E bikes - do you secretly want one?

[Viv4]

Hi all (another new member and first post)
I have been reading this forum for a while as a guest and haven't felt inclined to register or post until I read this one. I am not sure what it is with you guys (assuming the majority are guys!) and your patronising attitude to ebike riders. Cycling is cycling no matter what you are riding, assisted or not and why I should be cheating riding my heavy steel panniered ebike in ordinary clothes when you are not cheating riding your featherweight carbon fibre, skinny tyred road bike dressed in aerodynamic helmet and Lycra just has me beat!

I have cycled all my life, for transport as a child, before everyone had cars to ferry them around, and then for work and just pure enjoyment. I have a beautiful Thorn Raven Tour made specially for me and with part time working and hence more leisure time I want to go further and use my bike more instead of the car. Having a Cyclotricity front hub motor fitted to my Raven means I get the very best of both worlds, a lovely bike to ride and all the fun of being 10 years old again and whizzing about. If I pedal as normal in level 1 assist my 36v pannier battery gets me around 60 miles, that's a whole day's touring and way more than I could manage unassisted and without getting unbelievably hot and sweaty.

Please don't knock something you haven't tried and know little or nothing about. We are all cyclists and should be encouraging of new members to our ranks and why you should need the excuse of being disabled, old (how old?) or any other to justify an ebike I really don't know. Just get on your bike and enjoy the wind in your hair, or through your helmet, and that's down to personal choice too!

Rant over!

[beardy]

I am not sure what it is with you guys (assuming the majority are guys!) and your patronising attitude to ebike riders.

I have just read the whole thread again. If it is patronising, then it is no more patronising than occurs normally about any subject that comes up.
I thought the tone of the thread was overwhelmingly supportive of ebikes. Is that what you mean by patronising?

[reohn2]

Viv4
Welcome to the forum,I'm glad you're enjoying you Ebike
I have a soft spot for pedelecs/Ebikes,and think they're great,they allow many people who wouldn't normally be able to cycle or their cycling would be very limited without elec assistance,so I'm all in favour.
I've been following this thread and can't say there's many claims of 'cheating' or disparaging remarks,The thread's been overwhelmingly positive IMHO.

[Viv4]

Maybe I was a little harsh and perhaps the word should have been "condescending" rather than "patronising", but my point is that most of the cycling fraternity, on this and other cycling forums, seem to see ebikes in a very odd light. The bicycle was originally developed and widely used as a mode of transport, it still is across the third world, but somewhere along the line the developed world has lost that link. Cycling now seems to have to be a sport (clad in specialist gear) or leisure pursuit and can't now be a pleasant way to commute or nip to the shops.

Ebikes could change the thinking of the non cycling masses by offering a practical solution to some of the local travel problems encountered using the car - congestion, fuel bills, parking charges etc. - whilst helping to improve someones physical activity level. But, and to my mind, it is a very big but, the overall impression is that unless you are able to show you have a genuine reason for needing an ebike you are going to be seen as an inferior specimen by riding one. Most of the above posts say something along the lines of "when I am too old........., when I can't cycle up my local xyz hill....., when it takes me over x time to go z miles....., then I will consider buying an ebike.

As I said before, I have always cycled and am perfectly capable of riding unassisted but since converting my tourer I cycle so much more - for shopping, local appointments and longer touring rides. My local town is 12 miles away, too far for me unassisted with heavy panniers but very enjoyable with the ebike.

If you have never ridden an ebike, try a test ride somewhere locally preferably with a non cycling friend, family member or colleague and see what they think. Get more folk cycling, that's my mission and no, I have no commercial interest in ebikes!

[samsbike]

Like many others, I think at some point I will get one. I have a 34 rtw commute and now only do it about twice a week, anymore and the second day becomes too long.

This seems to work at the moment, particularly as I have a scooter for the other days. If my commute got shorter and I did it more often I will consider one. I am seeing how the battery technology matures, as that seems to be where more efficiency etc can be generated.

[ukdodger]

Like many others, I think at some point I will get one. I have a 34 rtw commute and now only do it about twice a week, anymore and the second day becomes too long.

This seems to work at the moment, particularly as I have a scooter for the other days. If my commute got shorter and I did it more often I will consider one. I am seeing how the battery technology matures, as that seems to be where more efficiency etc can be generated.

