I'm just back from a week long tour in the Netherlands. Had a great time: excellent cycling, nice country, pleasant people, even good food! We took our Tongxin-powered bike, which - apart from a blown controller - performed very well.
A couple of things struck me about electric bikes.
Firstly there were a lot of them. I saw many more in one week there than I have ever seen in the UK. I probably noticed of the order of a hundred. It felt like 10-15 per day. Obviously there were many non-electrics, but assuming 4 hours cycling per day and passing 1 other bike per minute (ignoring the thousands in racks at stations) would be about 1700 bikes altogether, with electrics being 5 or 6% of total bikes, which feels about right. All the bike shops were visibly selling them - including Halfords! Most were ridden by leisure riders on paths outside towns although we did see some used by shoppers. Most riders were older - retired couples in particular. We got the impression they were likely to have cycled all their lives and now wanted a bit of help. They were mainly hub motors - Sparta, Giant and Gazelle in particular - in high-spec Dutch bikes. I saw the odd Panasonic crank drive, but didn't spot another kit bike in the whole week.
Secondly, you get significantly better range in the pancake-flat countryside than we do in the UK. Our 10Ah Ping batteries were giving 30 miles, compared to c.25 at home - despite some high-speed riding and some headwinds.
Frank
A couple of things struck me about electric bikes.
Firstly there were a lot of them. I saw many more in one week there than I have ever seen in the UK. I probably noticed of the order of a hundred. It felt like 10-15 per day. Obviously there were many non-electrics, but assuming 4 hours cycling per day and passing 1 other bike per minute (ignoring the thousands in racks at stations) would be about 1700 bikes altogether, with electrics being 5 or 6% of total bikes, which feels about right. All the bike shops were visibly selling them - including Halfords! Most were ridden by leisure riders on paths outside towns although we did see some used by shoppers. Most riders were older - retired couples in particular. We got the impression they were likely to have cycled all their lives and now wanted a bit of help. They were mainly hub motors - Sparta, Giant and Gazelle in particular - in high-spec Dutch bikes. I saw the odd Panasonic crank drive, but didn't spot another kit bike in the whole week.
Secondly, you get significantly better range in the pancake-flat countryside than we do in the UK. Our 10Ah Ping batteries were giving 30 miles, compared to c.25 at home - despite some high-speed riding and some headwinds.
Frank
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