Are these things worth the investment?

link to an electric bike

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.d...

Perhaps there is a clue here in that Wal Mart lists this product under "Toys."

I've got an electric bike and after 15 months it still runs perfectly okay with the original lead acid battery. It's a cheap form of transport and costs next to nothing to recharge the battery and in the UK it doesn't require any road tax or insurance. I paid 拢400 ($800) for mine and I consider it money well spent. They generally have a top speed of 15 mph and British ones are fitted with restrictors so they don't exceed that but I removed the restrictor- although strictly speaking it's illegal to do so- so I can achieve a speed between 15 and 20 mph.

Edit- I don't disagree that that particular bike is exceptionally poor quality but electric bikes that are good quality are a sound investment. You get what you pay for and that bike is dirt cheap and the quality reflects that. Some electric bikes are good enough to function as normal bikes with the battery removed. I've been cycling for thirty years and I know what constitutes money well spent on a bike.

Investment? NO.

If you need something else sitting in your garage then get another lawnmower. You'll get more use out of it.

Those bikes are TERRIBLE.

As mentioned before, having this thing under the "Toys" classification should give you some idea.