Are electric bikes better than bikes?

lovesenada

lovesenada

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Do you know what is the difference between electric bike and bike? In fact, it's not just about having a battery or not, in this article, we're going to talk about the many differences between electric bikes and regular bikes.


1. Handlebars

A backlit LCD display and accelerator are added to the handlebars of electric bikes.

The display shows your speed, odometer, trip and battery level.

You can control your speed by adjusting the throttle, giving you forward momentum when the pedal is not applied.


2. Battery

The battery assists your ride, and the battery can power your 1000w fat tire ebike for an average of 40 miles.

The battery is removable and our battery has a dedicated key lock so you can take the battery with you and charge it anywhere! Are you curious what batteries are made of? Usually comes with Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) or Lithium-Polymer (LiPo) batteries.


3. Gear

Since the average 1000w mountain bike is equipped with 7-8 gears, the rider can fully customize the ride according to his wishes.

If you want to ride fast, choose high gear + high pedal assist.

If you want to do some cardio, choose Low Gear + Low Pedal Assist.


4. Motor

What is the maximum wattage for an e-bike motor? Most of our electric bikes use 1000W Bafang brushless geared hub motors.

With 1000W of continuous power and 100Nm of torque at your disposal, the high-speed brushless geared hub motor can help you conquer the roughest terrains with ease.

When cruising on flat roads, the motor stays at 500 watts. Facing steep trails or rocky terrain, full suspension ebike can do it all.

5. Appearance

In fact, there is no obvious difference between electric bikes and bike in terms of appearance, but only includes an electric drive system.

This includes adding a motor, battery, and sometimes a display. The battery is what powers the motor, and it assists when you pedal, helping propel the bike forward.


6. Speed

The bike has an electric motor, which means that the electric bike is faster than the ordinary bike.

Of course, this question mostly depends on how fast a person usually rides.

Typical Ebike motors can run at speeds as high as 20 or 28 MPH.

If you want to go at high speed, the engine will stall and you need to rely solely on the power of your legs to pedal forward.


7. Terms and Conditions

Electric bikes are subject to regulations and rules, and they are subject to government regulations regarding speed and power limits, but this usually doesn't affect the rider. But other rules may vary from state to state.

For example, some states require helmet use, while others have a minimum age to operate an e-bike. Rules may also vary based on your specific bike's Class I, II, and III capabilities, so you can check with your land manager or municipality to determine where you can ride an e-bike.
 
My sort answer is no, they are not better, (in my opinion).

The long answer is: They cost more for the same level of bike. They are much heavier. They have to be charged. They require more maintainable. In some cases they have additional restrictions. They provide less satisfaction and exercise. Their evolution is limited by their very nature and they don’t race.

I do think that they are great fun and can serve a very useful purpose too. It’s great if they reduce the use of a car, truck or motorcycle. It’s great that they are getting more people outdoors and exercising. But these are things that a traditional bike can do as well, although with more effort. The more bicycle like that they are, the better they will fit in with existing infrastructure, but not everyone wants a bicycle like ebike, so conflicts and divisions arise.

I do prefer riding my Class 1 ebike, but I still ride and enjoy my Carbon road bike, and I would never consider my road bike to be inferior. I would say that this thread poses a loaded question, but that’s fine, (it gets people to express themselves, and I guess that is what a forum is for. The responses may be interesting.
 
I've cycled for so long and on such a variety of traditional bikes that in some ways my eBike still feels "wrong" on some base level. However, given my age, health, location (terrain), and related concerns there was absolutely no way I had any confidence about getting back on a traditional bike for the kind of regular rides that improve health and wellbeing.

So I am weirdly conflicted about eBikes, where I am overjoyed that one has gotten me over the initial physical training hump and gives me a lot of confidence that I will be able to go someplace AND come back, but I am also constantly aware of/annoyed by, the feel of all that weight and some of the other attributes.

[Except when I do "grocery getting". Then I don't give a damn if my bike is more like a Mack Truck than a Ferrari, I just love the assist when bringing a load of groceries home!]
 
I think it is up to the price. Ebikes are more expensive and make your rides easier. Maybe you wanna get fitness, then a traditional bike is still a good one.
 
