My favorite places to learn about eBikes

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Having a better understanding and getting more education about eBikes can be challenging at times. A lot of this has to do with the fact that the eBike space is still relatively new, especially in the United States. Because of this, I wanted to make a video gathering all of the information and resources that I could find to better help spread all the information about electric bikes. As with most things, it’s always good to gather information from a bunch of different resources in order to best understand something.
Let me know if you guys have any other resources you find to be helpful and let me know what you think of this type of video.
As always, thanks so much for watching!
Links:
Electric Bike Review: / @electricbikereview
People for Bikes: www.peopleforbikes.org
Electric Bike Report: electricbikereport.com
eBikes HQ: ebikeshq.com
Cycle Volta: www.cyclevolta.com
eBike School: / @ebikeschool
Area 13: / @area13ebikes
Electric Mountain Bike Network: / @embn
Rob Rides EMTB: / @robridesemtb
Shifter: / @shifter_cycling
Bike Shop Girl: / @bikeshopgirl
Not Just Bikes: / @notjustbikes
Timecodes:
0:00 The electric bike industry is still new so resources might be hard to find
0:30 The development of electric bikes in the United States
1:20 Endless Sphere community
1:45 Electric Bike Review
3:00 People for Bikes
3:30 Ride Spot
3:40 Electric Bike Report
3:47 eBikes HQ
3:50 Cycle Volta
3:55 Consider the validity of your sources
4:50 Propel Blog
5:20 Using KZbin as a resource
5:50 eBike School
6:05 Area 13
6:30 Varied opinions on electric bicycles
7:40 Electric Mountain Bike Network
7:52 Rob Rides EMTB
8:00 Shifter
8:25 Bike Shop Girl
8:50 Electric bike community
9:30 Not Just Bikes
11:20 eBikes on Reddit
12:20 Interbike bike show
12:45 CABDA bike show
13:00 Electrify show
13:05 Eurobike
13:45 Taipei Bike Show
14:20 Podcasts on electric bikes
14:40 Cycling Industry News Podcast
14:43 NBDA Podcast
14:46 Electric Bike Action Podcast
15:20 Micro mobility Podcast
15:35 Books on electric bikes
16:08 Comparing parallel industries
16:55 Electric bike Facebook groups
17:20 Brand Facebook groups
This video was sponsored by Brilliant
Musicbed Sync ID:
MB01CM8HHV0EIXL
MB01Q5WWCYDWSRC

[@Propelbikes]

Keep exploring at brilliant.org/Propel/. Get started for free, and hurry-the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription!

[@mpetry912]

pretty dynamic e-bike community out there. While I will always love my "lightweight" bikes its hard to argue with the wider tires, full fender protection and hydraulic disk brakes for riding in winter weather or for carrying groceries. thanks for supporting the development of a true alternative transportation model ! the more people we get out there on bikes, the better ! happy holidays.

[@Propelbikes]

thanks Mark! I totally agree from my side it’s all about versatility doing more with less. That generally means a bike that’s capable of more, which often goes along with having a bike. That might weigh a little bit more, but has capabilities and on more varried terrain. hope you enjoy the holidays as well!

[@scb2scb2]

I think the cool part is 'ok when we use electric power to compensate' what can we do. Care less about weight, sitting more right up is great, speed can go up even if that means 30% less efficient. A good example is gears and belts you might loose 20% there but wait 2 years and power and battery are 20% up so end result is the same. We can trade power/battery for comfort and safety features in the next few years. I know people think we have it easy as dutchies but riding in the rain and all that wind is no fun on old bikes we all remember that from our school days ebikes really flattens the 'country' in that way the extra 30%-50% power you need not to get upset and tired now comes from a button shift from tour to turbo instead of leg power :)

[@joetilman7227]

Momentum Mag is a great resource - not ebike specific, but very much not bikes-as-sport, which I find refreshing. Momentum is about bikes for utility, bike accessories, bike fashion, and all things bike in general.

