On 6/1/2021 10:36 AM, jbeattie wrote:
On Monday, May 31, 2021 at 7:51:59 PM UTC-7, Joy Beeson wrote:
On Mon, 31 May 2021 17:04:39 -0700 (PDT), jbeattie
wrote:

The ebike is not going the way of the Hula Hoop, Silly Putty, Slinkies or YoYos
E-bike makers will be sad to hear that. All those toys are available
at big-box stores.

My point is that ebikes will not sky rocket and crash, which was my sense of those toys -- although I haven't looked at sales numbers. Are YoYos still big?

I'll bet that ebikes will be a permanent part of the landscape. For one
thing, at least in my area, baby boomers are still a significant
proportion of the avid cyclists. As they age, many will buy ebikes to
keep riding. Then there's the natural laziness of most people.

At the same time, I envision an ever-growing stream of ebikes heading
into landfills. Unlike regular* bikes, I expect it's going to be much
more difficult to keep an ebike running. As Tom said, the batteries will
have limited life and are proprietary. The electronics are proprietary.
The electronic components for repair will soon become unavailable.

I imagine people like Jeff will get pleasure out of restoring old ones,
but people like Jeff are in very short supply.

=================

(* We'll soon need a retronym for a regular bicycle. Once there were
only "guitars." Then they got electrified, and what was just a "guitar"
had to be called an "acoustic guitar.")

(Which kinda reminds me of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5TFTbT5eEM )


--
- Frank Krygowski