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E-bikes are all the rage



All of a sudden, e-bikes are a very hot commodity. In 2020, the U.S. imported more than 450,000 e-bikes, according to figures from the Light Electric Vehicle Association. Last year, that number was up to 790,000. Annual U.S. e-bike sales are poised to surpass 1 million soon and are more than double the sales of all-electric cars.To get more news about volt electric bike, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.

In the Hudson Valley, the recent rise of the e-bike has been as steep as our notorious hills. A few years ago, e-bike early adopter Andrew Willner says he was hassled by a ranger at Minnewaska State Park for bringing his DIY battery-powered pedal-assist bike into the park. Now, Willner says, e-bikes are common enough that no one bats an eye.To get more news about how much does an electric bike cost, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.
“Mohonk [Mountain House] had a similar rule, and then a year later, they started offering electric pedal-assist bikes for their guests,” Willner said. To get more news about bluetooth bike speaker, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.

For Willner — a Rosendale resident who lives on dauntingly steep Breezy Hill Road, close to the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail — having an e-bike has opened up a world of two-wheeled adventure. Willner was already an avid cyclist, and as a sail freight enthusiast and founder of the Center for Post Carbon Logistics, he has long been a believer in non-fossil-fueled transportation. But it wasn’t until he saw a homemade e-bike in the back of a neighbor’s pickup truck about five years ago that he truly fell in love.

“It flipped me out. It looked like a tiny motorcycle,” Willner said. “It was black and robust and had these big fat tires on it. It was so intriguing to me.”The bike’s owner put him in touch with local machinist Joe Turco, who helped Willner put together a list of parts he’d need to cobble together his own home-brew fat tire e-bike.

“I look at that bike now, and I still ride it sometimes, but it’s pretty crude. But it works perfectly. I love it,” Willner said.These days, you don’t have to build your own to get a little extra zip in your ride. In the past few years, the quality and availability of e-bikes of all kinds has expanded dramatically in the U.S. Even some of the region’s most avid traditional cyclists are warming to the e-bike trend — like Billy Denter, an expert bike fitter and mechanic who owns Overlook Bicycles in Woodstock, and has been helping to get Hudson Valley residents out on two wheels for almost two decades.

Denter is embracing change: E-bikes make up about 10 percent of his business and that's growing, he says.

“We did not feel threatened by the concept,” Denter said. “We had to delve into continuing education, and train our repair technicians so we felt confident about any mechanical issues that can creep up.”

Having a little extra assistance while pedaling helps to get some people on the road, especially if they’re not paragons of physical fitness. In Denter’s view, that’s a good thing, no matter what kind of bike they’re riding.

“We’re in a very hilly area. I think that terrain dissuades a lot of users,” Denter said. “There’s a lot of people who might become more serious cyclists if they had an opportunity to get out there and experience it.”I was one of them until I recently bought a Model S from the Electric Bike Co., a California company that sells American-built beach cruisers. I admit I was seduced by the bike’s racing green enamel and classic beach cruiser good looks, but it’s the motor that I’ve truly fallen for. In the past month, I’ve put about 125 miles on its flashy tan-and-white tires, and have taken to riding it on 30-mile commutes to my part-time bartending job. Even the punishing grade up Belleayre Mountain can’t stop me.

Recent research on how people use e-bikes confirms that when people have an e-bike, they tend to cover more miles than conventional bike riders and get similar fitness benefits from their riding. Pedal assistance makes hills a lot less daunting, but e-cyclists are still putting in enough effort to get a good moderate-level workout. For most pedal-assist bikes, the experience feels very similar to riding an ordinary bicycle. It’s just a little less sweaty.