Can you coast to coast on an e-bike? | Riding the Cairn BRAVe 2.0 across Wales 

Every successful athlete needs a good coach.

@@davidr1431 😂😂😂

😂😂😂😂😂😂

Google J1772 to NEMA- its an adapter that lets you plug your ebike charger into a EV charging station..

@@somebody_keas Thank you for the information regarding the adaptor for a e bike. I am researching it. I am in the UK but the info and adverts seem USA based. I keep looking . Thanks.

Buy a moped

@@davidcoomber4050 That's a good idea if your commuting and even for rides out. I owned a moped great fun. I just use my E Bike for pleasure and for me it's good to vary the effort get some exercise and I often turn into woods and do a bit of Rough stuff. I have looked at mopeds recently and would fancy a vintage one I can maintain the new ones are not appealing. I used to have Motorbikes as well. As I was around for Winston Churchills Funeral I'm pushing it a bit ,so the bike keeps my legs going. You need the song, Funky Moped 😅by the comedian Jasper Carrot hes on here or on a music app. Cheers

The Brave 2.0 with a newer version of the motor weighs 17.8kg in size M

Thank you. It would be perfect, and in fact, since this video I have bought a Cairn Brave myself for that very reason. I have swapped the tyres for slicker tyres, but keeping the originals for off-road use. Adding a rack and mudguards it has become a very capable multi-use bike that I use for cargo loads, carrying kids, general riding, and work elements where off-road is needed. Since the video I did a 80km ride, with child on board with far more use of Trail and Boost modes and still finished with 2 bars on the battery. 22 miles would be easy.

@@MattPage Hey Matt. Im also looking into getting this bike for adventuring with my small 4 year old. Would love to hear what you use to carry your child on adventures and how it pairs with this ebike. Also, which tires would you swap to if used for more of a long distance adventure/gravel bike?

@@shreddy3447 I have a MacRide seat, and would definitely recommend that. For the tyres, go for something with good puncture resistance, as weight isn't a factor. The rack I have is a Tailfun, and a Burley Cargo trailer that can be used with a change of the rear axle.

@@MattPage Thank you!

@@MattPageWhich tires? Thanks

It's significantly more. Approx 100 miles coast to English border, or 200 miles north to south coast.

Unfortunately not. Would be great if it did though!

@@offroadcc Thanks for the swift reply 🙂 Great Video👍

Mid-drives and geared hubs tend to not do regeneration.

Quite an interesting video but slightly misleading in my opinion. Your a fit young man and as such you’ll ride the bike very much differently than many others who are perhaps not so fit and not so light and perhaps lack technique. Also surface, weight of bike, tyres all make a difference. Many folk would struggle to get that distance and elevation in one charge. My e-bikes all just a 250 battery but dependant on how I use them I can do metric centuries off road and imperial centuries on road but I don’t use the assist all the time. No matter what your still liable to get range anxiety and certainly up here in Scotland the chargers that are available don’t cover all systems. We have the odd cafe that supports charging and having enquired about when are there going to be more charge points there is little planned. What is needed is more business i.e cafes, campsites to sign up allowing bike charging even if it was for a small fee and I’m sure they would encourage more business there way. Meanwhile if I’m doing longer rides having Fazua systems I can carry a spare battery. Hopeful in the joy to distant future there will be a self charging e-bike to come.

On one charge, that's impressive.

There is no need to turn it off. Above 25kph the motor is not working, so no (or very little) battery life is being used.

Hi On my bike if you stop Pedaling there's no battery usage no matter if it's flat or downhill. Also above 25kph 15.5 mph assistance stops so also not using the battery. If on a long ride I vary how I ride. At the beginning when up to about 14mph if I'm on a nice smooth surface I switch Power off for a while and exercise my legs. I then go to eco. Again if I'm up to speed in the Countryside I pedal then stop and glide. As the speed drops slightly I pedal again. I make sure I'm in the right gear to slip back into pedaling. I always don't pedal on a downwards slope or hill. I try to use Eco and occasional standard and the High only when going up Hills. Using these methods I get 120 miles from a 630 wh Battery On a mixed route with hills. I'm not fit and passed my pension age some time ago.I am going to try with some panniers this year with about 20kg and see the results. If I remember 😂 I'll send you a note of how that worked out . Take Care👍

Av. speed was 21.8kph

Hi! Sorry for the delayed reply. Matt's assured me that the bike never left eco mode.

@@offroadcc no problem...he must be very fit then.. !

You have to remember so many factors affect battery life. The biggest one for us is rider weight and tyres. The Maxxis Rekon Race is so fast and Matt is a fit and lightweight rider. Which goes a long way to getting more from your battery.

