Well, certainly, but so are other vehicles you shun. I don’t get it, but I don’t really need to, either.
When you can't get electricity for your e-bike, it's a large, heavy, but still functional bicycle.
If you build your society around automobiles as a form of transportation, you become critically dependent on enormous supply chains beyond your control. Collapse those supply chains, and modern America would be uninhabitable without the automobile.
If you build your society around e-bikes as a form of transportation, you'll be... Mildly inconvenienced if those supply chains break down.
One of the factors that many Amish groups use when deciding to adopt novel technology is determining how reliant that would make them on the outside world. Automobiles generally have a very hard time passing this test. Bicycles, and electric bicycles have a much easier time.
I've also never heard of having no choice but buying into a predatory 20% APR loan to buy a bicycle.
For some definition of functional.
I really do not enjoy using my electric bicycle without electric assistance. Something about the electric engine makes it really heavy to use without that assistance.
I’d much rather have a bike that didn’t use electricity in the first place.
Given that ebikes are more efficient than bikes, and bikes are more efficient than walking/cars/trains, the ebike seems like a fantastic piece of kit.
(Plus, the added benefits of cardiovascular exercise, which it has been shown is still present in ebikes.)
Sufficient but not necessary. You can build enormous supply chains on ships and trains just fine
If you have concerns about the Amish community, tradition, or lifestyle, I’m sure they’re more interesting than the philosophical gotcha games that one could target at anyone.
And more generally I am criticizing the fetishization of self-reliance in its many forms (preppers, bunker builders, gun ownership, etc.) that is so popular with some people. It is a fundamentally nearsighted privilege by selectively ignoring other forms of reliance. Self reliance is not an attitude of resilience, it is one of isolation, selfishness and ruthless competition.
It is precisely the goals for which people came together in cooperation that are humanities greatest achievements. Cooperation and interdependence are higher moral virtues.
You tell me, how well has, say, reliance on foreign fossil fuels worked out for Germany last year? What if the winter were a few degrees colder? Or in the US, during the oil shocks? How well is Russia's reliance on trade with the rest of the world, and the decline of its industrial base working out for it?
Not mine. It has pedals but they are not enough to actually make it move, except downhill. It has a fixed gear ratio.
And there are plenty of e-bikes with no pedals at all.
> I've also never heard of having no choice but buying into a predatory 20% APR loan to buy a bicycle.
You are not required to do that with a car either.
> Collapse those supply chains, and modern America would be uninhabitable without the automobile.
The automobile is the least of your issue. There would be no food or water either.
That's a moped, not an ebike.
I agree with your points about car loans and supply chains, though.
This source is from the UK but applies similarly
https://www.thebikeinsurer.co.uk/learner-guides/scooter-vs-m...
On the other hand, I have seen models with holes next to the transmission that can accept a pair of removable pedals stowed under the seat. Completely worthless for locomotion, but sufficient to be classified as a bicycle for legal reasons.
Globally, ebikes are generally broken into two classifications based on whether they are pedal assisted or throttled, with some additional classifications for high speed throttled ebikes.
There do exist low power, throttle only ebikes but they are comparatively rare, and typically classified as a electric motorbike or electric motorcycles depending on jurisdiction. Ontario, for instance, classifies these as "Nopeds". (haha).
In general, broadly, an ebike has pedals and either pedal assistance or a throttle (or both) and can be ridden without the motor. Regional language of course exists, much like how parts of the US call all soda "coke", even sodas like Mountain Dew. They aren't wrong, per se, because regionally they are understood, but they are hardly standard.
It doesn't sound like you have an e-bike, and an e-bike definitionally then has pedals
They don't consider just the benefit but the downside.
The Chinese government restricted video games; the US gov may punt on TikTok. It comes up a lot, it's just that Capitalism is trying pretty damn hard to shove this tech down your throat. By comparison, the Amish are pretty much disconnected from the modern capitalist world, except when they have to be.
Like kicking your ball out of a buried lie in a sand trap when you’re a 32-handicap.