These past few years and especially 2020 are the years when people truly started to transition into faster and more efficient ways of travel. Of course, I am talking about electric vehicles, bikes, scooters, mopeds, or whatever else it is available. Thanks to the technological advancement of motors and batteries, E-bikes and E-scooters are more affordable and available than ever. But, with both of these devices being so affordable, how will you know which one you should get for commuting? That is a question a lot of people are asking.
The answer to that question might not be as simple or easy as you might think. I guess it all the pens on different styles and different factors. In other words, you probably need some information in an outside opinion or assistance to help you make a decision.
To help you with that, I decided to write this article and talk about the main differences between bicycles, e-bikes and electric scooters. With the different advantages and disadvantages, I am sure that you will be able to figure out which one is better for commuting. If you are still in doubt, you can always read more here.
Regular bicycles are not practical
Regular bicycles are one of the most eco-friendly and easiest way to get from point A to point B. Traveling through a city is quite simple, especially if there is a biking lane infrastructure. However, we also cannot ignore the fact that these bites are not powered by a motor or anything else. It is you that has to spend power to make it move.
Yes, it is a great exercise, but do you really care about exercise when you want to get to work or when you want to get home? You have to get up in the morning and prepare yourself for one hell of an exercise every day. Of course, it does get easy once you get used to it, but it is still going to tire you out, especially in hotter or colder days.
In other words, riding a regular bicycle every day is not very practical. It tires you out, it makes you sweat and it is a bit slower than all the other alternatives out there.
So, if you do not really care about the exercising advantage of a regular bike, I think that it is time to start thinking about the electric alternatives.
Electric scooters have great portability
One of my favorite advantages of electric scooters is the fact that they are more portable than anything else out there.
Of course, they may not pack as much power as eBay, but they are much smaller and lighter. For example, the average electric scooter wears somewhere between 20 and 50 pounds. According to turboant.com, the cheaper models are lighter but obviously come with less power. However, 20 pounds is really a small amount of weight. In comparison, an average E-bike weighs over 50 or 60 pounds which is quite a lot.
Keep in mind, there are models out there that way below 40 pounds, but usually, they are very expensive. I am talking about over $2000 expensive. On the other hand, as you can see on this website, even a very powerful scooter with a large battery weighs around 33 pounds which is quite light.
The winner here is obvious.
Pricing
Right now, since the electric scooter market is still quite young, there are a lot of competitive products on the market. But competitive, I mean competitive pricing which means you can grab a great product for less than $500. In fact, I am sure that you can even get something that is less than $400 with great specifications.
Whether you plan to use your electric scooter every day or just on the weekends, you will look at that $500 range.
However, if you are buying an E-bike for everyday use, you will be looking at the products that range well over $1000. Of course, there are some good options that are under $1000, but they are sometimes hard to find.
However, I do have to mention that most e-bikes, no matter the price come with great performance, power and battery. When you start going higher in the price range, you are getting higher quality and lighter materials instead of more power.
Again, the wind here is for electric scooters.
E-bikes always have a better range
This is where an E-bike can shine. A lot of times, you will see advertisements for electric scooters that can get up to 30 or 40 miles, but even that is exaggerated. Usually, with these devices, you can get a range of 16 to 25 miles which I admit is more than enough for commuting in a city, but that also means that you have to charge it every single night. It also means that you cannot go on random detours throughout the day because you might end up with no juice.
When it comes to an E-bike, you do not have to worry about that at all. Even the bikes that are on the lower range can get up more than 70 miles in one go. If you write 10 miles every day, this means that you will not have to charge it for an entire week. That is a huge benefit.
Another huge advantage is the fact that even if your E-bike does run out of power, you can still write it as much as you want. When electric scooter stops, you will have to push it by hand the entire way until you get back home.
Speed
If you do not care about all the points I made above and if you just care about power and the fastest device, then you will have to go with an electric scooter.
Of course, there are bikes that can get up to a speed of 30 mph, but their acceleration is just so much slower. If you need that instantaneous power, scooters can always deliver that.
The dilemma between bicycles, e-bikes and electric scooters is tough, but I hope that this article will help you come to a conclusion and that you will be able to pick the right product for commuting.