[@karlInSanDiego]

You missed the "Wheel-e" video podcast from electrek. This is Micah and Seth doing a biweekly rundown of micromobility with lots of editorializing, which can be much more engaging than straight up journalism/reporting. Highly recommend. Active Towns youtube channel with John Simmerman is on fire with easily the best firehose of bike adoption / mode shift content. Agree about all of your other recommendations. Court is the unsung hero in generating early and present comprehensive video reviews of e-bikes. EBR is an easy recommendation to slow down an overzealous impulse e-bike buyer and slow them down to learn a little more before investing in their first bike. Then you need to follow up with some help to narrow them down on the many confusing options they have.

[@superjoeyman1]

Grin Technologies on youtube has some excellent resources on the mechanics and physics of eBikes, all presented in a super accessible way. They're a small business, and they do sell their own parts, so keep that in mind, but its a good look at eBikes in a way that invites you to understand the guts of the things. It's also kinda nice to just see at least one source that isn't pushing you to buy Bosch, lol

[@mrmaniac3]

For a lot of specific topics--like ebikes, toilet bidets, vacuums, computer guides, and more--many of the top search results on a search engine seem to come in the form of generic skeletal websites that just give a little bit of basic information to check all the boxes. They tend to look more or less the same, and their end goal seems to be mostly getting Amazon affiliate link purchases--the products of which you would just as easily find by searching Amazon itself--or to push malware onto your computer. It makes it hard to find the valuable information you need, whether you're looking for it for the first time or you're trying to find it again.

[@cjaquilino]

Yeah, Googling for reviews and honest info on products particularly has declined, exactly because of this.

[@scottcrombie8853]

Just went for a bike ride for the first time in 15 ish years. Finding your channel is inspiring me. Thank you.

[@TheNiteinjail]

orange pilled haha I like it. Seriously though it is amazing how many topics you can fall into seeing from an entitled driver side of things without noticing. Like Drivers getting pissed off that pedestrians or bikes don't follow all the same rules they do... like it's an identical case here... IT"S NOT obviously. Without the danger of automobiles the public space is safe, calm and shared... those rules they want everyone to follow were unnecessary without cars Imposing identical rules broadly when the problems the rules were designed to solve don't exist the same broadly is a mistake. Cars, bikes and pedestrians ARE different and they OUGHT to be treated differently.. different laws, different expectations and since all users pay for the space it belongs to everyone.

[@dgmithril]

I'll also echo Chris' opinion on the r/ebikes subreddit. There are a lot of redditors that mean well and genuinely want to help but the responses may have more emphasis on wattage or DIY or mid-drive motors, etc. Some people will be a bit purist about these things, and for those people you just thank them for their opinion and move on, but the community overall is very helpful. Also agree with channel recommendations for Tom at Shifter and Jason at Not Just Bikes. Court's EBR channel/website is also a great resource if you're in the market for a bike. Thanks for taking the time to make this video!

[@Propelbikes]

Thanks James! I do wonder if there is any potential in creating another community on there which might be more inclusive? 🤔

[@henrykuppens9097]

