E-Bikes!

[fallacy]

My friend got me into biking this summer, I never thought I liked biking that much; I always thought it was too hard to get up hills and your ass, wrist and back get sore after a little bit on a bike. I bought a new bike anyway and we would explore different trails and get lost. It was hard at the start but still fun, I have built up my leg muscles to the point now where a 20 mile ride does not phase me anymore and I am getting kind of addicted to where I have to ride everyday.

I want an E-bike now because the tech is so cool but OMG going down this rabbit whole is overwhelming. There are sooo… many brands and sooo…. many different styles and different tec, all trying to combine software hardware and man into the perfect fusion of a biking machine. The worst part is you can not try most of them out. You are lucky if your bike shops in your area decide to carry one brand and actually have that bike built and not sold so you can try it out. I will probably end up with a garage full of different E-bikes. The only thing I know right now is I want a Mid-Drive motor not a rear Hub motor like most of the cheaper E-bikes have. I also want the bike to be light and feel more like a regular bike.

I was looking at this one which meets all my requirements https://www.specialized.com/us/en/turbo-vado-sl-5-0-eq/p/154892?color=263681-154892
Specialized Turbo Vado SL 5.0 EQ
Specialized - is the company brand
Turbo - Stand for Electric bike
Vado - means urban flat bar bike
SL - means super light at 33 pounds not the 60 plus pounds most E-bikes are
5.0 - spec it gives you a headshok, upgraded brakes, 12 speed drivetrain, carbon fork which is less weight
EQ - means Equipped giving you fenders and a rack

The mid drive motor gives you 2x the power, so for any force you put on the pedal it doubles it for you. The result is it does not feel like the bike is pulling you along with its motor, it feels like you were given a strength and agility buff.

No bike store has this bike in stock and it is even sold out online.

[pbj]

I rode around on one last summer in New Mexico and it was fun as hell.  Went up and down steep hills without issue.  Must have been a mid-drive because it mostly gave your pedaling a boost.  Because of the weird weight distribution, and my lack of experience, I did have to hop off a couple times to get up particularly steep hills, but you just engaged the throttle and let it pull itself as I walked alongside it.

I spent a lot of time thinking about buying one.  I used to live three blocks away from a paved bayou trail that would have taken me straight to work.  Unfortunately, there were several bridges and a freeway intersection that would have had you crossing at ground level in Houston rush hour traffic.  My current situation is even worse now but it’s absurd that I sit in traffic surrounded by the same cars every day.

 

[fallacy]

That would be ideal being able to go to work or run errands on your bike. But I don't like to be in the street as little as possible. I am also not quite sure how to secure it in front of a store since all locks can be broken. I just so happen to be next to a lot of paved trails by my house that cut through the city and have a underpass walkway on every street.

[Xiaou2]

If you cant bring your bike into the building you work at...  its likely not a good idea to leave it outside,
unattended, for more than a 15min span.

 I live in a mid sized city.  Its not particularly crime ridden...  Though, there are some really bad spots...
some streets where shooting occur regularly.

 At one time, I was living about a minutes drive, from the center of downtown...  in a tiny apartment on top of
an Asian grocery store.  Rent was dirt cheap, but the intersection traffic noise was unbearably awful.

 Someone had locked their bike up to the parking lot railing... and maybe a night later... the front tire was
missing.  By the end of the week... almost everything except the main frame, was missing.

 For whatever reason, the thief,  of multiple thieves, decided not to break the lock, and just to strip parts off
of it.

 Its one thing to lose a cheap bike... but quite another, to potentially lose an expensive e-bike.


 Not sure how easy it is to make them... or if you can find them pre-made... but Id bet that motor powered
roller blades, would be a better option, in many cases.

 At one point in my youth, I bladed to work a bunch of times.  The effort was similar to a bike, because you
are not trying to move a heavy metal frame around.  I was surprised how fast I was able to get those
things going.  Not all blades are equal though.  You want the highest quality bearings, for the least
amount of friction... as well as need to clean them often, or performance will take a huge nose dive.

 I will say, that I wasnt that fond of how much the blades had to extend outwards.. especially when
having to use the street, rather than a sidewalk.


