Greystones to Dublin Electric Bike Commute - Madness?

Hoggy1983

Hi there,

I'm moving to Greystones soon and rather than spend an hour on a train or in my car I've started to wonder if an electric bike commute would be realistic.

My commute will be approx 25km and an E-Bikes can go 25km/h and will hopefully cope well on the large hill outside Greystones. The idea being I get some exercise too but not completely shattered when I arrive for work. I recently cycled there in 1.5hrs on a normal bike but was heavy going in parts.

This wouldn't be an everyday thing with the odd Dart/Car commute mixed in.

I'm probably going to rent a e-bike and try it out one day.

Appreciate any thoughts!

Lumen

I've done this commute on and off by bicycle and motorbike for a couple of years.

If you're fit you can do it in a little over an hour each way, but it's very difficult to do that every day. It's not just the energy expenditure, it's the time. When you add in changing at each end you're losing at least two and a half hours every day.

The e-bike will cut maybe 10-15 mins off it, and allow you to take the scenic route (i.e. not the N11) without running yourself into the ground. You'd want a very good e-bike though. Super reliable and good range.

I haven't ever managed to keep commuting by bicycle all through the winter - Dec to Feb is very, very hard. When my commute was only 14km each way I did it every day for about 8 years. This is different.

Motorbike takes me 35 mins each way.

site_owner

yeah, should be no bother to do that, especially if you can already cycle it. great way to commute.

jjpep

Hoggy1983 wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm moving to Greystones soon and rather than spend an hour on a train or in my car I've started to wonder if an electric bike commute would be realistic.

My commute will be approx 25km and an E-Bikes can go 25km/h and will hopefully cope well on the large hill outside Greystones. The idea being I get some exercise too but not completely shattered when I arrive for work. I recently cycled there in 1.5hrs on a normal bike but was heavy going in parts.

This wouldn't be an everyday thing with the odd Dart/Car commute mixed in.

I'm probably going to rent a e-bike and try it out one day.

Appreciate any thoughts!

I do a similar distance in my commute. Not familiar enough with greystones to comment on the hill but there is hills on my commute too. Was lucky enough to be able to try two different ebikes on the steepest hill on the commute and found a mid drive much better than a hub motor.

Anyway, very doable every day, including winter. Much prefer it to driving which I do end up doing the odd time.

Mickiemcfist

Pretty sure halfords do 24 hour test drives of their electric bikes so it might be worth having a look there.

Plastik

I used to do it from Charlesland to D1 semi-regularly a few years ago and it was taking about 1h 15/20ish each way at the time - I'm a red light abider. Never managed to crack every day because I still had a Dart/Bus pass at the time and it was just too easy on winter mornings to take that option. I found going over Windgates, even riding it very slowly in the mornings, to be much quicker than diverting via Delgany/N11 which was something like 5km longer.

Whether you're losing or gaining on time is a subjective thing. You still have to get to and from work be that by bus, Dart, car, motorbike, ebike or bike. Unless you're working on your way to work you're not 'losing' any time.

I moved to Bray in the end and have been full time on the bike for the last 3 years. Every day, regardless of weather. If that ever changes I'll be looking at a motorbike.

KevRossi

Cycled from D3 to Leopardstown (100m height gain) with a Cube One 500 E-Bike (500W). Never had an issue, 14 km in 40-45 mins, obeying the lights.

E-Bike took the strain out of cycling, so could cycle in in shoes and trousers, would only change the t-shirt to a shirt/Polo when i got in there. No need to shower as I never got a sweat up, and I wouldn't be the fittest.

Going home was mostly downhill, battery would last 4 days easily.