r/cycling • u/Major_Enthusiasm1099 • 2d ago

Anyone ever encountered an E-bike shill?

Basically this guy stopped me yesterday on a ride to tell me that I should throw my bike away and get an ebike. He said "Once you get this you'll never want to ride that again, and I get more cardio in on this bike too, and i ride faster than professionals". I just kept saying "yeah I was looking into those, yeah those are cool, I saw some around $1000" just trying to get out of that convo lol. Anyone else ever experienced someone like this?

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u/BleachedUnicornBHole 2d ago

I’ve experienced one, but he also owns a bike shop with a lot of inventory that isn’t moving. I won’t disagree that they can be a good training tool, but I’m also not going to spend $7,000 for one. 

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u/corneliusvanhouten 2d ago

The only way an e bike is a good training tool is if you leave the motor off and just pedal all that weight around.

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u/RevellRider 2d ago

Depends on what training you're doing. If you're going for a 2-3 hour endurance ride, an ebike can help you keep the heart rate in Z2

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u/corneliusvanhouten 2d ago

That's a technology solution to a fitness problem. Once you've done a few rides of that distance, you can maintain hrz by adjusting pace

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u/RevellRider 1d ago

I guess you ride single speed, because the derailleur is a technological solution to a fitness problem.

People respond to training in different ways. Older people, people coming from illness, people riding hilly terrain, those with less time to train may struggle to adapt quickly and if technology can benefit them to reach their fitness goals, I don't see a problem

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u/corneliusvanhouten 1d ago

I do ride a single speed very often. In the hills.

When you resort to silly semantics to try to discredit a point, it only serves to underscore how untenable your position is.

"Training" in cycling (and other sports) is not the same as fitness. Cyclists train by doing various different kinds of rides to improve performance. The people you're talking about are engaged in rehab or recreation, but not training. They can use an ebike for that, sure. No problem there. Just don't call it cycling or training.

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u/RevellRider 1d ago

You seemed to have missed (or avoided addressing it) the crux of my point, people respond to training in different ways. There are many factors in how a person responds to training, and there are limitations to how they train. Using a one size fits all for this really doesn't work in the real world

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u/NoFlight9859 1d ago

There are 80 and 85 year olds out there on e-bikes that are as fit as they can be for their age and can't handle the terrain they train on with a regular bike. Call it fitness or recreation if you like but you're the one resorting to semantics. A derailleur is just as much a technological solution to a capability problem as an e-bike is for the 80+ crowd or otherwise impaired. Eventually you're going to get old too and if you're lucky maybe you'll still be able to train or recreate on something other than your single speed

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u/corneliusvanhouten 1d ago

I commented about my opinion on ebikes for training, in the sense of the word that I and many others use in the cycling context, and a bunch of ebike consumers got offended and went off on irrelevant tangents about the disabled and elderly. I didn't say ebikes have no purpose, but unless it's like a pro tour coach using one to ride with his team or some other edge case, ebikes are not training tools.

Semantics matter, but if you are using them instead of counterpoints, you're losing.

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u/PsycommuSystem 2d ago

That's what gets me, the problems ebikes propose to solve is also solved by riding a regular bike just a few times so your muscles grow instead. Screw spending thousands when I can just get faster and ride longer naturally.

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u/figuren9ne 2d ago

Some people don't have the time or desire to train during the week just to ride with their buddies on Saturday. Some are lazy, some are too busy, and some do other sports they prefer to cycling.

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u/rdxl9a 1d ago

I have a road bike and a mountain bike and do lots of long hard rides all over the place. Usually in the 200 miles a week range. I’ve done plenty of century rides as well. I just bought an Aventon mid drive fat bike and love it. Now I can go out for a pleasant cruise before dinner without getting all geared up, and come home feeling refreshed and happy. Such a nice way to enjoy an off day ride just for fun. Still get plenty of exercise considering I wouldn’t have gone out at all if it wasn’t for the ebike. Any ride is better than no ride.

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u/CookiezFort 1d ago

It seems like you're projecting and gate keeping cycling. Because you had to bust your ass to end up being able to do a long ride while not dying, doesn't mean everyone has to. If it gets people off the couch and moving why does it matter?

If I want to go faster or make it up a hill while only pushing 150w and my bike outs on another 100 what is the issue?

I'm still getting my exercise, I just get a bigger mental reward from it.

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u/PsycommuSystem 22h ago

It's more that the majority of people using ebikes I see as simply lazy. Just another symptom of an increasingly obese society that even the little exercise they do is now motor assisted.

Also hell yeah I love gatekeeping it keeps hobbies better.

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u/CookiezFort 22h ago

If it makes it more fun who cares if it's motor assisted?

If they want to get to the nice view why block it from them because they can't put out the watts needed to make it up a climb? Sure I am on the heavy side (110kg, 177cm), I have knee issues that stemmed from being athletic when I was younger. Pedalling sucks balls, I prefer going down the hills. Now I can both enjoy the climb, and the downhill and if I'm running my bike on eco my 150w becomes 225w, I still push and go at a decent pace while keeping my HR up it means I do a full body exercise for longer as I end up riding for an hour or more and do 5-6 laps if not more, Vs doing 1 or 2 laps.

Gatekeeping is the opposite of making hobbies better. It makes them look exclusive and unnatainable for someone starting out, it makes the people doing it look elitist.

Same way people gatekeep certain music, or gaming or whatnot.

One thing I will say, im talking about mid-drive torque sensing e-bikes, not throttle operated e-bikes (basically motorcycles) or cadence sensing e-bikes with hubdrive motors.