Lenny's observations make sense but in a cold and practical sense... how can you compare a petrol bike to an e-bike though..think of everything you would lose? All the flexibility of e-bikes and the lack of restrictions makes them unique. I guess as an owner though I'm biased and Lenny is putting it across from someone from the point of view of someone with no experience as a simple cost and range decision.
E-bikes as a concept I think are definitely not niche products as jmod illustrates with the 3-markets approach..and then he added a 4th market, those who want to ride further than would be humanely possible for many of us, to visit new places and explore the countryside etc..I'm not in sales but if I were, I'd be marketing 3 different ways to 3 different audiences. To lazy old beggers like me I'd be mentioning that the bike will do 15MPH on the flat with me turning the pedals slowly. To more fit/less lazy people of my age who might have been cycling for years I'd market it as a bit of assistance on hills which makes your journey easier and more fun. To commuters I'd mention the fact that a bike can get you through the rush hour and an E-Bike does it without you getting out of breath and sweaty.
I love my e-bike and I've been places on it I just wouldn't have gone on a push bike, mostly because I wouldn't be buying a push bike. I've never used my bike on the road in anything less than power level 5, if I had a power level 6 I'd be using that.
Yes, exactly. The thread was about getting more people onto ebikes. I am merely saying that if I were a non-cyclist a small scooter would appear much the better buy. I think some people here don't appreciate the gulf between people who cycle and those who don't. Most people who do not cycle have good reasons for not doing so, among them that it appears dangerous and uncomfortable. There is truth in that. For committed cyclist like us, that is overcome by the tow path factor and so on.
Indeed, that ultra-light single speed market has returned in a way never expected a short while ago. The ease of riding a really good light road bike can be a revelation after being on e-bikes for a while. Unfortunately, many of today's cyclists, having grown up with mountain bikes, MTBs, suspension etc, haven't a clue how good a normal bike can be.
A small but sincere compliment, Flecc, it's remarks like that that make your contributions so valuable.
Nonsense! Are you telling me that you like to ride in shorts and t shirt on a warm summers day, past singing birds and fluttering butterflies to a glass of ale outside an country pub? You really prefer that to wearing an oversuit, sweaters, thermals, gloves and four pairs of socks in sub zero temperatures on roads covered in black ice into gusting headwinds on dark winter evenings to do the shopping in Tesco's? Surely not!
Something like this, in fact which I snapped just outside Paris while Bromptoning around the area in the summer. I am afraid our PO does not have the vision to take up anything so, as they would see it, unconventional.
Right. If the French and Germans have invested in them, I wonder what is so different about UK mail trends?
Nothing, it's just that the French and the Germans in particular were already heavily into mail e-bikes. Were they starting from scratch now they might decide to do things differently.
Yes, what a great way to encourage people to use their services.
I wonder if or how much of this is deliberate staff caused disruption? Earlier in their online postage enterprise I came across deliberate sabotage of the system, and they've also suffered deliberate sorting machinery sabotage. It's not always about management defects, the unions and individual militants have played a large part in many of the failures, and government policy and interventions have often been less than helpful.
