Well, I've joined the e-bike fold. My car developed engine trouble that required too much time and money, so my wife took me seriously when I said "For the $3000 we've spent in the last month (not just for my car, but for hers and our kid's), I could have bought a really nice electric bike."

So I did!

We did the car-donation thing to a public radio station for the tax write-off, and I purchased a Salsa Confluence Essa 8 Flat Bar. Uses a hub-drive system, the Mahle X30.

For me, the best thing is that it still looks like a normal bike with an oversized rear hub (which gets kind of camouflaged by the disk rotor).

I x-biked it immediately, adding a seatpost rack for commuting. Took me a while to get my act together this morning, and I left 15 minutes late ... and still got to work on time! I rode like I usually do, with assist at the lowest setting (Eco) for most of the ride.

Shaved 15 minutes off my regular time. Fifteen minutes.

This is probably due to the fact that I have a 700' climb to work (and 600' to go home), and the assist really made it much less of a hairball-inducing effort. At the same time I still felt like it was a workout.

Lots of learning to do and tweaking, but my first ride certainly was an eye-opener.