(relaxing music) So being in electric bike
business for about 10 years now there's questions that
come up all the time. And I just wanted to make one video to cover the most common ones. So I think I'll start
this as like a part one. And maybe if there's more
questions that come up or if you have questions that I didn't ask that you think we should
include in this sort of thing maybe I can make a part
two and add it in there. So the first question I'd like to answer used to come up all the time. It doesn't come up as much these days as people become more familiar with electric bikes and the technology, and they've gotten to have
their own experience with them, but it's should an electric
bike be considered cheating. And from my opinion, which
I guess this could only be considered an opinion is no. I think different people can have different
perspectives on this thing, but I think if you're
racing an electric bike should be considered cheating. You know, if you're pretending that you don't have an electric motor, and the other people don't
have an electric motor. This has actually happened. And I think that probably
gave electric bikes a bad name a little bit, but I don't know that that's necessarily what
we're talking about. I think we're talking
about the general public, and that you're losing
some health benefits, or you're not really earning your spot to the top of the hill. I don't know, from my perspective the more people get out
on bikes, the better, and this is all a good thing,
but yeah, that's how I put it. I would just say no. So this next question is kind
of related to the first one. It's can I still get exercise
riding an electric bike? And the answer is yes, absolutely. I mean, you should. I guess there's some
types of electric bikes that have throttles, and they're kind of becoming
less and less popular, but those types generally you
don't have to work so much. Some people will pedal with the throttle but you have the option to not pedal. So in that instance maybe you're less likely to get exercise. We're a big proponent
of pedal assist bikes. I mean, that's all that
we offer in our shops, but in that case, you're always pedaling. You have to pedal, you have control over how much you pedal, but from my perspective, and what I've seen in
experience is that people end up getting out on their bike a lot more often because they have a
little bit more control over how much energy they
put into the electric bike. And if you're in a place that has big hills or something like that you might be intimidated. Say, I don't want to go out today 'cause I have to go up this big hill to get where I wanna go. But with an electric bike, you could say, okay, well I have the power to get there, and then maybe once I go over the hill, I'm not really using the power so much. There's a lot of studies on this. There's a lot of data on this, but the reality is that
most people get exercise, and if you actually look at
it from like a big picture, people end up getting more exercise because they end up riding more. That's in simple terms what most the data and
the studies have shown. And that's kind of been
my personal experience, and I think that's been a lot
of my customer's experience. So I wonder what's been your experience. Now this next question can vary depending on where you're
located in the world. But I will note that we're in the U.S., but this question is how
fast can an electric bike go? I mean, in theory, there's
not really too much limits as limits to like the parts
and that sort of thing, but generally speaking,
we're gonna see limits based on the jurisdictional
laws that exist. Now, here in the U.S. most electric bikes will go either 20 miles an hour or 28 miles an hour in special instances. But in other places in the world something that's more common is maybe like 15 miles an hour. Some places like Japan, I think it's 12 miles an
hour is the top speed. And you know, this is gonna vary. Now you might see some
other claims out there like, oh, this electric
bike goes 50 miles an hour. Is it still considered
a bicycle at that point? From my perspective
it's probably considered more like an electric motorcycle. It's certainly not considered
a legal electric bike in the U.S. or most jurisdictions
throughout the world. Yeah, to put it simply, it's somewhere between
15 and 28 miles an hour or in special instances like
Japan, like 12 miles an hour. I kind of just covered
this one just a moment ago, but this question comes up all the time. Do I have to pedal? Now, if it has a throttle,
you don't have to pedal. Basically you can sit on the bike, and just twist the throttle
or push the throttle lever, and just moves along pretty easily. This is becoming a little bit less common as what I'm seeing more and more is the technology called pedal assist. And basically the pedal assist just assists you as you pedal. So you always have to pedal, but you don't really have to pedal a lot, especially when you use the
higher levels of assistance. The benefit to this is you're
always getting exercise, and it's a lot more efficient, and generally the higher
quality motor systems are gonna be the pedal assist ones. So it might be something to consider if this is like really important to you that I want an electric bike
that I don't have to pedal. You might be limiting your choices and eliminating some of
the better quality options that are available on the market. Okay, next question,
how much do they cost? Now this can vary all over the place. I mean, I've seen electric bikes for as cheap as $300 on
Amazon and that sort of thing, but I've seen electric
bikes go up to $50,000 in the most extreme cases,
and that's really extreme. Mostly what we see is somewhere between a thousand
