Electric bicycles - who buys them?

[Driver101]

Jobbo said:

monthou said:

Jobbo said:

what matters is now the law treats it, not what label is attached.

The law (if by that you mean the police and courts) seems to pretty much ignore anything but the most blatantly illegal e-bikes.

I don’t mean the police and courts - that’s just enforcement. I mean the statute books and the legislature. I accept entirely that there is not much enforcement currently. But unlike, say, cannabis smoking which after years of under-enforcement is taking steps towards legality in many countries, illegal e-bikes tend to be more publicly visible. It won’t take many incidents and accidents for the papers to start banging a drum with regular stories, enforcement to go up based on the existing laws but achieve little, and then get calls to legislate for all e-bikes to be registered. And paying for registration would fund it.

I don’t think I’m being particularly hysterical with the above prediction.

Ebikes have been very popular for years and we haven't seen accidents to generate regular stories. It's not a problem that exists.

Ebikes are not going to be registered. It's an unreasonable thought that they will. We've had the same unreasonable requests for years with bikes. Cars have to be registered and the money we pay doesn't come close to combating the amount of dangerous and antisocial drivers.

[Richtea1970]

Driver101 said:

Ebikes have been very popular for years and we haven't seen accidents to generate regular stories. It's not a problem that exists.

Ebikes are not going to be registered. It's an unreasonable thought that they will. We've had the same unreasonable requests for years with bikes. Cars have to be registered and the money we pay doesn't come close to combating the amount of dangerous and antisocial drivers.

This ^^^

[paulrockliffe]

If there's any action it would be legislation that forced the likes of Deliveroo to take responsibility for their riders. You can't really have a business model that's reliant on 10s of people out breaking the law for you all day.

[Driver101]

paulrockliffe said:

If there's any action it would be legislation that forced the likes of Deliveroo to take responsibility for their riders. You can't really have a business model that's reliant on 10s of people out breaking the law for you all day.

This is the part I do find strange. Delivery drivers in full livery riding about on ebikes that look like scooters and they are rarely pedaling.

They look quite nippy, but the police aren't bothered. They are everywhere in the city centre.

Are the delivery riders being supplied the bikes or do they buy them for the job?

[gangzoom]

paulrockliffe said:

If there's any action it would be legislation that forced the likes of Deliveroo to take responsibility for their riders. You can't really have a business model that's reliant on 10s of people out breaking the law for you all day.

Amazon delivery driver never break the law?

[ChocolateFrog]

paulrockliffe said:

If there's any action it would be legislation that forced the likes of Deliveroo to take responsibility for their riders. You can't really have a business model that's reliant on 10s of people out breaking the law for you all day.

Agreed.

For every rider stopped fine the company 10k. Problem would be solved inside a week.

[ChocolateFrog]

Driver101 said:

This is the part I do find strange. Delivery drivers in full livery riding about on ebikes that look like scooters and they are rarely pedaling.

They look quite nippy, but the police aren't bothered. They are everywhere in the city centre.

Are the delivery riders being supplied the bikes or do they buy them for the job?

Individually bought and owned. Presumably from Aliexpress by the looks of most of them.

[gangzoom]

caiss4 said:

I think it was this post that pushed me over the edge. Ordered the bike just over 3 weeks ago, picked it up 17th August and now 200+ miles in just loving it. Compare that to the 450 miles I had done this year prior to getting it I think it shows that I've got my cycling mojo back.....and I'm feeling the fittest for almost a year!

Summer holidays, work, and general lack of time meant I hadn't ridden any of eBike(s) for about 2 months .

Last 48hrs however due to needing to book car in for a MOT and today just nice weather I've managed to get back on the bike(s). I'm glad to report the n+1 rule still works for eBike(s) .

Yesterday, 45mph+ wind gusts, torrential rain, needing to wear plenty of water proofs, 100% waterproof panniers, 0% wish for punctures at side of the road. The 20kg+ Boardman with panniers, mudguards, 'bomb proof' wheels/tires did the job perfectly. The electric assistance + general mass of the bike meant the wind was barely noticeable, didn't even end up with wet socks thanks to overshoes. Riding in those conditions on any other bike would have been horrific.



Today, weather has turned, no need to carry any IT equipment into work, took the scenic way in.........My I just need a hardtail for the imaginary off road riding I've done once in the last 10 years .

[carlo996]

Great ride today on a Whyte E160, 40km loop, and at the end the bike carried me home. A good day.

[df76]

Last weekend was the first time I used an e-bike properly.. very impressed (although this was an expensive Scott Addict, which even without the electrics was the nicest bike I've ridden). Mixed group of us in Mallorca, on a hilly 80km ride. Some of the group used e-bikes and just meant that we could all cycle together. Even with assistance it was a proper work out, although range anxiety meant that I never used the top power option.. shouldn't have worried, as ended the ride with a third of the power left. The only negative was the saddle destroying my arse, which was a new experience for me!