 Anyway... If you put on a backpack... you could place a good sized battery in the lower part of the bag,
and still have plenty of storage space left over.   And since you are only moving your own body mass...
the battery would likely last a lot longer than an ebike.

 You would also need to make a brake system... because stopping at the speed I imagine you might be
able to travel on motor powered blades, would be quite a challenge.

[Gilrock]

I ride 90+ miles a week but I only get to ride twice a week.  But its a real bike.  The only time I consider an e-bike acceptable is when you have a wife and husband and one of them can't keep up with the other so the slow one rides an e-bike.  The rest of you realize that every time you pass regular cyclists they are laughing inside at you.

[pbj]

I ride 90+ miles a week but I only get to ride twice a week.  But its a real bike.  The only time I consider an e-bike acceptable is when you have a wife and husband and one of them can't keep up with the other so the slow one rides an e-bike. 

Imagine gate keeping a children's toy on a forum dedicated to children's toys.

The rest of you realize that every time you pass regular cyclists they are laughing inside at you.

"Cyclists laughing on the inside" have officially displaced "Europeans" at the top of the "List of Opinions I Do Not Care About."

Thanks for the laugh, though.  I needed it.

 

[fallacy]

Ya I don't really understand the E-bikes should only be for old people type of logic a lot of people have. Has anyone ever said a pure motorcycle should only be for old people ever? I guess it comes from a place of jealousy, maybe you feel they are trying to deceive you into thinking they are a better biker than you. At the end of the day if you are using it as a commuter then maybe you don't want to be dead tired when you reach your destination or maybe it is more fun to touch grass and not look at ever steep hill and saying f**k my life.

[RandyT]

"Cyclists laughing on the inside" have officially displaced "Europeans" at the top of the "List of Opinions I Do Not Care About."

QFT!

Has anyone ever said a pure motorcycle should only be for old people ever?

I'm an "old person".  I ride motorcycles, ATVs and gas-powered scooters.  I bought a fat-tire, full-suspension e-bike last year. 

The first ride out was a 15-mile trek on minimal assist.  I was tired when I returned, but not run through the wringer (or dead) as I might have been otherwise.  E-bikes are basically "electric scooters/mopeds" you can pedal if you wish to, or need to if you run out of juice.  I charge it from solar so it's free to ride as much as I like, unlike my other toys.  It's great to just enjoy nature without the gas fumes and noise, and if I'm just going a mile up the road to a buddy's place, I don't even need to pedal it.  No insurance or registration required either (at least in my state.)

I've even let a few people take mine for a spin and everyone who has wants one.  Any cyclist who objects to e-bikes is probably just upset that they will no longer be the only ones who can tick off car drivers by riding down the middle of the damn road.

[fallacy]

I tried a fat tire bike, I tried the Aventon Aventure because Electric Bike Report gave it the best Fat Tire Bike of 2022. I am not sold on Fat Tire bikes, it does not feel like I am riding a real bike; not as maneuverable or as light as I would want it to be. Might have a different opinion if I took it off pavement. I think peoples opinion will change on E-bikes in the coming years, they have only really come out full circle in the last few years and a lot of people don't like or understand new things.

[RandyT]

Mine will do 30mph with very little effort and all the roads where I live have soft sand on the edge of the pavement.  No way that I'd have anything less than 4" wide tires under me at that speed and with those conditions.  I don't heal as fast as I used to.

But I'd have gone for something more conventional if I was using it for city commuting.

The one you are looking at is definitely a nicely integrated machine, but $5k?   That's what I paid for my like-new low-miles Vulcan 1700!  Mine was an import from Amazon which cost about a third of that.  You have to take the specs with a grain of salt with these, but I fell in love with the style of the bike.  Wasn't sure it would be very good when I ordered it, but honestly, it was way better than expected.  I didn't really need to, but I replaced the seat out-of-the-box with something with more cushion and am now happy with it. 

If I had any advice to give (again, grain of salt) if you are interested in one, don't get a Walmart bike and likewise, don't get more bike than you need or expect to use.  It's very easy to overspend on these right now and the very cheap ones are terrible because most of the cost is the battery.