dollars and 10 to $12,000 in some like really
special bikes out there. And most of the bikes
that we sell in our shop range generally somewhere
between 3,000 and 6,000, and that might be slightly higher than what some other shops do, but we really focus on the
best quality that's out there. So it really depends. You're gonna some different changes as the electric bikes move to these different price points and starting out with
these like $300 bikes, you're gonna see very cheap
parts on it, very proprietary. It's kind of a little
bit more like a scooter, that sort of thing. And then as you move up you start to see a little
bit better quality, starts to look a little
bit more like a bicycle. Another common question
is how much do they weigh? And this also can be all over the map but I've seen bikes start
somewhere around 30 pounds on the lower weight of side of things. Maybe there are some out there that are a little bit lighter, and go upwards of over a hundred pounds in the case of electric cargo
bikes and that sort of thing. So it really depends, but I'd say most electric
bikes generally fall somewhere in the high 40 pound
to mid 60 pound range. You know, a lot of that
weight's coming from the battery and the motor, but a lot of times other
components on the bike can be reinforced and enhanced, and there's other features
that might be included on these bikes to make
them more comfortable or offer more utility
and that sort of thing. So these can tend to add weight to them. Next question, where
are they manufactured? Now, like a lot of my other answers, you might be seeing a
trend here, this varies. Historically, a lot of electric bikes or probably the majority of electric bikes are manufactured in China. China happen to have the largest market for electric bikes for their
actual domestic market. So we've seen a lot of the products which were manufactured for
the domestic market in China actually come to other markets like the U.S. and Europe
and that sort of thing, and I imagine some of the people that might be watching this video. But actually the bike industry in general, there's a lot of shifts that have happened in previous years where a lot of the manufacturing
went from China to Taiwan, and Taiwan has become
kind of a special place for bike manufacturing in Asia. And we see a lot of electric
bikes come from Taiwan. But there's also many
manufacturers in Europe. Outside of Asia, that's probably the most common thing that you might see is that there's many
manufacturers in Germany. Now we're seeing a lot of manufacturing for bike frames actually
happening in Portugal now, other places like that. We work with another manufacturer that builds their bikes in France, the Netherlands, and Copenhagen. It's really all over the place. We found that the quality
can vary quite a bit as well when you're looking at these
different manufacturers, but it's not always a case that it's just where the
manufacturer is located. I'm sure as many of
you may know these days we operate in this kind
of global marketplace, and global manufacturing, and it's really about how
these places are managed, and what the process is and what the engineering is behind these different facilities
and that sort of thing. Don't necessarily be convinced just because a bike was manufactured in the specific place that
it's gonna be this quality. Although that might be one of the early indicators of quality. From my shop specifically, we
primarily work with companies that manufacture from Europe, but we do have a couple of suppliers that manufacture their bikes in Taiwan. Those ones, they have
very specific oversight, and they actually operate there as well. We've been pretty
impressed with the quality. So again, don't take the
location as the pure indicator for what the quality of that
electric bike is gonna be. One other important topic in relation to where a bike
is manufactured is standards. Now I should note that there are not really any
specific standards for quality or testing or that sort of
thing throughout the world. However, in Europe
there are many standards which are developed and required by many of the manufacturers, and their insurance providers
and that sort of thing that they meet these certain standards. So we're a big proponent of this. So we really like working
with manufacturers that do have certain testing protocols, and that sort of thing in place because some of the manufacturers, unfortunately, they just don't. So the next question is one that we really like to answer,
it's can I carry a passenger or can I carry kids on my electric bike? And although some places, they might have different
laws and rules around this, the answer generally speaking is yes. And fortunately there's many bikes that are specifically made to do this. We actually happen to specialize
in offering these bikes. They're generally called cargo bikes or cargo electric bikes. We have a variety of different options and you can carry one kid, two kids, sometimes three or even
four in some instances. You can carry a full size
adult, really if you wanted to. So it's pretty amazing what is possible. And also, I guess, thinking
in that cargo side of things, it kind of extends the utility of the bike that it might be more
competitive with a automobile. Okay, so this next question
is related to legality, and we actually did a whole
video on the legality topic. You might want to check that out, but it's do I need a license and insurance to ride in an electric bike? Now I'm gonna answer this
question specific in the U.S., but some of these rules might
