. Turning your power level down a notch has to be one of the easiest and most sure fire ways to burn a few extra calories. And if you have a throttle on your e-bike try and use it as sparingly as possible, if at all. This tip works best on torque sensing systems or on the more sophisticated motion sensing systems; on very basic motion sensing systems turning the power level down may just serve to act as a speed limiter as on these systems with primitive control electronics, especially if it’s a big heavy e-bike.
How hard are you pressing on the pedals and how quickly are you turning them (cadence)? The harder you press on the pedals and the quicker you turn them the more calories you will burn.
Pace is key. Try and cycle at a good fast pace. Getting up to speed and maintaining it takes more energy than just tootling along at a slightly lower speed.

Try and adopt a sporty, active riding style and in particular try and stand out of the seat and pull on the bars. Some e-bikes’ geometry is better suited to this than others but even if you only do it a few times on your ride you will be working more groups of muscles and burning more calories than if you were just sat down. It also really helps to get up those hills quickly.
Weight. Whilst the fittest riders look lean and may ride very lightweight electric bikes this isn’t really the quickest way to burn calories. If you are carrying a few extra pounds yourself you will find it quite easy to get out of breath and burn extra calories! Just putting a few extra kilos in your panniers will help but why not put that extra weight and effort to practical use and use a trailer to do the shopping by e-bike? If you follow the other tips in this article and carry a bit of extra weight (and don’t just dial up the power to help move the weight) you’ll certainly be burning extra calories.
The more hills the better! The bigger and steeper the better! As long as you leave enough battery capacity to get back home you can’t really have too much climbing when it comes to burning calories.
Route surface. Just like climbing, going off-road will mean more effort. And going off-road and climbing is even better.

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Just how hard should I push myself?

Long-term exercise is always better than irregular but very intense. If you can feel yourself breathing harder and your muscles straining and eventually getting even a little tired then you know you have probably been burning calories. If really out of breath and your muscles start to feel a mild burning then you are probably burning as many calories as you can without going to excess.

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What other e-bike technology could be useful in burning calories?

If you want to take things a step further and get feedback from your e-bike, then there is plenty of technology out there to help you. Whilst such ‘extra’ tech certainly isn’t necessary to allow you to burn calories it can be a nice aid and perhaps most of all it’s a way of motivating yourself by the constant feedback of your input it gives you; real-world data in real-time doesn’t lie…

Quite a few e-bikes have some kind of basic ‘power meter’ display that shows you how hard the motor is working – a good reminder for you to keep the motor power to the minimum necessary.

Far more advanced are Bosch’s Kiox and Nyon handlebar display systems that can show both human and motor power input in graphic form and also have the ability to connect to some heart rate devices like Fitbit or Wahoo.

The video below is a very long walk-through of the functions of probably the most advanced riding analytical tool out there, the Nyon. For detail on features useful to motivate to ride for fitness and burn calories check out the following segments:

10.34-12.05 The ‘Usage’ screen shows a % breakdown of how much you use different power modes. Try and decrease your % of the higher assist modes over time as you get fitter and use more calories. Clearly a good motivational tool.

46.50-48.11 Info on heart rate devices that will (or won’t) connect to the Nyon system.

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Can you lose weight riding an e-bike?

Of course! Follow the tips above, go out riding as often as you can and you’ll be burning a good amount of calories and that’s certainly one part of the equation in losing weight.

The other equally important part of the equation is of course the calories you consume. This isn’t a dietary weight loss tips article, but if you can keep in mind a few figures it might help you keep your calorie input under control and align your e-bike exercise with it.

An average male needs around 2,500 calories a day to maintain the same weight, the average woman around 2,000. Assuming you are maintaining this calorie intake, it has long been held that 3,500 calories burned (for example through e-biking) equals one pound of weight loss.

In other words, if you e-biked vigorously an hour every day and managed to burn 500 calories an hour then you would lose a pound a week (assuming you kept your food intake within the daily calorie limits above).

Of course, this isn’t an exact science (and the latest research suggests it may be a little optimistic).

Other E-Bike Fitness Metrics

There are numerous other methods of gauging whether you are getting enough exercise on your e-bike, calorie counting aside. One of the easiest is to try and stick to recommended weekly exercise levels set down by the World Health Organization.

For adults in the 18-64 age range this equates to at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity. Use the info in the Just how hard should I push myself section above to judge how hard your exercise is – or tech-heads might prefer to go down the high tech route below….

