Hi all!
I am jumping in so that I can follow more of this conversation. I read through everything and about 40% of what everyone said made sense to me.
I previously cycled a lot when I lived in North Florida (very flat) and got out of the habit/lazy when I moved to the hilly north. I bought a hybrid vehicle, which is great because I commute a lot for my side hustle (pet sitting) although I only serve a 5-mile radius (which seems ideal for cycling)... HOWEVER I have a day job that is a 23 mile round trip commute 3-4 days per week.
Long story short, my transmission blew yesterday... the car has almost 200k on it, is 18 years old... and I just don't know if it's worth fixing. Luckily it's a neat car and otherwise in amazing shape (it's a 2000 Honda Insight- 1st Gen) so I can sell it for more than scrap... but now I'm seriously considering if an E Bike would be a good fit for me. I have access to a company car for very snowy days or longer trips at a $0.22/Mile reimbursement rate... so I may be able to make this work.
I'm slowly gaining an understanding of how they work, which have good reputations, etc... but here's a very vain question... are there any that are nice looking? I hope that doesn't come off wrong... I generally believe in function over form... but I'm a fan of straight flat lines, matte, etc... I had a single speed/fixed gear flip hub when I lived in florida and is was very plain and sleek.
So far I sort of like how the Sonders Thin 7 looks, although I don't know that I'm a fan of the fully blocked in center look... but just curious if there are other nice looking bikes that will perform?
Thanks ahead of time for the advice. The poor instant chats on these E Bike websites are getting SO MANY questions from me right now. Ha!