How to make your e-bike more efficient

Want to make your e-bike more efficient? Discover pro tips for a more sustainable and eco-friendly ride. Learn how to conserve energy and maximize your battery life. Read on now!

A key part of e-bike riding is battery management, we want that extra miles per charge. So today we're going to be giving you a few tips how to get that extra mileage from your battery.

E-bike Apps

Some motor manufacturers such as Shimano and Specialized have an app that connects the bike via Bluetooth. Now within this app you can adjust all the power to the motor. You can adjust things such as how hard the motor accelerates from that initial pedal stroke, so how hard the bike is going to surge forward. You can slide that slider down and it's going to give you more miles because the motor's isn't going to work as hard. And within each power mode, you can adjust how much assistance the bike's going to give you too. By the simple means of just sliding that slider back down towards the minus. It's just going to mean you're going to have to work a little bit harder but the motor's going to work less and in return, it's going to save you on battery power.

E-bike Gearing

On some climbs, you might find yourself switching up on your power mode. You might be riding a climb in trail and you can see you're hitting boost mode to get up the hill. Now something you might want to consider changing on your e-bike is the gearing on there. Now a really cost-effective way of doing this is actually just to decrease the size of the front chain ring. Now on stock they usually come around 34 or 36, but they're available from increments from about 32 tooth. Putting a smaller chain ring on the front of the bike, it's just going to mean you're going to be able to keep that cadence up on the bike and keep that assistance going, saving you from shifting up into those higher-power modes and those higher-power modes, as we've talked about already, they eat a load of battery. So think about the gearing on your e-bike, too, it makes a massive difference.

E-bike tires

Tires make a massive difference when it comes to getting the maximum mileage out of your battery. Now stock, a lot of e-bikes come with big, fat, kind of downhill orientated tires. Now if you're simply riding fire road or cross-country trails type of riding, then you're going to have too much tire on that bike. It's going to be kind of more aimed at this downhill, free-riding sort of focused riding. Now if you swap that tire out for something a little bit more skinnier, a bit more lightweight and a bit faster-rolling, it's going to reap massive benefits to your battery. So just make sure that tire is fit for the type of riding you do.

Riding style

A lot of battery power is wasted in your riding style, particularly if you're a stop-start kind of rider. I mean, if you're coming into a corner, you're slowing the bike down and then the motor's got to accelerate you out of that corner to provide the speed and the flow out of there, you really need to think about how you're approaching the trail. So just come into that corner a little bit slower and allow the momentum to carry you through those turns. It's also worth keeping your head up and anticipating the trail as it comes to you. Think about your gear choice, think about your line, and also keep an eye out for those features that are going to give you free speed.

Bad bike maintenance can also take a big chunk of your battery life. Now some key offenders are going to be dragging brakes, you really need to make sure those brakes are centered and not rubbing at all. So give them a quick spin, they should be totally silent. Another key offender is the drive chain. If you got a dry and unlubricated chain on there, it's going to create a lot of drag in the drive chain. Also tire choice and tire pressure is a massive thing as well, so just make sure those tires are inflated to the correct pressure to the trail you're riding. Also badly setup suspension can lead to the bike skipping around and wheel spinning, losing traction, therefore eating a load out of the battery.

So okay, I really hope you've enjoyed today's article on getting those extra miles from your battery. It does make a massive difference on those bigger rides. But if you guys have got any tips on how you get the most miles out of your battery, drop some in the comments box below.