#!markdown
The whole arguement from the bike companies about e-bikes allow injured or ill
users to take part in an experience otherwise denied to them by their
cucrumstances is quite frankly a wildly obvious strawman to justify them
selling much greter numbers of these bikes elsewhere. A good friend of mine
had a heart transplant when she was a teenager, has just started riding a
ebike and is having an incredible time being able to ride with her husband for
the first time in her life. That's an amazing thing and I could not be more
happy for them, but she isn't why the bike companies are making these
machines, as people in that sort of situation are such a tiny minority that
no-one is economically going to design and produce a whole series of bikes for
them.
Longish travel, slack, capable ebikes are clearly targeted at one user group
and that is quite simply mountain bikers who don't (for whatever reason) want
to have to pedal up to the top of trails where there is no uplift avaialble to
service them. I get that it's a potentially large market - there are a lot of
people out there who don't want to have to make the effort (short or long
term) and want the experience of riding to be made easier or more convenient
for them but what the consequences of giving them what they want are we just
don't know and are something we should probably be very concerned about. You
do have to wonder if this short term greed and desire for growth on the part
of the bike companies might have terrible consequences for the sport in the
longer term.
The other thing I keep thinking about is that it's hard not to see the usual
bike industry arms race to have a "better" bike develop with these things if
they do catch on. Right now, they are more or less mountain bikes with a
massive assist, but how long before they are using bigger tires, have way
better range and or more speed. It's hard not to see them getting more and
more motorised quite quickly until the line between an ebike and a motorbike
gets less obvious.
(I'm in Europe where we 'want' them by the way)
Dec. 24, 2016, 6:13 a.m. - Neil Carnegie
#!markdown The whole arguement from the bike companies about e-bikes allow injured or ill users to take part in an experience otherwise denied to them by their cucrumstances is quite frankly a wildly obvious strawman to justify them selling much greter numbers of these bikes elsewhere. A good friend of mine had a heart transplant when she was a teenager, has just started riding a ebike and is having an incredible time being able to ride with her husband for the first time in her life. That's an amazing thing and I could not be more happy for them, but she isn't why the bike companies are making these machines, as people in that sort of situation are such a tiny minority that no-one is economically going to design and produce a whole series of bikes for them. Longish travel, slack, capable ebikes are clearly targeted at one user group and that is quite simply mountain bikers who don't (for whatever reason) want to have to pedal up to the top of trails where there is no uplift avaialble to service them. I get that it's a potentially large market - there are a lot of people out there who don't want to have to make the effort (short or long term) and want the experience of riding to be made easier or more convenient for them but what the consequences of giving them what they want are we just don't know and are something we should probably be very concerned about. You do have to wonder if this short term greed and desire for growth on the part of the bike companies might have terrible consequences for the sport in the longer term. The other thing I keep thinking about is that it's hard not to see the usual bike industry arms race to have a "better" bike develop with these things if they do catch on. Right now, they are more or less mountain bikes with a massive assist, but how long before they are using bigger tires, have way better range and or more speed. It's hard not to see them getting more and more motorised quite quickly until the line between an ebike and a motorbike gets less obvious. (I'm in Europe where we 'want' them by the way)