Several old friends came to visit my wife for her birthday. She wanted to ride on a nearby trail, a 5km ride. One friend hadn't biked in 20 years, and was not really wanting to ride that far.
So my wife leant her friend the e-bike, and took an old hybrid bike. The friend was blown away: "this is sooo much fun!".
That's what #ebikes can do. People who just aren't interested in biking get to have fun on a bike again.
From the perspective of a non-technical user, an e-bike that is built and designed to use a motor will generally be superior to a regular bike turned into an e-bike with a conversion set.
At least in Finland conversion sets are fairly rare. Arguably there are obvious issues with the vendor lock-in that major brands like Bosch push on their users, but the reliability is okay and there are certified maintenance shops. #ebikes
"At this fair, instead of pony rides, games of chance and fried food, visitors took electric bicycles and scooters for a spin, watched cooking #demonstrations on #InductionStoves, and learned about other ways to make their homes and lives more climate-friendly."
My town has one every year: it's a party. People bring their EVs (two and four wheeled) for show and tell. Vendors have a showcase. There's food and music, and lots of people.
"Electric vehicles as a whole displaced about 1.5m barrels of oil a day globally in 2022, according to Bloomberg. Two-thirds of that – almost 1m barrels a day – was just from electric bikes and mopeds, which are known as electric micromobility."
Die Zahl der Diebstähle von E-Bikes und Pedelecs in Niedersachsen hat sich in den vergangenen drei Jahren verdoppelt. Mehr als 30.000 Fahrräder wurden laut Kriminalstatistik im Jahr 2023 gestohlen - darunter auch Tausende E-Bikes und Pedelecs.
Pro Jahr gibt es an deutschen Bahnhöfen etwa 2.700 Fundräder. Die Deutsche Bahn bewahrt diese mindestens zehn Wochen lang auf - dann werden sie versteigert. Dabei kommen sogar E-Bikes unter den Hammer.
other than market #enshitification or bias toward absence of real hills and cargo, why are there no #eBikes with both crank+hub drive motors combined?
Hub motors give smooth power and regen braking but can't gear down for steep slopes. Getting started with the crank drive gets the hub up to an effective speed without putting so much force through the chain (and human-scaled cassette) while the hub bridges the shifting gaps. Regen braking greatly reduces brake pad maintenance & extends range.
@jef that was my original plan for the bakfiets, but I like keeping the rear light so I can lift it and wheelbarrow around obstacles. The longtail has a similar ability to lift the front wheel and pivot. Spreading the traction to both wheels might be worth the added front weight for some applications but I think you need a fairly large geared hub motor to get good regen braking.
searching for e-bike recommendations for my disabled ass, that won't break the bank and have an amount of cargo capacity even if it's like a few bags of groceries (more is better, i'm a disaster)? I need to nearly-never pedal and especially not up any hills or anything