There's been an explosion in ebike sales. A lot of them are going to people you guys never meet on your bike rides, mainly mainly boomers who have not ridden bikes since they were kids. I joined a facebook group for riders over 60, a year ago, and it's grown to 8000+ members in a year. Not huge, but each one of these folks is going to sell a neighbor on ebiking.

It seems like half the members do not understand shifting. Many are afraid of the throttles. For a while . all we saw were posts of riders falling down. Still, they're riding 5-10 miles every day, going to places like the Hiawatha Trail, and riding the rail-trails on week days. And they're not riding regular bikes with 700xx and 26" tires. The popular bikes are 65 pound 20" folder step-thrus with 4" tires, believed to be stable. I find the fat tires on pavement to be ponderous and taking the joy out of my biking, but that's me. They're the natural hit in America where the SUV was king of the orad,

While the bike shops are selling Treks, Giants, Specialized models aimed at grabbing the enthusiast bikers who have lost their legs, various importers are selling generic chinese fat bikes to boomers and making so much money, venture capitalists are trying to jump in. Pedego had the boomer market for a few years, and may continue to prosper, but their higher prices aren't going to draw many of the new buyers. Even though they're boomers with bucks, and I am one, ebikes are still toys.

So don't buy one, but expect to be surrounded by them,

I've been ebiking since 2015. I ride conversions of regular bikes. A small motor and battery adds 10-12 pounds, and the bike rides almost like it did prior. Ae age 72 and 70, I and my wife rode 3100 and 2400 miles last year, and rarely got more than 10 miles from home.