Growing interest in electric bikes?

[NUSC]

Hi,

I am currently undertaking research into the electric bike market for my dissertation project at university! I really need some valuble responses of people who have an interest in electric bikes.

It will only take 5 minutes and I would really value any responses!

Here is the link: https://nbsnu.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID ... p1uQFia429

Thanks in advanced!!

[Elizabethsdad]

Well I completed the survey - it's more about marketing and fashion than about the bikes, so not that interesting to me

[foxyrider]

Think you are asking the wrong group of people! The majority of potential e-bike buyers aren't cyclists already and are more interested in how cheap they can buy rather than whether it works!

[tatanab]

The people I know who have electric assist (the OP really should not call them electric bikes) are club people who have fallen foul of health problems in old age and need a bit of assistance to keep them doing what they enjoy. So they buy things that look just like a "road" bike but with a fatter down tube to contain batteries at typically £2000. I answered the questionnaire in that vein so may have skewed the results a little . The other people I see with electric assist are simply people who have bought the cheapest they can find and use them as electric mopeds i.e no pedalling at all.

[Thomas125]

I wouldnt have minded a bike with electric assist for the commutes in the dark, its raining and theres an almighty headwind.

Get me up the hills and into work quickly as possible.

However even on the 1k cycle scheme limit the other bike componentry is quite low spec.

Wasn't worth the outlay IMHO.

[Cunobelin]

Which marketing channels appeal to you as a consumer? (please select all which apply)

Posted leaflets
Email
Social media e.g. facebook, twitter
Magazine advertisements
Web adverts
Word of mouth

This needs a "None" answer

[Elizabethsdad]

I wouldnt have minded a bike with electric assist for the commutes in the dark, its raining and theres an almighty headwind.

Get me up the hills and into work quickly as possible.

However even on the 1k cycle scheme limit the other bike componentry is quite low spec.

Wasn't worth the outlay IMHO.

I got a Bosch crank drive pedelec from Rose bikes a few years back for my ten miles each way commute. It made the journey that bit easier on the uphill bits and one the days when I seemed to be always riding into the teeth of a headwind. I bought it myself as my employer at the time didn't believe in doing anything for their employees, but even so it would not have qualified for the CTW as it cost £2K. Schemes like this need to up the limit for e-bikes I think.

[Thomas125]

Yeah if the scheme limit was higher and I had seen an e bike where the other componentry was solid I would definitely have considered it.

Then again I probably would have been tempted by a full ultegra steed

1k limit on the scheme has been around for quite a few years now. Wonder if there is any plans to up it?

[Brucey]

sadly many of the people I see using electrically-assisted bikes appear to a) have made it a lifestyle choice of some kind and/or b) have chosen to buy a very cheap machine (as Foxyrider suggests above). I do think there is a place for these machines but I also think that they have not found it yet.

The present generation of Bosch drives that are BB mounted seem pretty well sorted out and are a better solution than most hub motors appear to be.

Latest news is that you will soon be able to buy a 'Ford' branded e-bike. Yup, one of the world's largest car makers is expanding into this market.... I wonder if they will be sold in car showrooms, bicycle shops, or supermarkets?

cheers

[Joe.B]

I won’t even be looking at the survey, I would of course if it had been proposed by one of our contributors and friends but I suspect that this guy has joined a dozen forums to post his survey and will never visit any of them again.
I do think that e-bike are great though and defiantly have something to offer to the cycle enthusiast as well as the casual cyclist.

A good case is my missus, after developing asthma a few years ago her cycling and running virtually ceased. E-bikes allow her to take part in 50 odd mile group rides again, using the motor not to avoid putting I serious effort or exercise but just to take the edge of the hills and head winds.
I’ve fitted a couple of the cheap no-name Chinese kits to a couple of bikes and these to be fair although crude and simple these can’t be complained about for the price paid. When it arrives in a few weeks I’m going to be fitting a Heinzmann Direct Drive kit to her new tandem recumbent. This system is in a different class to the others, completely silent, torque sensing so only providing power in response to rider demand and very long range.

Although perfectly fit myself were I to find myself with a commute that was just too long to comfortably cycle each day I’d have one in an instant.

[[XAP]Bob]

Got halfway through and got fed up with the questions.

Not nearly enough thought gone into it IMHO, I kept wondering if I should answer the question as written, or the question as I expected it was intended. But without being able to see the next few question (why do these things never just give a single page of questions?) I couldn't tell if the question I thought was intended was actually about to be asked...

[Ron]

Got halfway through and got fed up with the questions.
Not nearly enough thought gone into it IMHO, I kept wondering if I should answer the question as written, or the question as I expected it was intended. But without being able to see the next few question (why do these things never just give a single page of questions?) I couldn't tell if the question I thought was intended was actually about to be asked...

Perhaps it was just too early in the morning for you?

[rmurphy195]

I've only talked to one person who was riding an electric bike, outside of people who hire them on the cycletrails.

This was at the cafe at the foot of Cader Idris while we were out walking - even the roads are quite hilly in that part of the world.

The gentleman in question was a lifelong cyclist now in his 80's, who still wanted to get about by bike (in that part of the world, which is quite pleasant if rather hard work!).

The electrically-assisted bike he was using enabled him to do just that!

hope this helps with your research.

[Gower]

I'm in full agreement with tatanab. I'm a 75 year old who has been a member of the CTC since the age of 13. I have always been partly disabled (polio) but have put in quite a few miles over the years, both home and abroad. At about 60, I stopped riding as it was becoming too hard on my weak legs. The advent of electric assist bikes opened a new chapter in my life - just to enjoy the sensations of cycling again without the worry of running out of energy far from home, was wonderful.
Having had a bad fall last August, I'm have now bought a Ken Rogers Ladies tricycle which I'm fettling, with the aid of the Tricycle Forum members knowledge and will fit an electric hub motor to the front wheel. A steep, new learning curve with the eccentricities of trike riding will hopefully open up a few more years of the joys of cycling (sorry, tricycling).
So as not to upset purists, I'm not carrying out any modifications to the 1980's Rogers that cannot be reversed.
So please don't right off electric bikes and put all their owners into one group, just think of them as a few more people who will spread the word of the great world of bike & trike. Hopefully, they will do it with good road sense and manners.

[horizon]

Electric bikes are a new and promising alternative form of transportation. They provide all the advantages of a regular bicycle: fun exercise, free parking, zero emissions, and freedom from gridlock, while eliminating one of the bicycle's more serious drawbacks, lack of power. Imagine pedaling up a hill as comfortably as riding down, that's what the e-bike experience is all about, providing ease for the rider.

Imagine going to an English University and learning how to spell "pedalling" the British English way. That's what the university experience is all about, providing knowledge for the student.

Seriously though, what grates about these surveys is the fact that all students have to do one just to prove that they can and prove that they can sell their wares in the commercial world. They are seemingly all so uncritical. Don't students think? Electric bikes are quite a controversial topic and very interesting but this survey skates over all that and goes straight to the marketing. However, I do have to accept that the student is in a Business School. I'm wondering if he has ever ridden one and could share his own views about them (which hopefully consist of more than the marketing blurb above).