Rules? Sure. Strong agree with “Just buy one”. I’ve come to different conclusions about the specifics of the bikes themselves. From a different premise and pos

Rules? Sure. Strong agree with “Just buy one”. I’ve come to different conclusions about the specifics of the bikes themselves. From a different premise and position, surely. I’m a bicyclist and a a motorcyclist, and I tend towards taut, supple, reasonably lightweight, comfortable things. Vehicles that feel good to ride, ride well and predictably and smoothly and go anywhere and do everything. Get out of the way. Disappear. An E-bike should: • Take up to 2.25” wide tires to be able to use Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro tubeless winter tires. Studded 27.5x2.25” in icy seasons, 29x38mm or so for most everything else. (This might sound strange; idk. I was surprised by the unreasonable effectiveness of this setup.) • Should have carbon fiber rims because the ride is so, so nice. Tubeless. Tubes are a failure point. Tubeless or GTFO. • Should have drop bars with an “open” ergonomic flare. Most natural hand/shoulder position. Allows comfort while minimising drag and wind resistance in a tucked position as desired. • Should be a good bicycle – should ride well overall and be reasonably light. For me this rules out hub motors. (From these reasons I may conclude that E-bikes should be electric gravel bikes.) • Should have some form of controlled suspension. Just a little though. A cheap suspension fork isn’t worth the weight. A Lauf fork with flat glass-fiber springs would be excellent. That leaves the rear wheel non-suspended though. This means that the rider’s spine and the bicycle’s frame are coupled to the road surface, besides the tires’ squish. Good tires do make a big difference but I for one have made up my mind – modern materials allow for super lightweight controlled suspension and I want it and will seek it out. It’s worth it, not just for comfort: Bumps jolt the rider, and the weight of rider and bike are forced to move over bumps; Both cost energy. (Jolts and vibration are not physiologically trivial; Subtly draining.) So: Ideally the frame should have some form of rear suspension. Very few electric versions of nice-to-ride bicycle frames have rear suspension. Some carbon fiber frames have suspension designed into the flex of the frame but I haven’t found anything I like in e-bikes. I think Shimano make an aluminium gravel e-bike with some form of suspension in the rear triangle? There exist suspension seatposts. This is kind of clever. Should be pretty effective. The bike’s frame is unsuspended but the rider is suspended and decoupled and that’s where most of the mass is. And so. I stand to believe that Cairn bikes are the e-bikes to get. (And swap a few component out on.) Compared to bicycles they aren’t cheap, but compared to the full cost of a car they are. Even without externalities. Cairn E-Adventure: https://www.cairncycles.com/collections/ebikes-e-adventure https://www.cairncycles.com/collections/ebikes-e-adventure Cairn BRAVe: https://www.cairncycles.com/collections/e-bike-brave https://www.cairncycles.com/collections/e-bike-brave