Teams & Riders Will e-bikes be the end of cycling?

[KoopaCycling]

I do think belgians need to appreciate their current champions more. Maybe i'm just being pessimistic about it all but... Wether out-and-about or in bike shops, fake bikes are everywhere. The amount of motorists pretending to be cyclists is just staggering these days. And whilst this may be good to improve car traffic jams, i can't say I like it much. And might have negative effects for our cycling future.

 

[Andre]

I do think belgians need to appreciate their current champions more. Maybe i'm just being pessimistic about it all but... Wether out-and-about or in bike shops, fake bikes are everywhere. The amount of motorists pretending to be cyclists is just staggering these days. And whilst this may be good to improve car traffic jams, i can't say I like it much.

are you talking about E-bikes?

 

[KoopaCycling]

are you talking about E-bikes?

e-bike, fat bikes, pedelecs,.. all that fake stuff. at the end of the day they are motorists riding on bike lanes. Making bike lanes feel less welcome to actual cyclists.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Nah people who like to ride will keep riding. Some people who like to ride but don't like to ride hard and don’t like to drive (or can’t drive) will stop driving to ride e-bikes. And people who can't keep up (like my wife) will ride more because they keep up with a motor. It's a net positive IMO, though I could be wrong. I personally wouldn't be caught dead owning one unless I was bike commuting every day for 10+ miles and just viewing it as transportation.

 

[Cookster15]

Nah people who like to ride will keep riding. People who don't like to ride will stop driving to ride e-bikes. And people who can't keep up (like my wife) will ride more because they keep up with a motor. It's a net positive IMO, though I could be wrong. I personally wouldn't be caught dead owning one unless I was bike commuting every day for 10+ miles and just viewing it as transportation.

Agree. Doom and gloom over e-bikes is misplaced.

 

[Extinction]

Agree. Doom and gloom over e-bikes is misplaced.

It's the effect on upcoming generations, who shall increasingly look for the easy way out. At a certain point, the mindset will refuse to ride the "old way," that is with human power. And the sport won't have enough base and so die.

 

[Berniece]

It's the effect on upcoming generations, who shall increasingly look for the easy way out. At a certain point, the mindset will refuse to ride the "old way," that is with human power. And the sport won't have enough base and so die.

There are bigger things to worry about that might be the end of the sport than e-bikes

 

[KoopaCycling]

Nah people who like to ride will keep riding. Some people who like to ride but don't like to ride hard and don’t like to drive (or can’t drive) will stop driving to ride e-bikes. And people who can't keep up (like my wife) will ride more because they keep up with a motor. It's a net positive IMO, though I could be wrong. I personally wouldn't be caught dead owning one unless I was bike commuting every day for 10+ miles and just viewing it as transportation.

I can see the point you are making but i think you are wrong about it being a net positive for cycling. Where I am at, quite a lot of people stopped enjoying taking a relaxing bike ride alongside the channel with their family these past few years. Reason being is cause that route alongside the water has been completely taking over by e-bikes zooming past at high speeds. They don't enjoy riding there anymore, and def. won't take their small kids to ride alongside them, cause they find it too dangerous. The people with the racebikes still ride there. But the families are dissapearing. And that is terrible for the future. Cause that was the place families took their children for a bike ride during spring/summer. Now they ain't taking them for bike rides anymore or a whole lot less. All you see is race bikes (20%), electric variants (75%), and teenagers on regular bikes (5%). The families and children are gone.

At the end of the day they are no different from mopeds. Don't mistake silence and the pedal movement for actual cycling. They could easily just remove the pedals and make them stationary. Add a throttle. and you get a silent electric moped. cause that is what it is.

I'll admit i'm being pessismistic. We remain a bike country. But we are a bike country until we are not.

 

[Berniece]

I can see the point you are making but i think you are wrong about it being a net positive for cycling. Where I am at, quite a lot of people stopped enjoying taking a relaxing bike ride alongside the channel with their family these past few years. Reason being is cause that route alongside the water has been completely taking over by e-bikes zooming past at high speeds. They don't enjoy riding there anymore, and def. won't take their small kids to ride alongside them, cause they find it too dangerous. The people with the racebikes still ride there. But the families are dissapearing. And that is terrible for the future. Cause that was the place families took their children for a bike ride during spring/summer. Now they ain't taking them for bike rides anymore or a whole lot less. All you see is race bikes (20%), electric variants (75%), and teenagers on regular bikes (5%). The families and children are gone.

At the end of the day they are no different from mopeds. Don't mistake silence and the pedal movement for actual cycling. They could easily just remove the pedals and make them stationary. Add a throttle. and you get a silent electric moped. cause that is what it is.

I'll admit i'm being pessismistic. We remain a bike country. But we are a bike country until we are not.

