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Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

lemond.com

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Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#231

Post by chrismorgan »

whyleyc wrote: post #161
chrismorgan wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for pulling me up on that—I’ve certainly complained about things I find particularly annoying before, but I do try to make such complaints valuable by explaining the technical side of things (why the problem occurred, and why it matters) and a solution, which I know other developers find helpful sometimes. Done in moderation, I reckon that normally satisfies that guideline (because it’s not just a complaint…

I'm not 100% convinced Greg LeMond is hanging out on HN, nor that he handcrafted this particular website. If he is and he did then he has made a spectacular midlife career pivot.

Looks like it’s his son, even if he’s just trying this out briefly, so there’s still likely to be a feedback loop.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#232

Post by closeparen »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #60
_verandaguy wrote: post #5

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…

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…

Decoupling transportation and exercise is valuable even if you are in shape.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#233

Post by mulmen »

closeparen wrote: post #230
mulmen wrote: post #226

This is really cool from a tech perspective. I’m sure it’s a great product too. The thing that bothers me about e-bikes in the US specifically is that we seem to be rediscovering scooters but worse. Among other things I am a motorcycle rider. I took the class. Before the pandemic I commuted on a 1970 Honda CB450. I know the risks, and the rules. These are mopeds at best . Electric motorcycles at worst . Europe and es…

Class 1 ebikes go no faster than an athletic cyclist would (20mph), and most bike lanes / paths are restricted to those. Another gambit I've seen that tends to moderate my speed on an ebike is a "green wave" tuned for 13mph. No point going any faster.

Sure but where I live there is precisely zero enforcement of speed or capability. You also have to consider the effect of adding orders of magnitude more “athletic riders” to bike paths. Especially when the new riders are new to the speeds. And when pedestrians are used to having fast cyclists ride in the road, which is the norm here.

Ebikes are nothing short of a menace on my local bike path.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#234

Post by brudgers »

closeparen wrote: post #230
mulmen wrote: post #226

This is really cool from a tech perspective. I’m sure it’s a great product too. The thing that bothers me about e-bikes in the US specifically is that we seem to be rediscovering scooters but worse. Among other things I am a motorcycle rider. I took the class. Before the pandemic I commuted on a 1970 Honda CB450. I know the risks, and the rules. These are mopeds at best . Electric motorcycles at worst . Europe and es…

Class 1 ebikes go no faster than an athletic cyclist would (20mph), and most bike lanes / paths are restricted to those. Another gambit I've seen that tends to moderate my speed on an ebike is a "green wave" tuned for 13mph. No point going any faster.

If the path is mixed with pedestrians, 20mph on a bicycle is irresponsible whether peddling or ebiking.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#235

Post by jjav »

mulmen wrote: post #226

This is really cool from a tech perspective. I’m sure it’s a great product too. The thing that bothers me about e-bikes in the US specifically is that we seem to be rediscovering scooters but worse. Among other things I am a motorcycle rider. I took the class. Before the pandemic I commuted on a 1970 Honda CB450. I know the risks, and the rules. These are mopeds at best . Electric motorcycles at worst . Europe and es…

> These are mopeds at best. Electric motorcycles at worst.

These are very far from that. This LeMond ebike has a 250W motor. Any moderately strong cyclist can put out more than 250W. Very strong riders can do double that. And the motor assists cut off at 20mph.

Even a weak cyclist like me (~180W FTP) can trivially do 20mph on a regular bike if the trail is flat so that's hardly a high speed.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#236

Post by QuotedForTruth »

ck2 wrote: post #163

Whatever happened to that 3 pound bike? https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/superstrata-bike Would rather have that than a 26 pound e-bike.

The frame weighs 3 lbs, not the whole bike. The bike weighs 16.5 lbs which is a normal lightweight bike weight. Their e-bike supposedly weighs 24 lbs.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#237

Post by slim »

closeparen wrote: post #232
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #60

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…

Decoupling transportation and exercise is valuable even if you are in shape.

why? if time is your most precious asset, coupling them makes the best value you can get

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#238

Post by mulmen »

jjav wrote: post #235
mulmen wrote: post #226

This is really cool from a tech perspective. I’m sure it’s a great product too. The thing that bothers me about e-bikes in the US specifically is that we seem to be rediscovering scooters but worse. Among other things I am a motorcycle rider. I took the class. Before the pandemic I commuted on a 1970 Honda CB450. I know the risks, and the rules. These are mopeds at best . Electric motorcycles at worst . Europe and es…

> These are mopeds at best. Electric motorcycles at worst. These are very far from that. This LeMond ebike has a 250W motor. Any moderately strong cyclist can put out more than 250W. Very strong riders can do double that. And the motor assists cut off at 20mph. Even a weak cyclist like me (~180W FTP) can trivially do 20mph on a regular bike if the trail is flat so that's hardly a high speed.

Ebikes are awesome. We need more of them. But we need to treat them like what they are, motorcycles.

My first moped topped out at 25mph and that was only on flat ground. I never even considered riding it on a bike path.

Most cyclists on bike paths are not going 20+ mph without breaking a sweat for 20-30 miles like these ebikes do.

People are going to get hurt and it will do further damage to the already tarnished reputation of two wheeled personal transport in the US.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#239

Post by closeparen »

brudgers wrote: post #234
closeparen wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Class 1 ebikes go no faster than an athletic cyclist would (20mph), and most bike lanes / paths are restricted to those. Another gambit I've seen that tends to moderate my speed on an ebike is a "green wave" tuned for 13mph. No point going any faster.

If the path is mixed with pedestrians, 20mph on a bicycle is irresponsible whether peddling or ebiking.

If there are pedestrians it’s a sidewalk, not a bike path, and a bike should not be on it at all unless the rider has dismounted.

Re: Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

#240

Post by jjav »

ogre_codes wrote: post #183
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an engineer and a biker. If you only look at the numbers or try to run simplistic calculations, it's easy to think that bikers are just deluding themselves. But there's more to it than just numbers on paper, and there's more to biking than just riding in a straight line from point A to point B. Carbon fiber frames aren't just about saving weight. The Carbon Fiber has different flexibility and damping properties t…

> I'm an engineer and a biker. If you only look at the numbers or try to run simplistic calculations, it's easy to think that bikers are just deluding themselves. Bikes are all about diminishing returns. If you spend $500, you get a bike that's probably twice as good as a $250 department store bike. Spend $1000, and you get a bike that's half again as good as that $500 bike. Drop 2 large and you get a bike that's 25%…

> Bikes are all about diminishing returns.

Pretty much everything is about diminishing returns though, so nothing special about bikes.

For instance I can (and have) build a Miata race car for $5K to do good laptimes at the race track. Or I can spend over $100K on a car to go a handful seconds faster per lap.

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