Hi all,
I decided to spend my personal injury payout (I was run over from the left on a mini roundabout in 2020) to replace my worn out dawes sonoran - the first bike paid for by my claim.
At the time all I wanted was an equivalent replacement for my voyager 200. However despite direct line (the insured guilty parties' insurer) telling me from photos the bike was a write off... they backtracked. I bought the cheapest equivalent spec bike that was available - The Dawes sonoran. Direct line did not accept this. Bear in mind this was during COVID when EVERYONE wanted a bike because your were otherwise restricted to your locality. The voyager 200 was last available at £350 and the sonoran was £550. - so instead I went for a personal injury claim which cost them a lot more than £550 and didn't cost me a penny.
So in addition to the Sonoran the money stretched to these.... and I have about £500 spare.....
So after the pre-amble we get to the crux of the matter....
The pinnacle lithium 3 is lower geared than my old sonoran and since I rarely if at all spun out in top gear I wanted something with a bit more hill climbing ability because #wales.
sonoran 48-38-28 on the chainwheel and 11-34 on the 8 speed cassette vs:
lithium 3 44-32-22 on the chainwheel and 11-34 on the 9 speed cassette.
So far I've found the lithium 3 to be like a hot hatch and it is lighter than the sonoran and I can feel it.
The e-bike on the other hand comes from Ceaya its their RX80 model and is branded burchda.
It feels like a Grand Tourer in comparison. Thing is it weights 33kg. I'm not sure if the 18AH 48V battery weight of 4.8kg is included. So a lot of the battery is used to propel this behemoth along. I can cycle to around 15 mph on the flat with NO power but getting up to speed is way more effort than the Lithium.
If you use the motor then it can be quicker to get to 15 than the lithium depending on which level of PAS you use.
I estimate I can get around 50 miles out of the battery which is what I could just about do on the sonoran. The difference being a much more plush and cushioned ride. It really is like cycling in an armchair. I cycled to mumbles to have a pint in mumbales.
The big pull up the hill melted away, yet I still had a great workout returning up the gradual incline home on pas 1 or 2 (out of 9).
So in this instance the two bikes had different exercise profiles. A longer more sustained effort on the rx80 or a shorter more intense effort on the lithium.
Both bikes can go downhill at similar speeds yet with an ebike I did 14mph up mumbles hill rather than 8mph on a push bike therefore less annoyance for other road users and a quicker overall journey time.
Of course if you use a high PAS setting you're not going to get that level of exercise but you can choose what you want to put into a ride.
Which follows that any comments of "you don't get exercise on an e-bike" are not always true.
The plan is to use the e-bike for lazy long touring with the push-bike for a 'quick' nip down to the pub
I decided to spend my personal injury payout (I was run over from the left on a mini roundabout in 2020) to replace my worn out dawes sonoran - the first bike paid for by my claim.
At the time all I wanted was an equivalent replacement for my voyager 200. However despite direct line (the insured guilty parties' insurer) telling me from photos the bike was a write off... they backtracked. I bought the cheapest equivalent spec bike that was available - The Dawes sonoran. Direct line did not accept this. Bear in mind this was during COVID when EVERYONE wanted a bike because your were otherwise restricted to your locality. The voyager 200 was last available at £350 and the sonoran was £550. - so instead I went for a personal injury claim which cost them a lot more than £550 and didn't cost me a penny.
So in addition to the Sonoran the money stretched to these.... and I have about £500 spare.....
So after the pre-amble we get to the crux of the matter....
The pinnacle lithium 3 is lower geared than my old sonoran and since I rarely if at all spun out in top gear I wanted something with a bit more hill climbing ability because #wales.
sonoran 48-38-28 on the chainwheel and 11-34 on the 8 speed cassette vs:
lithium 3 44-32-22 on the chainwheel and 11-34 on the 9 speed cassette.
So far I've found the lithium 3 to be like a hot hatch and it is lighter than the sonoran and I can feel it.
The e-bike on the other hand comes from Ceaya its their RX80 model and is branded burchda.
It feels like a Grand Tourer in comparison. Thing is it weights 33kg. I'm not sure if the 18AH 48V battery weight of 4.8kg is included. So a lot of the battery is used to propel this behemoth along. I can cycle to around 15 mph on the flat with NO power but getting up to speed is way more effort than the Lithium.
If you use the motor then it can be quicker to get to 15 than the lithium depending on which level of PAS you use.
I estimate I can get around 50 miles out of the battery which is what I could just about do on the sonoran. The difference being a much more plush and cushioned ride. It really is like cycling in an armchair. I cycled to mumbles to have a pint in mumbales.
The big pull up the hill melted away, yet I still had a great workout returning up the gradual incline home on pas 1 or 2 (out of 9).
So in this instance the two bikes had different exercise profiles. A longer more sustained effort on the rx80 or a shorter more intense effort on the lithium.
Both bikes can go downhill at similar speeds yet with an ebike I did 14mph up mumbles hill rather than 8mph on a push bike therefore less annoyance for other road users and a quicker overall journey time.
Of course if you use a high PAS setting you're not going to get that level of exercise but you can choose what you want to put into a ride.
Which follows that any comments of "you don't get exercise on an e-bike" are not always true.
The plan is to use the e-bike for lazy long touring with the push-bike for a 'quick' nip down to the pub