be a little bit different outside of the U.S. For the most part, the answer is no. You don't need any special license. You don't need any special insurance. And for the most part electric bike, particularly in the U.S., is just considered a traditional bicycle. This can vary in some jurisdictions, and certainly can vary when you go outside of the U.S., particularly in Europe. Actually, if you have one of these high speed electric bikes that can go 28 miles an hour
or 45 kilometers per hour you might need a special moped license. It means technically considered
something like a moped. For the most part you don't need any special license or insurance, but I do recommend that people are familiar with the rules of the road, and it might be a good
idea to get insurance not necessarily just to
ensure your liability and that sort of thing,
but also for theft, that could be really helpful. So this next question is kind of related to the legality thing, and we did go a little
bit deeper into this in that video I mentioned before, but it's where can I
ride my electric bike? And similar to what I mentioned before, I mean you could pretty much ride or treat your electric bike
like a traditional bicycle for those standard 20 mile an hour ones. There could be some instances
with the 28 mile an hour ones or particularly the
throttle activated bikes that there might be certain regulations on where you can ride them, for example, some bike paths,
they might not allow them and that sort of thing. So it's important to be mindful of that, but for the most part you can ride an electric bike anywhere you can ride a traditional
bike, which is pretty nice. Historically, there's been
some restrictions around this, but that's really loosening up quite a bit as education is improving as people getting more
familiar with the technology and that sort of thing. In the future, it'll be more clear. So another important question
that comes up all the time is how can I transport my electric bike? And can I take it on a plane? So first, transporting electric bike, it's really not all that much
different than a normal bike. However, if you're putting on
a car rack, you have to note that the electric bike can
weigh a little bit more than a normal non-electric bike. I would recommend removing the battery. That's gonna help you save a
little bit of weight there. Generally speaking, you might
wanna look into a special rack that's specifically made
to carry electric bikes because many of them can
be over 40 pounds or so, upwards of 50, 60 pounds
in many instances. You can remove the battery, that might save you six pounds or so. Generally speaking the hitch-mounted racks will work the best, but there might be other trunk racks that you can kind of figure
out your way to do that. My general recommendation
is a hitch-mounted rack or carry it inside the vehicle. There are other ways you might wanna transport
the electric bike as well, maybe taking on a train, perhaps put it on a bus, for example. One thing to note about that, and this had been brought
up from other commenters that transport their
electric bike on a bus often is the tire size can
be an important detail because those racks can
have different sizes and that sort of thing. So if you have really wide
tires or a really long bike you might have trouble with that. So just be mindful of that
and do a bit of research if that's considered an
important part of your purchase or selection on an electric bike. The most common one that
actually comes up as a question because it's a little bit confusing and it's definitely important to note is transporting an
electric bike on a plane. Now you are technically allowed to bring the bike on the plane. There might be some special fees, and you're generally gonna wanna put it inside of a special box. However, you generally can't take an electric bike battery on a plane. Now this is part of an
international regulation where you can't take anything that's over a hundred watt hours. There are very few electric bikes, or really not much of
any that I'm aware of that have a hundred watt hour batteries. Most of them are at least 300 watt hours, and generally four or five
or more hundred watt hours. So that's not gonna meet that regulation. So you can't take the
battery on the plane, and you might be wondering,
what do I do with that? How do I deal with that? It's kind of a challenging thing. I wanna take my bike on a trip with me. There's a couple of different options. One, you can ship the
whole bike with the battery and everything to that specific place. It might cost a bit of money to do so. You can take the bike on the plane, and then ship the battery. Or in some instances
you might even be able to rent a battery in your destination. This is really helpful if
you have a popular battery, one that's a little bit more common. For example, if you had a Bosch battery this is something that we
actually bring up a lot 'cause we primarily work with Bosch is that throughout Europe, there's actually many dealers with Bosch, and some of them might be willing to actually rent you a
battery while you're in town. And we've actually done this with people that were visiting our specific
city from other places. They bring their bike along,
we rent them a battery. They use it while they're staying there, and then give it back to
us, that sort of thing. It's a really nice option. Well, I hope you guys found
this video to be helpful. If you have other questions you think that I should have answered maybe we can cover in a future
video, as I mentioned before. So leave them in the comments below, and I'll try to answer them
quickly in the comments, but I'll try to address
them more comprehensively in a future video as a
part two, if you will. Well, hope you enjoyed. And I look forward to seeing
you in a future video. We'll see you soon. (relaxing music)
