The electric bike is only for the grey generation.

[Kudoscycles]

There is a perception in the UK that e-bikes are only for oldies,especially from the teenage generation.
We recently sold 4 Kudos Sport bikes to a family who go biking every Sunday,they enjoy that sea promenade from Folkestone to Dymchurch-on a nice day it is a refreshing seaside ride.
On collection the teenage daughter had that 'why do I want one of those' looks on her face-despite my arguments that I thought the Sport to be an ageless bike,its macho front forks I thought would appeal to teenagers.
Since then the family have come back to tell us how much fun they are getting out of the bikes and in fact the daughter is first out on the ride. She also uses the bike to see her friends,trip to town etc,all the journeys that would have awaited the family 'taxi'.
She now views the bike as cool,she sees it as her independent transport.
Can I suggest that we all should offer test rides to our children/grandchildren...maybe we can start a generation that views these bikes in a different way-we need them to view it like the Germans and Dutch who see e-biking as an economic transport,embraced by all.
Dave
KudosCycles

 

[lemmy]

Nice thought but I'd have thought that the on-cost of an electric bike was unnecessary for a strong healthy teenager.

I don't see it as an issue of 'cool', more necessity. My son, a keen daily and touring cyclist, likes my Kalkhoff but since he is young and strong gets great pleasure from going 60 miles a day under his own steam. The effort put in is part of the pleasure.

Teenagers seem to get little enough exercise in general - electric bikes would be the wrong way to go in my opinion. They are best used for a daily commute or in the case that you cannot raise the energy for a given journey unassisted (my justification at 67 years old ).

I suppose what I mean is, why add to the complexity of that wonderfully simple bit of design, the push-bike unless it is actually necessary?

 

[Scottyf]

Its the ethos we have in the UK over cycling. Its not really seen as a form of commuting by the masses.

Either a weekend leisure / Lycra clad or pottering round the city. When your a child its a quick form of transport your allowed so most children have one.

Its also a status symbol thing. Look how many people have BMW's / Mercs / Audi's and cars they can't really afford.

I also think the older generation would have used bikes as their main transport back in the 40's / 50's and 60's. Maybe becasue car's where not so affordable on the 2nd hand market...
Therefore the older generations view on cycling is actually much better.

Either way it would be better to have more people do it.



I'm currently trying to get a few people at work to join the cycle to work scheme, epscially those on public transport. As we are moving offices alot less public transport is avaliable at the new office. Hence why i'm pushing them to get bikes ;-)

 

[flecc]

I've been letting local teenagers ride my bikes for almost 8 years now Dave, and have even risked a group of four 14/15 year old strangers all have individual test rides from the local Sainsburys.

The fact is the kids universally love e-bikes once they try them, but there is a big snag. A couple of years later a group of four noisy moped riders slowed right down alongside me and greeted me with smiles and waves. Yes, it was the same four!

It illustrates that in most cases the e-bike would only be a 14 to 16 stopgap at best. The nature of the young is that once some power and performance is tasted, more is wanted. Since mopeds can be bought for no more cost than e-bikes and in young opinions have the right image, that's the way they ultimately prefer.

 

[Artstu]

Flecc is so right, as soon as I was 16 I had a moped, I came back to cycling again a few years later though.

Kids don't need electric bikes, and I'd also say healthy adults in flat areas don't need them either.

I rode the Monsal Trail from end to end with a friend and her two children last week, her daughter who is only 4 years old completed the full ride of around 20 miles on her own bike, and her mum said her and her 7 year old brother played out until 8.30 after arriving home! I don't think an electric bike will be of much use to them for quite some time.

 

[steveindenmark]

Lemmy you seem to be missing the point.

Judging by your comments it appears that you think electric bikes are only for those people who cannot manage a normal bike. That is the perception that needs well and truly kicking into touch and your comments don`t help that.

I have a Trek racing bike, a trek street bike, a Bacchetta Giro recumbent and a Tonaro electric bike. cycling the 44 km commute to work on my racer is not a problem at all. I also take part in Audax rides.

The electric bike is for fun, pure and simple fun. I cannot imagine anyone, young or old, who would not enjoy it. My nephew is 14 and has decided he is going to get an electric bike instead of a moped when he is old enough. He thinks the Tonaro is great.

The only way to get electric bikes mainstream is to encourage everyone to ride them.

Steve

 

[Ultra Motor]

With the increased insurance costs now, I truly think e-bikes offer an alternative. I don't agree that all would happily travel 60 miles under their own esteem (fair play to those who do!), but they all do see the benefits.
The underlying restriction is always cost and 'coolness'. My little sister who is only 19 can no longer afford to insure her car, yet its 10 miles to her job and the end of her journey is a very big hill! She now rides an e-bike and loves it! But unless its cool, it won't catch on. As mentioned above, a lot of it is a status thing.

