If you're in it for riding, buy the bike, pay for the service, and enjoy riding. I bought our first one, and after seeing how it was put together I converted my next one. I've converted a few more since then. I enjoy the problem solving part of it, but unless you have a nice bike already to convert, it's less money to buy a starter ebike these days.

The US market is stacked with heavy ebikes. You can't hardly find something like what 2old is riding a few posts back, a simple light bike. That's why I do conversions.