I think around 10km range at the finish, or perhaps a little less showing from memory. The final section was quite flat so battery/motor use was minimal.

The battery capacity on the Fazua is significantly less, so while it is lighter for such a long distance the largest battery is the biggest factor.

Yes that's correct

The Bikes come equipped with a 630wh battery. Thanks to the tyre for the most part and of course Matts ability to manage the battery life well meant he managed the 190km challenge. You do have to remember so many factors affect the battery life of your Ebike.

Realistically, with such a battery on such roads, you ride 60km max.

they're just like normal bicycles...

The assistance cuts out at 15mph and they're heavier than a regular bike so I'm not sure the bridleways are going to be flooded with 20mph plus riders anytime soon

The increasing prices of e-bikes will naturally control how many of them are out there.

Ive seen far quicker bikes on the bridleways than a restricted 15.5 mph e bike there pretty slow compared to non e bikes with only the bonus been able to get up hills i own one with a shimano motor thats an absolute pile of shit infact unfixable once that e010 error code shows up so if you ever buy one make sure its a bosch 👍

@@megane230f1 yes as the technology takes off they will all get quicker , I've seen ebikes that superfast , more in common with motorbike than a bicycle :)

Matt's riding a medium in this video

Great for disabled people like me. Open your mind not everyone is able bodied.

to help on hills

Just to put our two pence in, the biggest benefit I've found with e-bikes is that they're fantastic for training. They let you get a lot more decent in which helps you build the relevant muscles that you won't work as hard on an analogue bike because you've burned your legs out while pedalling uphill. Plus, they're awesome if you want to get a quick spin in during a lunch break!

We think that's a fair comment. You are right; we don't believe Matt hides that in the video he was over the limit sometimes or using a reasonable amount of his own engine. The underlying idea of the video is to showcase how accessible adventures are with an E-Bike. At the end of the day, Matt rode an assisted bike to some of the most remote parts of Wales. If you are not a serious Acoustic bike rider that's quite hard to do without a car. Of course, it's the modern world and we can not deny everything needs a short snappy headline to grab your attention. That just happened to be a range story. Our hope is that you can see everything has its intricacies that can be analysed but overall the message of the video is sound. Not many people would risk having a 17kg run out of battery in somewhere as remote as Matt did.

@@cairncycles1778 I live and ride, both a 25kg emtb and 'acoustic' mtb, in mid-Wales so am very aware of the landscape and remoteness (and worries that some may have about running out of battery). However, this only reinforces what I said. All you have done here is replaced the leg powered ride that would result from running out of battery at the end of the ride, with leg powered riding during the ride, and left no real way for the viewer to understand how much of this leg effort was actually required to complete the task. I would be really interested to see this done a couple of other ways. First, as in my first reply, making sure the entire ride was within the assist threshold (this would then let viewers know how long the battery would actually last, definitely wouldn't last that distance) and then do the same ride twice using human sensors (heart rate, calories use, power meter etc.) and compare how much effort was required to do this within the battery range, to how much effort would be required to do the same trip on a decent acoustic XC mtb. I'd be willing to make a small wager that the effort to make that battery last for this entire trip would be very comparable to just riding it on an acoustic mtb. Would love to see this comparison so please do. In my own experience, pedalling my heavy Cube Reaction Hybrid Emtb in eco mode is about the same amount of effort as pedalling my carbon XC mtb (in fact the ebike probabnly takes a little more effort in eco than the XC bike). Of course, once we start using the higher assist levels it's a very different story, but then of course the range rapidly decreases.

This is definitely an interesting idea! Watch this space.

@@offroadcc Will be really interesting to see the results.

One big factor to look at is my average heart rate. Although there was no power meter, the average heart was just 118 bpm. If I look at other similar distance/climbing rides on non-electric bikes, the Av HR is usually exceeding 140bpm. The ride had 3000 metres of climbing and there is no way that could be done above 25kph. So I do not believe you are simply replacing the weight on this setup of bike/motor/battery.

@alafenetre81 not true. My wife and I used our beatbike toba i7's to ride from Callander to Inverness over three days. We were loaded, but not heavily m,averaged 60 miles a day and didn't stint on the use of power mode. The bikes have 612wh batteries and we made it (just) each day.

@@Gillieshill That's quite different from the video. You say you did 60 miles (95km) with one charge whereas the youtuber says he did 190km with over 3000m of climbing...

@@alafenetre81 Yes, but we rode on high assist for almost all of it. We'd have got way further on eco.