The story about an abrupt closure of a local ebike dealer has sparked yet another discussion about how much sense ebikes make, and how the ebike revolution would be asesome if only more people would buy in, or something like that.
The problem is that ebikes are simply not as sustainable as ordinary, human-powered bikes. In our current manufacturing, recycling and fiscal landscape, they can't be.
When you can buy a cheap ordinary bike and fix it up for a fraction of the cost of buying an ebike, and the ebike market is fraught with uncertainty, why buy an ebike?
People want ebikes because they want to be able to live carfree and travel without breaking a sweat. You can't have it both ways.
Ebikes do allow you to transport more cargo, and they do allow you to travel farther and up steeper hills, but that doesn't necessarily make them a better alternative.
They cost a lot more than a regular bicycle. They cost more to maintain. Transit systems don't allow them on the bike racks of their buses because they're too heavy, and some don't allow them on trains because of the danger of a battery meltdown in close proximity to passengers.
And while you see lots of them zipping around Portland, they are mostly seen in nicer neighborhoods, closer in to town, where there are more people living who can afford to own, maintain and store them. Go east of 122nd Avenue and watch the number of ebikes on the road fall. East Multnomah County is where all the poor people got pushed when the rents went up close in 15-20 years ago. If they're working, they can barely afford the cheap, decaying apartments they live in. They sure as hell can't afford an ebike, and if they somehow manage to obtain one they can't store it securely. Few apartments have secure storage, and some ap[artments won't allow you to keep a regular bike in your apartment. Even if you get past all of these barriers, an ebike is just too damned heavy to sneak up the stairs.
Hell, you can buy a cheap used car and get it running again for less than the price of some ebikes.
People in the comments section of the article linked above are complaining about the sudden closure of an ebike shop, and some are lamenting that they'd expected to see an ebike "revolution" by now.
I don't think such a revolution is coming. Certainly not here in the US.
Most urban areas of US cities are too big and spread out for even the most efficient ebikes to make sense. Public transit has never been as popular or well-supported here as it is in smaller, more dense European cities. Bicycle infrastructure barely exists at all in many big US cities, and if the current regime has its way that won't change.
How do we live with an unfavorable reality? We adapt.
We adjust our expectations and find ways to live within the limitations set by other forces.
That is what I have done for over fifty years, living as I have in a city with steep hills (dead volcanoes, mostly) and limitations on where public transit goes.
I still ride an "analog" bike. I don't ride it as often, as fast or as fast as I used to, and I've had to adjust accordingly with age. But when I become too old and infirm to ride it anymore, I will not switch to an ebike. In the US, trying to build a life around ebiking is a Faustian bargain. Even if you can afford all of the costs of purchase and maintenance (and let's be honest -- for most people, that means paying someone else to fix it), there's still the longer-term question of supply of ebikes and batteries, and the sustainability of the entire enterprise.
At least I live in a city with better public transit than most (though with the present round of budget cuts and fiscal re-prioritizing, that could change).
Maybe things will improve enough that ebikes become ubiquitous one day, but I don't we'll see that anytime soon, at least here in the US.
Ebikes are cool and interesting and they can even be fun, but they won't revolutionize transportation in this country.
(Photo: me, in my younger, more heroic days. I rode this Surly Big Dummy eleven miles round trip twice a week with my guitar, battling bad bike infrstructure and entitled motorists the whole way. After a few years, I decided my rattled nerves and excessive fatigue simply weren't worth the risk, especially during Portland's rainy season. I sold the Big Dummy and took my guitar on transit. I got over my sadness, and carried on.)
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