Desiknio now has a new electric bike on offer, which is barely recognisable as such, but nevertheless offers a decent level of support and comes in two different model variants.
Desiknio now has a new electric bike on offer, which is barely recognisable as such, but nevertheless offers a decent level of support and comes in two different model variants.
There are some other light ebikes out there but yeah, a lot of them seem unconcerned with shedding weight or battery capacity.
But when you’re talking in terms of rider+bike, a handful of kilograms isn’t going to be a huge difference unless you’re really focused on your Strava stats or you’re racing (other people or the clock). I mean, the difference between 10 and 15kg seems significant but throw an 80kg rider and 5kg of gear on that thing and suddenly you’re comparing 95kg to 100kg which is far less drastic, that kinda thing. So I can see why some are tanks
I get that the weight pales in comparison to the rider or cargo. But a lighter bike – electric or otherwise – comes with some quality of life improvements. There’s the extra redundancy where a dead ebike is still ridable if it’s light enough or has sufficiently low rolling resistance. Then there’s transporting the bike, whether by bus, car, or just hitching a ride if the bike is dead or damaged.
My experience at university – where an ebike would have been phenomenally useful back then – involved hauling my acoustic bike up two flights of stairs daily. At 15 kg, that was doable. 25 kg is starting to push things. And my current ebike at 40 kg would be infeasible unless I decide to really work on my deadlift.
But I agree that there’s a point where ebikes are Good Enough™ given the constraints of technical and economic feasibility, as well as what consumer demand looks like; all consumer products tend to do this. We’ve reached an equilibrium in the market – which isn’t bad at all as it means more bikes available to more people – but I just hope the industry continues to push the envelope to welcome even more riders.
Someone out there will have all the preconditions for a short/medium distance ebike commuter, where they can replace a car drive or waiting for three buses, down to just a single bus and a modest ebike ride to their final destination.