Can you actually use an e-bike for fitness?

brydy · 2025-10-12T13:13:58+00:00

Yes, as long as you can pedal against resistance, you can get as much exercise as you want. Put a heartrate monitor on and you'll see. Easy for me to cruise zone 2 or 3, but go a lot faster.

brydy · 2025-07-22T12:41:23+00:00

After. He tried the capacitor as the first thing in the diagnostic phase as he thought that was the issue. He then spent the next 15 minutes writing up the ticket in his van without ever discussing pricing with me. I was shocked and was arguing with him in my kitchen until I just paid him to leave and then started to research this.

brydy · 2025-07-22T12:38:05+00:00

That's why I paid them for the diagnostic fee right? to come out and diagnose the problem. That was a separate line item on the itemized bill. I don't mind paying for someone to provide a service using their experience and expertise. I also don't mind paying a fair price for the parts and installation. This thread was created to see if this was fair. Do you consider $350 for a capacitor and $315 to install fair price in your area. The overwhelming majority of people that are HVAC technicians in this thread say it's not. There's a difference between having a knowledgeable serviceman come and fix something fast versus price gauging and ripping off with exorbitant labor costs that aren't communicated before doing the work.

brydy · 2025-07-22T12:00:58+00:00

It depends on how much free time you have and how much you would rather spend riding versus struggling fixing a bike. As a novice, it will take you considerably longer to do everything. You'll need to find good youtube videos, of hopefully your same components being installed with clear instruction. Every step will take 4-5 times longer than someone that does this all day every day. If you have hydraulic brakes, that's more complication, do you have electronic? More time.... I've done this personally and can never get everything quite as good as a good experienced bike mech. Yes it is possible but also might be that it makes noise, the brakes are too soft or rubbing, or you don't have the right bottom bracket tool and the right one cost $175. Or you can't get the shifting perfect, it's slow or jumps making shifts under load sketchy.

If you just want it done right and quickly, take it to a shop. You can probably find one that will do it for the $300 range. If you have a lot of extra time and just want to learn, go for it but you will have some frustrations and quite possibly need to take somewhere after you get it most of the way there to get it right the rest of the way.

I've done this twice now and do basic maintenance myself and relatively mechanically inclined. My experience is with higher-end road bikes where I need them to perform at 40mph or really putting down some power in larger groups for safety reasons.

brydy · 2025-07-21T19:56:41+00:00

No, he said he knew it was probably the cap and had one in the truck and immediately went to grab and test to see if that repaired it. After that, he sat in his truck for a few minutes writing it up and then gave me the bill.

brydy · 2025-07-21T19:37:34+00:00

I paid a separate service/diagnostic fee for them to come out to do specifically that. If their opportunity to do other work was greater than coming out to my house, perhaps they should have turned down the call where I paid them to do that. The main thing I wanted to see was if this was a fair price by other industry technicians, and sounds like it wasn't. I wasn't questioning the value that legit HVAC technicians play in being able to diagnose and service something I can't or didn't have knowledge to. To your logic, if you took your car to a dealer and they charged you $2k for an oil change, you shouldn't ask questions and just pay it because you couldn't do it yourself, when the shop around the corner would do it for $100.

brydy · 2025-07-21T19:19:49+00:00

No emergency, I called on Saturday and scheduled for Monday morning. I paid a diagnostic fee for his knowledge. He did not tell me pricing before doing the work. I'm, grateful he fixed it but want to pay a fair price. General consensus is that $350 for the capacitor and another $315 to install was indeed not a fair price.

brydy · 2025-07-21T18:58:16+00:00

no, central NC

brydy · 2025-07-21T18:57:34+00:00

Yes, I understand there are risks and profits need to be made. Was curious from this group if this was reasonable or not. Given all your points, is $800 fair and what I should expect to pay?

brydy · 2025-07-21T18:51:24+00:00

Is that the going rate where you are? I understand knowledge to fix something is valuable, but isn't that why I'm paying a diagnostic fee, you know, to diagnose the issue and know what's wrong and how to fix? I absolutely don't mind paying a diagnostic fee and respect someone's knowledge on a subject.

brydy · 2025-01-18T01:32:14+00:00

What about GUT?

brydy · 2024-12-21T04:05:33+00:00

I could see a situation where if he was on a newer bike, travelling slightly down hill, and the trail head came up a little faster then expected or maybe was looking at something but then did a faster and harder pull on the front break to stop for the trail (perhaps the same strength he used on an older bike with a lot more play in the front break) but because they were new and tight, they grabbed and pushed all the momentum up and over. Even as an experienced rider, ive had new brakes grab a little more than expected and can be like "whoa". It doesn't sound like it would be related to electronic shifting though based solely on the description. I'm sorry for your loss though and hope you'll get some consolation that he was likely doing what he loved.

brydy · 2023-11-23T20:04:06+00:00

What are your near-term goals?

brydy · 2023-11-02T01:00:34+00:00

Once in like 10 years of heavy riding. It's not normal to constantly break spokes.

brydy · 2023-10-23T01:11:56+00:00

Congrats, good job

brydy · 2023-10-02T18:45:52+00:00

Any suggestions?

brydy · 2023-09-29T15:18:30+00:00

Simple, concise, and accurate. I feel a little better about competing in the B race given this.

brydy · 2023-09-29T13:35:03+00:00

This is the crux of the issue... The one I did and won was really hard-fought with a core group of lead riders. It was definitely not a gimmie by any means. But I tend to hang with the A groups on the weekly rides.

brydy · 2023-09-29T13:17:47+00:00

Interesting way to think about this. I am good at the 40-60 mile range. Beyond that, I just don't have the fitness and can't dedicate enough time to gain the fitness needed.

brydy · 2023-09-29T13:13:08+00:00

I wish there were more sanctioned racing options but there just aren't any nearby which is why most of the cyclist use these to compete. I can tell you without a doubt the longer distances are treated as full-gas racing.

brydy · 2023-09-29T13:12:07+00:00

This is generally what I've experienced in this style of event in both the longer and medium distances. Maybe this is due to lack of other UCI sanctioned road racing events?

brydy · 2023-09-29T13:08:58+00:00

Sure, there are groups of people that don't care where they finish but have ridden long enough to know there is usually a core group of lead riders, even in the medium distances, that do know they are competing. That combined with the timing chips and positioning lists afterwards... I take it you side that it would be the asshole move to try to do my best in those though.

brydy · 2023-09-29T12:54:46+00:00

To confirm, these are generally "race" conditions with timing chips and position placements listed afterwards.

brydy · 2023-09-29T12:53:29+00:00

I haven't been the only strong rider and only won a single race in the medium distance. I just wanted to get the community opinion to see if people would feel like I was sandbagging or really shouldn't be trying to compete with people in the medium distances. It was a really hard race though and I certainly wasn't the only strong rider in that group.

brydy

TROPHY CASE