Hello,
Thank you all for the replies ... very interesting.
The questions comes from my own situation. I am looking at an e-bike for commuting and general recreation usage. Due to the distance I am think an e-bike would be great - waft in without sweating plus not need to feast on bananas and high energy for the ride home after a hard day.
So I am researching bikes. Like all product there is often the cheap, medium and expensive option for models. The expensive has better shocks, motor, drivetrain etc. The price difference between the cheap and expensive is nearly £1k.
Now I don't mind spending to get a good quality product so I am thinking budget for the more expensive as it has better components and will be a single expensive purchase once then I can reap the reward for many years.
... but just how many years exactly...
Frame will be fine, but motor may not have parts (warranty is 2 years) electronics might break so lets assume problems happen in the future (things break and wear out).
I can forsee a situation wherby the e-bike part breaks (most likely) and is either
1. unable to get parts
2. too expensive to repair
3. able to repair for reasonable-ish cost but new bikes are so much more advanced for same price makes sense just to scrap for parts and go with entirely new
So spending more on expensive bike was a mistake as now whole bike is scraped. Frame is specifically designed to take particular motor so unless welding how hard would it be to convert to modern drive train?
Now, it may be that a whole after market of specalists appear on the bike ecosystem keeping old machine going (motor rebuild, battery cell refurbs, controller repairs etc) but this is not guaranteed.
Contrast with traditional bike - people are notorously pulling old barn finds out from years ago and spending a couple of pounds puting them back on the road.
Essentially is an ebike a throw away item that should be budged for a replacement every so many years? Does this then lead to rental agreements for e-bikes similar to cars.
I was interested in hearing what others thought and if people had kept old machines running. It appears they have but I am still not sure which decision to make for myself - if I was buying another traditional bike I would stretch finances as I know the product would still be in use probably decades later.
Many thanks,