Even though it's not like riding a regular bike, it's still interpreted as riding a bike. People don't seem to have any interest in changing such a bike for electric mopeds. So that part won't influence the sport.

BUT those bikes making it more dangerous and thus less children riding a bike for fun will.

 

[Extinction]

There are bigger things to worry about that might be the end of the sport than e-bikes

Like traffic and parents not wanting their kids to risk their lives to practice the sport. But, here me out, e-bikes are the bane of cycling.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Nah people who like to ride will keep riding. Some people who like to ride but don't like to ride hard and don’t like to drive (or can’t drive) will stop driving to ride e-bikes. And people who can't keep up (like my wife) will ride more because they keep up with a motor. It's a net positive IMO, though I could be wrong. I personally wouldn't be caught dead owning one unless I was bike commuting every day for 10+ miles and just viewing it as transportation.

More people are getting some exercise because of e-bikes than before, I believe. Since my wife got one, she goes to work with it, while previously she took the car. It also means less cars on the road. But also (over)crowded bikelanes.
I don't think it will impact the actual sport. People who like cycling because of the sport, will still do so. People are still running marathons even though bikes, cars, trains, busses, subways exist.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

If the first few posts here seem a bit unfocussed, it'll be because they were a tangent in the Evenepoel thread that I have forked into its own discussion, which might develop into interesting discussion.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Even though it's not like riding a regular bike, it's still interpreted as riding a bike. People don't seem to have any interest in changing such a bike for electric mopeds. So that part won't influence the sport.

BUT those bikes making it more dangerous and thus less children riding a bike for fun will.

Isn't that more a psychological thing than a physical thing. People been riding their bycicles their whole lives. Just about everyone at one point owned a bycicle and learned to ride one. Only a few rode mopeds. Plus the optics of it all. The way I see it, people just want to keep up the illusion that they are riding a bike. But i'll give you that if psychologically speaking everyone continues to see it as riding an actual bike, the part of them not riding real bikes won't impact the sport much.

I do think you agree about the part where e-bikes make the environment less hospital for regular cyclists (family and children). Not so much for those already bitten by the sport, and riding racebikes. Children are the future however. And if families are stymied as a result, it does not bode well for cycling. Cause it is within families that the love for cycling is usually nurtured. Maybe not on the professional level but on the level of simply wanting to go and ride your bike.

Unless you are 70+ years old, and/or suffering from muscle problems, i would say people riding an electric bike are barely doing anything useful when it comes to exercising. Just movement. I know you can choose different settings and all. But at the end of the day i genuinely believe most are threading air. So I don't quite follow the exercise logic.

People aren't riding e-bikes for exercise but out of convenience imo. If you ride an e-bike you are not tired when you reach your destination. You ain't sweaty. You can easily go longer distances. People tend to not want to reach their work all tired and sweaty in the morning. They rather cruise to it. The e-bike is basically on alternative for people who dislike being stuck in car traffic (& cheaper 2), bus/trains are usually no good in this country. I don't see those people pushing the needle when it comes to stimulating the future. But i will say given that psychologically speaking people tend to equate e-bikes with actual bikes. Maybe the children of such commuters will see their parents riding a 'bike', and think postitive about cycling in general. I would love for someone to start up some statistics. Cause whilst I understand the point people are trying to make, and that they therefore believe e-bikes are a net positive. I believe they are a net negative.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I was at a bike event a couple of weeks ago and chatting to a guy who described himself as just like a car driver, but on a bike. He uses it to get to work, short distance socials, small shopping trips. That is going to be the market for e-bikes on the whole, and encouraging people to become part of that group is what most of our town centre cycling infrastructure is about. They have, hereabouts at least, been taken up massively by food delivery bikes: when the law catches up with e-scooters, the two will fill roughly the same niche.

I contrasted myself to him as a jogger, who aims to do occasional marathons, but on a bike. In that culture, e-bikes that are road-bike style are occasionally appearing: I know that some of the guys in my Sunday morning ride group have one that they use if riding in much hillier areas than my part of the country, and one was used on the club ride the other week (a member even older than me), almost as a social experiment, but was essentially a heavier bike to push around apart from on the small number of hills when it was advantageous.

I can see younger people who are use an e-bike/e-scooter as a mini-city-car being encouraged by that to get a "real" bike, having developed a taste for that type of openness. And if the e-bike can open the joys of country lane cycling to more people, I see that as a good thing: they do not have to reduce the exercise element to zero, and maybe will make bike outings as a family (some self-propelled, some battery-assisted) a more realistic option for some (admittedly, not a very cheap option). From such beginnings, can the interests of the children grow to the competitive years.

So no, I don't see the existence of e-bikes as a negative at all. (Now: the way food delivery guys ride them: that's a different issue)