 

[lemmy]

Lemmy you seem to be missing the point.
That is the perception that needs well and truly kicking into touch and your comments don`t help that.

I haven't missed the point and I explained myself as I feel. I'm not spokesman for anyone and I'm not certainly not a salesman for electric bikes. You may evangelize for electric bikes if you wish but I just ride one for transport and I couldn't care less whether anyone else does or not, nor whether they are mainstream.

Unless you have good reason, why add power to anything? If you can ride as far as you wish without electric assistance, why complicate things?

I have electric and non-electric bikes too. I feel that youngsters are better served by using their natural energy, if they have enough.

Electric bikes have their place as do motor cycles, cars, buses and everything else. But buying an electric bike when pedal power would do is pointless and wasteful.

But if you want to, why not? None of my business. I never understand why because someone does something they want everyone else to as well. I find the 'perception' of electric bikes, whatever it may be, of no concern to me at all.

 

[Ultra Motor]

I haven't missed the point and I explained myself as I feel. I'm not spokesman for anyone and I'm not certainly not a salesman for electric bikes. You may evangelize for electric bikes if you wish but I just ride one for transport and I couldn't care less whether anyone else does or not, nor whether they are mainstream.

Unless you have good reason, why add power to anything? If you can ride as far as you wish without electric assistance, why complicate things?

I have electric and non-electric bikes too. I feel that youngsters are better served by using their natural energy, if they have enough.

Electric bikes have their place as do motor cycles, cars, buses and everything else. But buying an electric bike when pedal power would do is pointless and wasteful.

But if you want to, why not? None of my business. I never understand why because someone does something they want everyone else to as well. I find the 'perception' of electric bikes, whatever it may be, of no concern to me at all.

Hi Lemmy

The way I see it is that kids are getting lazier....the target customer is someone who wouldn't normally cycle. Someone on a bus, sat in a car or on a scooter. Those who can and enjoy cycling will cycle and an e-bike is an option for those that don't or can't....

BTW- Boom Boom Club on your site looks like a great place to be!!

 

[lemmy]

Hi Lemmy

The way I see it is that kids are getting lazier....the target customer is someone who wouldn't normally cycle. Someone on a bus, sat in a car or on a scooter. Those who can and enjoy cycling will cycle and an e-bike is an option for those that don't or can't....

BTW- Boom Boom Club on your site looks like a great place to be!!

That puts it in a nutshell as far as I'm concerned.

The Boom Boom, yes a great place, they get some great bands on there as you've seen. Need I say, I go there on my e-bike! If you want to go some time, I'll buy you a pint there for sure

 

[dmcgoldrick]

re 'The electric bike is only for the grey generation'...........not 'only' but i dont see 'young' people taking to them.there will be a few exceptions of course but the ebike buyers are definitely in the majority over 50's.
would i have an ebike if i could still ride my normal bikes up the steep hills?....no.......

(sit back now and await the howls of protest from the under 50's !!!!! )

regards

 

[12xu22]

come on dave, with a tweak or 2 your very own cheetah could be that crossover bike: affordable, nippy and pretty cool, who knows, maybe it will

 

[Scottyf]

They will become a bit more cool once electric cars start becoming more common place in the uk.
Which won't happen for a while yet.

Some ebikes are cool and look very sleek already. But cycling is not done by alot of people in the uk anyway so even fewer are on electric. It's also relatively new concept not many people have heard of them.

I've only seen a couple electric bikes on my travels and commutes. A self build and a oxygen bike.
There also expensive.

I started to look into it because I hated getting the bus. Train wasn't so bad but still meant getting a bus and walking to work. Travel times for the about are anywhere between an 50mins and 1hr. Cheapest would be £50 for bus a month only or £83 for train and bus.

I save that a month using the bike. But the travel time is greatly improved. Electric I complete the journey in 30 mins. 40mins if unassisted. For me it's a time factor. It's actually faster by ebike than car.
Same time if travelling unassisted.

I'm 26 and probably one of the younger members. I have been completing the commute unassisted for a good few weeks. I enjoy it but sometimes on a Thursday or through the week I'm tired I've completed my working hours in 4 days and riding home can seem like a pain unassisted. Its fine once im going but sometimes i just want to get home fast.

I do hope more people get into cycling to work or general riding as it's awesome once you get involved in it! Ebikes make it even more fun by removing the fatigue.

I've tailored my bike like alot of kit builders. But started out with a pre made kit but was never fully happy. I'm slowly getting there now.

Still if there's not many people using them then I guess we might be pioneering something special before everyone jumps on the wagon....