[fallacy]

Well half the problem is the Mid-Drive motors seem to cost $3000 and up, Rear Hub you can spend $1600- $2000. Mid-Drive are just not being mass produced like that at the moment so you still have to pay a premium.

[Howard_Casto]

I kind of want to get one.   I could use the exercise.   The only problem would be dodging all the meth heads and coal trucks trying to run me off the road.

[RandyT]

Well half the problem is the Mid-Drive motors seem to cost $3000 and up, Rear Hub you can spend $1600- $2000. Mid-Drive are just not being mass produced like that at the moment so you still have to pay a premium.

I get the feeling that mid-drives, as much as they are better, will be high-priced for quite some time.  The gearing in those is more complex and needs to be a lot beefier in order to get any of their advantages.  It's also a luxury feature which the masses won't adopt due to it's cost, so no real economy of scale.

But that's kind of what I was talking about.  I always heard that mid-drive is the way to go, and after the sticker shock I almost gave up on the idea of an e-bike.  As it turns out, the hub drives are just fine for the average person.  If I went for a mid-drive bike, I probably would have severely overspent based on my expected use for the bike.

[fallacy]

It is not so much a power thing between the two motors it is just more of a feeling that you are one with the bike. With a hub motor usually you start pedaling and then you actually feel the thrust of the rear motor engaging and pulling you along. With  a mid drive not only is the weight of the motor right under you balancing out the bike, whatever force you apply to the pedal it will just return double that to the chain giving you the feeling that you are just twice as strong then you really are. If I am buying an E-Bike, being lied to like that is essential. I don't know I could just buy an electric motorcycle if I just wanted to hit the throttle and go. 

[javeryh]

What is an E-bike?  A regular bike with an electric motor?  Do you pedal or ride it or both where you can pedal but then the motor kicks in if you need help?

[fallacy]

Its a regular bike with a chain and gear shifting but then you have a motor with a battery. Usually you have 3 to 5 modes of assistance in your pedaling. The harder mode the less it will assist you and the longer your battery will last. You can turn it off and just use it as a regular bike; a lot of these bikes are like 60 plus pounds so it might not even be a good option to turn it off completely.

What we are discussing is how they go about implementing this in the most effective way. It is like comparing the original iPhone with the iPhone 13 today and saying look they basically do the same things, F**K no they don't.


RandyT you could probably just add your bike to this guys pile because the one you bought just uses all the same parts as the rest. Not saying its bad it is just scratching the surface of E-Bike tec.

[BadMouth]

Two E-bikes passed me on the walking/biking path yesterday.  I'm not as annoyed by them as I want to be.  Motorized vehicles are not permitted, but as long as they are quiet and slow there isn't much to complain about.  Neither they or the regular cyclists give any warning before they pass.

[dmckean]

I like the idea of e-bikes especially with my lung problems. I'm probably limited to a range of 10 miles on my regular bike but I could go much farther on an e-bike.

[RandyT]

RandyT you could probably just add your bike to this guys pile because the one you bought just uses all the same parts as the rest. Not saying its bad it is just scratching the surface of E-Bike tec.

My question to you is do you or do you ever expect to ride your bike on treacherous mountain trails?  I have watched videos of some of this and am utterly amazed by the folks who do this and yes, on e-bikes.  I absolutely get why one would want a mid-motor for this kind of activity.  One fraction of a second where it doesn't feel like the bike is exactly linked to the intentions of the rider can have dire consequences.

That said, this isn't that big of a concern to the other 99+% of bike owners who would love to have a bike which would help them up hills, which helps get them to ride longer and more often.  And right now, the reason they aren't more popular than they are, is due to the price.

As for them using the same technology, I'm not sure why you are inferring that this is some kind of problem.  The guy in the video even recommended several of the bikes, which weren't really the same, btw, except in his eyes due to whatever is coloring his opinions of them.  Heck, the one I bought weighs 80lbs, likely heavier than some in his "pile", which I like because weight means stability at speed.  It's also a tall bike.  Granted, I'm of average height, but if it didn't have a throttle control, I'd have some difficulty and I'll walk before I ride a step-through (they used to be called "girl's bikes" .)  But for that, it handles rough surfaces better than any bicycle I've ridden.

