Continuing with bike adaptations to specific problems people have, suppose you live in a hilly city and you want to climb a street up. One can use a electric bicycle (or e-bike) to ease pedaling. This type of bike is even more important for those who have heart problems and/or senior citizens. But what exactly is a e-bike?
An electric bike is a bicycle with an integrated electric motor which can be used for propulsion purpose. Although there are a variety of e-bikes, all of them allow pedaling without using the electric motor. Its starting in the late of the 19th century was rather discrete, but its popularity has been growing in recent years and is used in private and public bike sharing systems, i.e. in bike tourist tours.
E-bikes are classified as:
- With pedal-assist: the electric motor is regulated by pedaling. Hence, the effort of the biker is increased in this electric bike with pedal-assist (or pedelec). This effect is counteracted in smooth streets in which one pay extra effort to save it in hill streets. This bikes have a sensor to detect the pedaling speed, the pedaling force or both.
- With power-on-demand: the motor is activated by a throttle in the handlebar. Sometimes this e-bikes have more power than the ones with pedal-assist. In turn, this kind of system presents three possible uses:
- Riding with pedal power alone (only human effort)
- Riding by only the electric motor
- Combining both together at the same time
Tricycles can also have an electric motor.