I really think electric's are starting to win the battle. A lot of the reason is because Tesla is showing the way so successfully that other's like VW, and BMW are now trying to play catch up. That's one reason.
But for motor bicycles we have even bigger incentive to go electric. I didn't even know anything about this when I bought my eBike, but now I'm rapidly becoming all about it.
I have to confess, you know I've loved my gas motor bicycles for 3 years, but now almost overnight they're practically dead to me. If there were a lot of them it might be different, but now with the rise of the electric bikes that's unlikely to ever change. The problem with a gas bike like a china girl is if you want to ride with anyone else, they pretty much have to be riding on another china girl. Bicycles are too slow, and motorcycles are too fast. Another problem the gas bikes have is acceptance. No one wants to ride with them on the bike trails or sidewalks. The reasoning whether valid, or not is always the same. They're noisy, they're stinky, and they're too fast. The too fast part is the biggest problem.
I started riding my electric 3 months ago in the dead of winter. Riding time in the saddle was short until only about a month ago. Now it's warming up and I'm riding a lot more, and I've quickly discovered a very surprising phenomena in Dallas that's probably being repeated all over the country.
Bicycling is becoming extremely popular all over the city. I'm coming late to the party, but even the people that have been involved since the start agree it's happened quickly. Dallas was always considered one of the most unfriendly bicycle city's in the country. Everything is so spread out far, and wide that it takes too long to get anywhere on a bicycle. The distance made bicyclers feel separated, and isolated. Also it's so hot in the summer. There weren't many dedicated bike paths. All that changed rapidly, and I never even noticed till buying an electric bicycle.
You won't be aware of any of this riding a gas bike, because you can't get "in", because of the reasons already mentioned. An electric bike is a whole different story. eBikes have the ability to ride just as slow as any bicycle, but also as fast as any gas motor bicycle. They can be silent. That don't emit any odors. You can pedal them when you ride. But best of all, when riding with bicycles they fit right in. Some of the bicyclers are greeny winnies. Gas bikes drive them crazy, but electrics elicit no such negative reaction. It would be hard for them to complain anyway, because many of them commuted to the ride on the electric train system.
That's what's different now. The Federally funded trains, plus all the federally funded bike trails. It's helped more than anything else to make Dallas become a bicycle cultural juggernaut, and it's probably happening all around the country. If you don't ride a bicycle, or an eBike you're probably not even be aware of it. I wasn't.
It's changing everything. Now inner city people are mingling with people from the burbs on bicycle rides which always seem to end up as a social party type of gathering. These are not for the most part spandexers. There might be a few, but these are mostly casual riders, by the hundreds. I've been riding all my life with, and without groups, but I've never seen anything like this. These rides include people of all ages, all walks of life, and all ethnic groups. I should add that the internet and face book has a lot to do with it too.
So far in a few short weeks I haven't seen a lot of electric bikes. Only 4 so far including mine, but I haven't seen one single gas bike. Wherever I've been there's always a lot of interest in our electrics, and no one is trying to exclude us. I've quickly made a lot of new friends, and I'm pretty sure nothing we're doing is harming the future of electric bicycles. It's only going to get better.
