What I learned:
- Purchase the highest quality bike you can afford from a storied, reputable manufacturer. You deserve the best.
- Stay away from integrated proprietary electronics and software systems.
- Purchase a bike that can be serviced locally, or DIY, with a robust decentralised parts inventory stream.
- You deserve a rear suspension (front too). Not a suspension seat post. There is no comparison.
- Wear elbow pads and knee pads along with your helmet. There's a reason that NHTSA keeps stats on bike fatalities.
- Use high intensity flashing lights on the front and rear.
- Go Tubeless.
- Don't drink more than two beers before you ride.
Some great points, but the ones about electronics and rear suspension are way too broad. There are pros and cons to everything. The trick is to play the trade-offs as best you can for your own goals in an ebike, and these vary widely in the ebike world.
First, not everyone wants or needs full suspension. I certainly don't on my 38 mm gravel/fitness ebike (Specialized Vado SL 1). Plenty of discussions of the pros and cons in other threads — including the negative impacts on weight, pedaling efficiency, handling, and maintenance.
Get all the compliance I need from (a) the 20 mm of sprung travel in my stem, and (b) running the tubeless 700x38 mm tires at 35-40 psi. And I do a fair amount of offroad.
Likewise, my wife's rigid 50 lb cruiser gets plenty of compliance from its tubed 27.5x2.4" tires at 35-40 psi. We value the light weights for (1) climbing in this hilly area, and (2) the handling, both on and off the bikes.
As for electronics, the proprietary power-sensing mid-drive PAS on my Specialized Vado is a thing of engineering beauty that pays on every ride. With a huge dealer/service network to back it up.
Unlike Bosch, it uses Bluetooth and ANT+ to communicate with a wide range of external devices — including the well-done Specialized app on my phone and my cheap chest-strap HRM.