But all of that aside, there are reasons why there are so many bikes using similar technology.  The first is that they are obviously selling.  Moreover, like virtually every conventional bike nowadays, they are made in China.  The primary components are made in massive government subsidized factories and smaller brand companies all draw from the same limited pool of parts.  It's also tech which works well for the mass market and can meet a price point once the cost of the battery is considered.   

With the exception of the battery, I can relatively inexpensively upgrade and/or repair just about any of the components on my bike.  Dead display? Burned controller? Burned motor?  Hydraulic brakes? No problem.  The parts are everywhere and for not a lot of money because of that economy of scale.  It's very much like the Chinese scooter market.

Anyway, I've rambled too long on the subject.  I just don't want people to think that they need to spend thousands on an e-bike to have fun with one, any more than one needs a Mercedes just to get groceries. 

[leapinlew]

You guys remember the mechanical doping scandal a few years back? This did a pretty good job explaining it

[fallacy]

lol hacks! They probably have to check every bike now

[fallacy]

My question to you is do you or do you ever expect to ride your bike on treacherous mountain trails?  I have watched videos of some of this and am utterly amazed by the folks who do this and yes, on e-bikes.  I absolutely get why one would want a mid-motor for this kind of activity.  One fraction of a second where it doesn't feel like the bike is exactly linked to the intentions of the rider can have dire consequences.

treacherous mountain trails? No. Packed gravel trails sure. You need a Mountain E-bike if you want to get into that hobby, a lot of the mountain e-bikes seem to go from 7k to 10k. I was looking into the Surface604 Shred because they are using a hub motor keeping the price down to like $2600. They basically dialed the hub motor to respond to the force of your pedal and not just an on and off state.


I watch videos of people going down these mountains and it looks fun as hell but it is kind of like kayaking down a river. All I see is danger around every action.

[fallacy]

Check this crazy bike out. It looks like something Apple would make if they got into making E-Bikes

[RandyT]

Check this crazy bike out. It looks like something Apple would make if they got into making E-Bikes

Crazy is right.  Looks like some conceptual artist designed this thing and when told by the engineering team that it would have to have a tiny motor, very low capacity battery, no suspension and a high price tag he/she said "no problem"

But seriously, it looks like a very good example of form-over-function and seems to be targeting a very niche market.

[fallacy]

It is all science, how light can you make every part while still keeping its strength and power. Does this bike look like it succeeds in some areas but fails in others? Like I think he mentioned they were not even tubeless tires so that's a weak point. How strong and light is that motor I don't know. This bike looks like it could have been in the background of Back to the Future 2. That part in Back to the Future 2 when Marty fell in the lake and came out and he hit a button and his jacket started drying; I wish they had the same computer voice over for when he switched gears on this bike.

[pbj]

seems to be targeting a very niche market.

 

If there’s one thing Randy knows, it’s crazed communities of niche markets.

[RandyT]

Does this bike look like it succeeds in some areas but fails in others?

Well, a belt system (as this seems to have?) to gear for more hill climbing power is fine, but you can't do it without a loss of speed. A lower voltage battery, like the one this uses, already has that as a challenge. Weight reduction is an admirable goal but dropping weight by removing functional and desirable parts of the bike (battery capacity, fenders, racks, motor capacity, suspension components, etc.) isn't that much of a feat.  While the frame design may be strong and light, I have seen no data for it's survivability in a crash.  We tried something similar with cars in the 70's during the "gas crisis".  What we ended up with was lighter, no-frills, no power vehicles which didn't last and killed a lot of people who might have survived in something which preceded them.  But they were better on gas!  This is a little different, but it's your investment that's at stake instead.  The hospital bills are a constant in this equation .     

Your question has me wondering now what it is that is actually being achieved by the offering.  I'm struggling to find anything about it that I would consider a technological "step forward" because it gives up too much for nice looks and low weight.  But if those two things are the most important features for whomever is looking at them, then that's all that matters.  Thus, my view that it's a niche offering.

