A couple years back, my car suffered some mechanical failures while out of town which would’ve cost more than the car was worth, so I decided to have it towed away and scrapped for what little the parts were worth. Since then, I’ve been carless. It’d certainly be nice to have a car, but the last few years haven’t really been a great time to buy one, and with the price of gas these days it still isn’t. I don’t strictly need one since the buses in this town are free and service is pretty robust, but there’s a downside - I usually work until midnight, which is after the buses stop running, and the six miles from my work to home would be a 2-hour walk if I tried it on foot. The result is that I usually wind up taking Uber home, and that adds up to pretty much the equivalent of making a car payment every month with nothing to show for it.
I’ve considered buying a bike, but between the fact that it rains half the year and there’s a lot of hilly terrain between home and work, it didn’t seem like something I’d want to do after an eight-hour shift on my feet. On a recent trip to Seattle, though, I tried one of the Lime e-bikes you can rent off the sidewalk for a short trip through downtown and I was very impressed - it handled Seattle’s hilly streets with ease and barely took anything out of me. I could easily see myself taking the bus to work and riding one of those home at night at least on good nights.
Looking on Amazon I see various models priced anywhere from $700-$1700. I could afford to put something in that range on my credit card, and with what I’d save versus taking Uber it’d pay for itself after a few months. Any e-bike riders out there have a particular model they’d recommend? Any tips on things I’ll need or should know compared to a regular bike? Naturally I’m going to want a helmet, lights, an air pump, a patch kit, and a quality lock, so I could use some recommendations on those as well. How about theft prevention? Is there some way I can assure that a thief who manages to bypass the lock wouldn’t be able to make use of the bike, or some sort of GPS tracker I could plant on it somewhere to help locate it in case it goes get stolen? Is there such a thing as bike insurance that’d protect me if it gets stolen or damaged?
Any pointers would be appreciated before I make a decision on this investment.
I can’t help with the specifics as I’m not in America, but one thing is if you’re regularly commuting between two locales, get a charger for each location, and get the kind of bike where you can slip the battery out to charge, so it’s safe at work. I have one of these and the easily-removable battery was a big selling point for me - some e-bikes have the battery in the frame, less easy to remove.
Also, slight logistical question: if you’re planning on bussing to work and then biking home, how are you getting the bike back to work every day? Or do they let people take their bikes on the bus?
My wife wanted an e-bike at the beginning of last Summer, but didn’t want to spend a ton, so I did some research and found HeyBike. The company is supposedly based in California, but it’s clearly Chinese-made, and the instructions are in laughably bad Engrish. At $899 it was so cheap I was skeptical, but it had decent reviews online. We ended up getting her their Cityscape cruiser.
It turned out to be surprisingly durable-seeming for such an inexpensive price point. I put it together for her and took it out for an inaugural test spin. It books along pretty nicely unassisted at about 19-20 mph, even with my 200 lbs. on it. Using the highest gear assisted and pedaling, I was able to get it up to close to 30mph!
One year later, the bike is still going strong. No exploding battery! Some features:
It comes mostly assembled, so finishing the assembly is easy.
Nice touches like leather on the handlebars and seat.
Can do assisted pedaling or totally unassisted. That was important to my wife, who wanted an assist boost to still get some exercise.
I thought of getting the fat tire or race commuter model, but I really need the exercise of a non-electric bike.
I’m not an expert on e-bikes, but my wife and I love ours. I still ride my non-e-bikes (longer road rides and mountain bike trails), but for work commuting and running to the store and library, it’s all e-bike. In your price range, I would look to Rad Power Bikes. I think you are located in western WA and Rad is out of Seattle…you probably see a ton of these. You could probably find a used one as well. I think most Rad bikes have a throttle (mine is pedal-assist only). My elderly in-laws have Rad and love the throttle to help get them going.
Most e-bikes have more stout tires (some of the Rads have moped tires). I think if you put in tire sealant, you are good to go and if you get a flat, it’s something that would’ve taken out a car tire. I’ve ridden my e-bike over 3000 miles and haven’t had to put in air once (well, I put studded tires on in the winter and have to re-inflate when swapping tires). My road and mountain bikes need air all the time.
Not sure on the GPS question. I know there are those Apple Airtags and related technologies, but I haven’t used them. I luckily live in a fairly bike-theft free location (knock on wood), but I still lock up my bike and store in my garage when home.
I can get a huge work out on my e-bike. I have a model that assists to 28 MPH and I live in a hilly area. One of my loops I take, for exercise on this e-bikes, has me traveling 25 miles in a bit over an hour. I guarantee you I get a workout…I have the heart rate data to back it up, along with the shot legs. This same loop on my road bike takes me in the 2 hour range. I do burn more calories on my road bike, but that one hour on the e-bike is not nothing.
Even my work commute is a good workout. You can push it on an e-bike…you don’t have to put it on the top-assist level and take it easy. It’s like most exercise: As you get more fit, it doesn’t get easier…you just go faster.
