For those looking for a totally integrated electric bike company in North America, checkout out https://www.radpowerbikes.com/ and they are less expensive than cobbling a retrofit together.
First 100 miles on my E-Bike
221–230 of 248 posts
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
But you really can't. 1) cars can go a lot faster and on highways 2) cars can haul lots of cargo 3) cars can have 3-6 passengers 4) cars drive just fine in strong wind / rain / snow 5) cars are a lot safer on roads There are obvious disadvantages too, but, regardless, ebikes are not car replacements. They are good for relatively short trips in places with good bicycle infrastructure.
If you commute less than, say, 10 miles, to work then they are a functional replacement for a car. You can hire a car, or a van, for other tasks that require those advantages. Or even (shock!) use public transport.
Yeah, so if you ignore all the points I've made, it is indeed a replacement. So is riding a unicycle. Or walking.
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's some heavy hardware! A bike trailer is 3-4 lbs, and a 20-lb road bike is around $1500 new (far less used). You'll pay more in money or weight for a cross or mountain bike, but 40 lbs is still pretty painful. EDIT: Pro deal is 50-60% of retail, so you can buy a used bike for about half of the sticker price.
You may well pay more in aerodynamic penalty on the bike trailer than you would in extra weight on the bike itself, though. It merits calculation. Also ... biking with a trailer just isn't fun. I'd much rather bike on a loaded-down heavy bike than on a lighter bike dragging a trailer behind it. And there's the fact that I'm sure you must be underestimating something, because a bike trailer has additional weight from…
I don't bike particularly fast, so I'll bring up other factors.
The wheels of the bike trailer add additional rolling resistance, and more I think than putting the same weight on two wheels. That is, the trailer wheels are smaller, which means there's more force against the direction of travel.
Most bike trailers have two wheels side-by-side. If you are biking down a dirt road, then odds are there are packed ruts side-by-side, with a grassy strip in the middle. With a 2-wheel bike, it's easy to go along one of the ruts. With side-by-side wheels it's more likely that one of the wheels will be in the grass.
(My spouse uses a trike, and has this problem.)
I think username223 doesn't understand where the weight comes in, and is estimating what the weight "should" be based on a road bike + trailer combo.
A bike like mine, for bike camping, is heavier than a road bike. I also use it for dirt roads, so it needs to handle more shocks and vibration. The racks and fenders, and of course the gear, adds more weight. There are also not one but two kickstands on mine - the one on the front tire is needed if I'm carrying front panniers, because otherwise the wheel may twist and the weight pulls it down.
This then calls for a stronger frame, which adds even more weight.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touring_bicycle gives more on the topic.
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
A fast e-bike would be dangerous, anyway. At that point, you should just get a small capacity motorcycle or a scooter.
I live in Switzerland where 45km/h speedbikes are fairly popular (since for once our laws are more lax than in most European countries). I don't really see how they're more dangerous than scooters in the same vehicle category.
The bicycle helmet instead of the Mofa/Töffli helmet is not in the same league. Cool they are (still) allowed, just like the Elektrotöffli[0].
And our laws are often more lax then Europe's. Specifically when it comes to freedoms (like weapons & privacy). Source: former EU citizen.
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#225Question to e-bike owners - did you have to handle any sort of negativity from non e-bike riders? Stuff like "oh you are lazy", "this is unhealthy" etc?
Now and then I'll get a "that's cheating" comment. To be honest I spend far more time worrying about what car drivers are going to do than an odd comment from another cyclist.
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#226I have put about 3,000km on my E-bike in the last 1.5 years. It's limited to 25km/h, because then I don't need a license, it's fast enough for city traffic (mostly in bike lanes anyways) and I get to tow a trailer for my kid. Biggest advantage: Hills don't exist for me. We live in a city with quite a few hills and day care is about 70-100m below our appartment. Doing this trip twice a day with its 15% slope would tak…
I love the idea of an e-bike but the 25kph limit just kills it. I already average over 25kph on a typical non-winter commute and there are no hills to speak of in my area. There aren't that many stoplights either.
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#227I have put about 3,000km on my E-bike in the last 1.5 years. It's limited to 25km/h, because then I don't need a license, it's fast enough for city traffic (mostly in bike lanes anyways) and I get to tow a trailer for my kid. Biggest advantage: Hills don't exist for me. We live in a city with quite a few hills and day care is about 70-100m below our appartment. Doing this trip twice a day with its 15% slope would tak…
Do you bring your kid in a trailer in city traffic? I’ve seen people do similar and it gives me a nervous fit. Looks insanely dangerous from a bystander POV.
This extremely common in Dutch cities like Amsterdam too.
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#228Author seems to think an internal drivetrain for a bike would be more reliable. Maybe somebody more mechanical can chime in, but my understanding was that the opposite was true: only reason cars have to use an internal drivetrain is for cooling and external ones are generally more reliable?
Internal gearhubs are drastically more reliable than derailleur gears and require almost no maintenance. They use an epicyclic gear train in a sealed oil bath, so most of the mechanical parts are protected from moisture and foreign objects. The use of a gearhub also facilitates the use of an enclosed chaincase, or a belt or shaft drive. The Sturmey Archer 3-speed gearhub has existed largely unchanged since 1938 and i…
I commute on a bike with a Shimano Nexus, and I feel I should push back a little on the greatness of internal hubs.
You have to change the oil in the hub once a year or every five thousand km. The OEM oil costs seventy dollars a quart, but some people say ATF works fine. A bike shop will do it for you for forty or fifty dollars.
If you use chain drive, the chain will stretch. This is largely invisible on a derailleur bike, since it has an automatic chain tensioner, but on a gear hub bike it has to be done manually, by moving the wheel backwards a couple millimetres in the frame. This takes two wrenches and ten minutes, and must be done monthly or biweekly, or else the chain will fall off when you hit a bump. (Ask me how I know) Belt drive and shaft drive bikes do exist but I have never seen them in person.
For the first year of my bike's life I used a Hebie Chainglider: a plastic slimline chaincase that rides directly on the chain. It didn't seem to do anything at all, after twelve months the chain passed 0.75% stretch, so both the chain and the chaincase went in the trash. A conventional Dutch-style chaincase might work better, but I'm not confident.
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#229I have put about 3,000km on my E-bike in the last 1.5 years. It's limited to 25km/h, because then I don't need a license, it's fast enough for city traffic (mostly in bike lanes anyways) and I get to tow a trailer for my kid. Biggest advantage: Hills don't exist for me. We live in a city with quite a few hills and day care is about 70-100m below our appartment. Doing this trip twice a day with its 15% slope would tak…
Do people give you trouble for riding in bike lanes? I know here in Toronto people hate the Vespa-like ebikes. They’re too slow for cars lanes, endangering the rider, and too fast for bike lanes, endangering bikers.
Personally, i feel like you should just not have the 25kmh limit and need a license.
Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike
#230Logging all your e-bike miles on strava is kind of lame. Even in your screen shots you can see you're taking KOM segments that others enjoy competing for from people, and I doubt those are other e-bike users. The whole point of the site is to act as a athletics tracker, and using a motor driven cycle here undermines that.