That's pretty sweet. But $500 is where it'll catch on, not $3,600.
Anyone who has built their own bikes quickly realizes how easy it is to get to the order of thousands. $3500 for carbon fiber is fairly reasonable.
The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
51–60 of 61 posts
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#52It'd feel awfully strange riding a bike without my hands out in front of me. Also: * My crappy commuter bike probably costs between 1 and 5% of the price of this thing. * How's it deal with rain/dirt? * Sometimes I do want to just lock it up. Imagine going to the grocery store... at 22 pounds you don't want to haul it around inside. I have a lot more peace of mind locking up my cheap commuter bike outside. Still, it…
It was either going to be you or I who responded ;) My biggest concern when I saw this originally was the emergency braking scenario. Which basically involves doing a face plant and using your nose and forehead to slow you down by embedding it in the floor. One of the selling points mentioned in the article is, "you can jump forward off the bike in a crisis; there’s no hardware in your way". Which seems strange as ev…
On the "face plant when braking" angle, even a normal bicycle is at risk for this with a lot of handlebar designs, like the simple straight length of tube I have. I slammed my brakes once last year when a car turned in front of me, and the bike stopped. I kept going, yanking the bicycle to then fly over me.
* At speed I now always brace my arms behind the handlebar. * Damn I'm glad I was wearing gel padded gloves. * I am very much considering different handlebars.
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
In that case it is more of a motorcycle anyway. Where is the point in cycling if you don't have to use your own muscles to ride?
More like a moped actually. :-) Where is the point in cycling if you don't have to use your own muscles to ride? Because sometimes you have the energy and sometimes you don't. Sometimes you're ok with sweating and sometimes you aren't. Some days are 100F degrees and some are 60F. Maybe you're not strong enough to maintain your speed up a hill by your house but you're ok for the rest of the trip. It might lower that o…
Exactly. I got in a little argument with my sister the other day about how obnoxious the modified bikes were that cruise around her neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico. People attach little two-stroke engines (or whatever) that are loud and polluting. My argument was basically, just f'ing pedal. But she made the point that in the tropics, sometimes you want to avoid the sweating that comes from just a few pedals down a sunny street, and, second, not everyone can afford a scooter or moped (or ac'ed car!).
Puerto Rico just announced proposed penalties for these modded bikes, which seem a bit harsh: http://www.elnuevodia.com/noticia_noticias_politica-879951.h...
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#54Frankly, I don't see the point of electric bicycles. I have not seen any electric bicycle that offered any real advantage to a normal muscle-operated one. As a matter of fact, bicycles are one of the oldest and most refined technologies available to us. They are marvelously efficient, they are light and versatile. Adding an electric motor and battery makes them heavy, limits your range and decreases the amount of con…
> I have not seen any electric bicycle that offered any real advantage to a normal muscle-operated one. Some people don't have showering facilities at work, or do not want to carry a change of clothes with them. An electric bike is less likely to produce a stinky cyclist.
This is absolutely the number one error people from non-bicycling nations make about utility cycling.
Don't want to get sweaty? Just use your gears and slow down. You don't run to the corner store, you walk. Likewise with cycling to work - it's easy to travel at a comfortable pace that won't leave you sweaty or out of breath.
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#55It'd feel awfully strange riding a bike without my hands out in front of me. Also: * My crappy commuter bike probably costs between 1 and 5% of the price of this thing. * How's it deal with rain/dirt? * Sometimes I do want to just lock it up. Imagine going to the grocery store... at 22 pounds you don't want to haul it around inside. I have a lot more peace of mind locking up my cheap commuter bike outside. Still, it…
It was either going to be you or I who responded ;) My biggest concern when I saw this originally was the emergency braking scenario. Which basically involves doing a face plant and using your nose and forehead to slow you down by embedding it in the floor. One of the selling points mentioned in the article is, "you can jump forward off the bike in a crisis; there’s no hardware in your way". Which seems strange as ev…
A road bike is a piece of athletic equipment. It can be maneouvered in several ways to emergency brake, drastically swerve or accelerate to avoid an accident.
This little thing looks more like a tea cart. With you as the bumper. No way am I riding this dangerous little thing.
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#56A better alternative was already invented years ago: http://totallyabsurd.com/bethebike.htm
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a ridiculously happy Brompton owner and fanboy (how's that for a disclaimer!) let me assure you that they are no pain at all to fold or unfold. I have challenged a dozen people to get their bikes locked to a post in the time it takes me to fold the Brommy. No one has succeeded to date.
You must be leaving out some salient details on why it takes your friends such a long time to lock up their bikes. You live in a city with a high bicycle theft crime rate perhaps? So how long are we talking about? The video links by the next commenter shows it taking about 20-30 seconds. I manage to lock up my bike with a simple 4 digit combo chain in less than 10 seconds, but I can get away with locking it to itself…
Yes, SF has very high bike theft rates. Around here a chain or cable isn't considered a lock at all.
That's not why though. One has to get off the bike, get a key out, get the lock out, lean the bike against whatever one is locking it to, put the lock on, and work the key.
With the Brompton, one simply gets off and folds it.
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
People wiped themselves with writing paper, wool, hemp, seashells, corn cobs, sponges, stones, small wooden planks, moss, snow, and their own hands. Pretty much anything. Of course some of these methods are still in use today, depending on where you look.
You are forgetting about a 17th-century invention based on running water [1] which, by the way, to this day is considered by many to be significantly more hygienic than wiping. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet
That device doesn't seem very portable. I guess there are trade-offs to everything.
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
This makes no sense. I've seen women in skirts blasting up a hill by my house with a kid in a bike seat that would leave me huffing and puffing at any speed. They don't even have to get off the seat. The enhanced pedaling makes you stronger not just faster. That means less sweating.
In that case it is more of a motorcycle anyway. Where is the point in cycling if you don't have to use your own muscles to ride?
> Where is the point in cycling if you don't have to use your own muscles to ride?
In the case of the vehicle in the article, it is transportation.
For instance, I live in the Puget Sound area, across from Seattle. If I were to get a job in Seattle, my commute would consist of driving my car to the ferry terminal, paying something like $15 for transportation for me an my car to Seattle, then driving on to work. Reverse the process to come home. $30 in ferry fees for the day.
With a device like the one in the article, that could be changed to driving my car to the free park-and-ride lot near the Ferry terminal, riding the bike to the terminal, folding it up and going on as a walk-on. In Seattle, I could then unfold the bike and head on to work. Reverse the process to come home. The ferry fee for walk-on passengers is $7 in one of the directions, and free in the other direction.
In under a year, the $23 per day saved in ferry fares would pay for the bike.
A regular bike would simply not work for me for this. The hills in Seattle would be too much for me.
Re: The Commuter Bike Redesigned and Electrified
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have not seen any electric bicycle that offered any real advantage to a normal muscle-operated one. Some people don't have showering facilities at work, or do not want to carry a change of clothes with them. An electric bike is less likely to produce a stinky cyclist.
This is absolutely the number one error people from non-bicycling nations make about utility cycling. Don't want to get sweaty? Just use your gears and slow down. You don't run to the corner store, you walk. Likewise with cycling to work - it's easy to travel at a comfortable pace that won't leave you sweaty or out of breath.
Perfectly put. That is what I was trying to say ;-)