 

[flecc]

(sit back now and await the howls of protest from the under 50's !!!!! )

regards

That shouldn't worry you. The age profile returns for this site show over 78% of the membership in the second half of life at over 40. Fully 50% are over 50 years and only 15% are under 35 years.

 

[Scimitar]

The Grey Generation?
>looks in mirror<
Well, maybe just a bit.
Now, where's that Grecian gone?

 

[Ultra Motor]

That puts it in a nutshell as far as I'm concerned.

The Boom Boom, yes a great place, they get some great bands on there as you've seen. Need I say, I go there on my e-bike! If you want to go some time, I'll buy you a pint there for sure

Great- thanks! I'll have to arrange some dealer appointments nearby!

 

[tillson]

would i have an ebike if i could still ride my normal bikes up the steep hills?....no.......

(sit back now and await the howls of protest from the under 50's !!!!! )

regards

I don't think that ebikes are all about an ability to ride up hill unassisted (accepting that we all have different reasons for buying them). In my case, I can certainly ride up hills without assistance and I frequently run up them.

My need for an ebike stems from where and when I want to engage in the fairly intense physical activity of cycling. I prefer to take my exercise, both competitive and training, on my days off work. The thought of a fairly hard, but manageable, ride to and from work each day on my unassisted bike does not appeal to me at all. Particularly riding home from work if it has been a busy day. Similarly, the thought of sitting in a car or on a moped is equally unappealing. The ebike sits nicely between the two modes of transport and for me it's perfect.

I am 49, so will be in the grey generation. But I am sure that there will be many people much younger than me who are very capable of riding an unassisted bike on their regular journeys, but don't want to for the reasons that I have outlined.

So, I think that ebikes are for the younger generation too. However, their problems are that (1) they haven't yet realised that they need one, (2) they think that they need to have a physical disability to ride one and (3) they are ok to ride if they can't afford a car.

These are big hurdles to overcome and seem to be in the DNA of the British, so perhaps ebikes will always be the preserve of the grey.

 

[Synthman]

They will become a bit more cool once electric cars start becoming more common place in the uk.
Which won't happen for a while yet.

Some ebikes are cool and look very sleek already. But cycling is not done by alot of people in the uk anyway so even fewer are on electric. It's also relatively new concept not many people have heard of them.

I've only seen a couple electric bikes on my travels and commutes. A self build and a oxygen bike.
There also expensive.

I started to look into it because I hated getting the bus. Train wasn't so bad but still meant getting a bus and walking to work. Travel times for the about are anywhere between an 50mins and 1hr. Cheapest would be £50 for bus a month only or £83 for train and bus.

I save that a month using the bike. But the travel time is greatly improved. Electric I complete the journey in 30 mins. 40mins if unassisted. For me it's a time factor. It's actually faster by ebike than car.
Same time if travelling unassisted.

I'm 26 and probably one of the younger members. I have been completing the commute unassisted for a good few weeks. I enjoy it but sometimes on a Thursday or through the week I'm tired I've completed my working hours in 4 days and riding home can seem like a pain unassisted. Its fine once im going but sometimes i just want to get home fast.

I do hope more people get into cycling to work or general riding as it's awesome once you get involved in it! Ebikes make it even more fun by removing the fatigue.

I've tailored my bike like alot of kit builders. But started out with a pre made kit but was never fully happy. I'm slowly getting there now.

Still if there's not many people using them then I guess we might be pioneering something special before everyone jumps on the wagon....

I'm 25, and got the ebike for similar reasons. The buses were overpriced and took significantly longer for the same journey. I also have to carry a lot of heavy equipment over long distances, up inclines, which is why I went for the bike I did, and use throttle only. I wouldn't have been able to do those journeys on a pedal bike because I needed to conserve my energy for the jobs I do.

A lot of younger people like the look of my bike, they are always complementing me, (I think 'bad' and 'sick' means 'good' to them! and have loads of questions about it.

That being said, I do see more ebikes around lately, but always with an older person (over 40) riding it).

 

[Scottyf]

No one really notices mines even electric. Apart from the rear motor and the wire from my seat to the back pack. which i like as it keeps the bikes weight down. Its strange but even with the additional hub weight at the back it still means the brakes have to work alot harder.

But public transport is rubbish and i'd rather use the bike as much as possible. I'd try not to ride in the rain as its just pants but when ever I do use public transport I always wish i'd be on the bike instead.

 

[flecc]

A lot of younger people like the look of my bike, they are always complementing me, (I think 'bad' and 'sick' means 'good' to them!)

And the word "wicked" too!

It's logical really, that's what they've been taught by we adults. As they grow up we tell them that pointless or boring things like washing behind the ears and doing homework are good.

Conversely, the things they enjoy when young like eating loads of sweets and ice creams, hitting smaller kids and peeing on the cat when it's asleep are bad, sick and wicked.