I would like to budget in an e-bike for 2025 so I want to see what's out there.

I go biking to explore an area, take photos and fitness. I work from home so I don't need to commute with one but there's places nearby I would ride to more if I could get up to 20-25mph on a bike.. My current bike is a 2009 Globe Specialized. I got back into biking two years ago after a decade off it and have put 225 miles on it.

Most of my biking is city biking. My current bike is a hybrid and I do like that style where I can get into grass, dirt and gravel but it works on an urban bike lane too. I tend to stick to street, sidewalk and formal trails on bike. There's a lot of good gravel trails near me. I don't like mountain biking, I'm far more likely to hike those trails. I put Panaracer Gravelking tires on my bike and they work very well for me.

I want a bike that I can turn down the power and exercise with it get more range or turn it up when I'm biking more for fun or to go somewhere.

I'm a fair weather biker. I prefer to pull over and wait out summer storms and I don't bike in winter. Winter is a big hiking season now for me, no ticks or humidity.

My car rack can carry 4x 50 pound bikes, so I can support a heavier bike.

I want a back rack or add on capability so I could bike camp with it. It needs to hold two water bottles somehow. I'll get bags specific for it if I must. It really needs to have 50 miles range, double would be nice.

I really want lights that integrate with the battery and a handlebar switch for them. I rarely bike at night more than 4-5 miles and I don't like dealing with recharging my lights

I've tried ebikes from a few rental systems which led to some of these requirements. I liked the Lyft Bike in San Francisco, it rode really well and I liked how it added power to my pedaling as I increased my effort but I wanted the ability to change the power level to add range. I've rode from bcycle in two TX cities and I liked their simple power level throttle but on first speed the bike was impossible to ride with zero pedaling power. I rode a Lime bike in London. The shifter on the one I had seemed to be broken 2nd to 3rd but I liked how the power was just less on first and my pedaling produced results.