Once you’ve decided you want to get an electric bike, the most important question becomes: what type of electric bike should I get?
Electric bikes are an exciting way to get outside and enjoy exercise on a bicycle while getting assistance from a battery-powered motor. Just like traditional bikes, electric bikes come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and styles and it’s important to know which bike fits your needs. Here are some things you should consider before making a purchase.
One of the first questions to ask yourself is: What type of bicycling do you want to be doing? Let’s talk through some of the more common types of bicycle riding.
Leisure Riding:For this style of riding, the goal is getting outside on a bicycle, enjoying the sunshine and the beauty of the outdoors. These riders plan to stick to local bike paths, or maybe an occasional residential street. They are not really interested in going long distances — not more than 20 miles — and speed is not the main objective.
Commuting: These riders want a bike that will help them be less dependent on a car. Ideally, they’d like to ride their bikes to work every day, or use a bike to perform errands or daily trips. It is important for the bike to be reliable over sizeable distances, and it needs to be able to handle bike paths and the road.
Single Track / Mountain: For this style of riding, suspension is crucial, either because of the extra cushion or because the rider wants to get off road. These riders can choose from a front-suspension only bike (also called a hard-tail), a full suspension bike with a shock in both the front and rear of the bike, or something like a fat-tire bike, where the suspension is built into the pressure of the large tires.
Cargo / Multi-Person: These riders want to be able to haul people or stuff on their bike, so it needs to have extra room and extra battery capacity to haul heavier loads.
Those are some of the most common styles of riding for electric bike owners. Now, there are a host of other styles of bikes likes tricycles, recumbents, and road bikes, to name a few, and we couldn’t possibly cover them all in this short video. For the meantime, you now have a general idea of some common styles.