StarEcho said:
Speaking of demographics....what about the demographic of someone overweight who would like to exercise on their bike but gets discouraged because when they get to a rise they have a difficult if not impossible time getting up the hill. I can see it as being a great way to get someone exercising who would otherwise, say oh the heck with it, I can't do it.
So, while I am sure you didn't mean to sound disparaging of anyone who uses an ebike, just realize that it can sound that way. It doesn't make me lazy to want to have a little bit of help getting up the hills.
Then your bike is over-geared for your current fitness level... and that can be fixed with a simple swap-out of gears; the only limitation being that you can't gear down so far that you can't maintain about 3mph forward. You need that minimum velocity to be able to stay upright on a diamond-frame bike. Of course, there are no such low-gearing limitations on a tadpole trike because you can't fall over.
I don't usually discuss publicly my health issues, because frankly no one cares; but I will because they're salient to the discussion. When I started riding again in 2007 at 52, I was so overweight that with my other health issues I couldn't make it up two flights of stairs without having to stop at each landing and catch my breath. I recognized that my complexion was pasty and gray. I essentially only have the functional capacity of one-and-a-half lungs, my ribs are wired together with stainless wire, and I have osteoarthritis in just about every joint in my body. Even low-impact activities like walking any distance wreaks havoc on my knees and hips, although I'm doing some walking now occasionally.
I decided I needed to do something about my health, and that's WHY I started biking again. I rode to work... four miles a day... all up-hill going in, and fortunately down-hill coming home. My first bike was geared waaaaay too high, and I realized very quickly I needed to lower the gearing to make it in to work. After I geared it down, I could ride the bike all the way to work; within a month, I recognized considerable gains in my cardio and breathing. So, no... I'm not being disparaging in any way as I've been there, and that's what prompted my comments. If I can recognize those fitness improvements with MY health issues, with a little determination, co can most others. At 53, I had improved my health so significantly by biking that I attended the certification training for bicycle police officers, and graduated... riding with the youngsters, riding up and down stairs, jumping off 3' walls and doing the other tasks involved in that pursuit. From 53 to 55, I was the oldest living bike cop in the state. In 2010, I rode 180 miles of RAGBRAI in the three days I participated on my first recumbent trike. Trust me, if I can do this with MY health issues, I believe that most folks can.
What makes bikes awesome is their simplicity of design, excellent mechanical advantage, and that other than their manufacture and ultimate disposal, use no energy resources to operate. They also have primary and secondary health benefits for everyone who uses them.
E-bikes subvert most of those benefits, except for those who
need adaptive cycling. I have an acquaintance who owns and operates a bike shop who specializes in adaptive cycling... so I'm both familiar with the needs of those who turn to adaptive cycles, and the market offerings as well.
