I was talking to  a gentleman the other day  who had an electric hub motor on his bicycle. I asked him if it had a decent range on a charge and he said it was great he could go on his regular bike ride and never have to pedal. Ok while I have nothing against electric assist systems I actually think they have  some good uses. I always thought of them as electric ASSIST systems designed to help out with your pedaling efforts, you know like helping you  up a long hill or helping to get you moving when you have a full load on your bike. Personally I think if you want  an electric only bike there are many fine examples such as  the  eGO vehicles.  I would like to have  a system like Bionix  you can set  your  level of assist wanted  or just turn it off when no assist is needed. It also has the option of regenerative braking. This I think is a great feature. More then a few times I have  found myself heading down a steep hill making generous use of my brakes to  keep my speed down below windburn speed. With  the regenerative braking  set it to a high level  and let it keep your speed in check without  a lot of extra wear and tear on your breaks. Sounds like  a  real good  solution if you have a cargo bike or are loaded up for touring. Now I know there are probably quite a few cyclist out there who  would look down on using an electric assist  system while touring , but you know I think the most important part of a bike tour is actually enjoying the tour; now some may enjoy telling stories of how they  made it up some long mountain pass  reaching the top with their legs burning and having to stop and throw up before continuing on. I personally have  no problem pushing myself up a long hill and have felt the burn more then a few times but if by employing an electric assist system I can avoid the puking at the top of the hill then I say that’s a good thing. A good place to get started on finding out about electric transportation is http://www.electric-bikes.com/ They have all sorts of good information there.