What are the major factors that persuaded you to get an electric bike?

[Conal]

Working in Hackney, six miles from the end of the M11, I found it was taking me as much time to complete the last six miles as the first 24. Also I was using the same amount of diesel on the shorter part of the journey as on the longer. I also wanted to be more active after, like many on this forum, experiencing back problems and sciatica with two collapsed discs in my lower back. So, frustated with queues, and hoping to save money and get more exercise I purchased an electric bike. It was a disaster called Aprilia Enjoy. However the principle was right and now, with my Ezee Forza I don't look back, well I do actually but only for safety reasons!
Having a Volvo V70 (estate) gives me the option of parking either 20 miles away or six miles away depending on pressures at work and how much travelling time I have got. I much prefer the longer ride but rarely have the time.
I don't think I have saved much money but the higher the price of fuel, the more I save! That is really a minor factor. Being able to travel through North East London faster than I could in a car and not worrying about roadworks or other causes of traffic jams, and the pleasure I get out of the ride, are my motivating factors. I am lucky in that I chose an electric bike to help me travel to and from work so it has a changed my lifestyle for the better.

[JohnofCambridge]

The final triggers having recognised the potential solution of how to get to work in a presentable condition was the fact that the Wisper is a good looking bike, compared to the bulky monsters before it came along.... and you can run off road (50% of my commute ) without speed restriction

[essexman]

1- Car replacement.
2 -Bike replacement for when i'm feeling ill or my commuter bike is poorly.

I use a normal bike for fun and commuting to the train station and then i shower at work.

All my other journeys required a car (4-7 miles in very hilly terrain). eg local market towns /pubs/ station etc.

My ebike can carry me, my boy and light shopping fine with NO SWEAT in NORMAL CLOTHES.

[Jack.Eagle]

Summary so far the major reasons for getting an e-bike seem to be:

-The distance I need to travel would be too far on a conventional bike
-Carrying extra loads and using a trailer
-Health reasons to improve fitness
-Not wanting to use a car
-Traffic congestion
-Travel time saving
-Exploring and seeing more than would be seen from other modes of transport
-Health reasons mean that an e-bike is the only type of bike I can ride
-Petrol prices
-Replacing a car

Many thanks for all your comment and I look forward to hearing more.

Cheers

Jack

[joanieb]

All of the above, plus I have a young child and work so don't have a lot of time to exercise, so using an electric bike to get in and out of work seemed like a good solution.

Trouble is, it is so effective I don't think I have improved my fitness all that much, but I find it more relaxing and enjoyable than driving in to work , plus not paying £5.20 for parking is a major bonus. Oh and the bike rack is much closer to the office than the nearest car park.

[Phil the drill]

I spend all day sat in a room, eat lunch (rapidly) and then continue in then same bl***y room for the rest of the day. When I get home home all the kids need their usual attentions etc. so I can rarely arrange any form of regular exercise. Hence - get it on the way to work. An ordinary bike takes me 55mins., and boy is it hard work. No shower facilities @ work, so everyone keeps well away.....and I am too cream crackered to even get on my chair for the next 45mins....Enter the electric bike. It took me 33 mins on an old Powabyke commuter 24spd. Still some sweat (they are VICIOUS hills), but now approachable @ work, and the inoexorable weight increases, have started to change into a very gentle decline.
All ended badly with a nasty crash on the Powabyke (a write off), which I replaced with a Wisper 905se. Now I get to work in 27 mins. one way (30 the other), so faster, BUT noticeably harder work on the sharpest hill sections.
Saves money (I keep the charger @ work most days and do my charging there ).
I love the country lanes I cycle down and I find the ride to and from work very therapeutic - a great stress reliever.
Anyhow, starting to meander, so in summary:
Exercise
Therapy (ask anyone who knew me before I started)
Savings.

[dodgyal]

I have an 1970 LPG camper Van, I drive to work every day on a 20 mile round trip and cross the Humber Bridge (£2.70 each way) I do lift share across the Humber Bridge but it still costs me £50 a month on average, add that to the LPG costs and were talking about £150 per month not including maintenance on the camper (which is extensive!)

I'm a greeny and used to be quite fit, I liked the idea of biking to work, but not the slogg up two hills, oftern thought about getting a leccy bike but was put off by the price, until the cycle to work scheme came out.

In the next few days I'll be placing an order for a Whisper 905SE Sport, I;m going to start by cycling from the Bridge for a few weeks, but then intend to cycle the full 20 miles each day. saving me on average £100 per month and the CO2 that I would have use in the VAN.

[Mandy]

I wanted a way to get to work fairly quickly and easily.
I used to ride scooters for years and bought a PowaByke over 3 years ago following redundancy after 19 years which opened up a window of opportunity for further afield jobs as I stopped riding a scooter due to health problems plus the expense of running one.
I now enjoy my Wisper on the cycle paths to work and off the main drag most of the time and for leasure/pleasure.
I also keep fit
Save on fuel
Save a lot of money following the initial purchase
No license or tax
Find short cuts not available to motor scooters
Find attractive places you wouldn't normally come across with cars/scooters
Godsend really and have to say one of my best buy's!!!

[halfmedley]

The company I work for relocated into the city centre of Birmingham. At the previous site we had a staff car park, at the new site there is a public car park charging £10 per day. I do not want to pay that amount for car parking.

I then tried public transport. Train = unreliable, unpleasant overcrowding, expensive. Bus = unreliable, dirty, unpleasant, not exactly cheap either.

Cycling was then tried next, I liked the 'freedom' from laughable timetables, from spending my hard-earned on commuting and from uncouth fellow passengers, but the hills defeated me (or rather my knees). I thus considered an electric bike on condition that it could only cost about the same as my yearly commute on public transport, as the ebike mode was an unknown quantity and that figure was all I was willing to risk.

[JohnInStockie]

For me the major reason were the 'Green' issues. I realised that one of the cars I owned was purely owned for the purposes of transporting me to and from my place of employment 11 miles away, and nothing more. It seemed strange when driving to work the next morning, that so many of us 'commuters' are sat there in our 10' x 5' tin boxes, crawling along, using an irreplacable resource to power an engine to move the ton or so of metal all for the purpose of transporting 1 person from from A to B and back again 5 days a week, and all the while we are all filling our environment with noxious fumes while we do it. It made me feel guilty.

At first I looked at bio-fuels, but quickly realised that they were not a solution, and they would not stop the waste of resources that is the car in the first place.

Next it also hit me that I wasnt living a healthy lifestyle either, sitting in a car for 1.5 to 2 hours a day, sitting at a desk in between for 10 or more hours, getting home late and eating fast food as too tired to cook, what impression does that make on your kids on how they should live their lives?

I also realised that running that car cost me around £2,500+ per year without including depreciation, and that oddly made me feel very angry at the whole situation I was in.

So I summarised that :-

• I needed to reduce my polution and waste.
• I needed to do something to improve my lifestyle, and health.
• I needed to get to and from work economically.

I didnt know how to do this, but quickly realised that if I could cycle to work, I would improve my general health, improve my lifesytle, and vastly reduce my polution and waste (and expense).

The problem was that after cycling 11 miles to work I wouldnt be fit for anything except a nap. So I did a lot of googling over a number of weeks whilst comtemplating my dilema and discovered electric bicycles, and the fact that they tick all of the boxes.

And here I am.

John