IMO, neither better nor worse, just different applications. I grew up riding BMX and mountain bikes. Always enjoyed biking but eventually reached an age where I got tired of the effort. Then I moved to a place with a lot of hills. I hated having to climb up a mile long hill, found myself having to walk up a few of them, after just a couple of rides I put my bike in the back of the garage and did not ride it for 5 years. Couple of weeks ago I bought an ebike and am once again enjoying biking. Hills are not a problem anymore and with 50+ mile range on the bike I don't even have to drive anywhere to go biking. I just leave from the garage. On flat ground I don't use pedal assist and just pedal like a normal bike but on hills I'm no longer miserable and am having a blast climbing a hill at 20mph that I'd otherwise find myself walking up with a regular bike.

But...it's a heavy bike and not really designed for mountain biking or extreme off-roading so I'm limited in that aspect. Still, I'm having a lot more fun on this bike than I've had on any bike in at least 15 years (I'm 55). My last real bike ride other than a couple of random rides since then was about 15 years ago and was a 15 mile loop in the FL Everglades (Shark Valley if anyone's familiar with it) and the first half heading in was great but the second half heading out was against a stiff breeze and absolutely miserable. An ebike would have made that entire ride a blast.

So, not better or worse than a regular bike, just different and exactly what I needed to get back in the saddle, so to speak.
 
Evelo did an online survey in 2019 and found, "Perhaps the most stunning fact gleaned from the survey was that electric bike owners and those shoppers interested in buying electric bikes are 55-years-old or older.

These individuals belong to the Baby Boomer cohort, and they represented 79.47 percent of survey respondents."

I fit squarely in this demographic. A desire to get some exercise in a low impact way; somewhat intimidated by hills and string winds; want to have an activity that my wife and I can do during our retirement years; and have some disposable income that allows us to buy these bikes. For us, e bikes are perfect. For others, maybe not.
 
procreator said:
Evelo did an online survey in 2019 and found, "Perhaps the most stunning fact gleaned from the survey was that electric bike owners and those shoppers interested in buying electric bikes are 55-years-old or older.

These individuals belong to the Baby Boomer cohort, and they represented 79.47 percent of survey respondents."

I fit squarely in this demographic. A desire to get some exercise in a low impact way; somewhat intimidated by hills and string winds; want to have an activity that my wife and I can do during our retirement years; and have some disposable income that allows us to buy these bikes. For us, e bikes are perfect. For others, maybe not.
Click to expand...
I'm in that demographic too (although quite a ways from retirement) but where I live most of the people I see on e-bikes are younger Gen-X, millennials, and Gen-Z.
 
Giving a short answer to that question is not feasible, primarily because of the phsyology of the cyclist e.g. the older you are the more inclined you'll be get an ebike, ONCE you are conscious of the importance of physical exercise and the necessity to optomise an exercise regime. To simplify, an ebike will make it easier to cope with wind and rain so, to compensate for dealing with these weather elements, you'd need to ebike more!
 
Sean Henry said:
I think it is up to the price. Ebikes are more expensive and make your rides easier. Maybe you wanna get fitness, then a traditional bike is still a good one.
Click to expand...
I can only tell you my experience at getting back on a bike at 75 years old some time ago. I live in a hilly area of SW Washington State and even through I have perfectly good Trek Hybrid bike I knew there was no way I would be able to climb those hills.

So I started to investigate e bikes learning as much as I could to find all features that I wanted/needed. I am so glad I took the time to do that because I see many people here on the forum that didn't do their homework and have come to regret it one way or the other.
 
Some people say that ebikes are heavy and that is why they don't like them. I say they are heavy because they are ebikes. What I mean is this: The ebikes I have each weight about 55lbs, however, they can support a rider weighing 300 or more pounds AND have a step thru height of 15" or less.

I don't think very many people would want to pedal a beefy frame like this without assistance.

Just so you know, neither my wife nor I push the weight limit.
 
