With electric bikes, you would not be able to use the gears in the motors in the sense that you would shift the gears. The motor just runs itself and doesn’t require any shifting. The electric bike runs itself via automation as there are no gears or anything you would engage in. Electric bikes, however, can come with gears or they do not have to. There are electric bikes out there that are single speeds, meaning you wouldn’t have the ability to shift into a different gear, whether it be for hills or whatever else. So electric bikes, the bike portion of electric bikes can be available in really any speed configuration such as one-speed, three-speed, seven-speed, or 21 speed.
An electric bike works just like a bicycle with gears on the bicycle portion. It’s one thing you don’t want to do is shift gears if you don’t want to switch to pedal assist or don’t ride your fastest electric bike like a regular bike. The bicycle portion of the bike can only be shifted when you are pedaling if the bike is in full throttle mode. Three-speed bikes may have a different system. Three speeds can be shifted if you’re not pedaling. When you aren’t pedaling, you can’t shift 7 speeds, 21 speeds, or anything over seven speeds. It’s really more about whether the derailleur is internal or external. Those internal derailleurs have three speeds, and there are also five-speed and seven-speed options, so you don’t have to pedal to change them. With an external derailleur, you have to pedal to change it.
If you choose to ride an electric bike with gears, it will give you the ability to ride up hills, go farther, go faster, and make pedaling easier or harder as you see fit. Having gear variants is helpful even if you’re doing pedal assist as well as this enables you to choose to engage the motor for more assistance or less assistance.
It’s possible to pedal faster than the motor moves you if you have a single speed bike and you’re trying to pedal assist. The ability to shift up to a higher gear can assist you in still having torque on your pedals while the motor assists you.
So simply to answer this electricBike question, electric bikes can have gears, but it’s just the bicycle portion. The motor itself will not have shiftable gears that you will need to shift while riding the bike.