Thanks a lot for all the info. I live in the Netherlands and use for transportation only bicycle's, and like to wander around on the internet to find out more about development's. I like to add Alee Denham, a great source for technical reviews about travel bikes. America is in my view somehow guiding in developing unusual fun bikes like Surly does and isn't MTB invented in the US? Although commuting bikes are only nowadays becoming more popular it seems. The Netherlands is a small and flat country, however it's still not an easy task to integrate new infra structure in existing situations. At present there is some more focus on faster routes for bicycles over bigger distances specific for commuting. Which is great especially for e-bikes. They are building one along a railway nearby where I live. (Eindhoven) I use one e-bike as a workhorse, a Batavus equipe, changed handlebar and fitted a bigger tire size. I also use on all my bikes the Kinect suspension, expensive but very effective. The Veloe is an example of what I really like. (or R&M) I sometimes change parts like stems, handle bars, handles, saddle or whatever. I like to change the look and feel, or riding position sometimes. My main e-bike is a Kalkhoff Endeavour 7B fully off road capable, I do some landscape photography and like bikes that are flexible and able to bring me everywhere. It has a Gates belt, but the torque of 85 Nm seems overkill but is nice to have. BTW the shop owner forgot to check the tension of the belt and it got pulled over the rear sprocket, I guess the belt didn't liked it but there was no damage. Although the snubber is still needed to keep the belt on it's sprocket. I also own a Surly ecr 29+ (3 inch), very different and useful in sandy conditions. A Kona Big Honzo for mtb fun. And yes, indeed fatty's. And a Gaastra Fyts which is a modern high quality (travel) bicycle with classic looks. Build by Idworks, an exclusive brand of (very) high end commuter/travel bikes. In general I take a long time to look, to "discover" what I really like, but have to make compromises because it's not for sale where I live. (a reason I don´t have a R&M........yet) Anyway I learned that a high quality bicycle, although actual to expensive, is for me still the way to go because I wanna see a for my eye's a nice looking well developed bike. And with good maintenance, these bikes last for ever. I know, we personally won't. ;)

[@DerVersteherPlus]

Hey Chris, you are doing a great job. I like your calm, convincing manner in convincing people without demonizing the car. Most of your advices are applicable in many countries around the world. I am living in a medium size town in Germany which has an let's say fair bike infrastructure. I came more and more to the conclusion to get rid of my car but watching your and your Co-youtuber videos. Until now I haven't regretted my decision. I still own a non-electric bike but maybe will replace it with an electric one.

[@Point1875]

I completely agree with you about the r/ebikes. My priority is a vehicle replacement for me and my two kids so I don't find the subreddit itself overly useful to me in terms of utility.

[@cjaquilino]

Yeah, there's always this immediate jump to recommend modding your current or buying some used bike to put a motor and battery on on that sub. That's a good idea for some but probably most just want a designed ebike.

[@jorgecorante]

I just got back from London and Paris and I couldn't believe how many people commuted via bike in the morning and throughout the day. Coming back to the states feels like time traveling to the past, we're so behind in every mode of transportation.

[@67daffy]

EBR Forums is a great resource i still go there regularly. Courts reviews are very helpful.

[@davidyule3605]

Thanks Chris. I appreciate your broad perspective and your drive to share information without the hype. I learn a lot from your videos.

[@Joseph-jy5lz]

Nice clip. Your youtube posts have been a great inspiration and I bought a Moustache Friday based on your reviews (and others). If I had the money I would also buy Riese and Muller Homage and Urban Arrow and the Butchers. I wish you a good 2023

[@jclaer]

I’m an ebiker, but being 84, I’m soon likely an e-Triker, but yikes, the prices go like double to get that extra wheel!

[@stevencowles8419]

I love most of the KZbin channels you mentioned and here in the UK there are several good brand specific FaceBook groups which can be very helpful. In my experience, the best bike will be the one that suits you, there is no ‘one size fits all’. There will be many developments ahead so interesting times. I started off just getting a cheap ebike for gentle leisure (I live in a very hilly area), I now find I have 3, the original one (as it is a basic MTB I do break that one fairly regularly), a basic but robust commuter with decent lights as my commute is not on lit roads. another cheap one for shopping with panniers fitted all the time (bought with a very tired battery but I only go to the shops on it and that is not far). I’ve also got a cheap trailer. All are great at their specific job rather than being a compromise, anyway that is my excuse and still loads cheaper than a car so I don’t feel guilty. Guess I’m an a bit addicted really :)

[@fhernandez2583]

The “War on Cars” podcast is interesting and they’re in NYC.

[@Propelbikes]

Great point! I am also a regular listener!

