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How hilly and stop start is his commute? In my limited experience of e-bikes, they're great for getting you up to speed and great at maintaining speed uphill. The downside is that if you have a legal one, they're limited to 25kph and they're a fucker to get going any faster than that under your own steam. If his commute is up and down hills and/or stopping and starting every 30 seconds an e-bike would probably be quicker. If it's flat and mostly traffic light free, he might find his average speed is slower than on a standard bike.
It'd be less effort though! -
After a bit of illness and injury I use an ebike for 45-70 mins nearly every day. Quite hilly Sussex lanes, lots of short ups and downs. For sure I use the engine, but not as much as I could. I coast downhill. If you want to make the effort to sustain riding on the flat over the limit it is not much fun. When I finish I have had a reasonable workout. I need to charge up every other day when I am down to 2 bars on the Bosch 500 system. You do not want battery anxiety on these things. If I wanted to do a 14m commute I would definitely consider it. I have a Haibike HT with reasonable spec and it is fine for mixed terrain, pothole lanes, woods, gravel etc.
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Worcester to West Brom: Lazy internet searching says that journey is 35 miles one-way. Three hours of pedalling!
(Worcester to Bromsgrove otoh is 15 miles).
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has he tried riding it on a regular bike to see how long it would take / what it's like?
maybe try it on a day off /weekend first as an exploratory thing? maybe you could ride the route with him assuming you live nearby?
this is what I did when I started cycle commuting (approx 25miles round trip)
and found it wasn't actually as far as I thought. maybe alternate with train / car / bike while he builds fitness?another option is to buy a bike rack and drive part way, ride the rest.
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@Sheppz
Got a mate keen to find an alternative to driving from Worcester to W.Brom - 14m or so he reckons. And back. He's pretty fit (casually ran a half marathon cos his garmin told him to - sort of fit) but wondering about an e-bike - to take the edge off time and effort wise . Anyone got any wisdom re. speed / time / effort on a commute like that ? worth dropping 3k on an ehybrid ?