Originally Posted by
Bikewolf
You can ride your ebike with zero assistance (OFF) or empty battery (not recommended though), sure. Unless there are health condition issues in play.
But don’t think motor alone. E.g. a flat tire can easily change your mood too ;-)
I was at InterBike last week and rode a bunch of different bikes with electric motors on them. Most of them had Bosch mid-drive motors, though I rode at least one (of each) bike with Bafang and Shimano mid-drive motors. The bikes equipped with Bosch motors seemed fairly normal with the assist turned off, though the bikes are heavier and that was noticeable.
I'm not sure why riding the bike with a flat battery would be a problem, except for the extra work of carrying the weight of the motor and battery. These bikes seem to have pretty sophisticated electronic controls, which would probably just shut the motor off when the battery got low enough.
One nice thing about the mid-drives (speaking of flat tires) is that the wheels are normal and as long as you can get them off the bike, repairing a flat would be just like on a non-electric bike.
Steve