JerryB said:
Like many......I used to ride a regular bike but no longer can .....after a knee and hip replacement......plus being almost 70......I wanted my ebike for exercise and enjoyment. I ride 4.5 to 7.5 miles almost everyday......great exercise for my replaced parts....makes me feel good......great fun.
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Yep, me too. Some folks get all hung up on the lack of exercise on a ebike ( which we know there is if you want to), but tend to forget a very important part. The Mental aspect of being able to get out and ride aside from all your ailments. It's just as or possibly more important. Just my un-medically trained inner hillbilly talking her. Bicycling helped me through 2 total knee replacements and a ankle fusion. The rehab was my bike, physically and mentally. When I couldn't ride because of the surgeries I would read about biking, which made me want to get out and ride, which I did.
Now the ebike still gives me some well needed exercise of the joints, but the mental aspect of knowing I can now ride again is awesome.
 
Jazz said:
Giving a short answer to that question is not feasible, primarily because of the phsyology of the cyclist e.g. the older you are the more inclined you'll be get an ebike, ONCE you are conscious of the importance of physical exercise and the necessity to optomise an exercise regime. To simplify, an ebike will make it easier to cope with wind and rain so, to compensate for dealing with these weather elements, you'd need to ebike more!
Click to expand...

Hoggdoc said:
I can only tell you my experience at getting back on a bike at 75 years old some time ago. I live in a hilly area of SW Washington State and even through I have perfectly good Trek Hybrid bike I knew there was no way I would be able to climb those hills.

So I started to investigate e bikes learning as much as I could to find all features that I wanted/needed. I am so glad I took the time to do that because I see many people here on the forum that didn't do their homework and have come to regret it one way or the other.
Click to expand...
Wind, rain, hills. Where I live it doesn't rain much but there are plenty of hills and it sucks riding upwind especially if you're also going uphill. That is why I got an ebike. I can now ride around town, bike trails, saturday afternoon rides up and down the coast, etc, without having to worry that I won't make it back due to hills and wind. As a matter of fact, where I live now, no matter what direction I go from my house, it's uphill in every direction. Then I will encounter a combination of flat, uphill, and downhill, so even coming back will be partly uphill with some of them being very long and very steep.

I keep remembering more of my last few bike rides with regular bikes. I think the absolute last one was about 5 years ago. I moved to a new place, broke out my trusty mountain bike and decided to ride to the local mall. On the way there is a short (about 1/4 mile) but pretty steep hill. Before hitting the hill I built up a bit of speed, as soon as I hit the hill I had to downshift to low, and by the time I got to about 1/3 of the way up the hill I was dead stopped. I did the walk of shame and pushed the bike up the hill, made it to the mall, got home and put the bike away, and I think that really was the last time I rode until two weekends ago when I went out on the ebike for the first time. Hadn't had that much fun riding a bike in a very long time. Can't wait to do it again. Limited to weekends for now due to it already being dark by the time I get home but next spring and summer I hope to ride like crazy.
 
I have a cheap fitness watch. There is a cycling mode that not only tracks my mileage, but also my heart rate. I can assure you that since I have gotten my ebike, I have had extended periods of time where my heart rate was aerobic and even anaerobic. This wouldn't have happened without me being on an ebike. I realize I could have ridden a regular bike, but probably wouldn't have due to hills, wind, etc.
 
snipechief said:
Yep, me too. Some folks get all hung up on the lack of exercise on a ebike ( which we know there is if you want to), but tend to forget a very important part. The Mental aspect of being able to get out and ride aside from all your ailments. It's just as or possibly more important. Just my un-medically trained inner hillbilly talking her. Bicycling helped me through 2 total knee replacements and a ankle fusion. The rehab was my bike, physically and mentally. When I couldn't ride because of the surgeries I would read about biking, which made me want to get out and ride, which I did.
Now the ebike still gives me some well needed exercise of the joints, but the mental aspect of knowing I can now ride again is awesome.
Click to expand...
So true......I had a guy tell me that my ebike didn't provide any exercise......I told him he was full of crap.....since getting my ebike.....my replaced knee as well as the good one are going up and down thousands of time each day I ride......they are getting more exercise than they have had in years.....they feel better and...like you say.....the mental part of riding is great.......next time I see that guy....think I will kick him with my unexercised replaced knee! LOL!
 

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