Today, my wife and I finally got around to visiting a local bike store and trying out some e-bikes (electric bikes). We've been saving up for one for quite some time now, as my wife has a few trips during the week where it would be much handier for her to not have the car... but they are of a weird in between distance where it would be a touch too difficult to ride all the time (plus the timings of where she needs to be is a bit tricky with a normal bike... unless you were an athletic bike rider!).
So, after doing a great deal of research and learning about what to look for in a e-bike... we finally thought that we should drop into a store and just try out the various different types and styles of bikes that were available... just to get a feel for how different the experience of rider a bike with an electric motor assist was.
The two biggest things that we learnt from online research were in the positioning of the motor and the battery and how that would affect both the feel of the ride, and also the actual mechanics of how the bike performed. With the bikes that we were looking at, the motor could be situated in the middle, at the pedals directly pulling on the chain, or at the front wheel. There were also some rear wheel powered bikes, but I was told that those were much more expensive and a bit trickier for the maintenance... two things that I wanted to minimise if possible!
If the motor was at the front wheel, it was much easier to build... and thus made for a lower price... however, the balance of the bike would be more towards the front and also the mechanical assistance would be from the front. It's hard to describe exactly how that felt... but it felt a bit like someone was pulling you forward. With the middle (and rear) motor, it was pretty much identical in balance and feel to a normal bike, with the motor giving some extra power to your legs. The bike shop owner said that most people did prefer the middle mounted motor as it provided a much better feeling than the front mounted one. Personally, I didn't mind the difference... it was different, but not disastrously so... however, my wife did feel much less comfortable with the front motor, as it seemed to feel a bit less under control.
The battery could also be integrated into the actual frame of the bike or placed under the back pannier of the bike, behind the seat. The difference between these two settings was a matter of aesthetics... with many people now apparently enjoying the integrated design much more than the brick on the back. However, with electronics... I know how this goes... people love the integrated design and sleek look... until the battery fails and then they realise that they have only the option of a custom proprietary part for a replacement... No thanks, I will take the generic brick please!
The particular bike that we were looking at... was actually a touch heavier than a normal stadsfiets (city bike)... but not so much so. I have seen and felt other designs that were much much heavier! Anyway, we both agreed that it functioned pretty well (better than our regular bikes) even without the motor assist.. so that was a big plus already!
So, lots of learning about electric bikes today and how they worked and what constituted important things... and others not so important. Trying one out was a really great experience, I can see how you could start to rely on it... however, that would drain the battery crazily! With the highest assist plus a little bit of legwork, I was easily able to hit 28-30 kph (5682374827340983 miles per eon)... my wife was too scared to go faster than 21 kph, with a bit more grunt in my legs I'm sure that I could top 30 easily! Although, that starts to get a touch dangerous without a helmet!
It is funny... most of the reviews that I've seen for this bike were quite good... but one hilariously mentioned that the speed assist (up to 25 km/hr... 3466383238348557748.2342 miles per millenia) was addictive... and listed it as a minus point!
