What Valid E-bike Complaints have you Heard?

[6zfshdb]

I’m closing in on 2000 miles this season on my ebike. I’ve ridden dozens of trails, answered many questions and have been involved in quite a few conversations about ebikes in general. Most have been friendly but a few were with true ebike haters.

I’ve come to the conclusion that 95% of the general public, including lawmakers, law enforcement and even conventional bike riders have no clue what an ebike really is.

The complaints I’ve heard so far fall into 4 categories. Most concern trail use and have been discussed here previously at length:

(1) They damage the trail surface.
(2) They go too fast and force people off the trail.
(3) They are dangerous.

To me, these aren’t valid ebike complaints since they apply to conventional bikes as well. The exceptions are high power bikes not included in the 3 class system. Fortunately, these represent a small percentage of the ebike market.

(4) They are noisy

I may be missing something but I have never heard a “noisy” ebike. In my experience, the low hum produced by most bikes is barely audible over tire noise.

When I get into conversations, I try my best to explain these ebike misnomers. I have no idea whether my words make any difference or not.

I did hear a “complaint” from a 40-ish spandex clad guy which does have some validity. I had no immediate reply. “I earn my miles honestly using good old fashion muscle power”.

Thinking back, I may have thought the same way when I was younger. In any case, this is a personal state of mind rather than a valid complaint. I can't help but wonder if his feelings will change when he gets older.

I try to be an ambassador for ebikes whenever the opportunity arises and I like to stay informed on popular opinion. What other “valid” complaints have others here heard that are outside the 4 categories mentioned above?

 

[Deleted member 4210]

That people riding them are having too much fun !

 

[Alaskan]

When you encounter the next spandexer who considers ebiking "cheating" point out that that is the identical accusation hurled at the early adopters of multiple gear derailleur systems by riders who had all been riding single speed bikes.

Early bikes had no brakes. Then there were back-pedal or coaster brakes. Then there were rim brakes. Then there were disk brakes, now the latest is anti-lock brakes. At what point should bicycle brake technology have been frozen with no further developments allowed?

There is no logical reason why the joy of riding a bike should be confined to only those who use current technology and no further progress or innovation should be allowed to open access to that joy for others. The comment ultimately reveals a rather ugly, smug, self-satisfied, selfishness.

 

[Cowlitz]

My Rad is noisy but it is because of the knobby tires and various squeaks. My Gazelle is a silent bike. I also don't understand the complaints about noise. An article in a kind of local paper mentioned the noise part. It was obvious that the reporter needs to actually ride an ebike and I sent him a message saying so.

 

[MechaNut]

I'll go down the list:

1) All bicycles can damage trail surfaces. Especially something with a knobby tire. I see this all the time on the Erie Canal path. There are ruts all over the place. I didn't put the ruts there, but they are there just the same.
2) Class 1 and 2 e-bikes are about the same speed as most strong road cyclists ride. Class 3 bikes they may have a point on multi-use trails, but not class 1 and 2.
3) Any moving object is dangerous. One of the multi-use trails I ride allows horseback riding. I think a horse and rider moving at a gallop is far more dangerous (due to mass) than a bicycle and rider.
4) Gas motor conversion kits on bikes are noisy. E-bikes don't tend to be any louder than a mountain bike with knobby tires.

 

[dblhelix]

What other “valid” complaints have others here heard that are outside the 4 categories mentioned above?

“I’ll never buy one bc I like to pedal.”

Two features dominate the thinking of non-owners: throttle and regen. No matter how many times I explain that my bike won’t move without pedaling effort, I don’t break through the perception that ebikers tootdle around by pressing a throttle. And the mid-drive lack of regen always disappoints.

“They’re too big and heavy”

Here I kind of have to agree.

 

[Marci jo]

I’m closing in on 2000 miles this season on my ebike. I’ve ridden dozens of trails, answered many questions and have been involved in quite a few conversations about ebikes in general. Most have been friendly but a few were with true ebike haters.

I’ve come to the conclusion that 95% of the general public, including lawmakers, law enforcement and even conventional bike riders have no clue what an ebike really is.

The complaints I’ve heard so far fall into 3 categories. Most concern trail use and have been discussed here previously at length:

(1) They damage the trail surface.
(2) They go too fast and force people off the trail.
(3) They are dangerous.

To me, these aren’t valid ebike complaints since they apply to conventional bikes as well. The exceptions are high power bikes not included in the 3 class system. Fortunately, these represent a small percentage of the ebike market.

(4) They are noisy

I may be missing something but I have never heard a “noisy” ebike. In my experience, the low hum produced by most bikes is barely audible over tire noise.

When I get into conversations, I try my best to explain these ebike misnomers. I have no idea whether my words make any difference or not.

I did hear a “complaint” from a 40-ish spandex clad guy which does have some validity. I had no immediate reply. “I earn my miles honestly using good old fashion muscle power”.