[@Renzsu]

I like your R&M wall art there! Just wanted to let you know you've got another Amsterdam subscriber! :) I work at a design consultancy and have worked on a few e-bike projects, I love the potential that e-bikes have to transform city life, especially the cargo bikes. Your channel is very informative and it's nice to see how the US market is developing.

[@cliffe02]

Many thanks for your videos Chris, they are always great and informative, I love it when you venture over to Europe to keep us informed of the bike shows and development’s. Also the group rides are great fun too. My wife and I are going to relocate and retire early in France next year where cycling and cyclists are afforded much respect than here in the UK. The UK is still in the dark ages when it comes to cycling infrastructure and attitude. Wishing you and all at Propel a Happy and Healthy New Year.

[@Thepuffingyank]

i bought my volador from area 13 bikes: 5 years and 15,000ish miles ago. thank you for including Kyle in your video. recently, Kyle's been dealing with some health issues so be sure to go give him some Christmas cheer

[@Propelbikes]

Oh wow! Sorry to hear about Kyle! I hope he gets better soon 🙏

[@dant.6364]

Area 13 channel went dormant for a while but it seems Kyle is recovering and is posting some content again.

[@jacquesblaque7728]

GBS took some time to diagnose, and left Kyle in a much-weakened state, from which he's slowly recovering. Another honest-Abe type.

[@mpetry912]

Be sure to read the E-bike article in the New Yorker magazine this week ! Lots of good info in that article !

[@HarryLovesRuth]

Beat me by 9 hours. Should have checked my notifications on Libby sooner 😁

[@HarryLovesRuth]

Chris and Propel are in The New Yorker!

[@nbalagu]

Excellent wealth of information. Thank you!

[@mq9demo]

"getting orange peeled" lol 😂

[@Propelbikes]

😂 i know i messed it up when I reviewed the edit but left it in because, why not

[@alemanyorks32]

Excellent and well put together as usual, thanks Chris.

[@papa_gravel]

Great video! I have been bike commuting via bike for years but with a growing family I am looking more into an electric cargo bike and your channel has been an amazing wealth of knowledge. Keep it up and thank you for the videos!

[@simonfirth3354]

Great video, always enjoy your content, thanks. Philly Bike Expo is a great show, Tern were there this year with their new bikes.

[@Propelbikes]

Thanks Simon! Yes, it is a great show. Sorry we weren't able to make it this year, maybe next

[@scb2scb2]

The cool part is that bicycles are on the move again, for a long time they evolved rather slowly in europe unless you are talking racing bikes and thats all about speed and weigtht. City bikes and bakfietsen where kind of done. Now we are in such a cool period again where ebikes are forcing things forward with here 50% of sales now ebikes (nl) every development cycle (say 2 or 3 years) brings new things. I do notice the usa muscle car idea where 90% of the reviews start with the number of watts 'it' has or speed it does. I think realisticly no ebike needs more than 100nm really given the weigth/power ratio and in europe we will see more a focus on features like ways to auto-gear systems. less noise, less moving parts and build in riders tools from abs to steering control. adding very hightech tools but hiding them in a way that makes using them easier esp. on cargo bikes where you don't want to fiddle with things while you have 2 kids to also keep a eye on. I am 100% ok in buying a new ebike every say 3 years for now since i know the next decade will see many changes. I do hope we (even in the netherlands) will find a good solution between the slower moving ebikes (25km) and the faster ones that are perfect for more rural areas (45km) having 2 of them or forcing people with a 45km one onto a less safe intrastructure is not the way. Some of the hardest issues will not be the ebikes but some of these rules we need to figure out where speed difference between riders and/or cars need to be resolved. Its such a interesting time to watch people in the city and the city change each year now things are really happening and for many euro countries covid pushed things along. I do hope bike makers get their production and repair under control the wait times and 'we don't care we can sell our bikes to others' is all over the place and some of them need a cold shower and become more client oriented again.

[@Propelbikes]

Another example of why I love these comments! Thank you!