Maybe the best way to look at any e-bike is to work your way backward from the question "what is an e-bike?"  How an individual answers that question will ultimately vary, but it will invariably start with a bike with an electric motor which assists the rider.  It would make sense that the better and longer the bike can perform the most basic task for which they are meant, the more capable it is.  From that point, it's a matter of what you are willing to give up for some other desired attribute, be it cost-savings, range, speed, comfort, etc.   But at some point, the realities of cost and physics will kick in and you will end up with something which is unaffordable and/or does poorly at delivering the core functionality. 

The enemy of true innovation in e-vehicles of any type is battery technology.  Until safe, inexpensive, lightweight and high-power-density rechargeable batteries are plentiful, there's only so much more you can do.

[Xiaou2]

Battery Longevity,  is an important factor in these devices.

 How long is the Warranty on the Battery?

 How long before a full charge, only gets you 3 blocks away from your doorsetp?

 How many charges before that battery is useless,  and needs to be replaced?

 Is the battery Replaceable?  Or is it Custom + Chipped ?  (only available from the factory.. No 3rd party batteries allowed?)

 What is the cost of Replacing the Battery?


 What are the chances of the Batteries exploding into a massive ball of fire... roasting your Balls into charcoal,
or setting the house on fire?


 If you search, you can find a few vids of Electric cars bursting into flames.  In one video, the car was charging at a
charging station... with like 2 other cars parked next to it... also charging.   The car went up in flames so quickly, that
the car next to it, was not able to fully back away in time... and it caught fire as well.

 In another video,  there were probably 8 busses next to each other.  I believe this one was in China.  One bus burst
into flames... and within mere minutes, all 8 busses were completely toasted.

[RandyT]

One of the better options currently for batteries is LiFePo4 chemistry.  They can charge very quickly, are relatively safe, typically have high discharge rates and have a very high cycle count (usually 2000+).  But everything is a trade-off.   It also has lower power density, and is thus bulkier and heavier.  They also tend to be more costly.

Until they come up with something which ticks all the boxes, even renewable energy as a sole source is a bit of a pipe dream.  The ubiquitous Li-Ion took decades to get us to where we are now.  I can imagine decades more before it is replaced with anything new.

[Zebidee]

It may take less than decades.

Right now, there's a lot of people researching better and safer batteries. Better batteries will not only be great for our e-bikes, but also our cars and power grids and everything else. Save the planet stuff, the future is electric and renewables.

Meanwhile, stock prices for lithium miners keep going up.

There is some particularly exciting research going on into solid electrolyte for lithium ion batteries. This would be, for almost all intents and purposes, 100% safe.

In addition to significantly improving battery, solid state electrolytes means they can use lithium for the anode. This means more energy density, thus more powerful and/or lighter cells.

[RandyT]

It may take less than decades.

Right now, there's a lot of people researching better and safer batteries. Better batteries will not only be great for our e-bikes, but also our cars and power grids and everything else. Save the planet stuff, the future is electric and renewables.

The research phase of the Lithium battery was happening in the mid-70's, or approximately 30 years before they became widely available, reasonably priced and relatively safe (they really still are not that safe...ask Samsung and people who vape )  Even if they come up with something amazing in the lab, it will be many years before it is brought to market and manufacturing is ramped up to supply demand.  Large companies don't jump ship quickly either, when they already have the manufacturing facilities in place and they are still able to make money.  I remember well the transition from NiMh to Li-Ion.  It spanned years and was a very gradual shift due to the higher costs involved.  Many portable tools used NiMh well after portable electronic devices shifted to Li-Ion.  You can't sell a drill with a $300 battery in it, at least not to very many

So will a new technology take the same amount of time?  I guess it depends.  If it's proven, easily produced and dirt cheap to manufacture, they will be falling over themselves to get it to market.  But if it's something which only works on the surface of Mars and requires a container in a lab which mimics those conditions, it'll NEVER see the light of day in consumer goods.  I'm not saying that there aren't some smart people working on the problem and that we don't have better technology now to help it along.  But very bad things can happen with this type of tech when it's rushed to market and even when it's not as in the case of Li-Ion.  It took quite a while just for the average consumer to understand and accept the risks of using them in order to receive their benefits.

