The bike you have forgotten in the shed is probably not an e-bike. In ten years or so it might be but not now. And the one you can get s/h worldwide is certainly not electric. I did say:PH wrote: ↑29 Mar 2023, 10:43amI disagree. Although there is a small percentage of the UK and Europe population who can't afford one, for the vast majority the barrier is mental rather than financial. It's twofold, first the idea that bikes are toys that only cost a few quid and once that is overcome, the risk that they might spend thousands and still end up with something that wasn't used.
That's why free trials, like the one currently underway in Leicester, are so useful, the chance to see how much value you would get from owning one:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/press-release ... munity-hub
That seems a circular argument - You could use the one in the shed would be true with or without E-bikes.Related to cost is availability. You quite likely have a bike somewhere in the back of the shedDo people consider what they're transporting when they get in the car? Sometimes for sure, but probably in most cases not, it's simply to get themselves from A to B.But more importantly, transport of what?
That's anywhere in the world and including the UK as an advanced market – a world context, not saying it's as advanced in this respect as Germany. Non-electric bikes won't be killed off even if they become an obscure minority in the West.Related to cost is availability. You quite likely have a bike somewhere in the back of the shed or if you don't, you can easily get one secondhand, anywhere in the world. It'll be quite a few years till that's the case with e-bikes, except in advanced markets like Germany (or the UK).
Even if we restrict our scope to Europe, cost being a barrier (for anything) is not the same as that thing being unaffordable. As you say, it's a mental barrier – of which cost, or price, forms a part.