The Shocking Truth: Why Less Power on an Electric Bike Can Be Better!

Hey everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry, and today I'm going to explain to you why sometimes less power on an e-bike is better, stick around. All right, so today we're going to talk about why sometimes less power on an e-bike is better, but before we get into it, hit that subscribe button below, stay in touch with us here at sixthreezero, be the first to know about all the new content we're putting out, giveaways we do, and of course, new product releases.

All right, right before me, before we get into it, I have the sixthreezero Simple Step-Thru easy mounting and dismounting e-bike, linked in our description if you want to check it out. Now, why is less power on an e-bike sometimes better? A lot of e-bikes exist right now, street-legal ones typically have to be 750 watts or less in America. In other countries, it's 250 watts or less, and there's a reason they do that, the big reason is safety. In Europe and Australia, they limit the power of the motor to 250 watts. In addition to that, throttles are not even allowed, right? So they have to be pedal assist only.

Here in the States, we can have 750 watts, there are different classes of e-bike, class one, two, and three, and certain classes are not allowed in national parks, on certain pathways, things of that nature. So why have something less than 750 watts if they make it? Well, I already touched on it, number one is safety. In a lot of situations, having 750 watts is excessive. Unless you're going 20 miles an hour all the time and you need to be flying, most riders that are going around town want a little bit of assistance and don't need 750 watts of power. This is a 500-watt, and in 80% of scenarios, this is going to be more power than you need.

Now, if you're 250 pounds, 300 pounds, and over, and you're going to be doing a lot of hills, getting an e-bike that's 750 watts in those situations could be beneficial, but if you're going to do mostly flat ground riding with mainly are hills, 500 watts or even 250 watts in a lot of scenarios is going to be more than enough power. Now, in addition to that, the price is going to go up as you start to have a bigger motor, and maintenance costs are going to go up for replacement parts. Also, if the battery sizes go up, in addition to that, a bigger motor, a bigger battery is going to increase the weight. So if you want something simpler and less looking like an E-bike or less heavy, a smaller motor or smaller battery is going to be a great option. So if you're just looking for something to give you assistance and you don't want something hugely bulky, the smaller motor could be a great option for you because it'll still get you around town and give you assistance, and you'll still be able to go to speeds of 10, 15 miles an hour, you just won't have the weight you would have on a bulkier 750 watt.

That also kind of ties into the battery because typically when you have bigger motors, you have bigger batteries because the bigger motor is going to drain the battery quicker, so you want a bigger battery to last longer, right? Well, when you have the smaller motor and smaller battery, again, it's going to be lighter, the other thing too is higher replacement costs if you do have a bigger battery. Large batteries like 18 amp hour, and 21 amp hour, can be very costly to replace $300, $400, $500, or $600. So it's very important for riders, I think, to truly think about their needs, how they're going to be riding, where they're going to be riding because you can save yourself a lot of money by not overbuying or specking the e-bike that you are going to purchase.

But coming back to my initial point, I really think safety is the biggest thing, and I think with e-bikes right now, we are putting very large, very fast e-bikes in the hands of riders that should not have them. And I am personally in a lot of forums, a lot of Facebook groups, and I see firsthand a lot of posts about accidents that are occurring, I also see a lot of children on e-bikes under the age of 18 that have very powerful e-bikes, 750 watts, and they can go very fast, 20 miles an hour with just the throttle, and they don't know the rules of the road, they don't know how to properly stop, engage the brakes, and this is causing a lot of issues out there.

The other thing I'm seeing is senior riders that also are buying very large e-bikes, and there are a lot of things that can happen with excessive power. Sometimes the extra jolt can cause them to fall off, and obviously the faster you're going, the worse an accident will be. So I just stress that unless you need that extra power, it's not completely necessary. And again, I have 250-watt e-bikes, they still give me a great ride experience on flat ground, and I can still go up to 20 miles an hour on a 250-watt. Now, they're not going to go up some of the large hills that a 750-watt could take me up, but again, very large hills and small inclines are different things, so again, buy the size motor that you're comfortable with, don't buy more than you need, we want to make sure riders are safe out there, and just don't convince yourself that you need a bigger motor because they exist, right?

I think that's true of all product categories like cars, everything else, we want to continue to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. But I can tell you that having a larger motor, again, as I said, drains your battery quicker, there are replacement cost issues, there are safety issues, so don't just convince yourself because that product exists that you need to have something bigger because bigger is not always better. And I want to see e-bikes as a prolonged thing in our society, and I want to make sure safety becomes a prevalent thing that people care about because right now, again, we're putting a lot of very powerful e-bikes on the road without proper training. We're also having a lot of people buy very powerful e-bikes that don't necessarily need that motor size.

So if you have any other comments, questions, or thoughts on this topic of motor sizes and why you don't necessarily need a very powerful e-bike motor, comment below or email us at theteam@sixthreezero.com or call us at (310) 982-2877. Now, if you're in the market for an e-bike, go over to our website sixthreezero.com, again, this e-bike will be linked in our description, or you can take our proprietary body fit quiz, answer a few questions about your body and your life, and we'll fit you to the perfect e-bike for you. In addition to that, we have a 30-day test drive for your e-bike policy. If you don't love your e-bike in the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket.

Also, full one-year warranty on everything on the e-bike, if anything goes wrong, we'll take care of it in the first year. And lastly, join our Facebook Pedalers group, we have thousands of existing riders. Talk to them before you get an e-bike, ask them questions, and see how they like their e-bike before you purchase. That way you can get comfortable, and make sure you're making the right decision before you buy. So thanks for sticking around and don't forget your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.