greatscott

I can afford an e-bike, so which one would I get? NONE!! I'm sorry, but if I'm capable of riding a bike I want the exercise and not have the excuse to be lazy and use the motor.

350htrr

Mayhap it's also better to ride an assisted E-Bike and have a bit of assistance than not ride a regular bicycle at all, if you need a bit of assistance...

Joey21

Well I don't identify them as road bike guys in any way to be critical, i simply identify them as more fitness oriented, perhaps more serious about this sport, and thus more able to cope with the steep hills around here. More so than a casual biker try to haul home.two well packed panniers over the hills and through the woods before anything spoils.

rhm

Yup, I get that.

Joey21

FWIW the last time I checked, charging my 48V 13.5AH battery costs around a nickel according to my KillAWatt meter. I seldom run mine very flat. I try to keep it between 80% and 20% per the experts instructions. I charge to 80% and then ride it to work and home using maybe a quarter of the 60% available charge. If it is a hot day here in hot, hilly and humid central I might ask the battery for more boost so I arrive at work sweat free. On the way home I play a game to see how little boost I can get by with because at home I can shower. Can I do it on less than 2 Volts? Less than 1 volt? Usually I consume about 2 volts each way in moderate weather. Don't have a WH meter though I know I could calculate it. The trip in to work is easier than the trip home due to elevation changes.

VinceXE

Well if I could afford an e-bike, that also means I could afford some of the best regular commuter bikes. So no I would buy one. E-bikes do seem fun though. Maybe in another 5 years we will be seeing the start of "big box ebikes" and the "if you could afford" would go out of the window.

alo

When I get an e-bike, I will still keep regular bikes. Each time I go out, I will decide which one to use.

With e-bikes, you can go further.

bpcyclist

My pal just bought one of those fancy and very expensive Specialized Turbo Creo thingys with Di2, He has been healing up from hip replacement surgery and absolutely loves it!!!

Joey21

steep hills!

Joey21

Like one of these? https://mypodride.com/

I'm pretty sure that it'll cost multiples of my old Chevy. And the silliness factor is much, much higher than a standard ebike. Don't get me wrong - I hope they sell millions of the little things and everyone rides around this way. However in a world that worries about what brand your phone or shoes is, I can't see this little guy getting alot of sales in the USA.

Joey21

On the subject of batteries - I have two data points. One is a 48V 12AH Jueshai battery, the other is a 48V 13.5AH Lunacycle battery.

The Jueshair battery is three years old, ~650 miles old, range is still similar to new.
The Lunacycle battery is nearing 3000 miles and four years of use, range is still similar to when it was new.
I run the battery no lower than 20% and charge no higher than 80% except maybe once a month to balance the cells (only happens at 100% charge I read). I ride it soon after charging to 100%.

I prefer a more visually simple bicycle look but on my bike (the yellow bike with Lunacycle drive) everything has a purpose. I ride to work so lights, fenders, and so forth. ~$1200 if I ignore the cost of the bike I've already owned for 12+ years. I upgraded the brakes to cable discs when I replaced the wheels for cheap.

The Jueshai was also about $1200. Just like many Aliexpress retailers the price fluctuates. I think it may be the same brand bike we saw in NYC being used for food deliveries.

I'd love to have purchased it from a LBS but our local LBS sells ebikes that cost in the thousands of dollars. My budget doesn't allow for $3500 bicycles.

Both bikes have throttles but honestly around here with all the hills, its easy to run a battery to flat if the throttle is relied on too much. We tend to ride in lowest PAS boost except on the hills. On the rare flat surfaces I try to run zero boost. Not trying to break any laws of physics just maintain ~10-15 mph and minimize my time spent on a couple of hilly blind curves. Hills - did I mention the hills? Hills are a very valid use of an ebike no matter what anybody says.

My part of the country does not have a strong bicycle culture. Most folks have a bike when they are kids but as soon as they get a driver's license they forget about the bike. And not alot of kids doing much besides riding back and forth on their driveway or in front of their house b/c hills, heat and humidity. There are the road bikes folks here who are really serious about their equipment and their fitness but they are not a large number of people. People DO flock to the paved bike paths but they are few in my state. Still seems wrong to me to DRIVE an SUV carrying a bike to a special place to go for a pedal. We ought to have bike paths all over that makes a bicycle a more useful mode of transportation but alas politics and their priorities.

Clyde1820

Probably not. I'm somewhat of a traditionalist. I want the essential effort/health benefits, without issues of increased weight, complexity and obsolescence (new repairs of more-expensive components), likely increased risk of targeted theft, etc. With bikes, I prefer them rather simple. But that's me.

I appreciate that they can help get people around, and can certainly help with hills in cases where folks cannot otherwise cope easily with them. Old leg injuries, here, so I suppose I'm a prime candidate for the target market for these things. If my legs ever get incapable of the terrain I've got to contend with, then I might consider it. At this point, though, I don't think they're for me.