[fallacy]

I don't know anything about batteries. Why are double AA still being made the same way from 40 years ago and why do the rechargeable  ones seem to discharge at a much faster rate than the non rechargeable ones? Look how far they have come with LED lights. If you would have told me 20 years ago they were going to come out with lights that hardly use any power, produce no heat and never burn out I would have thought you were smoking crack.

[Zebidee]

I believe it will take less than a decade to get solid electrolyte lithium batteries into things like our cars - because we need it now. Climate change demands it. Companies are making them now, all it needs is for the cost balance to shift.

Also, in a world where people get a new car more than once every decade, it will be easier to transition to the new tech.

I used to work in innovation and industry development/policy, and remember talking to excited researchers who were developing Bluetooth and wireless LANs (different groups of people) in the late 1990's. It all seemed like stuff of fantasy at the time. Now these techs are everyday and all around us, and have been for a long time.

People can become fast adopters when there is a compelling reason to.

As for AA batteries... they are a standard but they do change, all that stays the same is the package size and voltage.

[dmckean]

I don't know anything about batteries. Why are double AA still being made the same way from 40 years ago and why do the rechargeable  ones seem to discharge at a much faster rate than the non rechargeable ones? Look how far they have come with LED lights. If you would have told me 20 years ago they were going to come out with lights that hardly use any power, produce no heat and never burn out I would have thought you were smoking crack.

Lithium batteries being able to discharge at a faster rate (provide more power) was one of their design goals. Alkaline batteries were designed to be shelf stable for more than a decade. A lot of money went into both of those projects and they will not be easy to best.

[RandyT]

I believe it will take less than a decade to get solid electrolyte lithium batteries into things like our cars - because we need it now. Climate change demands it. Companies are making them now, all it needs is for the cost balance to shift.

Not everyone, not even all climate scientists, support the idea of "climate change".  One little blip on the 9,941°F surface of that ball of fire in the sky and we pay for it no matter what happens on this planet.  So "compelling" is relative.  Probably more compelling is the possibility of running out of other fuel sources as the population increases.  Fortunately, there is still some time with regard to that issue to find a solution.

Also, in a world where people get a new car more than once every decade, it will be easier to transition to the new tech.

Unless there are some drastic changes for the better coming down the pike, that world is gone...at least for a while.

As for AA batteries... they are a standard but they do change, all that stays the same is the package size and voltage.

That's what drives me nuts about lithium batteries.  That 3.7v makes them difficult to wedge into the existing 1.5v battery standard.  By the time circuitry is added into the battery casing to make it compatible, the amount of space for storage ends up making it mostly moot to bother with.  It almost always requires a special design or some other creative solutions to utilize.

[Zebidee]

Wow    I didn't expect you to be a climate change denier Randy.

For the record, there are also people out there that seriously believe the Earth is flat. Seriously 

Whether you believe in climate change or not, it is coming, and we don't have much time to do anything about it. There is a mountain of evidence. This truth is accepted by the vast majority these days.

That means, for the vast majority, it is a "compelling reason" to do things differently.

For the record too, we have plenty of oil and coal and gas reserves. We will not run out before we have trashed the planet.

I predict that, if climate change doesn't kill us anyway, we will run out of food first.

[RandyT]

Wow    I didn't expect you to be a climate change denier Randy.

I'm smart enough to say "I don't know with any certainty" and I honestly can't believe that people can be so dim as to continue to believe others who lie to us seemingly without limit or repercussion.  Remember, you are taking the word of someone who is unable to accurately predict the weather 3 days in advance, yet they unashamedly make predictions regarding it 25 years into the future.  Did I mention that most of their incomes depend on taking an "accepted" stance on the subject?

What I do know is that there are graphs which correlate rising temperatures directly with increased solar activity for the time in question.  Anyone who thinks anything we do can counteract solar deviation either has a grandiose sense of their own abilities, or they should probably limit their interaction with humanity to serving tacos.

