Ebike Sightings | What are you seeing?

[J.R.]

Early in 2014 I started looking into ebikes. At that point in time I'd never seen an ebike in the wild. Or if I did, I didn't know it. I was commuting by bike and the hills were getting steeper, the winds were getting stronger and I wanted help. Later in 2014 I purchased my first ebike.

I live in rural Pennsylvania and at that time it was months before I saw another ebike. In the first year I could've counted ebike sightings on one hand. Every year I saw more and more, but the numbers were never great. Last year at this time I really had the feeling 2019 was going to be the year ebikes would hit the big time. They sort of did, but again the numbers weren't what one would call big.

Christmas day 2019. In my travels that day I saw three brand new ebikes, ridden by people that didn't look like the typical cold weather cyclists. Long parkas and knit mittens with wool hats. These ebikes were obviously Christmas presents. I took that as a healthy sign that ebikes were popular enough to be given as gifts. Is that the big time? Maybe!

Monday of this week, February 3, we had an unusually warm day. Temperature was 60°F and sunny. I got together with another ebiker and we decided to ride the Susquehanna River Trail. On a typical weekday in winter you'd be lucky to see a handful of cyclists. I guess there must've been a rash of Monday after the Super Bowl flu cases, because the trail had summertime levels of cyclists in the afternoon. It didn't take long before we had our first ebike sighting. Then another, and another. We stopped counting at around 15! I've never seen 15 ebikes in one day on a rural trail in Pennsylvania.

I'm sure these numbers are nothing to many of you. On a good summer day I might see three to five ebikes. Will 2020 be the year ebikes hit the big time? The roaring 20's?

 

[harryS]

I'm not seeing many ebikes on the bike paths in the Chicago suburbs. Not last summer anyway, Hoping things pick up this Spring.

Rode on Superbowl Sunday in the Am and also PM. Went out alone and found the residual ice pretty treacherous. Bike path down to one lane, and it was dangerous to pass. My wife insisted on a PM ride because it reached 50F, and we found all the ice had melted. Very nice, plus all the traffic had gone home.

 

[vincent]

I see them all the time on the loop in tucson
Every year more and more

On a nice weather day maybe every 4-5th bike is an ebike now

 

[ElevenAD]

i work in NYC and out there its not even close Arrow E-Bikes are all over the place! i see between 5 and 10 on any given day.
second would be RadWagons i see them often also.

 

[J.R.]

i work in NYC an out there its not even close Arrow E-Bikes are all over the place! i see between 5 and 10 on any given day.
second would be RadWagons i see them often also.

Last year, when I saw ebikes, it seemed many were Treks. Lately Specialized are coming on strong. Plenty of Rad Rovers around everywhere though.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

E-bikes are rare in Poland, because the price is prohibitive (this is not Germany!) When I finally understood what e-bikes were all about, I asked my Facebook friends: "Does anybody own an e-bike and could share their experience?" There was a silence then some comments: No, nobody of my FB friends had one. I was the first. Of my FB relationships, there is only a single well-to-do female friend who really intends to take the plunge this Spring. She intends to commute to work and ride out for pleasure.

You can spot an e-bike occasionally in Warsaw neighbourhood. I met a senior lady on a nice urban e-bike once; she confessed to me the e-bike made her younger and fit. I was also stopped by a driver in one of neighbouring villages; he told me he's just bought an S-Pedelec and wanted to know how to register and insure it. My cousin tells me that in the area of Łomianki near Warsaw where successful businesses flourish, there are many e-bikes. The owners always complain about the 25 km/h restriction and de-restrict their e-bikes en masse.

The most funny incident I met was a guy of appearance of a poor farmer who rode a rusty DIY cargo e-bike, using the throttle of course. The bike was a piece of junk and his wire-mesh cargo box was rusty. Yet he had a powerful motor and sped at 40+ km/h, all what he was doing was completely illegal I tried to follow him on my slower of e-bikes and whatever I did was not enough to keep at the same speed with him. He was just too fast.

 

[Ebiker33]

Lots of Rads, and a few Volts & Sondors and a few home made specials.

Will 2020 be the year ebikes hit the big time? The roaring 20's?

I am going to say yes based that one appeared in a Super Bowl commercial. And as companies see people spending 2K-10K on these they will invest even more money in R & D, how amazing will the tech be on this in just 5 years. Better motors, better batteries, upgraded systems, companies like Gates & Rohloff will have a great decade as there parts get used more and more. But anybody that makes bike parts should do really well.
We have so many innovative companies just getting started, I think my current favorite is Watt Wagons.

 

[Ebiker01]

Well, In Us over 55-60% of millennials have less then 1k saved , another 20% about 1-5k saved.
It is normal that Juiced, Radpower, Magnum , Aventon and other sub 2k ebikes own the market and their sales are high.

I know many here in Nyc have the Stromers and some R&M's but i never saw them on the roads. 1x time i noticed an ST5 in midtown , only locked with an Abus Granite.
I see Radpowers quite often and that's about it.
Probably in 1year i've seen 2Specialized Vado'd and another Stromer. Them Tern is also quite popular.

