[wirelessguy]

I live in UK/EU and use an e-bike. There are a few steep roads near where live that I would never attempt on my old bike that are a breeze to ride with the e-bike. I like that it's peddle assist only. I still get the benefit of the exercise, but I'm not dripping with sweat when I travel to work/meetings.

[TomMarius]

I accept that but wouldn't it be better if we both had a choice that suits us? My city has hills that even my car has problems with.

[ndnxhs]

Ebikes whip up hills with ease that lower power cars struggle on. The main limiting factor is they are limited to 25km/h by motor power but even that isn't too bad.

[acomjean]

I have a 250watt ebike. I’d agree pretty powerful, I usually use it one the lowest setting which provides minimal boost, even up hills.

I’m in The us and the assist cuts out at 20mph. I get that since I’m sharing the roads and paths with other bikes/joggers and cars (and the ocational electric skateboard/kick scooter). I tend to ride much faster with the ebike and can see how this added power can get me into more trouble.

I really enjoy the boost though.

[pmontra]

In my experience the danger zone when cycling on a mixed traffic bike path (pedestrians, slow bikes, etc) starts at 25 km/h, which is about the double of the speed of the casual or low range cyclist. 20 mph (32 km/h) is too fast for the other traffic. They don't expect to have so little time to react and get scared (even if the cyclist does everything and saw them since long before, they only have to keep doing what they were doing). Furthermore with a normal bike it's a waste of energy so when traffic increases I slow down because the average speed doesn't change much if I sprint between each group of pedestrians/slow bikes. I understand that with an engine you can do a lot more of stop and go but please don't scare people too much, it makes them hate all cyclists.