[Tom]

After 3 months of waiting my Luna X1 was supposed to arrive today. Fedex just called to ask when I wanted it delivered, sigh. Apparently they have to set up appointment for residential deivery, so will have to wait 1 more day for the unboxing...

[Tom]

My Luna X-1 arrived today. Haven't had a chance to put it together but here are a few unboxing pics. A tad disappointed it weighed in at 56 pounds (Luna claims under 50) but I'm sure it will be a blast to ride.

[Brushwork]

Looks like x-mas came early!

[Cyclopath]

Looks pretty sweet! Ride it like you stole it.

[neek]

He's gotta come back for air (or at least electrons) sometime... I've been fascinated with e-bikes for a while but haven't yet pulled the trigger. I still see them as an expensive toy (not that there's anything wrong with that) vs. a genuinely useful tool. Opinion subject to change. Main questions/hangups are 1. How would overall exercise be affected? Would I still be motivated to go on long grueling road rides? I've ridden e-bikes and honestly I don't even know why they bother putting pedals on them as there's little motivation to work up a sweat. 2. Do I have the courage to replace one of the vehicles with it? Dumping the gas guzzler, which I keep around mostly for its high clearance, and using a bike for "last mile" trailhead access sounds appealing. But would I actually do that, and how would it affect non-solo hiking? 3. Something like the X-1 looks perfect for trailhead access, but something that could carry a kid and some groceries would be nice too. I certainly wouldn't get 2 e-bikes, yet it doesn't seem possible to find one that excels at everything. I guess you could ride a cargo bike up a dirt road but that doesn't sound fun at all. Insight appreciated. This is a great thread. Looking forward to Tom's full report. In reality I'll probably stick with the "acoustic" bikes but go e-car some day. Sigh, how boring.

[Tom]

As far as exercise I definitely get a work out. You may have noticed I've been getting out more this year on hikes and I owe a lot of my conditioning to riding my current e-bike. It's nice being able to set the level of assist to a comfortable level without over stressing the body when you are out of shape. Studies have shown people that ride e-bikes get a similar workout as riding a regular bike, they just ride farther. On my last bike/hike I was out of breath in spots before I even started hiking. My current e-bike does just fine on gravel roads so having a second e-bike opens up more opportunities to bring a partner along.

[call-151]

Sweet looking bike Tom! I have been following this (and other) threads with interest. A few weeks ago I bought a hardtail mountain bike from the bike shop and ordered a BBSHD motor kit and battery and plan to assemble it. There are plenty of forest service roads around here with gates or washouts at the beginning and plan on using an ebike for that.

[Tom]

I'm assume you're up in BC? Hopefully the rules are a little more sensible on FS roads. I'm quite happy with my Volton which is a BBS01. Didn't really need any more power, but looking forward to the extra battery capacity for longer rides.

[Riverside Laker]

Tom, if you are looking for a partner, I would enjoy trying one. I was gonna ride my (non E-) MTB up the Middle Fork some time this fall, but an e-bike would be a fun way to get there (or another destination). I just got the opposite to an "E-bike" gadget -- a smart trainer. Been fooling around with Zwift. Boy, do you get good exercise with it. The problem is that the electric part adds resistance. The good thing is there's good weather on Zwift.

[JPH]

To expand on what Tom said - I got an e-assist put on our longtail (Big Dummy) last spring and it’s been amazing. You get as much exercise as you want on an e-bike. Just adjust the level of assist. If you want to push the range, you need to do more work. If you only plan on going a distance that’s half the range, you could crank it up and never break a sweat. When commuting I’d estimate ~40% of the effort and ~60% of the time. This summer we rarely drove anywhere in town when it was just me and the kids, family bike everywhere. At 5 and almost 8 they were big enough that the longtail wasn’t really practical to ride most places in the city anymore since it was a total grind to get anywhere (we live on Beacon Hill). Now we fly by traffic jams and backed up stoplights and the kids love riding on the bike. I don’t think we’ll ever actually get rid of a car, but I’ve cut use of my car WAY back. One of the main reasons I got it was commuting traffic slowly crushing my soul. Now I’ll drop the kids off at school and ride it work. It is a fun tool for shuttle hikes – A few weeks ago I parked at Granite and rode up to Alpental for a hike from the Snow Lake TH to the Granite TH. Depending on how rough the road was it would be great on most roads. Middle Fork would be a little rough and I’d probably take it easy on the ride back to the parking lot, but it be OK – probably just let some air out of the tires. I’ve done that one on a commuter bike and a full suspension mtn bike and it was 1000x more fun on the mtn bike. I think the trade-off of zipping up the hill would be a bigger benefit than the reduced fun on the return trip. The bike is a beast though and there’s limited options for bike racks. Heck, it was a beast before getting the e-assist put on…

[Tom]

Got the X1 mostly assembled. Now just need the weather to cooperate.

[Tom]

Took it out for my first ride. Sadly, I think my X1 will be going back. Luna switched to steel gears and the motor is obnoxiously loud. Oh well...

[Backpacker Joe]

Ok ya, that's loud! I don't have E-bike experience, so its difficult to know what's normal.

[Tom]

I'm rationalizing it isn't that loud and the noise will dissipate as it breaks in. It's a shame as otherwise i love this bike. Has just enough power (more than you'll get with the name brand bikes limited by the European regs) but not crazy powerful.

[Brushwork]

Well that’s a bummer. It looked nice (speaking as a non biker). But looks aren’t what matter.