Are Electric Bikes Dangerous//Hazardous? Some of my Pros & Cons
Electric bikes Why hey what’s up YouTube world it’s Ryan from riding in style and so today I just wanted to talk about a what I think about electric bikes or electric anything really um actually going back to the car side of the channel it was about four years ago that I had made a comment
About what happens if cars go all electric and I was specifically talking about the Dodge um Chargers or challengers going electric and that was a very controvers controversial statement to make especially at that time because it seems like there was a race to reach 1,000 horsepower you know the Hennessy
Performance things the exorcists were all coming out and uh it seems like cars were just getting more and more powerful with gas powerered engines so the idea of cars going electric back then was just um um it didn’t it didn’t seem like it was a reality well here we are
2024 right we all find out that I know Dodge specifically is going electric for the Chargers and Challengers boy it really makes me wish I held on to that Hellcat a little bit longer but now seeing the evolution of things right we have to whether we agree with it or we
Don’t we just have to at least recognize it and that’s kind of where I’m at is I’m not sold on electric anything I mean I don’t believe that it’s better or worse than gas power vehicles I mean there’s always going to be some pros and
There’s always going to be cons and so I guess when I look into electric vehicles I can kind of see some of the appeals um that people make but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me like I haven’t 100% bought into the electric vehicle Nar narrative and
When I say that what I mean is does it really save the climate um I don’t know is there any proof because as far as I know electricity still requires oil so you know we’re not using gas but we’re using something else that still requires oil to to charge the batteries and what
Have you but anyway that’s beside the point what I was looking into you know now is seeing how a lot more people are transitioning to bikes and whether that’s because the gas prices in their state have just become unaffordable or maybe they just find it a lot more easier to find parking uh
Maybe parking fees have gone up if you park in a garage whatever the case might be it just seems that there’s a lot of people that are transitioning from vehicles to bikes that’s something I recognize where I live in in Town they’ve actually removed actual Lanes of
Car lanes and turned them into dedicated bike Lanes so the writing is on the wall everyone sees it maybe where you live you start to see a little bit of infrastructure change as well to accommodate more people on bikes more bike racks um and just visually I see a
Lot of people just taking bikes um even in my neighborhood it seems that all these children today have some type of an electronic bike it’s almost rare to find someone that rides an actual bike that doesn’t have a motor attached to it so before I even picked up a camera on
Day one and started to make a YouTube video for this channel I was always into um outdoor mountain biking that’s just something I’ve done for years since I was a teenager and so it’s not new to me to be outdoors and do those things it’s just kind of new to this channel because
It’s always been um about vehicles and mods and it still will be I’m not saying I’m I’m transitioning to just bikes or or anything like that but again it’s an addition uh to this Channel that I can at least tap into and look into and it gives me something else another angle if
You will to um do some research and learn and so I’m very new to the whole um electric bike world as I mentioned in the last last video when I did a little unboxing and um like an install of that first bike the nacto super Cruiser and um so I have
A couple of pros and cons that’s what I wanted to get to of having an ebite so I look at them as being kind of like cell phones like when cell phones first came out they were heavy they didn’t last long they were very expensive you know
The the battery were maybe like 30 minutes long uh you could use it for before they had to be recharged a lot of times they were limited to being um inside of your vehicle that was the the first ones where you could tell if someone had a a
Cell phone because their vehicle would have like an antenna attached to it and you just thought they were like special right but I look at ebikes as being very similar to cell phones where we’ve gotten to a place where there’s a huge um Market market and with that comes
Oversaturated um inventory and at the end of the day based on my research like everything comes from China so it doesn’t matter what brand you’re buying from locally here within the us it’s going to come from China whether it’s completely made there or 90% of the
Parts or whatever it is seems to come from China so I’ve also noticed that a lot of the bikes that I’ve been looking at are very similar in specs in in shape um in the way they’re put together so even more so it just makes me feel like
They’re kind of mass-produced but one of the drawbacks I see is what happens you know going back to my point earlier of saving the climate saving the world what happens to these batteries when they when they go bad because they don’t last forever eventually they have to be replaced eventually you’re buying new
Batteries and some of of these bikes the earlier ones the batteries aren’t removable so essentially when they go bad you’re you’re tossing the entire bike and it’s going to end up where in a landfill somewhere on the side of the road and with the thousands and thousands of these bikes coming
Out just imagine when they all go bad and need to be discarded where do they all end up okay that’s one con about it is the Market’s oversaturated uh it all comes comes from China essentially one way or another and that’s just the truth there’s I’m not saying there’s anything
Wrong with that but that’s just the truth and then the other part is what happens when they go bad and need to be discarded whether it’s the entire bike or just the batteries now you have a bunch of lithium batteries sitting in in in a landfill somewhere so another issue
Was there’s been some recent stories of these batteries blowing up like they get overcharged or whatever they the case is and they will blow up and a lot of these bikes are either in people’s homes or in their garages and it’s led to actual like house fires so if it’s in your
