131–140 of 308 posts
Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for. Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. Ditto for some of the other details on the bike, like the medium-dish carbon rims — all for the sake of weight savings and aerodynamics (sinc…
Uh, no?
Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for. Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. Ditto for some of the other details on the bike, like the medium-dish carbon rims — all for the sake of weight savings and aerodynamics (sinc…
Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive That's not necessarily true. Most carbon frames are expensive because they are high-end models, not because of the material itself. I would be worried about durability though, if this is used like other commuter bikes. Carbon frames usually come warnings to not lean them against sharp objects, not sit on the top tube, etc. Unlike metals, the fibers are only strong in on…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
E-bikes are perhaps the most misunderstood category of bike products right now. Traditional bikers have underestimated demand for e-bikes at every step of the way for one reason: Traditional biking has a massive selection bias effect that excludes anyone who isn’t in great physical shape. The deeper you are into cycling, the more homogenous your perception of what constitutes a biker. You’re not going to see average…
I think you’re missing his point. He wasn’t saying e-bikes were bad or pointless, he was saying that the design decisions made around this bike don’t make sense for an e-bike commuter or a performance racer or basically anyone. I’m similarly confused.
On top of that people are already spending thousands of dollars on ebikes- this really isn't that much more expensive than a much shittier version. The "best ebike" according to Wired last year is the exact same price as this one but weighs five pounds more.
Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for. Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. Ditto for some of the other details on the bike, like the medium-dish carbon rims — all for the sake of weight savings and aerodynamics (sinc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what it's worth, you do have to pedal yourself (its e-assist), but you just don't have to pedal as hard.
This is not what I see; these things go-go-go, even if the rider puts out no effort. I see people going over 40 km/h on e-bikes while basically just barely pretending to pedal.
It takes less effort to cycle, and so you can get faster speeds easier - my Vanmook would get it 30kmph with medium effort effort on flat roads, but then i can coast on that for a bit as it slows down (its not maintaining this speed through a motor). But you still have to cycle - it's not a motorbike.
Edit: Ah ok Geoff not Greg.
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I agree with the overall sentiment — who is this for? — but: > carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. just isn't true. Many hobbyist/amateur/weekend warrior-type cyclist ride carbon bikes. They can be had at lowish prices (my first was £1000) to mu…
> A double chainring setup likely offers smaller gaps between gears but likely a comparable overall range from lowest to highest. This isn't true. This bike is using a 40 gear crank in the front with an 11-40 cassette in the back. That puts the gear ratio at 1.0 on the low end and 3.64 on the high end. The corresponding Shimano GRX setup with a double chainring would be a 46-30 in the front and a 11-34 in the back. T…
At the other end, the assist is going to cover a lot of gearing, and it’s going to make the gaps in a 1x setup a lot less important.
(FWIW, I ride a 1x42/11-42 and a 2x 50/34-11/32. And a triple on the tandem, and I lived with a cx geared 1x 39-12/28 for a few years. High gears are drastically overrated unless you’re racing)
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I honestly don't think it's that expensive, comparitively. Electric bikes are around £2000-£3000 (though both the new Vanmoof and Cowboy are right at £2000), so this seems to be just priced a bit more premium for a presumably lighter and more premium bike. Sadly it lacks things like the insurace/bike theft protection that others have, which is a huge deal breaker. I do like the look of this bike, and if i was a bit m…
I tried both the previous gen and newest version of Vanmoof and Cowboy. I do not like the automatic gear shifting in Vanmoof one bit. The Cowboy is single-speed gear and the motor intelligently adjust the level of support so you don't feel the lack of gears. This gives a super smooth experience, and I honestly expect all electric bikes to transition to this setup over time.
unfortunately i agree with you. the electronic automatic gear shifting in the new vanmoof is a regression :(
Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for. Carbon fibre frames are prohibitively expensive and the market for them serves very involved, often professional or semi-pro cyclists whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves. Ditto for some of the other details on the bike, like the medium-dish carbon rims — all for the sake of weight savings and aerodynamics (sinc…