I ride both regularly: The ebike is great for recovery days where I still don’t want to drive, but most of the time, I kinda prefer my old hybrid. I don’t know if I’m just attached to it or it’s the experience itself but it somehow seems like less of a hassle.
I’ve had my ebike for 13 months now, and while it’s super convenient to use the ebike, I’ve been on an acoustic bike for 11 years and see no reason to deprecate it. So I’ve drawn some guidelines for myself to identify when the ebike should to be used: 1) time is of the essence, eg meeting someone for a short lunch, medical appointment, or to avoid imminent bad weather conditions, or 2) the trip would leave the town borders. This policy gives the acoustic bike the priority for short trips, where it has been effective for years. And longer trips become a tradeoff of time versus convenience.
And of course, if the acoustic bike has an issue, then the ebike is a suitable backup capable of doing those in-town trips. And if the ebike too is unavailable, then we go down the rest of the priority list: transit, carpool, then car.
100% agree with getting started on any bike, electric or not.
Although the benefits of ebikes particularly are notable, with one study noting that older individuals will tend to travel relatively longer distance when on an ebike specifically.
I ride both regularly: The ebike is great for recovery days where I still don’t want to drive, but most of the time, I kinda prefer my old hybrid. I don’t know if I’m just attached to it or it’s the experience itself but it somehow seems like less of a hassle.
I’ve had my ebike for 13 months now, and while it’s super convenient to use the ebike, I’ve been on an acoustic bike for 11 years and see no reason to deprecate it. So I’ve drawn some guidelines for myself to identify when the ebike should to be used: 1) time is of the essence, eg meeting someone for a short lunch, medical appointment, or to avoid imminent bad weather conditions, or 2) the trip would leave the town borders. This policy gives the acoustic bike the priority for short trips, where it has been effective for years. And longer trips become a tradeoff of time versus convenience.
And of course, if the acoustic bike has an issue, then the ebike is a suitable backup capable of doing those in-town trips. And if the ebike too is unavailable, then we go down the rest of the priority list: transit, carpool, then car.