[Castellet]

I’ve always been a keen cyclist, and rented a few eBikes, and can see the attraction. But, do find them heavy and cumbersome - 25Kg +
Accepting some range compromises, what are the lightweight affordable options ?

[gangzoom]

^My Creo is 12.7kg with pedals, thats with a pretty heavy wheelset, alloy bars etc. You can get the weight down to 12kg I'm pretty sure if you really wanted to. The Scott Addict mentioned above can be built up to less than 11kg stock I believe, so if you really splash the cash you can probably get it to close to 10kg. Either will than give you a reliable 250watts of sustained boost up hill, my unmodifed (so fully legal) Creo has a battery range of roughly 80 miles.

It's quite easy to get sucked in by just comparing motor/battery numbers on eBikes, but the reality is like any other bike, the frameset/geometry/finishing kit makes a massive difference to how they feel and ride. My Creo is a totally different riding experience compared to my Boardman hybrid (22kg with rack/panniers etc).





https://www.bikeradar.com/news/scott-addict-eride/

[df76]

Castellet said:

I’ve always been a keen cyclist, and rented a few eBikes, and can see the attraction. But, do find them heavy and cumbersome - 25Kg +
Accepting some range compromises, what are the lightweight affordable options ?

As above, the Scott Addict that I rented was light.. easily lighter than my regular gravel bike.

In terms of cheaper road options, the Orbea Gain is a half decent starting point and will be just under 15kg (or there's the Ribble).

https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Orbea/Gain-D50-El...

https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bikes/electric-bike...

[stanlow45]

Anyone else noticed these ebikes sure do chew through components rather quickly. Just replaced the 3rd set of pads already, they also wear through ebike chains and cassettes at a rate of knots...

[bobbo89]

I've not found pads to be a problem but chain/drivetrain wear definitely. To be expected though as you naturally put more miles in on them and the forces acting on everything is greater.

I ditched the 12spd Shimano stuff that came on mine for this very reason going 10spd Microshift instead as replacing stuff is much cheaper!

[PushedDover]

stanlow45 said:

Anyone else noticed these ebikes sure do chew through components rather quickly. Just replaced the 3rd set of pads already, they also wear through ebike chains and cassettes at a rate of knots...

Yes. But I also think it is down to usage / type of riding.

Mrs Pushed has more or less the same bike as me.
Mine gets thrown all over the moors, trails, descents etc.
Hers - country laning, gravel tracks, steady away.

The wear rate on the components is massively different.

It then creeps to headsets, hubs, etc..

[Davie]

stanlow45 said:

Anyone else noticed these ebikes sure do chew through components rather quickly. Just replaced the 3rd set of pads already, they also wear through ebike chains and cassettes at a rate of knots...

Comes with the territory.

Mine drags a 30kg child plus 24” bike to the top of trails numerous times then has to slow a combined weight of about 105kgs repeatedly from pace, so all components are going to be working much harder… tyres included.

[President Merkin]

They do wear components faster than non ebikes but you can mitigate it. The two big things I would recommend is clean your drive train regularly, ideally clean & lube the chain after every ride & buy a chain checker. If you replace your chain as soon as it starts to stretch, you should get around three chains to a drivetrain & chains are cheaper than chainrings and cassettes.

[Court_S]

Well, having been very sceptical of E-bikes I’ve finally taken the plunge and bought one.

We had a days riding at Forest of Dean a few weeks ago and it was apparent how many more runs the guys on E-bikes were getting in compared to us self shuttling.

The one thing that always out me off was the weight; having ridden a friends Whyte a few times the one thing that I hated and couldn’t get away from was the weight. Whilst the motor provided an awful lot of assistance, the weight couldn’t be hidden especially on jumps and drops.

What did really pique my interest was the lower powered, lower weight bikes. These seemed to offer what I was looking for; enough power and assistance to take the sting out if climbs without the penalty and feeling a bit more like a traditional bike.

Courtesy of some discounts, I took the plunge and bought a Specialized Kenevo SL with £4K off the list price.



Having managed to get some time on it Saturday afternoon, I’m very impressed, the weight is sensible at circa 19kgs so it feels like my previous Nukeproof Mega but with some extra boost. Despite being full of cold and feeling a bit under the weather, I managed to get more runs in this I would usually in this area that I ride regularly. I’ll get left behind by a full power bike, but for me this is the sweet spot for me.

[nickfrog]

^^^^^^^^ that looks the business. Good move. Glad you enjoyed it and quite smart to have found the sweet spot between range and weight. My Decoy was around 24kg so yours is basically half way between that and a typical short travel CF trail bike.

I have those exact forks in 160 on my HT and they are excellent. The "cheap" Fox damper in them is in a different league to the entry level RS forks damper.