City bike, road bike or e-bike? What’s best for bicycle commuting?

What’s the best bike for commuting? This is the second video in which I test different types of bikes on my commute. This time, instead of a mountain, road or city bike, like I did last time, I tested these bikes: A slow, comfortable city bike, a light and fast road bike and a pedelec , a.k.a an electric pedal-assist bike.

Which one is best? I measure my commutes on all of the bikes and compare the numbers.

If you don’t want to watch the video, here are some of the numbers:
City bike: Riding time: 66:61, average speed of 20.2 km/hr
Road bike: Riding time: 58:65, average speed of 22 km.hr
Electric bike: Riding time: 56:31, average speed of 24.6 km/hr

Speed, however, is not the only factor in bike commuting. In the video, I also examine a number of other factors around bike commuting, such as comfort, costs and the sweat factor.

I hope this video helps you become a better bike commuters.

Also: You’ll probably notice that my math is weird on some of the calculations. I have an accumulated time of 58:65, for example, which should be expressed as 56:05. The larger point I’m trying to make still stands, but, yeah, I messed up.

Here’s my first bike commute challenge.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Follow Tom Babin on TwitterFacebookInstagram or Medium.

You can also follow Shifter on Facebook or Medium.

Tom Babin is the author of Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling. 

Previous

Why it’s time to stop building painted bike lanes

Next

Why multiuse pathways sometimes suck for cyclists

2 Comments

  1. I see you found an 18% increase in average speed with the Pedelec over city bike. A stat I was looking for. Have you compared commute time/average speed comparisons with more powerful ebikes or know of any stats online?

  2. Your math is so super, video is nice for experiment. I take best city bikes for my sweat commuting biking. I subscribed to your video. Thanks!

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén