The accessibility angle is huge. I tried my work commute on a road bike and the uphill return especially after work was impossible. I had to call for a pickup and I was drenched in sweat and thirsty as hell after making short work of my 64 oz bottle of electrolyte water.
Then I ended up getting an electric fat bike and since then it’s been almost every day, rain or snow or forest fire smoke with a respirator, which I just wear all the time for car smog now too. I have since retried the manual bike and I can actually do it now, although it still sucks and arthritic knees are aprobably all I’m getting as an inheritance.
Maintenance wise I have cooked the motor going uphill, demagnetizing it, rusted the fuck out of everything in the first winter, learned bike mechanic stuff and rebuilt with new bearings, titanium screws to replace the rusty ones, hydraulic brakes, installed mid drive motor, relaced the wheel to get rid of the old motor, did up a second set of wheels to have separate summer and winter tires with studs, added extra lights and turn signals pending install, and have electronically actuated air horn lined up too. All that and I am still way below what I spent on my car for the same amount of time. Not exactly cheap either mind you.
I have yet to test them but turn signals and a powerful horn like the airzound which mine is inspired by may be necessary for street riding. Drivers don’t know what hand signals are and in my area regularly do illegal shit like right turn from the left turn lane, over traffic stopped only to prevent intersection blocking, and the bike lane. A lot of time the bike lanes get treated as a right turn lane too and cars block it entirely. I have been super tempted to just scrape by because my frame has pretty worn paint and is a candidate for future replacement.
Uphill can be doable, but you have to have the right gearing to make it “easy” and keep in mind it will not be fast. Still, bigger climbs can be pretty challenging especially if you’re not already conditioned. Even a small motor makes things waaaaay easier.
Yeah the gearing is big. I have up to 50t in the rear now and with the mid drive motor I can go up some really frighteningly steep slopes like the ones that are scary downhill in a car. It was originally the same Shimano 7 speed on every Walmart bike but when I replaced the hub motor for a mid I rebuilt the wheel with hg hubs and put a 10 speed on. Now I have the full range of super easy but comically slow, to really difficult and maybe bad for the motor.
And the research backs up many of his points:
https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/the-health-benefits-of-electric-bikes
eBike simply just is more fun to ride. I used to be a purist and look down to eBikers but then I bought one and haven’t rode my analog bike ever since.
I still regularly enjoy riding both but don’t really look down on any form of micromobility as long as people aren’t being irresponsible with it.
