Ebike verdict: this is probably very dependent on which regular bike you have, which ebike you have, and what you want out of each.

For my regular bike I just have a standard steel frame gravel bike type thing: road bike, with drop bars but big honkin mountain bike tires.

For my ebike, it's a cargo bike. Very upright, flat bars, small wheels but extremely fat tires.

I've been riding bikes off and on all my life, from getting to school or work every day, to multi week bikepacking trips. I'm very used to biking and have developed certain habits necessary for biking to be a big part of my life.

I hadn't been biking much of late because it's kind of a drag to have to carry extra clothes to change in to, since one of the habits I have is to constantly push at a level of effort that makes me very sweaty, so I need to shower and change before work if that's where I'm going. This means using a bike to go to a doctor appointment or something else formal where I can't change and shower is kind of tricky so I generally don't. I was thinking an ebike wouldn't be so sweaty and might open more doors to replace car trips.

What I've found is that that same habit of trying to push to a certain level, doesn't really translate to this bike, because it's very upright, almost like a beach cruiser, and geared pretty low plus to motor assist, makes it very easy to get going but the ergonomics are not there to ride fast, and at the top end where it cuts off the motor, you're going so fast that to keep pushing with just your legs is not really a good option. I still find myself trying to push, and still getting sweaty, if I don't catch myself.

I think that, as a riding experience it's not as good. If you just want to go on a bike ride to get out of the house and see some sights, I'd go with a regular bike almost every time. But if you want a way to get from point A to point B that's too far to reasonably walk, but not so far you couldn't bike it, but don't want to do that for reasons, then probably an ebike is worth checking out.

It feels like it's not lower effort because I keep wanting to pedal harder to go faster, but it definitely is easier, because the last few times I took it out, I didn't bother to take my mask off before riding it about five miles and felt completely fine, but on a regular bike I'd be breathing hard enough that it'd be uncomfortable to do that.

I was expecting it to ride either like a normal bike that's much faster and easier, or kind of motorcycle-like when I got it, but it's nothing like that at all. It's its own type of thing, I think, and shouldn't really be compared directly.

I think I'll never get rid of regular bikes but I think the e bike will replace a lot of trips I'd have taken by car.

In Conclusion: ebikes: not very fun if what you want is a bike to ride because you want to ride a bike. A pretty good option to replace short car trips.