The delivery ebikes are something else, they've been here and in other cities for decades.

 

[Over50]

I still don't see very many. Parking at a building close to me is a Juiced. A couple of Treks that I see inconsistently. Last summer on my commute home I kept crossing paths with a young man commuting on a Trek Crossrip+. I see a couple of folders at various office buildings whose brands I don't recognize - perhaps Chinese. There is one regular in summer in our downtown on an Igo I think - I had a brief conversation with him and he seemed to be pleased with the bike. I think those gas powered bicycle kits still outnumber the e-bikes I see. My LBS says they have a hard time keeping e-bikes in stock and they only sell some mid level to premium stuff. So I know the bikes and riders must be out there but I just don't run into them very frequently.

 

[Browneye]

Seven of us rode the beach strand in Huntington Beach - Pacific coast, orange county CA. The path is pretty well packed full with bikes and pedestrians, even a whole 'dog beach'. I would guess we pass a hundred thousand people, easily.
Riding by one beach camper, ol' lady says, "look at that, EVERYBODY is on a ebike, and I'm gonna get one!"

There are a lot of rickety beach cruisers, and plenty of fast pedalics, but surely we saw a hundred ebikes - the vast majority are cheap hub-drive bikes. People just like to get out for some sun.

We rode 15 miles, hit a big new local brewery for lunch and a beer, then another 10 miles and stopped at another, then the last 4 miles back to friends house where we staged. Out of our group I was the only one on a more modern mid-drive - all of the others were hub-drive bikes.

We had a great time and none of us would have been out there or ridden that far had it not been for electric assist. And there were lots of others out there doing the same thing.

A local bike shop down in Newport Beach, an old Italian family that races cars, has a bike shop there, and has created their own brand, setup production locally building beach cruiser ebikes, and selling them like hotcakes - you've never heard of them - https://electricbikecompany.com/


See if ya can see ol' browneye - I'm the oldest by a decade. LOL



'lectric bike co...

 

[ElevenAD]

i did see one FLX near Wall St, i wanted to yell "nice bike" but he blew by me like a friggin bullet and disappeared into the distance.

 

[indianajo]

There are two black fat tire bikes that whiz by occasionally at improbable speed for men not wearing lycra with their heads down. Possibly e-bikes. The men wear dark grey clothes, a dark grey knit hat, no helmet. Typicaly yahoos. I don't wear distance glasses in the yard so I don't see the motor or battery, especially as one ran the stop sign at the corner.
Other than that I saw one Pedego with purple fat tire wheels in the next town last year, and one black pedego fat tire bike at a concert Labor Day 2 years ago. There is a Pedego dealer in Louisville.

 

[antboy]

I've noticed a healthy mix here in downtown Toronto, but I'd say that number one is Amego, if only because it seems to be the e-bike of choice for many food delivery people.

It probably helps that Amego has had a B&M shop downtown.

 

[ElevenAD]

I've noticed a healthy mix here in downtown Toronto, but I'd say that number one is Amego, if only because it seems to be the e-bike of choice for many food delivery people.

It probably helps that Amego has had a B&M shop downtown.

Also helps that Amego has Virginia

 

[Toomanycats]

Still pretty rare in Inland Southern California, but getting more popular- slowly. RadBikes most common, with Trek being second.

 

[Bobsiii]

Numbers seemed to grow on Denver metro area trails last summer, Pedego has a bunch in the south suburban area. REI sells Surly, Trek, Specialized (+others I think) and with their big store in Central Denver as well as several LBS carrying e-bikes now I expect even bigger numbers this year. I rode last weekend (before the snow came) and saw 4 on the South Platte River Trail.

 

[bob armani]

I have spotted about a handful along the way this last riding season on most of the Chicago suburban trails. On the downtown path, which has a lot more congestion seems to be fewer E-bikes and a lot more one -wheeled scooters usually ridden by younger millennials. Looks like however, that it has been slowly picking up in the last 2 years more, and I believe 2020 will have quite a bit more to come.

 

[Cowlitz]

I have one in my living room.

I think there may be a total of FIVE ebikes in this area. Or less. Bikes aren't very popular here. Folks live all over the place and usually up a hill. There are no bike trails or bike lanes or many shoulders to ride on. There is only a part time bike shop which does not sell ebikes. Oh, I own two of the five. A friend has another, and the other two I have seen more than once so I assume they live here.

Our area is very dependent on pickup trucks.

 

[Al P]

In my area, I have seen only four ebikes, and they are all in my garage. I'm sure the climate has a lot to do with it. With the long winters, snow and ice, it's not conducive to biking. In warm weather I have seen several ebikes in the Adirondacks. They don't belong to the locals. Tourists bring them up from warmer climates to enjoy the scenery on the lesser traveled roads.

 

[BillH]

Far and few in between even in the more popular Rails to Trails bike areas near me. I'm always on the lookout when a lot of bikes are around and usually when I notice them they notice me and we kinda nod and smile at each other.