Thinking back, I may have thought the same way when I was younger. In any case, this is a personal state of mind rather than a valid complaint. I can't help but wonder if his feelings will change when he gets older.

I try to be an ambassador for ebikes whenever the opportunity arises and I like to stay informed on popular opinion. What other “valid” complaints have others here heard that are outside the 4 categories mentioned above?

I commented on an earlier thread that all these complaints remind me of the complaints against snowboards by the skiers.

(1) They damage the trail surface. (the slopes)
(2) They go too fast and force people off the trail. (the skiers)
(3) They are dangerous. (to who?)​

And now we have Olympic events with snowboarders.
It just takes time.

​

 

[elliot friedman]

Not a complaint:

A class 3 ebike can go as slow as a class 1 or 2 ebike.
A class 1 or 2 ebike can go as fast as a class 3 ebike.
A human powered bike can go as fast as any of them.

I'm not a believer in the class system restrictions.
I guess I'm complaining.

 

[AlanDB]

The "noisy" ones are those that have a boom box strapped to their rack on full volume. Of course this is not confined to ebikes.

 

[PDXzap]

I did hear a “complaint” from a 40-ish spandex clad guy which does have some validity. I had no immediate reply. “I earn my miles honestly using good old fashion muscle power”.

I've heard that or more commonly, "That's cheating!" or "Your cheating!" more than any other complaint.
I've had different replies but my usual was, "Cheating? I'm sorry, I didn't know we were racing today."

My foray into ebikes started mostly out of sheer curiosity but soon veered towards economics. It was way cheaper to take my Currie to get groceries or some fast food than it was to drive so if there was enough time to explain after being accused of cheating, I'd simply point out that I was getting just as much exerciser on my used $150 Currie and $0.10 worth of electricity as they were on their $2000 road/triathlon bike and... could probably go further and faster.
Some got it, some didn't.

The best encounter I probably ever had was leaving church and pulling the long climb headed south from Lafayette, CO. At the bottom of the hill I passed a couple on road bikes, watched them in the mirror and didn't see much reaction and I just rode on and continued the climb. The climb has two grades with a short level run near the middle and as I was about in the middle of the level run I noticed the same male in my mirror cresting the first grade, trying to catch me, having left his partner way behind. I was in pretty good shape back then and didn't have much cargo so I gave it a little more throttle and started really mashing the pedals. I didn't give it my all because I still had 10 miles to go and it was getting hot, he was catching me and close to the top is a light signal and I knew I wasn't going to make the green light so I started slowing down. He caught up with me just as we were rolling up to the intersection and said he had wanted to know how someone on a huge mountain bike with huge milk crate panniers hanging off the sides could fly up that hill so fast.
His partner was still climbing and not even visible so we stopped and chatted about my bike and he said he was going have to look into these "ebikes". That was 10 years ago... not sure if he ever did look.

 

[E-Wheels]

The light is too bright. I get the little headlight flickers from cars very often. The problem is that Haibike has made a light that's only 60 lux but it doesn't have a high beam and a low beam. If I want to see far, I need to angle the light backwards. But when I do that, it blinds the oncoming traffic. If I angle the light forwards, I can only see about 15 meters in front of me which is insufficient on road portions that are dark. As the light isn't on the handlebars it's fairly difficult to change its position whilst in motion.

This isn't only limited to my e-bike. I've been looking at a lot of bikes at night and the lights are quite often blindingly bad (pun intended). It isn't clear whether this is due to bad design as in my case or whether the rider is simply too lazy to switch into low beam. Shining 1000 lumens into oncoming traffic just isn't the way to go. Clearly, there's some work to be done on this one.

Is your light StVZO rated

StVZO bike lights - what it is really about ? - Light-Test.info

StVZO - Brief introduction to a bicycle lighting requirements in Germany.

www.light-test.info

I have this one which is StVZO rated and it works great

H-Black PRO E - HERRMANS® - Herrmans Bike Components Ltd.

herrmans.eu

 

[Ebiker01]

Thanks for the suggestion. The lights are in the COC. Part of the problem is that you cannot control where the beams will go with rolling hills. I rarely get flashed on flatter sections... What I really need is a high beam/low beam switch. Will look into those lights.

A great light is Busch&Muller IQ-X E . It has 150 lux and it automatically adjusts the brightness based on the % of darkness/light ahead .

I just installed it today and was amazed how smart it is. Is 150$ , is totally worth it. Is kind of small, i was expecting something BIG since i payed a LOT. But it does an amazing job.

 

[Ebiker01]

I’m closing in on 2000 miles this season on my ebike. I’ve ridden dozens of trails, answered many questions and have been involved in quite a few conversations about ebikes in general. Most have been friendly but a few were with true ebike haters.

I’ve come to the conclusion that 95% of the general public, including lawmakers, law enforcement and even conventional bike riders have no clue what an ebike really is.

The complaints I’ve heard so far fall into 3 categories. Most concern trail use and have been discussed here previously at length:

(1) They damage the trail surface.
(2) They go too fast and force people off the trail.
(3) They are dangerous.

