I don't get why some people don't get ebikes.

E mountain bikes are a privilege. "Pedaling is too hard for my hobby. I wish there were a product which destroys other wild spaces so I can get more enjoyment from our wild spaces, while damaging more of it for subsequent users"
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Bikes used to be the most efficient, environmentally responsible form of transportation.
Agreed. But good luck getting others to accept this.

Walking and biking. Efficient, good for the mind and body, actually more fun. I see these e-bikes as a bit of a fad, as a bit of a way around actually physically suffering a little by actually peddling up tough hills, or simply pushing the bike up (both good for the health). They are too expensive for the Commoner.

Just my two loonies! ;)
 
E mountain bikes are a privilege. "Pedaling is too hard for my hobby. I wish there were a product which destroys other wild spaces so I can get more enjoyment from our wild spaces, while damaging more of it for subsequent users"
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Bikes used to be the most efficient, environmentally responsible form of transportation.
That place is going to be an e-bike trail Mecca when it's depleted and re-wilded!?😁;)
 
That place is going to be an e-bike trail Mecca when it's depleted and re-wilded!?😁;)

If you are interested, the disruption which is being caused by lithium mining - and the benefit exportation to the wealthy nations - is worrying. The place is Chile, and the specific location is the Atacama Desert:

'...This method of brine evaporation is egregious, and it's senseless,” says James J.A. Blair, assistant professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and a coauthor of a new NRDC report on lithium mining in South America. “Communities are suffering a slow violence that’s creating conditions of ecological exhaustion.”

A legacy of the Pinochet era in Chile is the privatization of minerals and water, which gives companies ownership of those resources in an area. While mining operations squeeze this already dry region even drier, communities lose their access to potable water, leaving them relying on tankers to deliver it.

“We used to have a river before that now doesn’t exist. There isn’t a drop of water,” says Rivera. “And not only here in Copiapó but in all of Chile, there are rivers and lakes that have disappeared—all because a company has a lot more right to water than we do as human beings or citizens of Chile....”

From

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/lithiu...indigenous-communities-high-and-dry-literally
I am entirely aware of the fact that my Hope brakes do not 'come' from Barnoldswick...since the aluminium which makes them up came from Australia (bauxite), and the seals and DOT fluid came from oil reserves.

But the additional components of e-bikes bother me....kilometers of copper wire, kgs of lithium....
 
For me, it is about choices. My ebike treads far more lightly on the world than a car or even a motorbike would, never mind a child or a pet dog, or habitual flying overseas for a weekend city break - all of which I forgo. But maybe you are equally bothered by all of those things too.
 
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For me, it is about choices. My ebike treats far more lightly on the world than a car or even a motorbike would, never mind a child or a pet dog, or habitual flying overseas for a weekend city break - all of which I forgo. But maybe you are equally bothered by all of those things too.
ah...if you are using an e-bike as a substitute for a car or motorbike then that's a very good thing. With rising awareness of the wider and global impact, I too have now foregone most things in your list (although we have Cost-Centre Two (age 17 male) and Cost Centre One (age 19 female). In particular, I am very critical of weekend flying - with all the deep subsidies given to the aviation industry.
 
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