I resisted getting an e-bike because I thought it was giving into some lazy side of me. However, my wife needed one because an accident left her unable to ride her road bike. We went into our local bike shop, during the height of the pandemic bike shortage, and they happened to have the same model in both our sizes and we decided to buy both. They have changed how we shop and think about doing things. Need to go to the town that is 8 miles away to attend a BBQ, ride the bikes.
Similar situation with us. Not that my wife had an accident, just slowing down a bit as we all get older. She’d go biking with our youngest son often, and he would be kind of a jerk, not going at her pace and leaving her in the dust all the time. I could keep up with him, but just barely.
So she got the e-bike, loved it, and encouraged me to get one. But I also resisted, thinking I was giving in to laziness at a point in my aged, out of shape life that I definitely thought I should be exercising more, not less. But you’ve got me thinking now that maybe it’s actually the very thing I could use to get some better exercise. Thanks!
One more thing: I’m approaching mid-50s and have cartilage damage in both knees (years of running and mountaineering did them in), but as long as I stay active, it is tolerable. Except in the cold! I get some sharp pains in my left knee when it is cold does away as I warm up, but with an e-bike, it is much easier to get through that initial pain. Another benefit for an e-bike…it can help with the aging pains.
Yep, I’m close to mid-50s too, but unfortunately in the opposite direction as you (57) and my knee cartilage ain’t so great. Plus osteoarthritis runs in my family, and all my joints are starting to stiffen up and get creaky.
I bought an ebike with fat tires last year, and let me tell you, they make a hell of a difference. Even as a big guy, I have yet to find a surface I can’t ride across. With a normal bike tire, I wouldn’t even try driving on grass or sand, but the fat tires take me everywhere.
I second the removable battery, for security.
If you’re using it for going to work, I’d also recommend one with built in luggage racks. That’s the one thing I regret not getting on my bike, and I note, the manufacturer has started adding such racks to the latest version. Alas, retrofitting my design looks to be a challenge.
I bought an e-bike last year and am loving it. Like other posters, I was worried it would be a cop-out, a dodge for the harder work of building muscle and aerobic capacity. I quickly came to see it otherwise for a few reasons.
First, I still get quite a workout when I ride for exercise; I don’t just put it in full power mode and coast along. It does mean that for the same workout effort, I’m able to ride farther and faster, something that keeps the boredom factor low.
Second, even if it is a little bit of a cheat, how is that worse than the option of driving my car when I run errands? I take my bike on a lot of my trips now, getting at least some exercise, leaving my car at home, burning no gas.
Last but not least, I had hernia surgery with a couple complications a few years ago. If I over do it on a traditional (or as I like to say, acoustic) bike by standing on the pedals giving an all out effort to get up the steep hills in my town, I will be in pain for a few days. I can feel when I’m starting to get into that overstressed area and simply kick in some power. Now I can ride pain free, everyday.
Things I learned about in my learning process and purchase…
Consider carefully how you will actually use the bike. There is a wide range of bikes, from high power, super heavy brutes, to lightweight, agile machines that provide a more limited assist. I went the lightweight route. I needed a bike I could carry on my shoulder easily (not leaving an expensive bike out on the street for long periods so occasionally need to haul mine up stairs and similar) and didn’t need a bike that did all the work for me. I just wanted something to give me some help, not take over.
Think about how you might get the bike serviced. E-bikes can be pretty reliable, but are still well more complicated than a regular bike. The forums are full of people that bought relatively inexpensive mail order bikes and have problems they can’t fix themselves. Your local bike shop may or may not be able to help.
If you’re in a high-theft area, make sure you have a way to bring the bike in with you for all but short stops. The best of bike locks only make your bike less attractive to steal compared to the thief’s other options. Pretty much any lock can be defeated in a minute or two by a determined individual.
For my shorter stops, I’ve been really surprised that even in my bike friendly town that bike racks can be few and far between when you need them.
When I looked at all my wants and needs (including my love for gadgetry and what a bike nerd I can be) I ended up spending a not insubstantial amount of money. But I got a very light bike, mid drive instead of hub drive, the range vs power ratio I needed, high-ish end components, and the support of a local retailer. I got a Specialized Turbo Vado SL. The runner up that appealed emotionally but didn’t tick the boxes was the bad-ass pink Greg Lemond Prolog. Good god I still want that bike, but I don’t think I’d be happy with a hub-drive, 20mph boost limited bike.
I’ve built a couple of DIY ebikes over the past two years for commuting (5 mi) and recreational rides on the weekends (up to 40 mi.) and love the flexibility they offer. I run a Bafang BBSHD mid-drive (detuned to 750w to comply with the ebike class system) and a 52v18Ah battery (~930 Watt hours) on an inexpensive 27.5+ MTB. Commuting in the morning I’ll crank the assist level up to 2-3/5 to minimize effort/sweat and cruise around 15-20mph, but on my way home or when riding with friends on burger-powered bikes I’ll drop to assist 1-2 and speed to 12-15mph. That will get me a max range of ~120 miles over rolling, paved rail trails, and allegedly provides around 94% of the workout I’d get riding a push bike over the same terrain. My kit came with a throttle, but I quickly forgot about it (until I nudged it while putting the bike on the rack) and recently uninstalled it entirely. That way I can set the max assisted speed to 20mph and be a class 1 bike on mountain bike trails, or increase it to 28mph (class 3) for commuting on the road.
