
Bike country No 1': Dutch go electric in record numbers - tnolet
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/01/bike-country-n0-1-dutch-electric-record-numbers-e-bikes-netherlands
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ricardobeat
It’s a shame that the regulations haven’t been updated for electric kick
scooters as well.

They are a lot cheaper, more nimble, take up less space and use less energy.
I’d love to ride one to work but am worried it will get impounded at first
sight :(

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Doxin
Yes please. My commute is by train, and then the last bit by bus. Depending on
traffic the bus takes either 2 minutes or 20 minutes and it's infuriating. I'd
happily skip the bus by cycling but that either means having a second bike
parked where a) there's no space and b) it WILL get stolen sooner or later or
I can lug along a bulky folding bike.

I'd much rather carry an electric kick scooter.

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EngineerBetter
I have exclusively been driving EVs since 2013 (Renault Zoe and a Tesla Model
X), and also use a Brompton folding bicycle on my commute to work (total 6
miles cycling).

I've never understood the appeal of electric bikes. It just seems lazy to me.
I'd feel guilty if I relied on the motor instead of burning calories.

I use the cars for transporting the family, or to go long distances quickly.
I'm not averse to cycling 25 miles if time allows, and I've also managed to
carry all sorts (like IKEA furniture) on my folding bike. I also wear my work
clothes (jeans and t-shirt) when cycling on my commute, demonstrating that
lycra is totally unnecessary!

I can only assume that electric bikes are for people that wouldn't normally
cycle, or whose routes are prohibitively hilly.

Would be keen to hear the use cases of anyone here that uses one.

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veidr
I use one, instead of a car. (Driving a car just seems lazy to me. But I do it
sometimes, when I'm feeling lazy or when I have to transport my kids.)

Before 2010 or so, I used a traditional manual bike. But today, a non-powered
bike seems to me like using a slow, spinning platter magnetic disk instead of
an SSD. Or using a desk without a motor to adjust the height on demand. Or a
kerosene lamp instead of LED lighting.

Unless you consider your bike to be only a mechanism to get exercise, in which
case inefficiency is desired, the only valid argument against an e-bike in my
mind is the cost. And that's valid, in some circumstances.

But you can get every bit as much of a workout on an e-bike -- it's just that
you will be going faster. Alternatively, if you don't need a workout right
now, you can go about as fast as a non-powered bike with minimal effort.

Where I live in Tokyo, it's 45 minutes to the office by train (due to the
walking to/from stations, 35 minutes by 1970s bicyle, and 20 minutes on my
battery-powered pedal-assist BESV LX-1.

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rhinoceraptor
Traditional bikes are a lot cheaper and simpler. Most of the e-bikes I've
seen, are very expensive and come with low or mid-range quality components.

Plus, I'd be very wary of investing in a bike with a lot of proprietary
components. Traditional bike standards change as well, but you can still ride
a 40 year old bike today and get parts for it.

If I were to get an e-bike, I'd definitely go the route of getting a solid,
steel, fully rigid mountain bike and putting a mid-drive conversion kit on it.

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nasmorn
Not everybody is concerned about riding a bike for decades. Your parent just
wrote he saves 30min a day with the ebike. That is 100 hours per year easily.
That pays for a new ebike a year at any price you could reasonably assign to
your time. The bike lifetime is an absolute sideshow in this example.

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mc32
I wonder if this is new buyers in the market (people foregoing/complementing
cars and transit) or previous bike owners going electric.

I’d be happy if it were the first group but sad if it were the second group
because it seems like it would result in a less active population.

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Freak_NL
From what I can tell it started with people in their late fifties, sixties,
and beyond going electric in order to stay mobile in the face of a degrading
body — i.e., to augment the user's strength.

I still think this is the largest group of buyers, but I get the impression —
from observing people in traffic — that a good amount of people who use
electric bicycles come to depend too much on the engine, hardly providing any
power themselves via the pedals. People who cycle along at 15–20 km/h tend to
use the battery power as an augmentation, whilst those who pass everyone by at
25 km/h tend to depend on it for at least 90%.

This looks to me like a general loss in healthy exercise.

Then there are the gadget freaks that buy the so-called 'speed pedelecs',
which can hit speeds of up to 45 km/h, but because these have recently been
relegated to the moped category in Dutch law, these are no longer allowed on
bicycle-exclusive cyclepaths, and have to use the main carriage ways instead.
Their rise in popularity seems to have stagnated — thankfully! They don't
really fit into Dutch traffic as it is, being too fast for cyclepaths, and too
exposed to use safely on roads where drivers may expect mopeds, but not
souped-up electrical bicycles.

In any case, most people will have owned a normal bicycle before going
electric. Some do use it to replace the car for commuting, because a distance
of up to 30 km may take much less time on an electric bicycle when traffic is
bad, and more healthy to boot — as long as you peddle along!

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janandonly
This started with old people and the accompanying stigma.

But nowadays there are more youngsters and even kids who use the electric bike
to get to school.

A big hurdle is still the high price, but as prices come down I expect almost
all bikes will be electric some years from now.

