Thanks for linking to these, Richard.
Apart from getting more informed by these kinds of articles in the moto press, I often use their comments section as an opportunity to present my positive experience with electric bikes. I try (not always succeeding) to steer clear of taking the troll bait, but there hasn't been much of that in the comments sections of this series.
I felt good about this comment I posted to the 5th article, and got only a little snarky at the end:
"Thanks for this series of informative articles.
You write:
"....the sound and fury of combustion give it romantic appeal. Understandably to these romantics, the hum of electric power is anticlimax, turning vehicles into appliances."
I would have agreed with you two years ago, before putting 20K miles on a Brammo Empulse R.
I now have come to a new perspective: I think men (and women) will associate physical sensations with the thrill of speed in whatever form they get used to them. We grew up with the sounds of ICE's putting, howling, snarling, grunting, roaring and therefore we assign a "romantic" association of them with our butts being hurtled through the space around us by harnessed explosions.
After having my assets thrown down the road very quickly by electrons, I've come to relish the whine of my bike's power plant, gears, and chain. The smooth, pure quickness of the experience is magical to me, opening up greater and more refined feedback of the way the bike handles now that it's been freed from excessive vibrations and useless inertial forces of flywheel, crankshaft, and pistons thrashing. This new thrill is very far away from the sterile, "appliance" feel I had imagined before riding one enough to be seduced by the experience.
Now, when I hear a Harley with straight pipes blasting up the long hill beside my house, I'm filled with a kind of pity for those stuck in the 19th century experience of having their ears damaged while their hands go numb."
