I Raced The World’s Best Climber On Amazon’s Cheapest E Bike

We all know how much the fastest bikes on the planet cost. Speed clearly does not come cheap. A great climbing bike does seem at least to be slightly less expensive than an aero one. Certainly, you could save a couple of hundred bucks by not buying aero socks for a start. But what if a properly basic bike could be fast? Not just fast, but actually close the gap between you and the best riders on the planet. You know what I'm hinting at. Let's find out. Yes, the cheapest e-bike we could find on Amazon is back. It has not caught fire yet, and technically, it does still work. Although I could not call this bike in any way good, it is cheap, it is cheerful, and it does exactly what it says it's going to do, which is that this enormous battery here provides energy to power that back wheel to supplement what I've got in my legs. When I rode it, I couldn't not like it. Many of you seem to agree. Many, but not all. Some of you, I think, thought this was the work of Satan. But before you type madly in the comment section once again, just wait. Are you not even mildly curious to know whether or not a cheap e-bike has got what it takes to beat a super bike and a super climber up a horrible climb? It is time to wheel out the Twig, GCN's resident uber climber. Surviving only on cups of tea and jam sandwiches, Andrew Feather has amassed more KOMs than any other man on the planet. Right now, ominously, he's nearing peak fitness. Our climb today is one that you don't actually hold the record on. Perhaps you'd like to explain yourself? Andrew Feather, Uber Climber, GCN Yeah, so I checked the other day and I no longer hold the KOM. It was taken by a certain Ed Laverick the other day. Conor Dunne, Uber Climber, GCN Does he know what he's doing, that lad? Andrew Feather, Uber Climber, GCN He does know what he's doing, so I'm here to take revenge today. Conor Dunne, Uber Climber, GCN Okay. Well, I mean, tailwinds and you've got some stiff competition, so I taped on. Talk us through the climb, then. What is it? Andrew Feather, Uber Climber, GCN So the climb is called Haresfield Beacon. It's 2.2 kilometers long, so it's quite a long climb. It's a gradual incline to start with, then it really ramps up. You've got some really steep 20%, 25% sections. Pretty bad surface, so you should be all right on those tires. Could be quite slippery as well with the rain this morning, so again, placed your favor. Conor Dunne, Uber Climber, GCN Are you getting the excuses in early? Andrew Feather, Uber Climber, GCN I'm getting the excuses in early, yes. Are you feeling nervous about taking on someone wearing baggy shorts and riding the cheap mountain bikes? Andrew Feather, Uber Climber, GCN A little bit, yes. Conor Dunne, Uber Climber, GCN There's a lot on the line here, Andrew. Andrew Feather, Uber Climber, GCN There is. Conor Dunne, Uber Climber, GCN Okay, so here's the thing, right? The average speed for the KOM is about 20 kilometers an hour. Now, if you will remember, the e-bikes like this are restricted to 25 kilometers per hour, which means, in theory, I should be able to ride up here at 25K an hour. Trouble is, when you dive into the details of this climb, as Andrew said, it's a bit steppy. When I looked at his previous run up here, he was doing over 30K an hour at the bottom and over 30K an hour at the top, which I am not going to be able to do on this. Actually, although it's going to be able to give me 250 watts, it's not going to be able to give me 250 watts the whole way up. Whilst I was feeling confident, I'm not so confident anymore. Right, you ready? I'm ready. There's a lot of riding on this. I know. Three, two, one, go. There we go. Motor's kicked in. Oh, God. Okay. I'm at 25K an hour and he's obviously just dancing away. I'm going to call foul. There's a bit of slipstreaming going on. Okay, don't panic. I knew this was going to happen. I knew it was going to happen. Got a good gap, although he's got a lot more power than me on the steep stuff. Worryingly, I can't feel much coming from the motor. I can still see him. It's getting steep. I'm working pretty hard. Okay, here we go. He's in sight. Oh, no. Sorry, mate. Well done. You're doing really well. Okay, I've got to stay in the march now because it flattens off at the top. Motor's cut out. I'm near the top. Come on, baby. My hamstrings. Why are my hamstrings empty? What a good race. Oh, my God. So close. Well done. You were absolutely flying in the steep bit. You know, the motor didn't even work. That was just me. Honestly, when you came past me at the top, it was literally like you were on a motorbike. Oh, my word. It's funny, actually, just to show you. It's the same for me. That feeling when I hit that steep bit and you came around me, I was like, well, I'm never going to be able to keep up with him, but I knew at the top it flattened out a little bit, so I knew if I could just keep you within my sights, I might be able to get you. Oh, man. But what a good race. Yeah, that was amazing. Really good. So most important bit, how's Andrew got the KOM? Let's have a quick look. So 644 to beat. 644. You got 644? Yes, same time, tied. No way. Tied, yes. Tied KOM. Laverick, you won't have a notification. There you go. I wonder what your time would be, actually. Probably pretty close, I would thought. Well, yes, I probably was about 20 seconds off by the end. I might have beaten the previous KOM. Help, I had you further. Your fourth. Actually, hang on a minute. No, fifth. Fifth on the big one. Let me just quickly change it to e-bike. So is that a good result for the e-bike? I don't know, to be honest. Clearly, on the steep sections, the extra 250 watts on the motor was enough to put some serious time into feather, even overcoming the extra 10 kilos of body weight and 20 kilos of extra bike. In fact, on anything over 10%, the Miata was almost unbelievably faster. I was having to try quite hard too. On the very steepest section, we calculated that me and the e-bike together were having to produce over 700 watts. It was painfully clear that I wasn't able to go over or even very close to 25K an hour. So my average speed for the whole segment was just 19.6 kilometers per hour. Less than I'd hoped for, but in the context of a bike that cost 529 pounds, not bad at all. However, put me back on a superbike in Lycra, I think that perhaps I'd actually have been able to go up that hill in the same time. Maybe another race is called for. I'm absolutely buzzing off that. What a race. If you enjoyed it, please give it a big thumbs up, especially if you want to see Andrew back on the channel for more. I'd be really interested to know whether or not that was the result that you were expecting. It's not the one I was expecting. I thought I was going to get the win, if I'm totally honest, but I'd rather have a good race than a meaningless victory. Get involved in the comment section. Also, has it changed your perspective on what you think of e-bikes? Are they better for this or worse for this? I know many of you will probably not enjoy the prospect of e-bikes racing normal pedal bikes. Anyway, get stuck in. Really look forward to reading what you've got to say. Anyway, that's it for us. Do make sure if you haven't subscribed to GCN already that you do so, and we'll see you on the next one.