To me, these aren’t valid ebike complaints since they apply to conventional bikes as well. The exceptions are high power bikes not included in the 3 class system. Fortunately, these represent a small percentage of the ebike market.

(4) They are noisy

I may be missing something but I have never heard a “noisy” ebike. In my experience, the low hum produced by most bikes is barely audible over tire noise.

When I get into conversations, I try my best to explain these ebike misnomers. I have no idea whether my words make any difference or not.

I did hear a “complaint” from a 40-ish spandex clad guy which does have some validity. I had no immediate reply. “I earn my miles honestly using good old fashion muscle power”.

Thinking back, I may have thought the same way when I was younger. In any case, this is a personal state of mind rather than a valid complaint. I can't help but wonder if his feelings will change when he gets older.

I try to be an ambassador for ebikes whenever the opportunity arises and I like to stay informed on popular opinion. What other “valid” complaints have others here heard that are outside the 4 categories mentioned above?

In Europe they are everywhere. The ebikes.

Here in Us there are so many prehistoric negative mentalities and just plain dumb ideas/opinions from many and from some of those in charge of the laws.

There needs to be classes/education given to people in order to increase ebikes sales and change the public opinion.
This website does a little work too.

 

[FlatSix911]

Don't forget the most common complaint...

 

[Toomanycats]

When you encounter the next spandexer who considers ebiking "cheating" point out that that is the identical accusation hurled at the early adopters of multiple gear derailleur systems by riders who had all been riding single speed bikes.

Early bikes had no brakes. Then there were back-pedal or coaster brakes. Then there were rim brakes. Then there were disk brakes, now the latest is anti-lock brakes. At what point should bicycle brake technology have been frozen with no further developments allowed?

There is no logical reason why the joy of riding a bike should be confined to only those who use current technology and no further progress or innovation should be allowed to open access to that joy for others. The comment ultimately reveals a rather ugly, smug, self-satisfied, selfishness.

Also, here’s what I’d say to the people who “earned” their miles on an analog bike:
“I’ve gone from wobbling around the parking lot last December on my old Trek Pure to putting 100 miles a week on my e bike. I can’t put a whole lot of pressure on my knees, so the ebike really helps.
It’s really sad that you think my accomplishment somehow denigrates your accomplishment”.

 

[GregGritton]

Two features dominate the thinking of non-owners: throttle and regen.... And the mid-drive lack of regen always disappoints.

I think the main reason people think of regen is that regenerative braking is a key feature for hybrid cars and one of the main reasons they get such high mileage. While most people have probably heard of hybrid cars, e-bikes are a newer type of "hybrid", so people may think it should also have regen even though it is much less important for a bicycle.

 

[Captain Slow]

Not sure if this is valid in everyone's opinion, but I've heard that inexperienced riders who get on an ebike can go fast without having learned proper bike handling skills and can be dangerous. IMHO I think there is some validity to this argument, but I can see that some would argue otherwise.

 

[Admin]

My biggest complaint has always just been that they weigh more, I like being able to bunny hop, lift my bike up, and just handle it differently if it's lightweight. I felt this way even before ebikes, going from steel to aluminum alloy to carbon fiber... it's why I call out air suspension and like to weigh everything

I also feel that ebikes don't create the same "this will last forever!" feeling inside of me if they have super fancy complex batteries. I like to feel that if I spend the money, the bike system will be supported for a very long time... this is one of the reasons I'm a Bosch PowerPack fanboy.

 

[Daffyh]

The light is too bright. I get the little headlight flickers from cars very often. The problem is that Haibike has made a light that's only 60 lux but it doesn't have a high beam and a low beam. If I want to see far, I need to angle the light backwards. But when I do that, it blinds the oncoming traffic. If I angle the light forwards, I can only see about 15 meters in front of me which is insufficient on road portions that are dark. As the light isn't on the handlebars it's fairly difficult to change its position whilst in motion.

This isn't only limited to my e-bike. I've been looking at a lot of bikes at night and the lights are quite often blindingly bad (pun intended). It isn't clear whether this is due to bad design as in my case or whether the rider is simply too lazy to switch into low beam. Shining 1000 lumens into oncoming traffic just isn't the way to go. Clearly, there's some work to be done on this one.

Plenty of bike lights out there that have the 'facula' cut off, I've got 2x Lumintops on my bars as well as the stock LED that came with it. The Lumintops i can angle out using the mounts giving me more side coverage, mounts are piss easy to change direction and up/down as required.

 

[elliot friedman]

Not sure if this is valid in everyone's opinion, but I've heard that inexperienced riders who get on an ebike can go fast without having learned proper bike handling skills and can be dangerous. IMHO I think there is some validity to this argument, but I can see that some would argue otherwise.

That's why people learn to drive automobiles in empty parking lots at first.
If you can't handle your vehicle, you shouldn't be in close proximity to others until you can. Common sense?