"wafflycat" <w*a*ff£y£cat*@£btco*nn£ect.com> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:
"Pete" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:Does anyone have experience of buying, using electric bikes.
My wife would like one and they start around £290
(like Powacycle Milan) up to several thousand pounds.
Advice much appreciated.
Regards
Pete
As a middle-aged distinctly non-sporty cyclist and overweight person of
the female persuasion, I wonder why your wife would want an electric bike.
Does she have a handicap which means cycling a 'normal' bike difficult or
impossible? Or does she live in a particularly hilly location?
Just in case Pete (or anyone one else reading this thread for that matter)
is put off buying an electric bike because of your post, I think as an
Electric Bike owner familiar with what's out there, I should clarify a few
things:
In the recent Electric Bike rally I visited, only one cyclist stood out to
me as disabled (I don't like the word handicapped) and that person rode what
looked to be an electric trike/wheelchair with an add-on front power unit.
There may have been another disabled person or two which I didn't spot but
it paints the wrong picture to even hint at electric bikes being something
only for people who aren't up to conventional (I prefer that word over
'normal'😉 cycling. This simply isn't the case.
Quoted message said:
The thing with 'normal' cycling is that non-cyclists underestimate how
easy it is to cycle and to build up fitness *quickly*. You don't have to
be superhuman to do a 10-mile round trip to the shops, or to work. Nor
does it have to result in untlimate sweatiness unless you want it to.
There's that 'normal' again. People reading this may be put off by thinking
if they buy an electric bike there's something abnormal about them. In
reality from my brief conversations with some of those at the rally, it was
clear they found the advantages of electric bike ownership to outweigh any
downsides. All of the above paragraph can also be applied to electric bike
usage with the added bonus that if you get to a really steep hill on a
conventional bike which would induce a sweat (and these do exist), with a
*good design electric bike* that same hill can be tackled without getting
sweaty if desired. If on the other hand the rider wants to exert themselves
more to build up fitness, they could always reduce or turn off all together
the power assistance.
Quoted message said:
If I was considering going the motorised route, I'd want a moped.
Personally I'd be put off by the legal requirements mopeds have and the
running costs. Electric bikes sold here (should) enjoy the same benefits as
conventional bikes i.e. can ride on cycleways, need no licence/tax/insurance
or even helmet unless one takes your fancy.
Quoted message said:
My distinctly sporty cycling teenager has a mate of the same age who had a
'lightweight' motorised bike bought for him by his parents. My teenager,
on a normal road bike (Peugeot Pulse G400) can outsprint his motorised
mate up hills....
Although you are correct in that there are 'lightweight' motorised bikes
about, only the best tend to have motors which output their power through
the gearchain system - what I referred to in my third paragraph. Many
electric bikes these days have front wheel hub motors which have a fixed
'middle' gear (and are consequently less than ideal with steep hills. This
is predominantly used for cost saving (although in the long term if
manufacturers get stuck in, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to
build the better design for no significant difference in price to the
other). If a potential buyer of an electric bike lives, or will be
travelling in very hilly country, they are better off with one which outputs
its motor power via the gearchain. As previously referred to AtoB magazine
reviews can be helpful in this regard.
Paul
