Ten Reasons to Choose an Ebike

Electronic bikes, or Ebikes, are currently experiencing an unprecedented boom in sales, having experienced a slow start in the UK. Here we look at ten good reasons to buy one.

Faster Travel Clearly, on the open road, an Ebike could never outpace a car. However, in busy cities, the average speed of a car often falls under 10mph. Motorcycles can get around the problem of congestion quite effectively but Ebikes are even better because they can also use cycle lanes.

No Sweat If you are out on a leisure ride then sweat isn”t too much of an issue. However, if you are cycling to work you won”t want to turn up hot and sticky and not all offices have shower facilities. Ebikes can reduce the amount of work you need to do, meaning you sweat less. They also achieve a greater flow of air and higher speed so any sweat produced evaporates more quickly.

Safety Ebikes have been found to be significantly safer than conventional cycles. This is partly due to the fact that they can go faster along dangerous stretches of road. It is also due in part to their greater acceleration, which is particularly important at roundabouts and road junctions.

Hill Climbing A decent Ebike effectively flattens gradients, increasing the average speed and making a cycling trip more pleasant. With a little effort you can easily manage a 10% gradient and the right electric bike will even manage a 25% gradient.

Running Costs Ebikes cost about the same as a decent conventional cycle and wear and tear costs are also similar. Electricity is cheap so the main expense associated with electric bikes is battery depreciation. As a result, Ebikes are more costly to run that normal bikes — usually around 8p to 12p per mile compared to 3p to 7p for a conventional bike. However, this should actually be compared to the cost of travelling by bus (20p to 40p per mile), train ((20p to 60p) or small car (30p to 150p).

No Red Tape Ebikes are treated as bicycles by the law and so no licence, MoT, insurance or tax are required.

Personal Fitness Intuitively, one would say that a conventional bike would keep you fitter than an electric one. However, this depends on how much that bike is used. Non-assisted bikes are often used only once or twice a week. In fact, 30% are only used once every two weeks or less. Ebikes, by contrast, are used much more regularly, so the total fitness boost is more for an electric bike.

Ebike Fuel Consumption
Ebikes are the most efficient mode of transport available to the consumer. Fuel consumption is typically around 8-16 watt-hours for every mile travelled. This is around 10% of the consumption of a small motorbike and equates to 800 to 2000 miles per gallon.

Sustainability Electric bikes are responsible for around only 5.8 to 13.7 grams of carbon per mile. A normal bike will account for around 10.5 to 18.5 grams.

High Resale Value Ebikes depreciate much less than conventional ones so you get much more of your initial outlay back should you decide to sell your electric bike.