I guess I don't want a full blown electric bike but a part time electric bike.
On a day to day basis I don't want to use an electric motor at all, I want the bike to behave as it normally does. When I would want to use electric power I would plan on still peddling. I am good shape endurance wise but a little help would not hurt.
I plan on doing trips of longer than 100 miles in a single setting once in awhile. On these trips I would want to provide all the power when going through towns and such but when on the open road I just want a little bit of help.
I could imagine using it when the road is open and going up hills or against the wind and would turn it off during downhills. On level ground and no head wind I really don't know if I would use it or not.
Here are my concerns. Would usage like this actually be counter productive? The additional weight and drag I wonder if it would actually increase the effort on a long trip rather than save effort. Also on daily trips would it decrease my human powered bike performance by much?
I am picturing a fairly weak system where I would be providing between 100-60% of the power so it would be providing 0-40% depending on the conditions.
I wonder if it will make me worse off rather than better off than pure human power.
On a day to day basis I don't want to use an electric motor at all, I want the bike to behave as it normally does. When I would want to use electric power I would plan on still peddling. I am good shape endurance wise but a little help would not hurt.
I plan on doing trips of longer than 100 miles in a single setting once in awhile. On these trips I would want to provide all the power when going through towns and such but when on the open road I just want a little bit of help.
I could imagine using it when the road is open and going up hills or against the wind and would turn it off during downhills. On level ground and no head wind I really don't know if I would use it or not.
Here are my concerns. Would usage like this actually be counter productive? The additional weight and drag I wonder if it would actually increase the effort on a long trip rather than save effort. Also on daily trips would it decrease my human powered bike performance by much?
I am picturing a fairly weak system where I would be providing between 100-60% of the power so it would be providing 0-40% depending on the conditions.
I wonder if it will make me worse off rather than better off than pure human power.