New e-bike rider here, purchased a Cannondale Treadwell Neo e-bike for my wife this past Spring for her to be able to keep up with the family on rides. Long story, which I've told elsewhere, but suffice it to say after I tried her bike out one day, I was hooked and ended up eventually buying two e-bikes for myself — a Cannondale Tesoro Neo SL EQ (more like a hybrid) for family rides, bike overnights, limited commuting, and then a Topstone Neo SL gravel/road e-bike, which I use for solo distance rides. I like the rear hub system for reasons other have mentioned — just looking for a little assist, and want the bike to be a decent size/weight as I often ride the bike with the assist turned off, like when I ride with the family.
Before purchasing, reading online I was impressed by how consistent cyclists were about how much fun they were having with their new e-bike. Now that I've experienced it first-hand, I can say the magic is real. I was concerned I wouldn't get as good of a work-out. Was I ever wrong. You simply can bike faster and farther on an e-bike. One can push themself to their limit or be lazy on an e-bike or a traditional bike. It's 100% the rider. An e-bike gives the rider more options, that's all. When I ride with my family I have the assist turned off because turning it on makes me too fast for them to keep up with.
Originally Posted by
Biker395
Not on my visible horizon, but: ... (3) At some point, I’ll probably get one. Just not in the foreseeable future.
When I do, will I still consider myself a cyclist? Tough question. I think I will consider myself a different kind of cyclist, as cycling means different things to different people.
Up to now, I’ve been a commuter, a recreational cyclist, and a long distance endurance cyclist. I’m more or less retired now, so I’m not a commuter cyclist anymore. I cycle recreationally, but with goals … things like amount of climb and distance. And we do regular sufferfests, just to see if we can do them. We have pix of each other dropping our heads down over the handlebars. lol. And then there is the endurance cycling … where the goal is to ride a good long distance.
If I were riding an ebike, I would not consider myself those kind of cyclists anymore, as he e-assist renders that stuff a bit irrelevant.
Looking at my own experience and reading comments like
Biker395 above, it is interesting how everyone views e-bikes a little bit differently, and, probably like me, evolve over time in how they view them. For me, several months ago mention "e-bike" and I think of the people I see on these 70-pound fat-tire bikes cruising along at 28mph not pedaling. Now, I still don't consider such people to be cyclists. I draw the line at actually pedaling to be a cyclist and putting in some effort.
But to address
Biker395 's comments, if you bought an assist e-bike for commuting, and had racks/fenders on it, and you pedaled to work, why would you no longer be a commuter cyclist just because your bike was an e-bike and not a traditional bike? As for recreational cyclist and endurance cyclist, same thing. Why does whether it is an e-bike or not make a difference? It's the rider that makes the difference, not the bike. You purchase a specific style of bike for a specific type of riding ... road, gravel, mountain/trail, cruiser ... add an "e-" to any of those frame styles still makes it suitable for that style of riding, it just gives you the option for electronic assist if you want it. Like I said, it's the rider. If a runner loses a leg and has a prosthetic leg fitted and after rehab they learn to run on that leg, are they no longer a runner because they have a prosthetic leg?
Anyway, I don't consider myself any less a cyclist for having an e-bike. I've ridden my e-bikes more in the past 3 months than I rode my traditional bikes in the past 8 years. So from that perspective, having an e-bike makes me MORE of a cyclist.