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E-bikes can be a controversial topic in the Cycling Weekly comments section but after watching the pros tackle the Tour of Britain my mum wanted to see if she could tackle the Queen Stage of the pro cycling race.
To help her out, TQ-Systems provided us with a Canyon Endurace ON:FLY e-bike. But would the e-bike last the full 140km route? And would it be enough to beat me on an acoustic road bike up the infamous Tumble climb? In this road bike vs e-bike we try to decide whether an e-road bike makes road cycling too easy.
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0:00
This is the tumble, the hardest climb in this year's Tour of Britain
0:05
And this is my mum. Today we're going to have a race, not only up the tumble
0:11
but over the entire 140km Queen stage of this year's Tour of Britain
0:19
I know Jamie's chasing me down, so I've got to keep on it
0:24
Now, I know what you might be thinking, and don't worry, she won't be offended
0:28
yes she is a little bit slower than me on a bike and that's why we've sourced her a new bike this
0:35
one a Canyon Endurance. You see on Saturday we sat on the sofa and watched some of the best riders
0:44
in the world tackle this very course the likes of Geraint Thomas Oscar Onley and Remco Evanapol
0:52
to name just a few and whilst they made this route look pretty all right the stats are definitely
0:58
not to be scoffed at. 138.76 kilometres, 2,246 metres of elevation and this 5 kilometre climb
1:10
not once, but twice. I suppose you could call us inspired and not only will this be my mum's
1:16
longest ever ride, it'll also be by far the hilliest. But to be honest, getting her to
1:23
undertake such a challenge has taken a fair bit of convincing. My mum does like riding a bike but
1:29
doesn't overly enjoy hills and didn't for one minute think that she'd be capable of riding a
1:35
stage like this. To be fair she still hasn't completed this route so we still don't know if
1:40
she's capable of doing it but we'll know by the end of the day. And that's why this Canyon Endure
1:46
Race is no ordinary road bike despite looking like a road bike, smelling like a road bike and
1:52
feeling like a road bike, it's actually an e-road bike. Oh yes, hidden inside this frame is TQ
1:59
Systems' new HPR40 mid-drive motor, the German company's first system designed specifically for
2:07
the needs of road cyclists. And what this means is that mum will have an extra 200 watts and 40
2:14
newton meters of torque at her disposal from what TQ Systems call the smallest and most efficient
2:20
mid-motor system ever to be found in a bicycle. So who will win? Well make sure you're subscribed
2:27
to the channel, place your bets in the comments below and let's find out
2:35
Well, we're well underway and we've hit the first climb of the day
2:53
This is, what's it called? I don't know, it's out of Ask. It's out of Ask
2:57
That's where it is. So, yeah, we're about 30k in. No sign of her yet
3:01
So basically what happened was she got a bit of a head start because I put her bike together got it out of the car put the wheels on it She was gone She seemed pretty excited to ride that one So then I sorted my bike out had a puncture
3:19
fixed it, etc. And then now we're on our way. But I've come up with a cunning plan
3:25
I have found some assistance. Give us a wave, Will. I found Will from Cycling News who we've
3:33
working together we're going pretty quick down the valley so i feel like we should be catching
3:40
and normally i'd be catching on the climbs but i'm not so sure about today we'll wait and see
3:46
So now mum has been wanting to ride an e-bike for quite a while now and to be honest it's been my
4:06
reluctance to get her on one. Now I rode one a few years ago and to be perfectly honest it didn't
4:15
leave me overly enamored like this was maybe eight years ago riding it felt like you were getting
4:21
kicked up the arse by a horse and it was only not quite unpleasant also I think that's quite
4:29
frankly a bit dangerous if you're someone who's not as confident at riding a bike and
4:36
so for that reason and also they're just damn ugly e-bikes in the past have been
4:44
like you can tell they're e-bikes which i think is one of the really nice things about this one
4:50
it's also got loads of really clever tech in it so tq systems if you read the pr
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it's basically all about how it assists your riding it's not a moped you you can't just sit
5:05
there and let it do the work but what it does do is assist your pedaling and in the UK that would
