I commute about 16km~ daily on a cheap bike. The components are bad, it sucks going up hills, and even with good cycling infrastructure I don’t want to ride across town or carry more than a backpack. Next year the prices on ebikes in the US are going to start going monkey in response to both Biden and Trump’s tariffs on China this seems like it’s my last cheap chance to minimise my car use. I went with a Lectric Xpress which seemed to be the best urban commuter at a low price. Good enough to last but not nice enough to steal over the bikes next to it.
That’s more or less what I plan to upgrade to eventually if I get a lot of value out of the one I just bought. There’s so much great camping within an hour’s drive, and minus the lack of bike lanes it seems like it’d be much more fun to bike those canyons than do the really stressful drive.