If you aren’t the kind of person who likes plenty of data and who just wants to get out on their e-bike and have fun then you might want to skip this section.

On the other hand, if you have the latest Bosch Nyon display (or a system with similar capabilities) then you might just want to read on – it may help you get the most out of the ability of the Nyon (or similar system) to measure your heart rate. This can be yet another useful way of gauging the amount of exercise you are getting.

A normal heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm) though it will vary depending on when it is measured and what you were doing immediately before the reading.

For an effective workout, you should aim to maintain your heart rate to the right level while you are exercising. This means firstly working out a safe range of bpm. To do this, you first need to work out your maximum heart rate (MHR) – maximum heart rate depends on your age. One way to work out your MHR is to take your age away from 220. For example, the maximum heart rate for a 42 year old is 220 – 42 = 178 bpm.

To use heart rate data even more precisely you should first know your target heart rate (THR) which is between 50% and 70% of your maximum heart rate. To use the example of a 42-year-old again, THR would be between 178 x 50% = 89 bpm and 178 x 70% = 125 bpm. So a 42-year-old e-biker should aim to exercise with their heart rate between 89 and 125 bpm for 150 minutes weekly of moderate-intensity exercise. For vigorous-intensity exercise aim for 70-85% of your max heart rate calculated in a similar fashion.

150 minutes (or less if you want to be vigorous!) a week isn’t much time if you are out having fun on an e-bike.

Important note: If you have a heart condition or other serious medical condition it is important that you check with your doctor before doing any new exercises, in case they are not suitable for you. A warm-up and cool-down period of moderate exercise is always a good idea if planning vigorous exercise to guard against muscle injury.

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General advice on staying in shape with an e-bike

OK, so you are out and about on your e-bike and it’s keeping you fit and healthy. If you want to take things to the next level and become progressively more in shape and stronger and keep burning calories here’s a few tips to help you get much fitter on your e-bike:

Learn the three basics of riding to get fitter and practice them– overload, progression and recovery. In short, push yourself a little beyond your limits (overload), keep repeating this as you get fitter and can physically push yourself more (progression) and allow recovery time in proportion to the intensity you have been riding at. Don’t be mystified by names of different training regimes such as Fartlek or interval training – they all follow these three basic principles.
While you can get into a shape riding an ebike with any motor, you will have more success pedaling a good bike with a mid drive motor.
Stretch before and after to help avoid injuries. This is important, as e-bike-riding can involve being in a fixed position for quite long periods. Alternatively, look at another sport that involves a wide range of movement, such as swimming to complement your e-bike riding. A correctly set-up bike is also important to avoid potential injury and strains.
Mix it up. This will help keep your e-biking interesting. Combine sociable group riding with your own fitness plan and holiday challenges. Having a suitable plan, however basic, and sticking to it is the key to getting fitter, but can feel like a chore if pursued in isolation. Increasingly traditional biking events such as sportives are open to e-bikes and are popular and fun outings that let you measure yourself competitively if you wish (all riders are timed with results published), but with the focus on a mix of abilities and sociability. And of course there are plenty of e-bike specific races, especially e-mtb ones. Gadget obsessives may enjoy competing with others using a GPS device and something like Strava software (though be sure to mark your rides as e-bike ones to avoid spoiling the system for non-e-bike riders).
Eat a balanced diet to help lose weight and improve performance on your e-bike.

However much you do just remember – e-biking can give you the all-important cardiovascular exercise that the urban, 21st-century lifestyle so often lacks, and can also help build muscle strength and endurance as well as improve all-round physical and mental wellbeing. All the more reason to keep getting out on your e-bike and enjoying the experience.

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Long Range E-Bikes: Intro

The electric bike world has plenty of sprinters, heavy lifters and high jumpers, but what about marathon runners?

There’s lots of options for long range electric bikes on the market today, from dual-battery eMTBs to sleek super commuters and everything in between. But, with batteries being the most expensive part of an e-bike, the question quickly changes from how far you’d like to go to how much money you’re willing to spend.

Herein lies the trick of long-range e-bikes: You’ve got to balance your distance needs with practicality and budget.

That balancing act is tougher than you might think, but armed with some basic information about a bike’s electrical specs, a little knowledge of your own pedaling abilities and (as always) a realistic grasp of what you’d like to do with the bike, you can confidently choose a long-distance e-bike that won’t cost an arm and a leg.

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Long Range E-Bikes: Intro

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