How to travel along the Route des Grandes Alpes® on an e-bike?

E-bikes: all you need to know!

Thanks to electric bikes, or e-bikes (in French, vélo à assistance électrique, or VAE), the Route des Grandes Alpes® has become accessible to a greater number of cyclists, even to the greatest number possible! Here, we give you a simple but useful explanations on the subject...

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What is an electric bike?

An electric bike, or e-bike, is a bicycle equipped with a motor fed by a battery. There are all manner of different types of e-bike, some for urban riding, others for commercial uses, others still for leisure…

Two main types of motor exist for e-bikes:

hub motors with a motion sensor in one of the wheels, that work as soon as you begin to pedal.
central motors with a torque sensor, that work according to the force you apply to the pedals (e.g. the BOSCH type of motor, which we highly recommend).

As regards the battery – the essential element in an e-bike’s running time, or range – several capacities are available, going from 250Wh to 1100Wh. Note that to tackle the Route des Grandes Alpes, you’ll need a battery capacity of at least 500Wh.

On most e-bikes, you can regulate the level of assistance according to your requirements.

How to get the best out of your e-bike on the Route des Grandes Alpes ®?

We’ve divided the route up into sections corresponding, on average, to the range of a 500Wh battery for a cyclist of intermediate level.

Here are some pieces of advice to get the best out of your e-bike:

Cycle along using a low level of assistance as much as possible, reserving the use of the higher levels of assistance for the most difficult stretches.
Pedal along in a fluid manner, avoiding abrupt movements and without forcing the e-bike. Play around with the gear system to obtain a pedalling frequency of c.70 to 80rpm (rotations or revolutions per minute).
Avoid starting off too fast, as this can consume a lot of energy.
Riding along valleys, cycle in a group if you can, to benefit from the slipstream effect.
Tackling the passes, climb at your own pace.
If possible, swap the batteries at the heart of the group from time to time.

How to travel along the Route des Grandes Alpes® on an e-bike?

E-bikes: all you need to know!

Trouver une borne BOSCH sur le parcours

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