Speaking about cycling. Something I don't understand about bikes and e-bikes is their price. Why are they so incredibly expensive? How come economies of scale haven't made them dirt cheap?
Second, cycling in the US is mostly for sport, so bike shops mostly sell road or mountain bikes, not utility bikes. And people who ride for sport are willing to spend a lot on this year’s new tech and lighter bikes.
If you want a cheap, reliable bike, buy used. Try to find an older chromoly steel mountain bike with name brand components, for example Bridgestone. It will have fender and rack mounts, and clearance for wide tires.
Even with good bike shops, the experience of simple things like buying parts really sucks. I can’t search QBP, I have to ask an employee to do it for me.
You should have no trouble getting a very reliable, pleasant ride in the sub-$1000 range from your local bike shop. That's certainly far far less than any other form of transport. It's probably even in line with a year's worth of public transit, and will last well more than a year.
But your bike fenders appear to be what we call "mud guards" which don't act as "bumpers" at all but instead prevent mud/water from spraying up.
Did I get that right, or do the "bike fenders" have some sort of anti bump facet to their design too?
So far, the economics have only hit mid-market. No point in spending over a grand just to get a truly shit Walmart-tier bicycle. Instead, they go to $1,500 and you get something more balanced. Check out Rad-city for economical examples.
For conversions, $600 is about the current minimum for a 'reasonable' build. That's a $200 eBay hub-drive kit and a $400 name-brand-cell battery. $500 if you want a better build and individual-fuses on each cell (important for peace-of-mind if you're storing in an attached garage or something). $900 total if you want a decent mid-drive.
It will come down, but right now no one is leaving profit on the table. The batteries and electronics simply cost a fair amount.
I don't know about the US, but in the EU that "like" is a must-have, your bicycle isn't street-legal as a bicycle unless it's a pedal assist (pedelec). The cheap option of pressing a button to get power makes the bicycle an electric motorcycle or scooter, needing a license, helmet etc.
So part of why they're expensive in the EU & other markets is regulatory, a drive train that can smoothly mix motor and pedal input without being clunky is more expensive to make than an electric scooter.
In Canada it's pretty easy to build faster/more powerful e-bikes that break the laws without getting caught, though I'm sure off the shelf bicycles do adhere to the regulations. I ride a conventional racing bike myself, but I like e-bikes because having more cyclists and faster cyclists is a good incentive for making more bike paths.
This also matters because some of the components aren’t the same: for example, all of the e-bikes I’ve seen used disc brakes and many had heavier duty drivetrains due to the extra torque, so that part should be expected to be more like a mountain bike than a cheap city bike. As they become more common I’d expect those components to become cheaper with high volume.
If you look closely you’ll see they may have the brakes incorrectly installed, the forks backwards, etc.
In my view, the practicality and enjoyment of cycling is vastly improved by having some basic maintenance skills, to the point where I consider it to be a pre-requisite.
And you don’t need many tools to do 90% of repairs. YouTube, bike coops, and your local bike shop mechanics (may need to be bribed with beer) are all good resources.
I've bought only cheaper bikes for myself and kids (often second-hand cheap bikes too). Whilst in comparison a bike for twice the price is a joy, they're certainly functional and I've never had one that has the appearance of being dangerous, nor has proved dangerous in regular use.
You'll want to avoid cheap steel axles if you're doing jumps, and be aware of other limitations just like you can't enter a toboggan run on a plastic sledge.
I'm in the UK, I'd have thought in notoriously litigious USA that supermarkets would be extremely wary of being negligent wrt safety of products they're selling?
Do you call cheap android phones "phone shaped objects" too?
You get what you pay for, a <$200 dollar bike will last you years, it'll be heavy, noisy, won't withstand abuse, will rust, but it'll get you from A to B just fine.