Greetings cyclinge fiends-I am now officially an 'old geezer'.........

[SkipdiverJohn]

The other concern I have about ebikes is that they might not be as green as they appear...... Was told that it was quite the done thing to scrap your ebike every 8 years or so.

I don't believe all the hyped-up "green" nonsense about electric & hybrid cars for exactly the same reason. When looking at whether something is really "green" you have to consider how much resources went into making it, and divide that by how many years service you manage to get out of it. One of my motors is almost 59 years old, and still has all of it's original mechanical units, so I won't be taking any lectures from pious tree-huggers about how "green" their new car full of toxic batteries is, until such time as it outlasts mine. Most modern non-electric push bikes are not going to survive anywhere near as long as old school ones have either. It's a throwaway world today and there's nothing "green" about it!

 

[dodgy]

I have no time for the e-bike detractors who've never tried one, try one first, then spill out your experience here.

The way I see it, if you ride at (say) 200 watts on a regular bike and on an e-bike, you're getting the same amount of exercise by and large.
E-bikes are great fun, my only concerns right now are the lack of standards, so if in perhaps 5 years you need a new battery for your Trek/Specialised or whatever, will they still make/supply them?

 

[Blue Hills]

Reply to skipdiver:

Yep, greeness can be middle c!ass bull shoot. Suppose bullshit is green.

I know a family (italian as it happens) who pride themselves on being green, wiv a solar panel. 3 folk in the house, 3 cars, mostly do round trips of 10 to 15 miles.

 

[Blue Hills]

just seen how to get sh. T past the forum robot prude.

 

[Pale Rider]

Yes had the idea that bosch was a good idea.

The route i would very probably go if eventually going electric.

Bosch currently dominate the premium end of the market, dozens of makers offer Bosch powered bikes.

I believe production of the motor has passed two million - a massive number for a bicycle component.

I've heard of a handful of breakdowns, but in the context of numbers sold Bosch is one of the more reliable ebike motors.

A surprising number of companies make crank drives for ebikes, Yamaha, Brose, Shimano, Continental (as in tyres), Bafang, Panasonic, Kalkhoff and lots of others most of which neither you nor I will have heard of.

The majority of which sell in thousands or tens of thousands.

Things change, but Bosch's stranglehold on the crank drive market looks likely to remain firm for a while yet.