By Lennard Zinn
Lightweight Electric Bikes
E-Bikes generally tend to be heavyweights. But since they have motors, who cares? You can just overcome the heavy weight with more motor assist, right?
Well, a 60-to-80-pound e-bike is WAY too much bike to easily get up and down to an apartment. Even pushing it up a few stairs into a single-family home is a lot to ask. And it is overly unwieldy to put on a car rack for a destination ride.
A 30-to-40-pound e-bike, on the other hand, is easy to put on the hitch rack of a car or truck. It’s even possible to load an e-bike this light onto a roof rack, especially if you first remove the (~8-pound) battery. Try that with a 70-pound e-bike!
A lightweight electric bike that weighs 30-to-40-pounds is also possible to fly with in a normal bike case, provided you can arrange for a battery at the other end (big lithium-ion batteries are not allowed on commercial airplanes). I have flown to Sardinia (Italy) and to Ireland with my lightweight e-bike and enjoyed wonderful rides there with friends that would not have been possible any other way—due to my heart condition mandating an e-bike and my height making a rental e-bike a non-starter. Regarding arranging for a battery at your destination, we at Zinn Cycles even rent Bosch batteries if you want to fly with your e-bike to ride here in Colorado!
Tui Step Thru Titanium E-bike
36 pounds and very responsive
lightweight step thru ebike from other brand
55lbs - comfy but sluggish and less responsive
Possibly most important, affecting every ride, is the handling of the bike. A lightweight electric bike is easy to maneuver and feels lively and responsive—like a nice race bike, deftly darting into and out of corners. It floats lightly over bumps that a heavy e-bike slams into and doesn’t require a death-grip on the handlebar to keep it under control. I ride my lightweight e-bike in competitive weekly cyclocross group-training rides on rough, technical courses with steep ascents and descents, tight (often acute) turns, and barriers. Thanks to its motor and nimbleness over fast bumps, I easily keep up with the fastest riders on the open sections, and thanks to its lightweight, race-bike geometry, and maneuverability, I don’t lose any placings on the corners or over barriers (I do lose some ground on the obligatory run-ups—on foot, which has as much to do with my age and heart condition as with the bike’s weight.)
It’s a joy to ride a Class 3 (up-to-28mph-assist) lightweight electric bike on road rides in the mountains and plains (especially into the wind!) as well as on gravel rides on any terrain, whether solo or with groups. It feels like riding a nice race bike when you were 20 years old and fit (except without the heavy sweating and deep exhaustion, or the grim laboring against headwinds)!
A heavy e-bike simply doesn’t give you that light feeling of freedom out on a ride. Sure, it can be practical for commuting, lumbering along on crowded streets, fending off puddles with big fenders while loaded with briefcases, clothes changes, and other luggage. But take that e-bike on a group ride and other riders will at least give you a wide berth and maybe completely eschew riding with you, fearful of being mowed down by that huge thing carrying so much momentum. And riding solo into the mountains or on windy, rolling roads on a behemoth like that does not impart a feeling of being one with the road and nature, especially on gravel roads and trails where every bump imparts a hard, loud, uncomfortable bang! through the bike and up into your spine, arms, and shoulders.
Off road, lightweight electric mountain bikes can get you to the tops of technical trails that you’ve always been forced to dab on when riding a standard mountain bike under human power only, imparting a wide grin and deep sense of satisfaction. And when you get to the top, coming down on one is easily controllable and relatively smooth. Compare that to the fearsome experience of having to come down a windy, rough trail on a heavy e-bike. You’d be hanging on for dear life, feeling each and every bump. Or, heaven forbid, should you find yourself atop a steep, off-camber slickrock sandstone ramp on such a bike, its unwieldy mass would be likely to take you clattering off the side of the mountain if you let its pedal clip the rock.
On snow, a lightweight e-fatbike is a much different experience of joy and technical prowess over the gleaming surface than wallowing around on a heavy e-bike, auguring into face plants on corners when the front end plows in, and laboriously hefting it back out of the snow. Simply trying to get started up again is an ordeal on a bike like that when the rear tire digs straight down into the snow when you start pedaling. And then you still must load that cumbersome thing back onto your rack to drive home afterward!
Riding a lightweight e-bike is a bit like finding the fountain of youth. Give yourself the gift of a nice titanium one here, here, here, or, specifically for small riders, here!
