Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironhorse
Commuting / carrying cargo makes sense. I can buy into that.
But as someone who uses their bikes purely for pleasure and training purposes, and treats hills and headwind as an extra training bonus (rule #5), I have a hard time respecting my (totally mobile) neighbour who is bragging to me about doing 60K in two hours, only to drop later in the conversation that it was on his eBike.
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I'd be surprised if he was bragging versus just chatting to his fellow-cyclist neighbour about a shared interest (cycling). When I get home from rides covered in sweat I'm not thinking to myself how I was "ebiking" - I am thinking about my bike ride.
It's like anything...you can take a leisurely ride anywhere you want on an analog bike or you can give'r and get a great workout. You get out of something what you put in. With an ebike, you can ride it analogue if you want. On pedal assist one, I'm pretty much just overcoming the extra weight of the battery/motor/etc. of the ebike as well as the fat tires to ride pretty much like my normal bike. On two I get a bit of a boost that helps me get home quicker to start on supper and stuff for my family.
For commuting, I wouldn't ride an analogue bike. I'd be way too sweaty by the time I got to work and I'd have to leave 20 minutes earlier - time I'd rather spend sleeping. And on the way home I get my workout by turning the assist down, but if I had a long day and am super tired or something, I can always crank up the assist to make it easier on myself. On no planet is any of that weird.
I'll bet your neighbour got more exercise on his ebike than 90% of Calgarians that probably didn't do any physical activity on any given day. And 60km on an ebike in two hours would require a fair amount of pedaling. They're governed at 32km/h (if he hasn't disabled the governor), but will slow down considerably up a hill with a full-grown man in the saddle. So if he was averaging 30km/h, he was likely pedaling the whole time. That's beside the point anyway, though. It's ultra-lame to think ebiking is lame. Like, the dude is doing everything you're doing (pedaling around on two wheels), except he's going further faster. That's pretty much the only difference. Time is valuable.
Also, just because you have an ebike doesn't mean you don't have a normal bike, too. I enjoy riding my bike and also modelling exercising in front of my kids, but the ebike adds a bit of spice that's really fun.
Best part of all, though, is you can get super fataed up and ride to and fro without really worrying about a dui. Like, I've never been pulled over on a bike so I don't think it's a big concern.