E-Bikes: What Are They and What Do They Mean for the Motorcycle Industry"
An e-bike built by Giant under its Liv women-oriented brand. This model, the Thrive E+ EX Pro, comes with a head light, taillight, front and rear fenders and a rear luggage rack. Photo by Mark Tuttle.
It?s official: e-bikes (bicycles with a small electric motor that kicks in to assist the pedaling action) are a thing, and they?re here to stay. According to the most recent (2017) study from market research firm NPD Group, the U.S. bicycle market is a $5.9 billion/year industry, and e-bikes represent $77.1 million of that, up 91% over the previous year. Sales grew more than eightfold since 2014, and seem to be showing no signs of slowing. Contrast that with the stagnation we?ve been seeing in the motorcycle industry recently…we?ll revisit that in a moment.
E-bikes appeal for a variety of reasons: they make pedaling easier, which means you can ride farther and arrive less sweaty. They open up a whole new world to those who aren?t already well-conditioned riders and, most importantly, they?re fun. But what does all of this mean to those of us more accustomed to turning a key and twisting a throttle"
Well, e-bikes are an obvious and natural crossover point between our motorized world and the human-powered world of bicycles. In 2018, we posted a story on our womanrider.com site that made a case for riding a bicycle as a way to cross-train and improve the skills we need as motorcyclists — balance and leg strength — and increase our fitnes...
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