Why Electric Bicycles Will Revolutionise Transport in the Future
Similar in many ways to an avalanche as it gains speed, electric bicycles over the past 10 years have taken the cycling world by storm. Call it a revolution, call it progress, call it what you will, but electric bicycles are the latest and most exciting environmentally-friendly form of personal transport.
During the E-bike Cycle Tourists’ Electric Bike World Long Distance Record Ride one of our aims was to show that as a result of recent advances in technology, the modern day electric bike is now a reliable form of transport that is poised to radically change transportation as we know it today.
Following recent improvements in battery technology, electric motors, hub motors and lighter bicycle designs, it is no longer a question of whether electric bikes will be accepted by the public, but just how big the industry will become.
Throw in the obvious benefits to the environment from hundreds of thousands of people using electric bicycles – or should that read millions when you take into account the 28 million e-bikes sold in China annually – and it soon becomes clear what the motor vehicle industry doesn’t want to hear – e-bikes and electric vehicles in general are the way of the future.
The Electric Bike Boom
From Europe to the USA, Australia, China and beyond the electric bike phenomenon is taking off at a great rate … and rightly so. After all they have everything going for them … they are cheap to operate, are non-polluting, are affordable and most importantly are a lot of fun to ride – why wouldn’t sales be booming? In fact, given the boom the electric bike industry is experiencing, sales worldwide are conservatively tipped to reach $US11billion by 2020.
But while all the talk about the environment and improved technology may win over a percentage of new e-bike devotees, by far the biggest reason most people buy them –in western countries at least – is that they are not only practical, but a hell of a lot of fun!
With an electric motor to help iron out the hills and negate headwinds, biking for many people suddenly becomes doable. For a host of reasons – laziness included – most of these people wouldn’t ride a bike nearly as much if they didn’t have an electric motor to assist them.
And that in a nutshell was the bottom line for the E-bike Cycle Tourists’ Electric Bike World Long Distance Record Ride that saw us e-bike 27,800kms throughout mainland Europe and the UK in 2015/16.
From the feedback we received through social media and this website we are delighted to report that we have encouraged many people of all ages to purchase an e-bike. That even includes many who believed that riding a bicycle was impractical or impossible because of hills, distance, fitness levels, health reasons, knee problems, ageing or even because of the inconvenience of having to shower and change clothes at work following the morning commute.
The truth of the matter is that no matter which way you look at e-bike ownership it is a win – win situation.