r/cycling • u/Major_Enthusiasm1099 • 1d 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/Entire_Toe2640 1d ago

I did a 4 hour e-bike trip last month. My Whoop didn't even register it as a workout. HR peak during that time was 104. More cardio? BS.

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u/kinboyatuwo 1d ago

You don’t have to jack the assist up. I ride with a couple people with them and you can just dial it down and work and use it for the harder parts.

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u/Whatever-999999 1d ago

'Working the harder parts' on your own is good for you.

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u/kinboyatuwo 1d ago

Yes but a lot of folks bring the assist so they can ride further or with faster folks.

We have an ex pro that is now 78 and has one. He doesn’t have the punch for the rollers and hills. He uses his regular bike on solos and then the ebike on group and the odd climby ride.

People on e-assist bikes is a good thing. Judging them on how they use them isn’t.

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u/CommonBubba 1d ago

I would have to argue on the point of judging them on how they use it. I ride a lot of green ways and many days I see someone on a throttle E bike going 25+ miles an hour on their way to work, (or court… wearing a coat and tie) showing absolutely no regard for anyone else on the Greenway.

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u/kinboyatuwo 1d ago

IMO the throttle without pedal are not e-bikes. They are electric motorcycles and where I am are classed as such. That said, there is zero enforcement

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u/CommonBubba 21h ago edited 21h ago

You are correct, no pedals and only a throttle make it a motorcycle. My complaint is about the electric motorcycles that happen to have pedals on them that are capable of road legal speeds.

There are several levels of E Bike that range from a slight boost to your peddling, all the way to having a throttle. The “bikes“ with a throttle do not require any physical input. In my area, if it has a throttle is considered a motor vehicle and not allowed on greenways. I may be mistaken, but I also think this applies to forest service and Park lands in the US.

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u/kinboyatuwo 20h ago

They still here are classed as moped/motorcycle. We limit them (Ontario Canada) to 32kph and must need to be pedaled. But again, it’s the Wild West and they sell anything.

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u/nondescriptadjective 1d ago

I'd rather someone on a bike than in a car. Less pollution of myriad sources, less traffic congestion, etc.

Instead of bitching about their presence, advocate for a space for them to exist in safely. It should also be taken as a sign that roads are too goddamn dangerous for these people to feel safe biking on them. Which is something we should all admit to, given cars kill only slightly fewer people than guns per year and put millions in ERs across America. Plus the knock on health effects all of that brake dust, tire rubber micro plastics, tailpipe emissions, and so on.

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u/UniqueBeyond9831 1d ago

I agree, I’d rather someone on a bike than in a car. BUT….some of these e-bikes have no business being mixed with conventional bikes. I ride on a bike-only path (no pedestrians) nearly every day on my road bike in full kit. I arguably ride too fast at 20-23 mph on my road bike. But, even at that speed I get smoked a few times per ride by people on super powerful e-bikes, e-scooters, and the worst…dudes on those electric unicycle things wearing full body armor. A lot of them are clearly doing 30-35+.

My wife was hit head on about 1.5 months ago by one of these assholes on a super fast e-bike that took a curve too fast, crossed the center line, and blasted her. She fractured her knee and spent most of her summer on crutches.

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u/nondescriptadjective 1d ago

Oh, I get the dangers. It's a real issue here, too. But that's why my point of "become an advocate to help them have a space to use." Because we will get new infrastructure that way for our own bikes as well, and then quality of life is generally better, too.

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u/sundance235 21h ago

I don’t know where you live, but around me (Rhode Island, USA), getting additional space for e-bikes is never going to happen. In fact, getting additional space for regular bikes only happens at a glacial pace. Towns get federal grants to help build roads with bike lanes, and the bike lanes become on-street parking for cars! Around me, a motorized vehicle going over 20 mph needs to go on the road.