karlt wrote:Phil Fouracre wrote:Lecci bike ?
Soap, mouth, wash...
Seriously, though, why the hate for e-bikes. They don't replace ordinary bikes (mine didn't anyway), they replace motorbikes or even cars. O.K., perhaps that's why, but which would you rather meet on the road? Do we want motorists to switch to cycling, or don't we?
I use an e-bike for commuting and the main reason is the subject of this thread, hassle. An ebike allows the non-hassle style of cycling to go a lot further. My e-bike is based on an old Dutch roadster, it's got a full chaincase, steel mudguards, heavy steel frame etc. It's heavy. It's also very comfortable and goes thousands of miles without maintenance.
Before I got it I had a motorbike and didn't cycle much at all. I'm not disabled, or all that old, but I wasn't a cyclist before I got the e-bike. O.K. you could say I'm still not when I'm on it, but I ride ordinary bikes a lot more as well. I'm gaining fitness on the commute which I can use at weekends. Starting a 12.5mile hilly commute from cold wouldn't have been feasible and I don't have time to train for the commute.
So I think we need to think before we say "E-bikes are only for the disabled"; are we putting a motorist off getting out of the car and on an e-bike? What do we want? We might prefer they got an ordinary bike but realistically that's not going to happen, they're going to keep the car.