Re:
E bikes, i see it as pros and cons, assume we're talking pedal assist not twist and go e bikes:-
pros:-
it gets someone on a bike that may not have used one
if you're older or have health issues then it helps you , Ali at Fatcreations has some health issues, without his E bike upgrade he wouldn't be able to ride.
someone who would bike 5 miles to work but not 10 might consider riding 10 on an E bike.
as a functional vehicle they make sense, we ride bikes for fun, other people may just consider it transport, so E bike instead of car has to be good.
they are also the biggest growing market in the bike industry right now
cons:-
off road E mtb's specifically, some trails in some places are banning them, some people don't understand why, this is to do with trail access, if you are allowed to ride a normal bike on a trail this is because someone has probably pushed for that access on that land, this would have been done specifically for normal bikes, if E bikes are allowed to use the same trails it blurs the line between bikes and motorbikes, this issue is really concerning cyclists in America (anyone follow Drunkcyclist?) this is because the definition of a motorbike is bike +motor = motorbike, regardless of the power source, the suggestion is that motorbikes will then try and push for access based on this definition which means you might end up losing all access for all types of bikes as a land owner might say no to all rather than have some access for certain users, not to mention the scary thought of barrelling down a trail with a motorbike behind you!
that said i think pedal assist mtb's are fine on the trails from a damage to the trail point of view as they cause no more damage than a normal bike but someone is bound to argue otherwise
there is the element of people thinking you're cheating etc, a local ride near me "the turf cutter run" is an off road ride to a pub, the ride is mostly men who are 50+, one had a heart condition so bought an E bike, this pissed the others off, pretty much all of them now have E bikes, frankly they all love them.
drink drivers, i recently fitted an upgrade kit to a normal mtb as the guy had been done for drink driving and lost his license, i'm not sure how i feel about motorising his bike, it feels like cheating around his ban. his bike definitely goes above the official limit of 15.5mph which means he should have tax, MOT and insurance as that drops him into "motorbike" territory,
"jail breaking", some of the new bikes can be adjusted via their software, this is because different countries have different rules, here the limit that the bike can power you to is 15.5mph, elsewhere it is higher, all you have to to do is download the software from another area and bingo your bike will power you to almost 30mph. that makes it a motorbike in my eyes, and that's also illegal.
the add on kits, all you have to do is look on youtube and there are loads of mental people who have botched together bikes on steroids that do nearly 50mph! that will cause other users issues as once the police have seen it they'll start taking an interest.
look at this guys set up :-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIhfwjWuj-I
apparently it's a 9000w motor, but look at the bike he has added it to, a BSO, with basic cable disc brakes, so he has the speed of a motorbike and the brakes of a childs Apollo from halfords and that's assuming the brake worked ok to start with as my experience is they just slow you as opposed to stopping you, the possibilities are quite scary.
overall all though if you take the numpties out of the equation i think E bikes are good in the right places used by sensible people, put the numpties back in and we are bound to see issues but that is life.
and that's my 2 pence worth.