Madhibee

To be honest if I had a e bike I would take it apart and add it to my custom kart

Joey21

Tell us more about the custom kart! Intriguing.

ryan786i

It probably would be for me. Currently my work commute would only be three miles (well, right now it's about twenty feet, but normally), which is fine, but virtually any trip anywhere else kicks in at about four miles one way and I tend to sweat a lot. So I imagine an e-bike would help to keep sweat down when needed without having to go a whole lot slower, while still having the ability to put in real effort, albeit in a different way from what we're used to. I think that's really the thing--you can be someone using the e-bike basically as a lower cost motorcycle (except that's crazy because you can get a decent motorcycle for a lot of complete e-bike prices) or as someone using the e-bike as bike. I think we can get hung up on it being so much heavier, but the idea is that the assist can at a minimum erase that and then you can find the balance of exertion and assist you want at any particular time. Really, in being used as a bike, I think the use cases can vary a lot, though it all comes back to some version of a person continuing to ride and be active, which is an all around positive, I'd say.

As for what I'd get, I've never had a Kona but want one, so maybe a Dew-E or Electric Ute if I'm being very practical and reasonable. A Remote if I was feeling crazy.

Archwhorides 

My sentiments precisely. N+1 is a fine working principal with un-powered and powered cycles in combination.

An engineering friend of mine said that he is technology-neutral by training; ethical and ideological values may be sifted, weighed and applied in problem-definition and decision-making, but tools are simply tools.

Joey21

That's what I like to do: enough boost to make the bicycle weight neutral. On the steepest hills I shift down to "granny gear" and climb with level 2 PAS. Granny gear on my bike means 42T/42T but I'm a big guy so a little boost helps. My hills here would be steep even for a pedestrian in places. Still on low boost I'm huffing and puffing pretty good at the top which is my intention. I hot mid-summer weather or when I'm racing a storm home - I might attack the same hills with PAS 4 or 5. I have a big battery and a big motor so nothing is stressed but the rear wheel and the chain. What I rarely do is try to use the throttle to match my pedaling needs b/c (1) i run the battery down much faster and (2) the throttle and the PAS fight each other so I have to go to PAS 0 before I can use the throttle while pedaling. I think - and I don't know because I so rarely do that. Its just not smooth to operate this rig like that.

alo

I like them too, but it would depend on the price. They have not set the price yet.

InTheRain

I started this thread nearly 5 years ago. A lot of things have changed in that time. My commute went from 7 miles each way to 65 miles each way (ended the bike commuting.) And now with corona virus, my commute is zero miles. My e-bike was at my place of employment 65 miles away and parked for the last 6 months since teleworking from home. I finally went back to the office to pick up the bike and a few other things. I've been riding the e-bike for the last two days - it has been a lot of fun. I have lost my conditioning over the last few years and a 20-25 mile ride on my road bike was leaving me pretty gassed. Yesterday, I did three 25 mile rides on the e-bike. Today a total of 40 miles. I used the assist at different levels as I needed. It was great to visit places that were a bit out of my range (due to fitness... or a lack of it) on my regular road bike.

So, while I'm using the bike now for "exercise" and the pure enjoyment of being on a bike. I realize why an e-bike makes such a great commuter - you can throw pretty much whatever you want in the panniers without regard to thinking about weight. I've seen the argument for scooters (I own one of those as well) however, 90 percent of my cycling is on MUP's - scooters are not legal. I really enjoy riding my bicycles away from the risk and noise of motor traffic.

Affordability has changed. I see some pretty good e-bikes (rad power bikes) that cost nearly half of what my conversion kit (bionx) cost. I see many, many more e-bikes in use today than I saw when I started this thread. Many friends that work in Seattle that used to take public transit switched to e-bikes once covid-19 struck. I haven't been to a bike shop lately, but I met someone on the trail that had just purchased a new e-bike and he mentioned that all bicycles seem to be in short supply. I see that as a good thing. People looking for different ways to commute and to exercise.

Keep riding... stay safe.

afreudianslips

I do have one, and I love it - no showers at my office, and I can get to work without breaking a sweat on the ebike.

alloo

I use my ebike as a commuter. It gives me consistency as far as times, uphill, against the wind. I commute with my ebike 3-4 times a week about 12 miles one way. I am constantly changing the way I ride and the assist levels that I use. If I'm tired I use more assist and turn it into a spinning bike. I've been commuting now for two years. Like anything, if you take care of things they take care of you.

fietsbob

A Cargo bike.. given the Motor power, I can then haul stuff more than my fat butt.. ..

Joey21

That blue Jueshuai 500W bike has now passed 1100 miles. Its out of commission this week b/c it has a flat tire and I have not made time to repair it. Spent last evening working on older teen's car which needed both clutch cylinders. Haven't ridden my bike much this summer. Too busy, not made the effort to make time to ride to and from work. Younger teen is riding the Jueshuai to school to avoid riding a school bus in the time of COVID. Upgraded the bike locks. Taught teen how to lock it up securely. No problems. Teen loves to ride in the morning b/c it wakes them up, loves to ride home b/c no waiting and helps them unwind. We love it b/c we don't need to leave work to shuffle them home and then return to work.

Planning to bring my ebike to work for lunchtime rides next week even if I can't ride in. In an hour's time I can cover alot of ground and unload alot of stress before returning to work.

bonjourpanda

My main worry about using an ebike would be it getting stolen or vandalised, because they're so expensive. Other than that, I'd use one for travelling distances for sure, or hauling heavy things. For short trips and leisurely cycling around I'd still use nonelectric.