Yes. A fortune awaits he who can get more than 2v out of a single battery cell.

[Dave W]

Maybe I was a little harsh and perhaps the word should have been "condescending" rather than "patronising", but my point is that most of the cycling fraternity, on this and other cycling forums, seem to see ebikes in a very odd light. The bicycle was originally developed and widely used as a mode of transport, it still is across the third world, but somewhere along the line the developed world has lost that link. Cycling now seems to have to be a sport (clad in specialist gear) or leisure pursuit and can't now be a pleasant way to commute or nip to the shops.

Ebikes could change the thinking of the non cycling masses by offering a practical solution to some of the local travel problems encountered using the car - congestion, fuel bills, parking charges etc. - whilst helping to improve someones physical activity level. But, and to my mind, it is a very big but, the overall impression is that unless you are able to show you have a genuine reason for needing an ebike you are going to be seen as an inferior specimen by riding one. Most of the above posts say something along the lines of "when I am too old........., when I can't cycle up my local xyz hill....., when it takes me over x time to go z miles....., then I will consider buying an ebike.

As I said before, I have always cycled and am perfectly capable of riding unassisted but since converting my tourer I cycle so much more - for shopping, local appointments and longer touring rides. My local town is 12 miles away, too far for me unassisted with heavy panniers but very enjoyable with the ebike.

If you have never ridden an ebike, try a test ride somewhere locally preferably with a non cycling friend, family member or colleague and see what they think. Get more folk cycling, that's my mission and no, I have no commercial interest in ebikes!

Condescending? Patronising?
You've managed that already by having a go at anyone who cycles for sport I've been on this forum a while now and there seems to be a hatred of anyone who cycles for fun or sport, dresses in Lycra, wears proper cycling garb or spends any money
I never see it working the other way, I cycle for fun, never cycle to the shops, always wear my lycra, enjoy going fast, wear a helmet, run eleven speed cassettes and dare I whisper it have a carbon bike. Do I patronise anyone who uses an Ebike, cycles in Jeans? Never.

I understand why some wouldn't want one whilst they are perfectly capable of cycling under their own steam, I can also see why others would use one even if fully fit.
I'd love to have one in my stable, same as I'd love to try a recumbent but I've just got too many bikes in the garage already

[Viv4]

Dave, sell some of the other bikes and go for that electric recumbent - not sure about fitting a motor to a carbon frame though! You'll have loads of fun, go much faster and it will last you for years

I wasn't meaning to be rude, I'm sure you look great in your Lycra!

[Dave W]

Frank.jpg (8.91 KiB) Viewed 915 times

I do.

[Phil Fouracre]

Ugh!!

[Chris the Sheep]

I agree, this is one of the least condescending / patronising ebike threads I've ever seen - and shows how attitudes are changing. In the past most threads would have had a tone implying they should only be allowed if someone NEEDS an ebike, I'm not seeing that here.

I swap between a conventional bike (for calm weather) and an ebike (for windy weather). The ebike also makes riding in waterproofs more tolerable so I use it more. My motorbike only gets used for longer journeys now (I don't bother with a car).

I approach my cycling primarily from a utility viewpoint, and the emphasis on cycling as sport amuses me - I returned to cycling after 20 years and it took a while to understand that a 'hybrid' is what I used to call a 'bicycle'!!

[Heltor Chasca]

I see a chap almost every day between Radstock & Midsomer Norton near to where I live on an e bike. There's not a month in the year he's not on it. His long, grey hair and beard flap away in the wind as he pedals off to wherever he's going.

And do you know? I think he looks like the happiest fellow in Somerset to me.

Just saying.

[mjr]

I've been on this forum a while now and there seems to be a hatred of anyone who cycles for fun or sport, dresses in Lycra, wears proper cycling garb or spends any money
... Do I patronise anyone who uses an Ebike, cycles in Jeans? Never.

I think that "never" should be reconsidered following the earlier description of only some clothes as "proper"

[Dave W]

Way over my head I'm afraid

[mjr]

Way over my head I'm afraid

Retry: claiming that some clothes are "proper cycling garb" is patronising to those who cycle happily without them.