I’d avoid Amazon and Ebay. Most sellers there are just drop-shipping bikes from Alibaba with custom branding, and offer no support whatsoever should something go wrong, and spec choices (drivetrains, brakes, etc.) are often pretty sketchy, especially regarding the quality and construction of the battery. After the bike, itself, that’s the most important component, and the one that most sellers don’t provide any information about at all.
Around the time I finished my first build a friend bought a Ride1Up 700 series bike for himself, and then quickly bought the 500 for his son. I’ve ridden alongside them for several hundred miles, and for relatively inexpensive, hub-drive bikes they seem really well built and have been extremely reliable. They’ve also recently released their first mid-drive model, the Prodigy, in three frame configurations. If your route is very hilly a mid-drive is a great choice, as it drives the rear wheel via the bike’s drivetrain, leveraging the gears. Hub motors drive the rear directly, and can struggle to shed heat on long, steep climbs or in low-traction conditions. I’d be sure to check out Ride1Up and Rad. Or, if you’ve got a relatively modern mountain bike (disc brakes are an excellent upgrade from rim brakes) you could convert it to a hub drive for around $600, or go the mid-drive route for $1000-1600 depending on how much battery/range you want. Depends on how comfortable you are wrenching on a bike. It’s not especially difficult, and if you go that route you’ll be in a great position to do your own maintenance and repairs.
When I was looking into ebikes last year, I found a report that showed (counter-intuitively) most people who bought ebikes ended up getting more exercise, not less.
If you’re a serious athlete, ebikes are probably not useful, but if you’re like a lot of us in this thread, older with some health issues, they’re great. As I see it, there’s two main factors:
They smooth out the worst parts of biking (hills and headwinds). This makes it easier to ride, so you’re more likely to ride. I’m slowly adding in more bike usage for small errands, just because I can do that, now.
With a throttle assist, you can get home easier. On a regular bike, I always have to think, “If I go a kilometer further away from home, will I be able to make it back?” But with the e-bike, unless I’m at the limit of the battery range, this is never a problem. If my legs give out, I can use the throttle on the home stretch. So, I tend to ride further.
Combine riding more often with riding further a lot of the time I do ride, and I’m getting way more exercise than I did with my regular bike.
You’re doing six miles, maybe 12 if you don’t bike in also. As @Pork_Rind said, there are different types but most should be able to handle that short of a distance for you. Are you looking to pedal any of the way or just sit there & have the bike cruise you all the way home? Depending upon model you’d only need to charge every couple of days so wouldn’t necessarily need a charging cable in two different places.
If you can’t keep it inside at work is there a parking garage at/near work? Take a walk thru, there might be bike parking area in the garage which at least keeps it hidden & off the street; especially because I’m guessing there aren’t a lot of people out at say 11pm when it’s locked to a pole. You also won’t have to sit on a wet seat if was raining.
I wouldn’t buy a bike from a big box, like Wal-mart or from online either; there’s a reason they’re less expensive cheaper as they frequently have inferior components. Check out your local bike store(s). While some of the beefier ones have moped-like tires, some of the lighter/more assist models are much closer to a normal bike.
If you end up with a drop bar/road bike style, they make bar end lights that will replace the end caps for some extra lighting. LEDs can be very bright when you’re holding them at arm’s length in a store but a car needs to see you from much further away to be able to have enough time to react to either slow down or go into the oncoming lane to pass you. While not the cheapest, look to either Lightman strobes or Guardian Angel for bright LEDs are both very bright & eye-catching lights for the back.
You could buy something like a Tile or air tags (if you’re an apple user) & hide one under your seat or in your saddle bag. If you end up getting a bike with tubeless tires, look to Muc-off; they make a air tag holder that will fit inside the tire; virtually impossible to find that tracker.
Thanks for the advice so far. Right now, I’m leaning towards something like this model;
Seems to have good reviews, but I’m gonna have to check REI and the local bike stores to see if they have something comparable that’s not too pricey, though.
Anyone have any experience with getting a bike like this insured? A quick Google search showed a few options, but I’d like to know what I’m getting into there.
State Farm insured mine quite reasonably under a named articles policy. I put a couple guitars on there too.
The problem I see with this particular bike is if something goes wrong, I don’t know who repairs these Chinese-sourced bikes. Buying through Amazon gets you some protection if the whole thing breaks, but doesn’t get stuff repaired. I chose to buy from a local shop so I could be sure I got a warranty and a repair facility nearby.