What are the major factors that persuaded you to get an electric bike?

[morphix]

1. Cost: Cheaper purchase/maintenance cost than car.
2. Flexibility: More flexible and safer compared to motorbike.
3. Convenience: Quicker and less effort for longer distances.
4. Fitness: Can choose to pedal still and keep fit.
5. Fun: Like the DIY and community spirit aspect.
6. Freedom: Ability to go anywhere, paths, countryside, trains etc.
7. Eco-Friendly: Better for the environment and planet.

 

[Scottyf]

Average speed in the car was 15mph to work and back and costing £30 a week to fill up.

Which in the grand scheme of things isn't an issue.

Moved to the city center and only get one car parking spot. So the partner has a newer car and much more reliable than my fiat punto which I am now fixing another head gasket on it (The upside is its very easy to repair).

So Gave my car to younger brother and mom to use as a spare car and now use a push bike on the nice days and train and bus on the bad weather days.

I save £4.00 per day at least by using the bike. Which is my lunch every day.
So there's a saving of £80 a month £480 per year (If I use i for 6 months of the year) so first year I will have broke even. If I use it for 9 months i'm on to a saving.

But really Its becasue I don't need a second car, Its new ish tech that will be more important in years to come and I generally like to have projects to do.

1) Like a project and the Tech
2) 18 mile round trip commute to work is quicker on bike than public transport
3) No need 2nd car and saves some cash
4) City living is easier on a bike than car
5) Excercise is good - motor is there when i can't be bothered lol.
6) Not fussed on Environment because I've been to China and India and if there not gonig to commit to a green world there's no point in joining the eco-warrior gang

 

[Tinker]

In our case it's old age & disability. My wife loves her Izip Trek Enlightened as it enables her to keep up with the kids whilst I need all the help I can get.

 

[timidtom]

1) Health problems + idle lifestyle = need for exercise
2) Need for exercise + disiinclination = need for assistance
3) Need for assistance + inspiration = ebike
4) ebike + need for elegance = Juicybike Classic
5) Juicybike + elegance = need for deerstalker hat and meerschaum pipe
6) ... so on!

 

[Highside43]

I just wanted one and I could afford it.

It's different.

I like toys with 2 wheels - both with engines and without.

laziness also - I don't have the time that I did and have got unfit compared to the rest of the group I usually go out with. This enables me to keep with them and have a good day out on the trails.

I don't care about the stigma, I think a lot are jealous and secretly would have one.

 

[Tushar]

It was more of an DIY that I wanted to do.
As soon as I could afford it, I took the plunge.

 

[anotherkiwi]

Bus timetable not adapted to my lifestyle.
Not enough money for a car
I ride like a maniac on two wheels so it is safer (still ride like a maniac but slower)
Parks in the stairwell of my apartment building
Can take it on the train
I can do all maintenance myself (I built it)
Can go places cars and motorbikes can't go
... too many to list them all

 

[top drive]

wanted to get rid of my car, wanted a cargo bike and didnt want to arrive everywhere a sweaty bugger but live 8 miles from the city .....which takes longer to drive than it does to travel by conventional bike !

 

[Pollmak]

Southern Rail! Nuff said. I could cover 18.5 miles with a pedelc with in 1hour no?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ttxela]

- Needed to get a bit fitter, used to cycle into work a few years back but going both ways was a bit much.
- Saving some money on petrol.
- Saving wear and tear on the car which is getting on a bit.
- I can work on the car without the pressure to finish in time to get to work the next day as I have an alternative.

 

[LeighPing]

Me, to get off the couch, and get some fresh air with the dog.

My good lady has also started using it when I've taken the car 25 miles away, to work. She makes the 3 mile journey to our son's house, fortunately all footpaths. Just so she can go all gaga over our new granddaughter.

My daughter uses it a lot for exercise too. As a shared mode of transport, they come in really handy.

 

[Croxden]

I could afford to.

 

[danielrlee]

I used to dream of a motorized bicycle as a kid (think i imagined a gasser back then) and rode around with a phonecard wedged in my brake caliper so it made a pseudo engine nose against my spokes.

Many years later as an adult, in 2012 it became apparent that the technology existed to to so electrically, so I just jumped right in.

An electric bike just puts the fun back in cycling and when I'm out for a ride nowadays, I feel like a carefree kid again.

