Are e-bikes worth it?

Video Description

Are electric bikes just hype, or are they really the future of travel? I bought one to find out. Support the channel by signing up for Nebula (and get 40% off): https://go.nebula.tv/simonclark (link updated March 2023) Recently I bought myself a Ridgeback Arcus 1, a budget electric bike (an EPAC, electric pedal assisted cycle), to find out if e-bikes lived up to the hype. In particular, I wanted to test if its stated range of 50km was actually accurate, so cycled from my new home in Bath to a meeting at the Yogscast's studio, yogstudios, in Bristol. Notes (1) https://electrek.co/2021/06/29/the-affordable-electric-vehicles-outselling-electric-cars-around-the-world/ and https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/electric-power/012821-us-ev-sales-tumble-in-2020-but-ev-load-increases-with-more-charging-stations and https://www.bicycleassociation.org.uk/news-press/official-industry-stats-reveal-record-extent-of-covid-cycling-sales-growth/ (2) Much of this was taken from https://urbanebikes.com/pages/electric-bike-laws-uk (3) https://electricbikeaction.com/tour-de-france-champion-greg-lemond-launches-e-bikes/ (4) https://veloviewer.com/segment/1401767/Ralph+Allen+Drive (5) https://ourworldindata.org/travel-carbon-footprint (6) This is based on the calculation that my battery has a capacity of 313Wh, and the UK average power supply has an intensity of 0.233kg of CO2 per kWh. This implies it takes 73g of CO2 to charge the battery, and thus, given a range of 50km, an intensity of 1.46g of CO2 per km. You can support the channel by becoming a patron at http://www.patreon.com/simonoxfphys Check out my website! https://www.simonoxfphys.com/ ---------- II ---------- My twitter - http://www.twitter.com/simonoxfphys My facebook - http://www.facebook.com/youtubesimon My insta - http://www.instagram.com/simonoxfphys My goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/simonoxfphys ---------- II ---------- In this video I buy an ebike to test if e-bikes live up the hype. I tested the bike going up a monstrous hill in my home town of Bath, and rode it from Bath to Bristol to visit the yogscast, to test the bike's range. I compare EPACs with S-pedelecs with electric moped with electric motorbikes. My experience with my electric bike has been very positive, and I hope you enjoy the video! Music by Epidemic Sound: http://epidemicsound.com Huge thanks to my supporters on Patreon: Thines Ganeshamoorthy, Ryan Bolton, Jerry Moore, Sam Harvey (soon to be PhD), Ashley Wilkins, Michael Parmenter, Samuel Baumgartner, Dan Sherman, ST0RMW1NG 1, Jan Galkowski, Adrian Sand, Morten Engsvang, Josh Schiager, Farsight101, Liam Margetts, K.L, poundedjam, Felix Freiberger, Robert Connell, Jaime Stark, Kolbrandr, , Sebastain Graf, Dan Nelson, Shane O'Brien, Alex, Fujia Li, Harry Eakins, Andrew Young, Cody VanZandt, Jesper Koed, Jonathan Craske, Albrecht Striffler, hennersfl, Jon Sjöberg, Igor Francetic, Jack Troup, SexyCaveman , James Munro, Oskar Hellström, Sean Richards, Kedar , Omar Miranda, Alastair Fortune, bitreign33 , Mat Allen, Anne Smith, Rafaela Corrêa Pereira, Colin J. Brown, Princess Andromeda, Aron Kári Ágústsson, Leighton Mackenzie, BenDent, Thusto , Andy Hartley, Lachlan Woods, Tim Boxall, Dan Hanvey, Simon Donkers, Kodzo , James Bridges, Liam , Andrea De Mezzo, Wendover Productions, Kendra Johnson.