5:13
be up to the speed of about 25 kph and I've been wanting to get my mum on an e-bike because
5:20
I like to go and ride in the Alps for example I go on a lot of group rides sometimes with
5:27
my dad and my brother and mum rides her bike and kind of has to do it solo which
5:34
seems a bit of a shame whereas with an e-bike you can hopefully expand your horizon and that's what
5:41
today is all about because this is going to be one of the hardest rides she's ever done we'll see if
5:49
she makes it to the end and we'll see when we catch her because we're now on it and climb
5:53
and we've still not seen her so i'm starting to get a little bit worried either she's gone the
6:00
wrong way and got lost or she's absolutely flying. Right, back crack on
6:16
Right now we on a climb Now it doesn feel like a normal bike because I would be crawling up here and I having to work It not a moped but it feels like I have
6:40
a tailwind and I do still feel in control. I thought I might feel a bit like I was
6:48
just a passenger but it feels like I'm still dictating what speed I'm at. I know Jamie's
6:56
chasing me down so got to keep on it. Hello hello. I thought we might catch you on that descent
7:31
I think you're going to beat me up the tumble
7:47
When Jamie bought this bike home, he didn't really know it was an e-bike
7:53
It doesn't look like a conventional e-bike down here in between my bottles is where you charge it there's a cover there and on the end
8:11
of this bar end is where you change gear engage the electric
8:21
I'm getting dropped again Will. You're getting dropped again. Doesn't load well
8:32
One of the unique things about this TQ Systems system is that it's integrated into just about
8:39
everything else on the bike. It can stream data like range and battery light to an Ant Plus bike computer
8:45
That light on the front is powered by the e-bike battery. The lights down near the rear dropouts, powered by the e-bike battery
8:53
Even the Di2 on this bike is integrated, and that means that you can even program the hidden
8:58
buttons to change power assist mode. Luckily no one had told Mum this, so as we hit the bottom of the tumble for the final
9:05
time she was still in eco mode. I don know
10:29
Well, we did it 140 kilometers, over 2,000 meters of elevation, twice up that absolute beast
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And I got to watch my mum ride away from me like she never has before
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And hopefully that's gonna be a once in a lifetime experience. And it's all thanks to this bike
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I don't get to ride with my mum very much. And today I did
10:52
So for that, I'm very grateful. In recent years, e-bikes have been picking up
10:59
plenty of strays in the Cycling Weekly comment section. Comments like this one, and this one
11:06
and this one. And to be fair, I just don't think they're justified because an e-bike is not the
11:14
same thing as a moped. Ask my mum and I'm pretty sure that she is absolutely knackered. And the
11:21
truth is thanks to an e-bike she has just ridden 95 kilometers further than she ordinarily would
11:29
have. She's been on a bike for three times longer than she ordinarily would have and she spent loads
11:35
more time with me. The truth is that e-bikes are very very different machines to what they were
11:41
10 years ago. They're not overpowering they're not like an absolute kick up the backside. Yes
11:47
they're clearly very powerful because well I got absolutely spanked up the mountain and I genuinely
11:55
think that on a bike like this it could bring some amateurs in line with riders like Tadej
12:01
Pogacar and that takes some doing because I don't know if you've heard he's rather quick
12:08
There is just one thing that I would change about this bike and that is that I wish it existed
12:14
10 to 15 years ago because if that was the case I think I'd have done a lot more riding
12:20
with either of my granddads and that would have been nice then they could have ridden away from
12:25
me up a hill as well. If you want to find out anything else about this Canyon Endure Race with
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the TQ System inside then we'll pop a link to both the Canyon and the TQ Systems website down
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below in the description. If you want to see more content like this then please make sure you
12:43
subscribe to the channel and we'll see you next time
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