eBike Comments (from Canada)

I confess that I built an electric for doing quick trips around town without breaking into a sweat.  That was a number of years ago.  I gave it away when I moved.

Some club members feel that the electric aspect those bikes diminish the purity of the GHG reduction compared to regular bikes but most don't make a big deal about that.

There are a lot of e-bikes in our city now, my guess is about 1/3 of the bikes on the street today here are electric.  The regular bike riders can have a snobbish feeling of superiority, the e-bike riders can go up hills faster.  There are also many electric scooters, skate boards and unicycles as well on the bike paths.  I think however rollerblading has seemed to have declined from past years.  Perhaps the name bike path should change to miscellaneous path. 

The are only two reservations the club has about e-bikes.  First, because they are much heavier, they may be difficult to carry on to trains for some of our rides.  This has not been tested yet.

Second, on long rides, 50 miles plus, the range of the bike may be a problem. On a ride recently one of our eBike owners did 45 miles and the battery I believe was just under 1/2 power left. An e-bike without electric power is a truly a dog to ride.

In terms of enjoyment, my experience is that e-bikes are great when you just want to get from A to B quickly with minimum effort.  However because they are heavier, they lack the feeling of quick response and sense of accomplishment one gets with a regular bike.

My Response

Regarding the bike snobs, I have adopted the same attitude toward eBikes as toward scooters. It puts more people on the road NOT in cars and, in the long run, provides more leverage for funding of bike facilities and safety. It also provides more people who want to speak positively about biking and fewer who think we don’t belong on THEIR road.

One more bicyclist; one less motorist.