Garage and you have propane in there or other ebikes or any anything that can also blow Under Pressure that’s a bad day and there’s no telling when this happens it’s not like the bike warns you it’s about to blow so essentially you have a potential hazard so these are
Some of the cons that’s what I’m covering about what what’s happening um as far as my limited Research into like these electronic bikes or electric bikes but there’s there are some pros and the one specifically that capture my attention because I used a mountain bike before are the ones that are actual
Mountain bikes and they have Motors attached to them but they have pedals and so to me I wouldn’t want to own something that you couldn’t pedal you you know they have these ones that look like electric dirt bikes and then they have ones that just look like scooters
And what happens when those things die let’s just say the battery doesn’t work how are you going to get it home you’ll be the guy walking it on the side of the road and those those things are very heavy a lot of these bikes range from 50
To 60 to up to 80 plus pounds with the batteries installed so you know even transporting them around if you do own a vehicle like for me I want to I don’t want to be limited to where I live and being able to ride them around my block
Like I want to put them on the back of my car and take them out to like some Trails but because of their raw weight they’re um they don’t fit on a lot of the the bike racks that they make for vehicles they’re too heavy so there are
Companies that are coming out now that have racks that can accommodate um the weight of these bikes but those are also expensive these racks range from 800 to, 1500 and I’ve seen some close to $3,000 for the rack um so again that’s another con if you will of
You’ll be limited to where you can ride um based on the range of of the battery versus you know being able to transport them um on a vehicle and then taking them up into a mountain on a trail or down to a beach or whatever the case is
So I know this is all changing this is an early video in terms of like the long-term things about ebikes I’m sure they’ll evolve they’ll get lighter like cell phones they’ll last longer they’ll get smaller and lighter the batteries will will be better but until then this
Is where we’re at these bikes are heavy and so the other aspect is I like having the option so as someone who only had a mountain bike you know you’re limited to your your pedals and your leg strength and how much you know how much endurance
You have but but let’s just say you get hurt on a ride or you you catch a cramp or you just needed a a break from pedling maybe you’re not as in shape as you once were it’s nice to have the option to switch to a
Motor and you know let the motor take some of the the work workload but if you’re the type that you want to just like increase your Fitness that’s also an option because essentially you can have it where only you are paddling your bike like a normal bike but yet now
You’re pedaling something that’s a lot heavier than a traditional mountain bike so you can actually get stronger in riding a an ebike so I like having those different options and variables um going back to the motor you know it’s like if I’m going to ride around with other
People that maybe have different Fitness levels we can still go out as a group and not feel bad like we’re leaving someone behind because they can essentially keep up with with a motor and you know it doesn’t limit who you can ride with because when I used to
Ride before there was just a couple of us that we were about at the same Fitness level and skill level and you know we would all be able to ride but then others would come along and it would just be like oh man we don’t know
Where they’re at like they may not be able to take on some of these Trails or it may become more of like a rescue mission at some point than you know a bunch of guys just going out having fun so with an with an ebike you kind of
Have that option to you don’t have to be in like biker shape you know for for miles and miles and wondering when are we going back you have the option to um to use your motor and um the other benefit too is that you get to travel
Further than you would on a normal bike because of that motor option you can go out you’re not limited to maybe 10 or 15 miles you can continue on and some of them have ranges of like 30 to 50 miles so you know that’s um that’s a big plus
Too you get to see places that maybe you haven’t seen on a bike before because of this extended range of having a motor with with the battery so I just wanted to talk today about like where where my stance is I’m not sold I’m not here to
Tell everyone you must go out everyone needs to have one of these um ebikes I can see the the benefits of it but then I can also see some of the drawbacks as well as some of the dangers and Hazards um that come along with them so I’m not
Going into something like this looking at it you know as a one-sided um Viewpoint I like to look at things um from both sides and a lot of times I’m actually supporting arguments on both sides a lot of times I’m making Arguments for both sides so um that’s
Just where I’m at with this I know that I have like I said a few other bikes coming in that I might be doing very similar things eventually I’ll get out and maybe do a little bit of writing with them I did invest in like one of these uh drones
That can follow me autonomously which is pretty crazy right um but that’s where we’re at so um with all that said um I just wanted to kind of give an update I do still have things to install on my vehicles I do still enjoy making car content that doesn’t go away I haven’t
Um turned a corner but I’m just adding more things to my channel it’s a whole another audience that may um enjoy this this other content as well and who knows maybe some of you it may not seem interesting today they seem like oh man what is it what’s happening but you
Never know right I like to keep an open mind and I never thought I’d be here 2 three four years ago but here I am at least looking into it and considering it so anyway I just want to share some things with you all thank you for
Watching this video this is Ryan from rid in Style yeah
In this video, I talk about my thoughts on e-bikes and what I feel are some pros and cons of having one and riding one. I also talk about some of the dangers and hazards of owning one. Check it out!
