111–120 of 129 posts
Absolutely disgusting nonsense. Get off my lawn, robot hippies
A lot of comments are casting doubt on why “athletes” would be interested in this product. In the bike world, electric pedal assist bikes have become very popular. I have some family members who are avid cyclists. They do 100+ miles a week. As they have gotten older (60+) they were losing the ability to engage in social rides with their bike friends, but e-bikes have solved that issue by giving them just a small boos…
People with pedal-assist ebikes do more work and ride them for more distance than people with acoustic bikes. Less gatekeeping, more celebration: imagine being Pogi and being able to crank 300 watts for hours on end. It would make touring the countryside a joy!
All the "athlete" and "farther" and "faster" talk is all well and good, but kids are going to buy these, hack them, and use them to create the next generation of impossible dance moves.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does "can not" even mean in this context? You could refuse to use an e-bike just like you could refuse to use an expensive bicycle. Perhaps more interesting, a lot of people I know do train but don't push themselves to the limit. There is always something left in the tank. If their goal is to train to improve it's very [lets say] expensive. They invest a lot for small returns. Now what if you could keep going if…
> You could refuse to use an e-bike just like you could refuse to use an expensive bicycle. I don't know if we are talking about the same thing. I am taking the argument from OP about "people recovering from surgery might need electric assist to keep up with the A-group", and I'm questioning this need . If someone wants to have some assistance, then by all means go ahead and use it. I'm just not seeing why someone wo…
A lot of comments are casting doubt on why “athletes” would be interested in this product. In the bike world, electric pedal assist bikes have become very popular. I have some family members who are avid cyclists. They do 100+ miles a week. As they have gotten older (60+) they were losing the ability to engage in social rides with their bike friends, but e-bikes have solved that issue by giving them just a small boos…
I have degenerative disc disease that's severe enough to prevent me from running without causing neurological problems or pain. I miss being able to run (I'm in my early 40s), I haven't done it in 8 years. If something like this could lead to treating my problem, it would open up new worlds for me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People with pedal-assist ebikes do more work and ride them for more distance than people with acoustic bikes. Less gatekeeping, more celebration: imagine being Pogi and being able to crank 300 watts for hours on end. It would make touring the countryside a joy!
I don't think this is really true in general. When you climb a pass, the distance and elevation are fixed; the ebike riders buzzing by at twice your speed are not doing more work than you - they are avoiding some of the work inherent in the climb.
Also, making educated guesses, it may be a non-issue. Most of the e-cyclists in my area seem to be divided into two categories: 1) What I would call adult beginners, who had bikes but didn't ride them much before they got e-bikes. 2) Practical uses such as commuting, transporting kids, etc. And recreational use of e-bikes seems to have peaked while basic transportation use continues to grow.
The commuters pass me at a high speed, but they're also in good control, and polite. The beginners tend to ride at the same speed as conventional bikes, or even slower.
The real problem that e-bikes solve is not faster horses, but whether someone wants to get around on a bike at all.
All the "athlete" and "farther" and "faster" talk is all well and good, but kids are going to buy these, hack them, and use them to create the next generation of impossible dance moves.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People with pedal-assist ebikes do more work and ride them for more distance than people with acoustic bikes. Less gatekeeping, more celebration: imagine being Pogi and being able to crank 300 watts for hours on end. It would make touring the countryside a joy!
I don't think this is really true in general. When you climb a pass, the distance and elevation are fixed; the ebike riders buzzing by at twice your speed are not doing more work than you - they are avoiding some of the work inherent in the climb.
It's true that the moment-to-moment intensity is lower, but lowering intensity is some of the most common advice given to people struggling to get into a sport without their body rebelling, and the challenge as often as not is that they're bored at the beginner's pace and want to push more.
It's the same concept as assisted pull ups or knee pushups. Sure, you can build up from scratch by just doing a fraction of the duration, but that's boring and frustrating. Being able to actually move your body the full distance with less effort is a much more engaging way to build up the physical capacity you need to do it without the assist.
Has anyone 3d printed something similar? Looks doable - motors and servos are really cheap on AliExpress
When Nike was working on the Mags (self-lacing) there were lots of hobby projects to try and build the same thing, but none of them could come close to the finish and integration that Nike could manage with their resources and industrial processes. These Amplify are pretty complicated: https://youtu.be/Nz2Y0e7SgFY?t=404