Got to thinking about this and it may just be that ebike road bikes have the same affect on a persons psyche as doping. Going faster, a lot faster than without electric assist. That same draw as dope has, getting an edge up and achieving your goal of speed. I know that when I ride them I love the ease of speed they offer me.

Imagine loading up with PEDs and then riding an e-assist bike.

I guess that it's not possible to pretend to be riding a bicycle while riding a motorcycle. Speed without satisfaction?
But if you are pedaling and supplying some of the power, then you are riding a bike, by gosh, and if you're going fast, then you're the bomb.

Everyone knows riding an E-bike is the same as cheating. It's a slippery slope, then next it's T-therapy, HGH and other performance enhancing drugs. All in the qwest for more speed/fame .... It's inevitable, it's what society has become. I've been there done that.... Well except for the fame....

I imagine the next step will be some sort of powered exo-skeloton assist. It's been in development by the military as a performance enhancing device, and by medical prosthetic companies as a mobility enhancing device to complement or even replace wheelchairs. They have also been envisioned as aids in industrial settings to enhance the ability of workers.

Maybe they're not as elegant as a cycling-specific, bicycle-based assist unit, but if a body-worn unit can be used for multiple applications (biking, hiking, running, rowing, houshold and industrial work), it may be more popular.

The allure of going faster is the deal with road ebikes. If I can go 24mph for a few miles, with a road ebike I can double or triple that distance at that speed with the same level of effort. For those that are competitive with themselves or others, that advantage is as alluring as PEDs.

There are also those that want to go 20mph, but are simply unable to without the electric assist. With it they can ride with their buds without holding them back. I just see so many advantages to a road ebike that I am willing to allow this form of "doping".

As for me, I don't want the complication or the assist, and am happy with struggling along on a standard pedal bike. When I am no longer able to go 17-18mph on my own you can bet your life that there will be a road ebike in the stable.

E-Road Bike Doping

Quote:

Originally Posted by 308jerry

Everyone knows riding an E-bike is the same as cheating. It's a slippery slope, then next it's T-therapy, HGH and other performance enhancing drugs. All in the qwest for more speed/fame ....

It's inevitable, it's what society has become. I've been there done that.... Well except for the fame....

I am not a racer, much less a speed demon, but I think the term “cheating” is too strong outside of racing and Strava. The more two-wheelers (or trikes. and other open multi-wheelers) on the road, the better.

However, I have recently posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

This summer was a thread on the Fifty-Plus Forum, ”Bike Riding vs Cycling” with 105 replies, that IMO was a good discussion of the topic as in the article, and subject of this thread:

Sometime after that thread ended, I thought about this seemingly trivial distinction that makes me think a rider is a “real” cyclist. I watch the way they pedal. Without being judgemental about it, a cyclist has a fluid rotary pedaling motion, whereas I think “bike rider” when I see someone pedaling in a piston-like fashion.

Now since pedaling is the foundation of bike riding, I think that style and form makes the distinction. Of course then, while an E-bike rider is a “bike rider” they are not cyclists. No moral or “snobbish” judgement here, but a more "objective" one, FWIW.

BTW, regarding performance enhancemment, mine is:

Or power meters, yet there's a call to rid them from Tour and other racing.

A large number of posters believe them should be at https://www.cyclingnews.com/. They believe Froome rides looking at his power meter, that's why he wins. Of course that just to hard for the others to do the same. Even Contador. Contador calls for ban on power meters in competition | Cyclingnews.com

What is the "going fast" if your road bike goes 24 MPH , and your E-Bike goes 20 MPH

Perhaps I'd like an E-Bike, but I also like the challenge of the road bike. Hard to count century rides that you didn't ride, or KOMs that you didn't achieve. Or, just a hard day out riding that you didn't do.

Unless you have to keep it in an upstairs apartment.

Incorrect.

Not bad.

Save some energy pedaling.
Use some extra energy lugging the bike around.

Because there is big money involved, Trying to hide a motor was prosecuted swiftly..
in a Professional competition, ie, the UCI realm.

you , on your own ? knock your self out ... you don't even have to hide it.

You mean, like all the mechanical advantage a bicycle gives you over the ability to propel yourself forward using only your body (i.e., running)?

+1. The majority of what are referred to as ebikes cut off somewhere around 20mph. Past that, sure, there are more powerful throttled ebikes, but I don't really think motorcycles are akin to PEDs, I'd have zero reason to think that about throttle ebikes.

As I see it, the only purpose an "E-Bike" serves is if you've finally gotten that last DUI and lost your driver's license. I don't think of them as "cheating," more like, "what's the point?" I ride to exercise my body and enjoy the world as I pass by. If a person is disadvantaged and needs the power assist I'll support their e-bike. But, the experience of e-bikes zooming down the bicycle trails in my county honestly, makes me angry.

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I've noticed there has been a lot of threads and debates lately about e-bikes and e-assisted bikes. I wonder if more and more cyclists are getting tempted to get one.

" The majority of what are referred to as ebikes cut off somewhere around 20mph"

I have been on ebikes such as the Cannondale commuter and it tops out at over 20. I had it up to 22mph and quit. Hardly required effort at that speed. This is a mid-drive bike and probably will out pace a hub drive. The hub drive bikes I have ridden limit out at 15-17mph. Something to do with heat in the motor and euro regulations.
Road with a guy on a Giant road ebike and we were humming along at 23mph. He was unable to ride at anything over 17mph before that, and wanted to ride with a racer neighbor of his, so he got the Giant. He is 60 years old. The neighbor is 40ish.

There really is a market for these things.

I take my kid to school on the back of mine.

We don't all live in your little world.

You know who you are.

Yes, you.

I wouldn't care much about a "speed edge" relative to other road bikers since I don't compete or even ride with other people. But I AM tempted sometimes by the utility of it IF:

1. keeping my normal speed in really cold weather
2. able to merge with traffic and keep that velocity when I need to, and
3. on shorter trips where I don't care about bicycling, just get there

I would need the e-bike to be better, considerably better, than what I am capable of so the 20 mph cut-off, and local speed limit laws, are both deal-killers for me. Given a relatively inexpensive setup that tops out around 35 however, even with only 15-20 mile range, I could go for that.