e-Bikes are crazy nowadays. Their original concept of “you get a little motor in your pedals to help you climb hills” has been killed by an arms race of “hey, our motors are the strongest! Our bikes are the fastest!”

My parents recently bought new ebikes with the “best” specs and they’re awful. You basically can’t touch the pedals without being catapulted forward, even at the lowest setting. And they drive them set to the highest speed all the time because more speed === better ???

I get that when you’re driving to work or something you want to be fast, but they’re only using those bikes for leisure… so like who cares whether the bike goes 25 km/h or 15 km/h? God forbid your morbidly obese ass gets some actual exercise

Which is why the eBike I bought recently is a 2010 Raleigh Pedelec. The supporting motor is super gentle (people in 2010 would have been freaked out by today’s ebikes) and it doesn’t really go over 20-25 km/h. It belonged to a 80 year old woman originally. That’s exactly the kinda vibe I’m going for haha