[@scb2scb2]

@@Propelbikes No thank you, you and many of the channels you posted i follow being in a bike crazy country makes this external view on something that was so stable and mundane for a long time much easier to reflect on watching all these videos where we are seen as the orange-standard i guess also gives us a great insight in what is happening here. Dutch biking and infrastructure is moving so fast now and the external views and observations are fun to watch and very insightful esp. channels on urban design, road design and ebikes. I am not kidding that i can bike every few months in my case through amsterdam (where i work) and Utrecht (where i live) and see things evolve.

[@andrewowens5653]

Thanks for the excellent presentation!

[@richardharker2775]

Remarkable amount of innovation getting pumped into eBikes and very hard keeping up with it. I saw a video of a touring couple on eBikes in Germany where the cafe they stopped at had a bicycle parking bay with charge points for eBikes. Have you come across anything like this in US or anywhere else other than Riese and Muller's bike parking bay?

[@hayterrlgmailcom]

Thanks!

[@Martin_HD28]

Hey Chris Another informing upload Appreciate all you do for the ebike community. One suggestion man for what its worth. Would love to see a more light hearted side of you. Smile and laugh a little, it will go a long way. Happy Holidays from Virginia

[@Propelbikes]

Thanks Paul! I think others often bring the best out of me so I will have to find more ways to incorporate that. Good feedback though. Happy Holidays Paul!

[@jacquesblaque7728]

You'll probably have noted that Chris is all-business to the last couple of seconds of a vid, then smiles while signing off. That's who Chris is- wouldn't change a thing. Not my call.

[@mentorrrr]

Hey watching from Melbourne Australia, if you were to ever visit I would love to go for a ride with you and talk about everything biking in Melbourne and the surrounding suburbs!

[@kmemz]

I like my comfort and cargo, but I feel like the legal power limitations on eBikes kind of limit how much comfort and cargo you can manage to have while still being able to handle an incline at halfway decent speed. I feel like legislation should be changed to consider power to weight rather than just power alone, as I feel that eBikes could benefit a lot from being able to pump a couple thousand watts into a loaded cargo bike or bakfiet, while being more limited on lighter bikes geared towards sports or joyriding. As it stands, my eBike can only just crawl up the hills on the roads around my house, and it's on the legal limits of what I can run in the U.S. while being as light as I can reasonably make it without sacrificing comfort. How well they can go on adverse terrain is a big factor IMHO, and some of these legal limits just aren't designed to take anything heavier than a basic safety bicycle in mind, or heavier than some likely underestimated "average" rider weight.

[@InventorZahran]

The power limit could be higher, but the speed limit should stay where it is.

[@msb6100]

JohnnyNerdOut youtube channel is great for showing custom builds using existing frames. He also has a website and does 1 on 1 consultations to discuss ebike building/mods.

[@tommays56]

Your videos are GREAT information for my adaptive sports groups Coastal Adaptive Sports Adaptive Surf Project

[@Propelbikes]

Thanks for sharing!

[@cargo_roam]

nice wrap up - I've noticed also translator is your friend! Especially in the field of German made high end bikes, much of it is in native tongue, whole realms of detailed custom subjects and fixes 🤙

[@Propelbikes]

I’m not that optimistic. I’ll be able to do videos in German in the future, but maybe AI might make that possible. I would love to translate our videos into more languages. Spanish will likely be the next language for me as my wife speaks it natively. I really appreciate what you do and I hope we get an opportunity to connect in the future.

[@karlInSanDiego]

Yes, @radelbande German cargo bike KZbin channel is an excellent way to see European cargo bike highly detailed reviews. These are done in German, and I use auto translate to English. I sometimes slow the video down to be able to follow the captions while still noticing the details in the images. Chris, I know dyslexia probably doesn't lend itself to reading captions, especially AI generated ones where it gets some words wrong, but it's a massive benefit for most to be able to get much broader perspectives. I also watched Korean bike videos using this process, including real life ownership and riding videos of a kind of rare "Performance" recumbent trike e-conversion.

