I recently discovered these, even though they have been around for years apparently. I live in an area with a lot of hills, so i have stayed away from bikes because, who wants to walk their bike up every hill? Im 47 and not interested in blowing out my legs, or even conditioning them to a point to where i can pedal like a tour de france rider. **** that.
Electric bikes fix that issue. You can pedal as much or as little as you want. The bike i bought is a Rad Rover 5. It not only has pedal assist, it also has a throttle so you dont ever have to pedal if you dont want to. On just throttle alone, this bike will do 20+ miles on a single charge, or 45+ if you assist with pedaling. It'll do between 20-25 mph on throttle alone, and even faster if you assist by pedaling.
Pedal assist is the shit! On its max setting (pedal assist 5) the bike puts out something like 5 times the amount of energy that you put in, so its like you have the pedaling strength of Captain America. You can casually pedal up steep hills without breaking a sweat (or just use throttle alone if youre super lazy).
Class 2 E-bikes are allowed (legally) anywhere bicycles are allowed, including sidewalks. You can take these electric fat tire bikes offroad too. Check out this short video. These things are friggin quick!