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I use one, instead of a car. (Driving a car just seems lazy to me. But I do it sometimes, when I'm feeling lazy or when I have to transport my kids.) Before 20

by veidr 8y ago

I use one, instead of a car. (Driving a car just seems lazy to me. But I do it sometimes, when I'm feeling lazy or when I have to transport my kids.) Before 2010 or so, I used a traditional manual bike. But today, a non-powered bike seems to me like using a slow, spinning platter magnetic disk instead of an SSD. Or using a desk without a motor to adjust the height on demand. Or a kerosene lamp instead of LED lighting. Unless you consider your bike to be only a mechanism to get exercise, in which case inefficiency is desired, the only valid argument against an e-bike in my mind is the cost. And that's valid, in some circumstances. But you can get every bit as much of a workout on an e-bike -- it's just that you will be going faster. Alternatively, if you don't need a workout right now, you can go about as fast as a non-powered bike with minimal effort. Where I live in Tokyo, it's 45 minutes to the office by train (due to the walking to/from stations, 35 minutes by 1970s bicyle, and 20 minutes on my battery-powered pedal-assist BESV LX-1.

rhinoceraptor 8y ago
Traditional bikes are a lot cheaper and simpler. Most of the e-bikes I've seen, are very expensive and come with low or mid-range quality components. Plus, I'd be very wary of investing in a bike with a lot of proprietary components. Traditional bike standards change as well, but you can still ride a 40 year old bike today and get parts for it. If I were to get an e-bike, I'd definitely go the route of getting a solid, steel, fully rigid mountain bike and putting a mid-drive conversion kit on it.
- nasmorn 8y ago
  Not everybody is concerned about riding a bike for decades. Your parent just wrote he saves 30min a day with the ebike. That is 100 hours per year easily. That pays for a new ebike a year at any price you could reasonably assign to your time. The bike lifetime is an absolute sideshow in this example.

by veidr 8y ago

rhinoceraptor 8y ago

Traditional bikes are a lot cheaper and simpler. Most of the e-bikes I've seen, are very expensive and come with low or mid-range quality components. Plus, I'd be very wary of investing in a bike with a lot of proprietary components. Traditional bike standards change as well, but you can still ride a 40 year old bike today and get parts for it. If I were to get an e-bike, I'd definitely go the route of getting a solid, steel, fully rigid mountain bike and putting a mid-drive conversion kit on it.

nasmorn 8y ago
Not everybody is concerned about riding a bike for decades. Your parent just wrote he saves 30min a day with the ebike. That is 100 hours per year easily. That pays for a new ebike a year at any price you could reasonably assign to your time. The bike lifetime is an absolute sideshow in this example.