[danny_galaga]

 I live in a mid sized city.  Its not particularly crime ridden...  Though, there are some really bad spots...
some streets where shooting occur regularly.
 

And that's not PARTICULARLY crime ridden? 😲

[Zebidee]

Regardless of how you feel about climate change, responding to that, and the general trend/push towards renewables, is driving a revolution in battery technology. It is not just cars.

Better batteries mean renewables become a better option for our power grids, as it is easier to balance the load demands with variable supply (wind doesn't blow all the time, sun doesn't shine at night, etc.).

E-bikes are a part of that too, as they encourage people to travel smarter. They are a great alternative to jumping in a car.

[RandyT]

Regardless of how you feel about climate change, responding to that, and the general trend/push towards renewables, is driving a revolution in battery technology. It is not just cars.

Better batteries mean renewables become a better option for our power grids, as it is easier to balance the load demands with variable supply (wind doesn't blow all the time, sun doesn't shine at night, etc.).

You are preaching to the choir.  I would love to see better and cheaper options for battery technology. I have a self-installed 2.4kw solar bank which is not attached to the grid, so it also has a 600Ah battery.  In fact, I'm typing this on a system using that very same stored energy. I'm all for a "revolution" in storage technology, not due to any manufactured crisis, but because it would fill an existing need in the market and help people to reduce reliance on an increasingly fragile and overloaded main grid.  The problem right now is that renewables still rely on fossil fuels to fill the gaps in production/availability, sometimes comically so.  One of the most humorous examples of this are some remote EV charging stations running purely from giant diesel generators.

Another problem is that what works well on a large scale, might translate poorly to smaller form factors.  I.e., what makes sense for a massive solar/wind farm could end up being utterly useless for EVs, including e-bikes.  So, there are many fronts in this game, all of which will likely require different, possibly unrelated solutions.

My biggest cause for concern is how it's being carried out.  I'll try to illustrate this with an analogy/fictional story.

=> 

On a far-away world, the population is told by its overlords that the world will be coming to an end in 20 of their years (which may or may not be true) so they will all be compelled to pack their belongings, discarding everything but the very essential ones, for the trip to the new world.  The transports to pick them up for the first leg of the journey have arrived.  The people don't have to leave right now, but they are warned that eventually all of the current options for sustaining themselves will rapidly become unavailable, so it's in their best interest to get on the transports.  Many do, believing that it is the best course of action, leaving the existence they spent their lives creating behind them. 

When the transports arrive at the launch site, its passengers are greeted with the sight of a research facility, housing the planets best scientists and a shoddily built encampment, obviously not sufficient for the entire population.  There are some scaffolds and equipment, but there are no ships to take them to the new world.  Life at the camp is difficult.  Resources are scarce there, even though their planet still has plenty to support them.  They are told that the reason for the scarcity is the break-down of the supply chains, because those who worked them now live in the camps.  The only things their overlords (who do not reside in the camps) seem to be able to offer the suffering inhabitants are drip-fed promises that their scientists are on the verge of a break-through, and that ship construction will begin soon.

Meanwhile, the ramifications of this lack of preparedness start to take their toll on the well-being of the inhabitants.  Starvation, crime and illness are starting to become a daily occurrence in the camps.  The once unburdened scientists, happy to go about their day trying to improve the lives of the planet's inhabitants, now find it difficult to think of anything other than the horrors outside the walls of their facility...

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I know that whoever reads this story did not write it, because I did.  Can you tell me how it ends?  Are there any possible parallels with the road we are on?  Do you think there was a better way?

E-bikes are a part of that too, as they encourage people to travel smarter. They are a great alternative to jumping in a car.

They are.  But their success is bound to the free-market.   The health benefits alone are reason enough, but when fuel cost savings, convenience in metropolitan areas where gridlock and parking are issues, etc... are factored in, they really start to become a viable fair-weather transportation option.  But if you are thinking of buying one (or any EV at moment) because it will "help save the planet", you could be buying it for the wrong reason and you actually need to use it often to make a difference, be it real or perceived.