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The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

nytimes.com

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Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#121

Post by kingsloi »

My wife and I experienced eBiking around downtown Chicago (Divvy's eBike), and it literally re-ignited my love for biking, I really recommend it if you're visiting Chicago! The bike path next to the lake is beautiful & so fun! I think we biked about 15+ miles without breaking a sweat. We did it multiple times in the summer.

I live across the border in Indiana, and have wanted to bike on the beach/dunes/trails for years. I just bought a Specialized Fatboy with a BBSHD motor, can't wait to get back out there.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#122

Post by asdff »

The biggest hurdles with ebikes are their high cost relative to a cheap used bike (nicer ebikes are in used car territory) and likelyhood of theft in an urban area. It would probably help a lot of commutes if people had a safe place to park their bike or ebike at a train station or business or school where it won't be stripped down for parts. Rental scooters and ebikes also suffer from this problem but it doesn't matter as much since the company already puts a shelf life of one month for these sort of vehicles and budgets for this turnover, but when its your own personal vehicle if you walk out of your home before work and its been stolen you might get fired from your job worst case scenario. A car is a much harder thing to steal but even then, catalytic converter thefts have been surging. If you get comprehensive auto insurance that crime is covered at least, but some people can only afford liability. Not sure what insurance can cover bike theft. Maybe a renters insurance policy?

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#123

Post by KennyBlanken »

bink wrote: post #91
TrevorJ wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It cuts both ways. I am lucky enough to live in an area with an EXTENSIVE system of mixed-use trails for bikes and pedestrians. I worry that e-bikes, which are potentially much less pedestrian-friendly, will lead to a pushback against bikes being used on these trials at all.

We're in a weird situation now where I think most people riding e-bikes are doing so illegally on trails and paths. It's not being enforced yet where I live and I fear the push-back when someone inevitably gets hurt.

> I fear the push-back when someone inevitably gets hurt.

Which is fascinating and really tells you something about ingroups and outgroups because cyclists are hurt and killed every day by drivers and strangely nobody seems to be that fussed about it.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#124

Post by dan-robertson »

Rapzid wrote: post #108
bch wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people who think that cycling is a niche hobby of rich lycra-clad yuppies I don’t know who “those people” are, or what regional politics are at play, but that doesn’t pass my “smell test”. How about deploying “think about the children” here for something that increases exercise and happiness, mobility, fosters growth… it’s not even contentious with respect to (e.g.) civil liberties. I suspect the answer is people j…

Where I'm at there is a major project to overhaul a road, let's call it "Broadway", with conservation drainage, walkability(like 10ft wide sidewalks), medians, trees, and bike paths. The project kept getting derailed due to bicycle special interests having a literal fit because a section of the road was too narrow to have the walkable sidewalks(priority number 1), the cycle lanes with adequate safety, and not congest…

From my totally uninformed perspective, it seems like the thing to lose should be the cars. If you’re having 10 ft wide sidewalks on a (guessing from the name) important street so that more people can walk there, then maybe you should deliberately make it worse for cars to discourage high speeds or unnecessary journeys. Of all modes of transport, cars are best able to make detours because they are fast and require little of the drivers energy to move. But (again guessing from the name) maybe this is a North American city and so cars must be properly cared for—it seems the car advocacy group didn’t even get the chance to complain about a single lane system because there wasn’t enough width, though maybe they already lost parking spaces or traffic lanes to the project and they did complain about it.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#125

Post by nradov »

notacoward wrote: post #36
paulgb wrote: post #4

The thing that excites me most about e-bikes is that they change the politics around cycling. Proponents of efforts to make roads safer for cyclists have always gotten pushback from people who think that cycling is a niche hobby of rich lycra-clad yuppies. With e-bikes becoming more common, I know a number of people who would not have touched a bike share but are using it as a replacement for Uber/Lyft rides. People…

> they change the politics around cycling While I agree with e-bikes being a generally good thing, I also think they involve a lot of secondary consequences and we still need to figure out the best solutions. For example, having more e-bikes on the already overcrowded bike path near where I live is becoming a disaster . There had already been enough problems with mismatched speeds, impatience on all sides, etc. There…

I'm a bit of a "rich lycra-clad yuppy" myself, and occasionally ride with other such cyclists. I've literally never heard anyone express horror at the idea of their hobby becoming more inclusive.

Mostly e-bike riders are just ignored. Like they don't affect us in any way and we barely even notice that they exist.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#126

Post by cameldrv »

TrevorJ wrote: post #86
paulgb wrote: post #4

The thing that excites me most about e-bikes is that they change the politics around cycling. Proponents of efforts to make roads safer for cyclists have always gotten pushback from people who think that cycling is a niche hobby of rich lycra-clad yuppies. With e-bikes becoming more common, I know a number of people who would not have touched a bike share but are using it as a replacement for Uber/Lyft rides. People…

It cuts both ways. I am lucky enough to live in an area with an EXTENSIVE system of mixed-use trails for bikes and pedestrians. I worry that e-bikes, which are potentially much less pedestrian-friendly, will lead to a pushback against bikes being used on these trials at all.