 

[earthmover]

I'm consistently the last of our group uphill, can hold my own on the flat, and usually first downhill. The Levo allows me to stay with the group uphill.
My girlfriend rides it while I ride a normal bike and she can keep up with me.
I also subscribe to Highside43's view that any form of motorised two wheeler is a good thing.
Mark

 

[Tugwell Gibson]

I too dreamed of a motorised bike as a kid. I was always on two wheels growing up. Racers with cow horns buckling wheels doing jumps. Grifters. The first bmxs etc. Aged 12 I got my first moped for 7 quid. And road it around the garden and disused nearby land. That had an exposed throttle cable that was wrapped around a stick. Next was an old Honda c70 . Churned up garden and woods with that.

Finally I was legal and bought a 50cc Yamaha dt50. With 200 quid I saved working all summer aged 15. Broke my mums heart. Survived that somehow but then went on to cars. And left motorbikes and bikes alone mostly. Had a 125 but didn't use it much same can be said for my hybrid bike.

However when I saw the Sinclair zeta I had to have one. It was mostly uselss. But on a flat in the dry and newly charged you could see the potential.

Then I got fat and old. But never forgot the dream of an electric bike or memory of being propelled across fields and woods by my old mopeds. I watched with interest the emergence of electric bikes . The heavy silver ones that politicians would borrow for photo ops and I read atobe regularly. Reading stuff about le twist and lafree weird and wonderful names but didn't seem to me to be much going on in the uk.

Then last year my wife said would you like a nice pressie for your 50th. Something made me look once again at ebikes And I found this forum and suddenly those childhood dreams are a legal reality. So I'm just a big kid having fun really. I don't commute and I own two cars. The ebike cannot change that. But jeez I'm glad I didn't go for the Rolex.






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[speculatrix]

A few reasons for getting one.

I currently drive to work because I'm, well, lazy, and enjoy the comfort.

Reason 1 - not going to be able to drive to work soon

Soon I'll have no choice other than to cycle or take the bus, because we're moving offices and there will be no parking there!

A bus journey would be inconvenient because I'd have to take the bus to the central bus station, and then back out to towards the railway station which goes past my work. The buses in Cambridge are often delayed or slow, or sometimes cancelled, and even if bus wasn't stuck in traffic, and I was able to transfer with no delay, it would take me 35 minutes to get to work.

Reason 2 - Consistent Journey Time

A car journey to work takes between 20 and 40 minutes to do the 6.8 to 8.1 miles (depending on what Waze tells me is best). Thus the best I can do is 20.4mph, but can be as little as 12mph! And that's only possible because my employer is happy for me to start and finish late (arrive about 0945, leave about 18:20) to avoid the traffic. If I had to be there by 0900, I'd have to allow 45 minutes to get there!

A Pedelec will allow me to achieve consistent journey times, and allow me to start and finish at more conventional times.


Reason 3 - exercise

I want to get fitter, so biking to work makes sense. Why did I buy a pedelec, rather than stick with human power?
I can get to work faster without getting hot and sweaty. It's flat or downhill all the way to work, but getting home can be a drag particularly after a hard day at the coal face!

Reason 4 - bad knees, and fun!

I enjoy riding a bike, but my knees aren't great, so having a bit of assistance will really help.

 

[Paul smith]

Soundwave talked me into getting one...so glad he did...

 

[gazman]

for me I've cycled to work which is a 50 miles round trip for years. Some days I ride from home, others I drive half way and cycle from there.
Partially for my own fitness and I find its a good way to de-stress and wind down. The other is that it's expensive doing that mileage in a old landrover. Plus as a keen mountain tain biker and cyclist it helps my fitness massively.

But then I buggered up my knees and cycling stopped. Then the wife wanted a ebike on my cycle to work scheme, I test rode it and bought a bigger better one on the spot as it's the 1sr bike I've ridden in yrs that doesn't cripple me.

 

[glenwatt]

Struggled to commute the 26 mile round trip more than 3 days a week.
Getting old don't ya know.
Plus too many recent ops on my legs and arm,

Enjoying the early stages of e-bike ownership, still getting a workout with energy to spare.

 

[Denis99]

Now that I am retired and no longer a wage slave, just wanted to get out more on the bike.

Found that I couldn't ride every day with a normal bike, I ride in a particularly hilly area, usually 1,000 metres of climbing each ride.

Getting an ebike has enabled me to ride more each week.
So the usual comment about cheating etc, is actually the opposite.
I now ride more miles, enjoy myself more, have more exercise, stay healthier etc.
I don't ride the ebike exclusively though, probably one in three rides, as I still like to ride under my own steam.
The ebike is good, but it isn't as good at descending in the trail centres where I ride most of the time.