[@cargo_roam]

@@karlInSanDiego radelbande is great 🤙

[@bertkassing8541]

I'm Dutch, but if there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that promoting cycling (in general) doesn't depend on the bike itself. So not what kind of bike you have. To promote cycling you need three words: Infrastructure, infrastructure and infrastructure.

[@ericclute5]

Thanks for sharing! I had a similar experience on r/ebikes. Unrelated but I wonder where you got that cargo bike drawing/print behind you?

[@h8rry]

I bought a bike early teen in 1967 paid from paper route work to commuted and to school. Bought a moped 1975 to work for 5 years until it broke go back to same old bike for more than 50 years. Now replaced with Ebike.

[@Victor-kh5rh]

I really want to replace my original cargo bike (a radrunner +) for something more reliable, but my biggest concern is that the better bikes are built with the EU market in mind and thus have stricter power restrictions than the US. I use my ebike as a car replacement, often riding it with my wife in the back. I’m concerned that even a quality ebike like the Tern GSD with a Bosch Cargo line 350w motor would choke when fully loaded with 2 adults + grocery going up hill, the rad right now can keep up but I have to put significant work when going uphill, and downshifting a lot. Do you think the market could shift in the next 2-3 years so that companies like Bosch are designing motors specifically for the US market? A Bosch motor running at 500w with 100nm+ of torque would be a no brainer for the US market, but shelling out 6k+ right now for an EU specc’ed bike seems like a lot.

[@Propelbikes]

I encourage you to try riding one as you might be surprised how powerful they are despite the difference in published wattage.

[@ronaldstrous2764]

One channel i like is bicycledutch

[@prlevett]

Agree, I also like David Hembrow’s blog a view from the cycle path, personally he holds anti ebike views, but his blog highlights bicycle infrastructure and his online shop dutch bike bits is a resource for transportation cyclists internationally to buy important parts not generally available outside the EU.

[@GrantSR]

People should always participate in their local bicycle clubs.

[@lsamoa]

Great resource, thank you! I like the channel Shifter too, there's some great info about cycling in general, plus the guy is friendly and funny, and the discussion is good. One thing I do a lot is followe ebiker accounts on Instagram. You don't get the same level of discussions as on Reddit or KZbin as the platform is not really geared for it, but you can follow people's rides, see where they go, how they use their ebikes, what kind of accessories they get for it etc. I get very inspired to ride whenever I scroll through their feeds. So: good resource too :)

[@SonnyDarvishzadeh]

To pronounce Friedrichshafen, separate the word as Friedrichs and Hafen. There is no "sh" sound in it. In many combined German words, the "s" works as a connector and is read as such :)

[@InventorZahran]

I think of the connective S as if it were a posessive (Friedrich's Hafen), even if that's not really how it functions in this word.

[@donaldtank]

I am dyslexic too But the only skill I've ever got was truck driving something I don't like to do But I like to do strange

[@Propelbikes]

Funny i actually drove trucks in the Army

[@cjaquilino]

18:14 This groups seems pretty strict about wanting no members under 60.

[@erikkison]

Why are all these premium ebikes advertised for seniors?. I don't want to buy a product that make me look older.

[@EbikeEscape]

Enjoyed the video! Would love to be considered for inclusion next time as a resource. We live and breath ebikes :)

[@braxtonperry1981]

So Glad you are an educator and Not the sales orientation channel Keep up the great work 🚲🛵🛴

[@Propelbikes]

Thanks! I don’t want to be sold to, and I don’t think many other people want to be either. I’m really thankful and fortunate to have the support of this community!

[@jamesbonander]

i want one for fat cyclists.

[@markifi]

no joke the youtube comment finder over at kmcat uk has been an excellent tool to find that one informative comment among all the noise. youtube comments used to be cancer, but they're growing into a resource