This is a real problem. IMO, the issue really is that ebikes are too good/too flexible. They are fast enough to get you to work quickly and more comfortably mix with city traffic. The flipside is that they're too fast to mix with pedestrian traffic. If there were some way of limiting speed on mixed use paths, e-bikes would be perfect.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#127

Post by ghaff »

ceras wrote: post #114
rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>with pedestrians Do some cities actually let cyclists bike on sidewalks? I bike 24/7 but this seems crazy. Bicycles needs their own, separate, protected paths, at the road level. Period.

Besides Europe, I remember seeing several sidewalks in Japan that allowed it. And many (most?) streets in Japan are fully mixed across modes, and have no sidewalk, so you'll see bikers+pedestrians(+cars) combined there too. There's something very nice about these types of mixed streets, but they're pretty much unheard in the US. They work very well on small residential streets, where cars would otherwise get 80% of t…

In Japan, you definitely see bikes going fairly quickly on sidewalks where there is a fair bit of pedestrian traffic. I'm especially careful in Japan to not make any possibly unpredictable side to side moves when walking because that's a good way to get clipped.

I've even seen bikes trying to make their way through a pedestrian crush that's basically the people density of Times Square in NYC.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#128

Post by Rebelgecko »

r00fus wrote: post #2

My local bike shop ran out of bike models due to the supply chain issues and the only bikes available were e-bikes. Add to this that e-bikes have much higher revenue/margin - most bike shops are converting shop space to sell e-bikes. I wonder if this contributed to e-bike sales? Also I know a bunch of people waiting for legislation to promote EVs (ie, extend the tax credit) all year (may never happen).

It's so asinine to me that the commuter benefits in our tax code help subsidize car commuting while offering nothing to people that commute via bike or ebike. If the ebike tax credit or bike commuter benefits end up becoming law in the next few months, I'm almost definitely going to buy an ebike.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#129

Post by monkmartinez »

strombofulous wrote: post #42
monkmartinez wrote: post #11

I just built one with recycled laptop batteries... super fun to ride. It was a shit ton of work to do the batteries right, but I learned so much. Endless-Sphere is where my build thread is... My bike is 2004 Specialized mountain bike. Bought the motor from ebay and just bolted it on. The battery lives in a home sewn bag I made which I velcro strapped to the frame. I have gone about 35mph on it. Do not recommend super…

I've been thinking about doing the same thing but am worried it will explode on me. Are there any tips you have for starting out or mistakes to be sure to avoid? I was hoping to use this as a project to learn electricity with and it sounds like you did something similar.

This is exactly what I did. I wanted to learn DC circuits and battery technology and I did that in spades.

Batteries are really simple, just need to respect them. If you are going to use recycled batteries, I suggest you buy a Opus c3400 tester. Run them through a complete charge/discharge cycle to identify capacity and bad cells. If they get hot, take them out and properly recycle them at Autozone. Otherwise, write down the capacity on the cell.

You can use repakr once you have 100 cells or so. I went with a 13s6p configuration for a 48volt system. I learned a ton from Micah Toll's DIY Lithium Battery book. Also, register at Endless-Sphere and start reading. Eventually the information will coalesce and you can start to buy bits and bobs. Take your time and don't rush buying right away... lots to learn.

Re: The popularity of e-bikes isn’t slowing down

#130

Post by asdff »

gnarcoregrizz wrote: post #28

Not surprised. They are a lot cheaper, easier to own than a car in cities, and are a lot of fun to ride. A loud contingent view them as a scourge, calling for ebikes to be banned, or otherwise licensed, registered, and insured, which would eliminate them as a common mode of transport. Most of the people I see riding them around here are high-school aged who probably don't care enough to deal with that. The next step…

The moped licensing process definitely has a quieting effect on the amount of mopeds you see. I tried to get one thinking I would just take a little written test since I had a drivers license already. If the state was letting me drive a multiton vehicle it should be trivial for me to be allowed to drive a vehicle I could lean back up up with my own strength. Boy was I wrong. Several hundred dollars for the moped safety course ran by a private company sanctified by the state and I would have to rent their moped for the test, since it would be illegal for me to buy my own and practice with it since I don't have a moped license. Chicken and egg. It only works with cars because literally everyone has a car you can borrow and you don't have to go to driving school once you are an adult, but with mopeds and motorcycles you are beholden to these for profit schools that have lobbied themselves into regulatory permanence.
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