[Re] Seeking advices about electric bike

[Sorry, wrote this then discovered Google is misbehaving and won't let
me reply to actual thread]

Xiaoshen Li asked:
I want to buy an electric bike for commuting to work every day, ~ 4
miles one way.

There are basically two kinds of electric bike - one is moped-like and
the other is bicycle-like. You need to decide which you are looking
for.

The moped-like ones are usually throttle controlled and extremely
heavy. Some of them can be ridden without any pedalling at all. You
will anyway find them virtually unrideable as bicycles without the
motor. Sometimes these machines are described as "ebikes".

The bicycle-like ones have a motor controlled by your pedalling, with
the amount of electric-assist from the motor proportional to the
pedalling effort you put in. You stop pedalling, the motor stops.
Sometimes this type are called "pedelecs".

Pedelecs tend to be lighter than ebikes, but there are many models
that are still grossly overweight and unlikely to be very rideable on
a flat battery. However, the very best models, noteably the Giant
LaFree range, ride like true bicycles if the battery is flat (or
removed).

Personally I detest ebikes, since not being able to cycle without the
battery seems very limiting, but for a fixed 4 mile journey they might
be okay.

A couple of possibly helpful links:

http://www.atob.org.uk
http://www.croydon-lcc.org.uk/info/electric.htm


DG