My Dad is in his 70’s he has always been a cyclist, he rides about 30kms at a time about 3 days a week, but he is starting to feel his age.
So he recently got an electric bike, I think it’s a centre drive, he has to pedal to make it work, but has a few different assist settings, he loves it. Most of the time he has it on low assist, so is still getting good exercise, but his aging legs don’t have to stress going up hills, and he can make it home easier if he bites off more than he can chew.
Yes I'm 69 this year and in the same boat as your Dad, I've had both knees and a hip replaced, but have always been active. The wife and I do similar to your Dad 30km every second day, I use the assist same as your Dad on economy (low), while the wife doesn't use the battery at all she leaves it switched off, but it is there if she needs it. She is 67 but a fitness nut.
While on the subject of alternative electric transport, I may as well give my thoughts on escooters.
We have been riding them for about six years and yes they are dangerous, but that can be mitigated to a degree, on the other hand they are extremely versatile and useful.
The ebikes are more a leisure item, whereas the scooters are more a car alternative, therefore IMO usage is the main criteria rather than exercise. They are extremely versatile if they can be incorporated with public transport, they are small relative to a bicycle so are not too intrusive on a train and are quite easy to store at the destination.
So our main regular trip is to the daughters place in Perth, which is about 5km to the train, 60km on the train and then a further 10km on the scooters. If the wife leaves in the car to do the same trip, I will arrive at the destination at approx the same time, depending on traffic, if it is heavy I can beat her with the scooter.
Right so choice of scooter, unlike the ebike the main issue is range and ride, taking ride first.
With escooters your centre of gravity is extremely high and very forward, therefore if the scooter comes to a sudden stop, you do go over the front that's a given.
The best way to mitigate this if you are worried, is by riding at a sensible speed, avoiding potholes and the best thing is get one with a seat, this lowers your centre of gravity a lot and moves the weight to the rear wheel instead of over the front wheel, this is a much safer way to ride.
The next thing is suspension, if you are travelling any distance scooters can become tiring with the jarring, also the steering can be a little erratic due to the jarring, my scooter has suspension back and front, the wife's I installed suspension on the front at her request.
The next thing that affects ride and control is front or rear wheel drive, we have had both and rear wheel drive is much better IMO, the motor being in the front wheel adds a lot of weight to the front, where your weight bias is when standing anyway, also the braking effect of the throttle being shut down on the front wheel drive adds to the forward weight transfer.
Which leads to brakes, most escooters have regenerative braking, where the motor becomes a generator on deceleration therefore as with an EV they can be set up such that a lot of the braking can be done with throttle control. As far as mechanical brakes go, I would definitely go with disc brakes, the wife has drum front and regenerative rear, mine has discs front and back.
Now we go to well what is the main difference, in a word range, which as usual goes back to battery and motor size. Which size should you get? depends on your budget, the distance you want to do, the speed you want to travel at and your WEIGHT.
The wife's scooter has a 550 watt/hour battery and a 400w motor, she is approx the same height as me but 25kg lighter, she will get about 30% greater range from the same scooter.
My scooter has a 1500Wh battery and a 1,000w motor plus a 130kg load capacity.
If I use her scooter I would comfortably get 30km on low speed, on mine I will get about 70km.
She will get about 40km on hers and about 90km on mine.
So there are my thoughts on the escooters, dangerous? Yes I did break my leg being stupid, do I still use it? Yes it is still a fantastic and versatile piece of transportation.
You just have to be sensible riding it and set it up right first time, a seat and mirror is a must at my age.
With the seat the steering post on mine is height adjustable, so when I installed the seat I could lower the handlebars to suit, that was a consideration when I chose my scooter, the wife's doesn't have a seat, it is only standup, which she is happy with, eventually I will get her one like mine when hers wears out, but fortunately that is taking a long time.