Electric Bikes

On my 35 mile ride that was mostly through the Livermore Valley, I saw two electric bikes. I'm not exactly sure why someone would buy an electric bike for exercise unless they were attempting to keep up with a group and they were beginners but there you are,

I easily rode past them because both obviously had their power limiters as sold. It isn't as if I was trying to pass them because in both cases I eased up and intended to pass them at a red light so that it didn't look like I was trying to make them feel bad, but in one case he turned off as I was fairly close and the other case I was nearly coasting down a hill and those bikes are limited more or less to 15 mph as far as I can tell. Into a fairly strong headwind I was still doing 19 mph and simply wasn't going to slow down that much.

I can see reasons for an electric bike if you are commuting on them or, in the special case of a beginner trying to keep up with a slow group. But unless the power limiter is taken off they really are pretty slow and if you do take them off the battery has a pretty limited range.

One of them was supposed to look like a racing bike with an invisible battery but you can tell because of the size of the downtube. The other made no pretenses and was a rather clunky flat bar bike that the rider may have been using for transportation and had gone over the hill via Dublin Grade and was returning the same way. He also was not dressed in cycling clothing so that could not have extended his range.

I wonder how long these things will last on the market since a touring bike is probably every bit the commuter as they are.