Road Bike vs E-Bike – Do They Make Cycling Too Easy?

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.

This video contains paid promotion on behalf of TQ Systems, you can find out more about their TQ-HPR 40 E-Bike system here: https://www.tq-ebike.com/en/e-bike-system/hpr40/

This video features the following bike: https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/electric-bikes/electric-road-bikes/endurace-on-fly/endurace-onfly-cf-8/4045.html

We may earn a commission when purchasing through affiliate links in this description.

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This is the tumble, the hardest climb in this year’s Tour of Britain. And this is my mom. Today we’re going to have a race not only up the tumble, but over the entire 140 km queen stage of this year’s Tour of Britain. I know Jamie’s chasing me down, so got to keep on it. Now, I know what you might be thinking, and don’t worry, she won’t be offended. Yes, she is a little bit slower than me on a bike. And that’s why we’ve sourced her a new bike. This one, a Canyon Endure Race. You see, on Saturday, we sat on the sofa and watched some of the best riders in the world tackle this very course. The likes of Garren Thomas, Oscar Hley, and Remco Evanapole to name just a few. And whilst they made this route look pretty all right, the stats are definitely not to be scoffed at. 138.76 km, 2,246 m of elevation. And this 5 km climb, not once, but twice. I suppose you could call us inspired. And not only will this be my mom’s longest ever ride, it’ll also be by far the hilliest. But to be honest, getting her to undertake such a challenge has taken a fair bit of convincing. My mom does like riding a bike, but doesn’t overly enjoy hills and didn’t for one minute think that she’d be capable of riding a stage like this. To be fair, she she still hasn’t completed this route. So, we still don’t know if she’s capable of doing it, but we’ll we’ll know by the end of the day. And that’s why this Canyon Endurance is no ordinary road bike. Despite looking like a road bike, smelling like a road bike and feeling like a road bike, it’s actually an e-road bike. Oh yes. Hidden inside this frame is TQ Systems new HPR40 mid drive motor. The German company’s first system designed specifically for the needs of road cyclists. And what this means is that mom will have an extra 200 W and 40 Newton meters of torque at her disposal from what TQ Systems call the smallest and most efficient mid motor system ever to be found in a bicycle. So, who will win? Well, make sure you subscribe to the channel, place your bets in the comments below, and let’s find out. [Music] [Music] Well, we’re well underway and we’ve hit the first climb of the day. Uh, this is what’s it called? I don’t know. It’s out of It’s out of That’s where it is. Um, so yeah, we’re about 30k in. No sign of her yet. 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. It seemed pretty excited to ride that one. Um, so then I sorted my bike out, had a puncture, fixed it, etc. And then now we’re on our way. But I’ve come up with a cunning plan. I have found some assistance. Give us a wave, Will. Oh, I found Will from Cycling News who we’ve been working together. We’re going pretty quick down the valley, so I feel like we should be catching. And normally I’d be catching on the climbs, but I’m not so sure about today. We’ll wait and see. [Applause] So now, mom has been wanting to ride an ebike for quite a while now, and uh to be honest, it’s been my reluctance to get her on one now. I rode one a few years ago, and to be perfectly honest, it didn’t leave me overly enamored. Like, this was maybe 8 years ago. riding it felt like you were getting kicked up the ass by a horse. And it was only not quite unpleasant, but also I think that’s quite frankly a bit dangerous if you’re someone who’s not as confident at riding a bike. And so for that reason, and also they’re just damn ugly. ebikes in the past have been like you can tell they’re ebikes which I think is one of the really nice things about this one. It’s also got loads of really clever tech in it. So TQ Systems, if you read the PR, it’s basically all about how it assists your riding. It’s not a moped. You you can’t just sit there and let it do the work. But what it does do is assist your pedaling. And in the UK, that would be up to the speed of about 25 kph. And I’ve been wanting to get mom on an ebike because I like to go and ride in the Alps, for example. I go on a lot of group rides, sometimes with my dad and my brother, and mom rides her bike and kind of has to do it solo, which seems a bit of a shame. Whereas with an ebike, you can hopefully expand your horizon. And that’s what today is all about because this is going to be one of the hardest rides she’s ever done. We’ll see if she makes it to the end. And we’ll see when we catch her because we’re now on it climb and we still not seeing her. So, I’m starting to get a little bit worried. Either she’s gone the wrong way and got lost or she’s absolutely flying. Right. Crack on [Music] [Applause] right now. We’re on a climb now. It doesn’t feel like a normal bike because I would be crawling up here and I’m having to work. It’s not a moped, but it feels like I have a tailwind. And I do still feel in control. I thought I might feel a bit like I was just a passenger, but it feels like I’m still dictating what speed I’m at. I know Jamie’s chasing me down, so got to keep on it. [Music] [Applause] Hello. Hello. I thought we might catch you on that descent. Actually, I thought we’d catch you much earlier. Right, fuel stop. [Applause] Well, you made it to Momba. Can I stop now? Bloody hell. I thought I think you’re going to beat me up the tumble. When Jamie brought this bike home, didn’t really know it was an ebike. It doesn’t look like a conventional ebike. Down here in between my bottles is where you charge it. There’s a cover there. And on the end of this bar end is where you change gear, engage the electronic I’m getting dropped again. Will, I’m getting dropped again. Didn’t load well. One of the unique things about this TQ systems system is that it’s integrated into just about everything else on the bike. It can stream data like range and battery life to an amp plus bike computer. That light on the front is powered by the ebike battery. the lights down near the rear dropouts powered by the ebike battery. Even the Di2 on this bike is integrated and that means that you can even program the hidden buttons to change power assist mode. Luckily, no one had told mom this. So, as we hit the bottom of the tumble for the final time, she was still in eco mode. [Music] [Music] Ah, [Music] hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] Well, we did it. 140 km over 2,000 m of elevation. twice up that absolute beast. And uh I got to watch my mom ride away from me like she never has before. And hopefully that’s going to be a once- ina-lifetime experience. And it’s all thanks to this bike. I don’t get to ride with my mom very much. And today I did. So for that I’m very grateful. In recent years, ebikes have been picking up plenty of strays in the cycling weekly comment section. comments like this one and this one and this one. And to be fair, I just don’t think they’re justified because an ebike is not the same thing as a moped. Ask my mom and I’m pretty sure that she is absolutely knackered. And the truth is, thanks to an ebike, she has just ridden 95 km further than she ordinarily would have. She’s been on a bike for three times longer than she ordinarily would have and she spent loads more time with me. The truth is that ebikes are very, very different machines to what they were 10 years ago. They’re not overpowering. They’re not like an absolute kick up the backside. Yes, they’re clearly very powerful because, well, I got absolutely spanked up the mountain. And I genuinely think that on a bike like this, it could bring some amateurs in line with riders like Tad Baga. And that takes some doing because I don’t know if you’ve heard, he’s rather quick. There is just one thing that I would change about this bike and that is that I wish it existed 10 to 15 years ago. Because if that was the case, I think I’d have done a lot more riding with either of my granddads, and that would have been nice. Then they could have ridden away from me up a hill as well. If you want to find out anything else about this Canyon Endurance race with the TQ system inside, then we’ll pop a link to both the Canyon and the TQ Systems website down below in the description. If you want to see more content like this, then please make sure you subscribe to the channel and we’ll see you next