The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
nytimes.com
The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
1–10 of 599 posts
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#2My local bike shop ran out of bike models due to the supply chain issues and the only bikes available were e-bikes. Add to this that e-bikes have much higher revenue/margin - most bike shops are converting shop space to sell e-bikes. I wonder if this contributed to e-bike sales?
Also I know a bunch of people waiting for legislation to promote EVs (ie, extend the tax credit) all year (may never happen).
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#3I really enjoyed my e-bike when I bought it in 2018 or so. The pedal assist really felt seamless: you can get to the top speed of 20mph by pedaling with as much effort as it took to get to maybe 12mph on a regular bike.
Unfortunately, the bike being worth thousands of dollars, it was a prime target for theft. My bike was stolen in San Jose and I decided to replace it with a sub-$1000 regular bike.
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#4The thing that excites me most about e-bikes is that they change the politics around cycling. Proponents of efforts to make roads safer for cyclists have always gotten pushback from people who think that cycling is a niche hobby of rich lycra-clad yuppies.
With e-bikes becoming more common, I know a number of people who would not have touched a bike share but are using it as a replacement for Uber/Lyft rides. People can cycle in to work without breaking a sweat.
It's a bummer that so much legislation aimed at reducing emissions subtly encourages the use of cars without throwing any bones to people who would like to ride bikes, electric or not.
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#5I've long been of the opinion that the real winner in the EV market will be personal vehicles (such as eBikes) and electric mass transit, not larger EVs such as cars in most urban environments.
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#6> ... and have the potential to transform urban transit.
Not in Germany. Biking is and will stay irrelevant for daily transport as long as the infrastructure is a joke. Electric propulsion isn't the missing link.
Interestingly you'll find holiday areas that have biking infrastructure packed with older people on e-bikes.
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#7I can imagine a world, maybe a generation or 2 from now, where our suburbs have shrunk to a bike-accessible scale. That would really, finally, be a step in the right direction.
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#8Timely, I just spent some time building a very large (2150 Wh) pack for my high speed e-bike. The manufacturer (Bosch) doesn't sell anything that large, I use it as my car replacement and wanted a lot more range without having to swap batteries, as well as not to murder them by deep discharging them all the time.
And the margins on e-bikes (relatively speaking) are a lot higher than on cars.
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#9I wonder which mapping platform will start to improve routing for the e-bike user. I find that currently using an e-bike I don't get a very accurate ETA since the routes are calculated for regular bicycles (at least on Google Maps!). Also with an e-bike hills are no longer as large an issue as they would be to regular bikes so route decisions could be less roundabout.
Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down
#10> ... and have the potential to transform urban transit. Not in Germany. Biking is and will stay irrelevant for daily transport as long as the infrastructure is a joke. Electric propulsion isn't the missing link. Interestingly you'll find holiday areas that have biking infrastructure packed with older people on e-bikes.
I was in Munich for five years and biked heavily. The bike infrastructure there far surpassed any major US city, protected bike lanes and off street bike paths within the city were common.
That said, bike lanes were still an obvious second class citizen compared to car lanes in terms of ubiquity and quality, so there's still plenty of room for improvement.