Originally Posted by
metro2005
People with health issues have used assisted bikes for ages (look for
solex for example) and thats great but al least 75% of people on electric bikes i see over here in the Netherlands are young and healty people who are too lazy to pedal a bike. The remaining 25% consist of 24% elderly people and 1% people with health issues. And mind you: i see a LOT of electric bikes around here, at least halve of the bikes i see while commuting are e-bikes nowadays so it would be a bad thing if they all had health issues dont you think?
Interesting. I have strongly mixed feelings about these things, for just the reasons you lay out in your first sentence. They seem like an enabler of some of the worst aspects of our culture, but at the same time, they allow people who are physically unable to ride well due to old age or handicaps to get out and enjoy a bicycle.... and importantly, not be in a car. As I now find old age approaching with startling rapidity, I might want one of these myself in the not so distant future.
I'm in the USA, and I've only seen one e-bike so far. It was being pushed at walking pace through a crowd of people so I was unable to tell anything about its performance. The pusher appeared to be a 20-something, fit looking, non-overweight woman.
I'm not sure what the laws about them are here - if there are any - but I find myself wondering where the trend goes. Will I soon have e-bikers whizzing by me in the bike lane at 50 KPH as I claw my way into a stiff headwind struggling to maintain 20 kph? Some e-bikes are capable of those speeds already, and market pressures may raise their limits over time. Then again, the difference between a 30 year old racing cyclist and a 70 year old peddling along barely over walking speed may already be 30 kph.