If you have visited your local bicycle/e-bike shop in the last six months, bet you were surprised at the lack of bike inventory. The pandemic has been very good for bicycle and e-bike sellers. Most brands can’t keep up with demand. So why is R.E.I. deeply discounting three Cannondale e-bikes? My theory is that these models are powered by 250-watt motors.
Americans have always been horsepower obsessed. Most sold-out e-bike manufacturers figured this out early and offered their e-bikes with power as close to the 750-watt limit as possible. Why settle for a lowly 250 watts unless you ride in European countries where e-bikes are limited to 250-watts?
Should you take advantage of this killer discount? If you are tired of waiting for your first choice e-bike to come back into stock, then maybe the Cannondale makes sense because of its availability.
