Let us dive into the situation that will happen sooner or later with your electric bike and that is Can you ride an ebike without the battery?
Electric bikes have surged in popularity in recent years. Advancements in technology and design have sky-rocketed from a pipe dream to a useful and affordable method of transportation.
E-bikes are safer and easier to use than regular bikes, so much so that it can sometimes be difficult to see the downside to them.
But here is the obvious downside – anything electric must be charged. A typical lithium-ion ebike battery will last for somewhere between 25 and 70 miles of travel. This depends, of course, on how hard you ride and how well your battery has been cared for.
Despite this, sooner or later your electric bike battery is bound to go flat. So you’re looking for an e-bike, or maybe you’ve already got one, and you want to know what happens if it runs out of battery. Can you still ride an ebike without the battery?
Riding An Ebike Without Using Its Motor
To answer the question in a simple answer – yes you can! Almost all bikes will also work as normal bicycles if their motor turns off. You won’t find the brakes suddenly locking, or that the wheels will spin out of control.
If your e-bike goes dead because it is switched off or if it runs out of charge then you can simply ride it normally as you would any other bicycle.
Is It Harder To Ride An Ebike Without A Battery?
The downside to riding an electric bike without its battery is that it will be much harder to ride. Electric bicycles are typically heavier than regular bikes because of their battery and electric motor. Both of these additions make ebikes a lot heavier than normal bikes.
For reference – a regular manual bike might weigh between 25 and 35 pounds, whilst an electric model is more likely to weigh between 40 all the way up to 70 depending on the features it has. Lugging around a 70-pound bicycle without charge does not sound like much fun!
When moving over rough terrain or peddling up hills, you might find an out-of-charge electric bike much more difficult than a regular bicycle. If you find yourself on an e-bike without a battery, you might want to consider it carefully before tackling difficult terrain.
Have a look around and consider if it might be easier to walk alongside your bike to save yourself from exertion or injury.
Reasons You Might Need To Ride An Ebike Without Its Battery
Your Battery Runs Out
We’ve all been there with our phones. If you’ve never used an electric bike before you might not know how easy it is to use its energy. You charge it up once and have a great time peddling around without thinking about how much of its charge you’re using.
Eventually, inevitably, you find that your bike is running low. Perhaps you’re still a long way from home!
Thankfully, because electric bikes can still be used manually, it’s not the end of the world. It just means that you might need to spend a bit more energy to get back.
You Don’t Have A Regular Bike And Would Like More Intense Exercise
Electric bikes are great – but in terms of helping you with your cardio or weight loss, they can be inferior to manual bikes. Ebikes have features to make your life easier, such as bicycle pedal assist and an electric motor, but if you’re looking for a tough workout then you might find them lacking.
This is where riding without a battery comes in. Simply turn off or don’t charge your bike, and you have a great training tool available. If your ebike is heavy then the extra weight might help you to shift some pounds or get better cardio-based workouts!
How Does A Motor Influence How An Ebike Works?
An ebike works with two key additional features that make cycling easier – the motor and the battery. The battery is often placed at the back of the bike near where you sit, whilst the motor is typically placed down by the bicycle pedal.
The battery feeds energy to the motor which helps you pedal and therefore helps the wheels to move easier and you to cover more ground much easier!
When the battery at the back of the bike is not charged, or if it is removed, then there is no energy going towards the motor which will cause it to stop working and the bicycle pedal assist to disappear. What you are then left with is a hefty motor in the center of your bike that you might now have
Ebikes often have slightly larger and heavier wheels than regular bikes, so these are another factor you’ll have to contend with if your battery is gone. The larger wheels can be more difficult to turn and maneuver with, though they will give you extra traction over uneven or difficult terrain.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it – if you find yourself out on a long bike ride and your ebike runs out of charge, then you don’t have to worry! Thankfully all ebikes function just like regular bikes if they run out of charge!
The only thing to keep in mind is how heavy your ebike is and how much ground you’ll have to cover to get to a place where you can charge it.
If you own a particularly large ebike, we recommend carefully planning your trips in relation to how long your bike stays charged for, how much charge you have left, and how far you’ll have to travel to get back.
You wouldn’t want to be stuck out in the wilderness with a heavy bike you’ll have to push for miles and miles!
We hope our little guide has answered all your questions about whether or not you can ride an ebike without a battery! We wish you a happy bike ride, no matter how much charge you have left!
