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Parents Are Accidentally Buying Their Kids Electric Motorcycles Instead Of E-Bikes
(www.jalopnik.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2025
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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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Personally I don't understand why anyone would need even 750W for an electric bike, let alone multiple kilowatts.
Mine is an EU-regulation 250W and I never even use the top power level. In fact sometimes I forget to turn on the battery and (on the flat) don't even notice.
This really looks like the same story of macho horsepower inflation that's been at work with combustion motorbikes for a century. Look at those giant BMWs with 1.4-litre engines that are enough to power a sedan. Completely unnecessary and irrational (and non-existent just a few decades ago) but the biker-dude owners will always find a reason that they "need" it. And let's face it, this really is a story about dudes.
What bike do you use?
The EU-regs-respecting variant of that Engwe fat-tire job. Very popular among pizza-delivery riders. (Unlike them, I actually pedal.)
I'm a tall and heavy dude, I've just checked on my Bosch app, I went up to 621W on a recent trip. Even if it's for a short but steep elevation (maybe a few seconds), I'm glad my motor is helping me so I can go for 40-60 km offroad trips without worrying about my legs giving up
Interesting numbers. And good for you for getting out there. I agree: just knowing that the motor is there is a superpower in itself.
There are people with limited mobility. There are places with lots of hills. There are people who need to carry cargo like kids and groceries on there bikes.
There are people who live in places with lots of hills who have mobility issues and need to be able to carry lots of heavy cargo on their bikes.
Sounds like they need a motorcycle with side car than a bike?
They could get by just fine with an ebike with a more powerful motor
Or a moped. That's what those are.
I live somewhere mountainous.
By road, it’s 4km to the grocery store, which is 150m lower in elevation. My nominally 750w middrive claims 140nm of torque, and shows a ~1300w pull when climbing. This level of power is only sufficient to make climbing feel like I’m riding flat ground unassisted. Cutout is 32kph, but flat ground is so rare I don’t hit it, I’m mostly climbing at <25kph or coasting downhill.
That's interesting. On my 250W heavy-as-a-rock (38kg) bike I have done rides of >70km involving >1000m of climbs (mountains), with baggage on the rack, and arrived with a couple of bars of battery to spare.
This is why I'm wary of the word "need". It's true that I was a cyclist before an e-cyclist.