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Reflections on E-Bikes

ebikes.neighbor-ryan.org

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Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#121

Post by duxup »

nicoburns wrote: post #104
LeonidasXIV wrote: post #89

I appreciate the fact that e-bikes are bringing biking to the masses. I really do. But from this post I also read a lot of coping, because your cycling infrastructure is bad. Like the speed argument is completely bogus if you wouldn't need to cycle next to cars that are going that fast. If you had separated bike lanes, maybe not even attached to streets. Proper bike infrastructure is what gets people to bike, e-bikes…

Are e-bikes bringing biking to the masses? At least here in the UK it seems that standard cycling is very common among ordinary people (and a basic bike can be bought for £50-£100). Whereas e-bikes are mainly owned by the relatively wealthy as they sell for upwards of £1000.

My experience is similar, mostly enthusiasts with e-bikes. It doesn't seem like the masses have adopted them yet as far as buying a bike goes.

It's a very expensive risk / unknown result for most folks who don't alredy bike.

Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#122

Post by gambiting »

nicoburns wrote: post #104
LeonidasXIV wrote: post #89

I appreciate the fact that e-bikes are bringing biking to the masses. I really do. But from this post I also read a lot of coping, because your cycling infrastructure is bad. Like the speed argument is completely bogus if you wouldn't need to cycle next to cars that are going that fast. If you had separated bike lanes, maybe not even attached to streets. Proper bike infrastructure is what gets people to bike, e-bikes…

Are e-bikes bringing biking to the masses? At least here in the UK it seems that standard cycling is very common among ordinary people (and a basic bike can be bought for £50-£100). Whereas e-bikes are mainly owned by the relatively wealthy as they sell for upwards of £1000.

Living in the UK myself, I just wouldn't dare owning an e-bike and using it for anything outside of recreation, the theft of bicycles is crazy high, and the high purchase price is just not worth the risk. Yes you can get insurance but they usually have loads of exclusions so if you actually want to commute to work or to shops and leave the bike anywhere(even with a good lock) it's dodgy in terms of insurance. On the other hand my £50 scrappy looking bike deters theft by just looking too cheap to steal so I don't mind using it for commute.

Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#123

Post by gambiting »

RegW wrote: post #117
nicoburns wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are e-bikes bringing biking to the masses? At least here in the UK it seems that standard cycling is very common among ordinary people (and a basic bike can be bought for £50-£100). Whereas e-bikes are mainly owned by the relatively wealthy as they sell for upwards of £1000.

Conversion kits start at around £150 and can be fitted to that £50 bike. The biggest issue I see for higher priced bikes is secure parking (as mentioned in the article). No one provides secure/supervised parking and its tricky to get insurance. You can't really lock any nice bike outside the supermarket and always expect it to be there when you get back.

Do they start that cheap? I'm looking at this website and there's nothing even close to that price:

https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/best-electric-bike-conv...

Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#124

Post by gambiting »

kitkat_new wrote: post #114
dlisboa wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To be honest, I don't get the appeal of e-bikes for the type of riding you do. Getting up to 15 MPH when you're riding for 8 km in a city when stopping for lights should be no problem without disabilities on a decent bike. I think most people in the North America and Europe live in cities that are so flat biking is just like walking faster. Maybe that's where your frame of mind comes from. Where I live the hills ar…

> Where I live the hills are so steep that it's impossible to bike them solely human-powered unless you're an actual athlete. or you have (and use) gears? It will just take a while

Lol, where I'm from(Polish mountains) you can have a proper mountain bike with 30 gears, and even in the lowest gear I can guarantee 90% of people wouldn't be able to cycle up to my house without at the very least standing on the pedals - most people just give up and walk pushing the bike in fact. It took me years of training to comfortably cycle up some of those roads while sitting, and it takes a lot of effort.

Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#126

Post by SamWhited »

Gigachad wrote: post #13
stephc_int13 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is clearly a pain point in need of an innovative solution, might be a sizeable market.

HN will hate this but the solution is likely to serial number every part on the bike and software lock it down so if you take a battery or something from one bike, it becomes bricked when you stick it in another bike. This would get hard with non electronic parts like wheels though.

The frame already has a serial number on it and in most places you can file your bike's S/N with the local police department so that if you file a report and they find it they can look it up and reach out to you. This part is already done and works pretty well for recovery (not for reducing theft).

For e-bikes in particular the batteries have a lock, and the motor has DRMed firmware on most big name bikes. It hasn't helped theft, it's just annoying for the user. In general the thief can just grab the entire bike and throw it in a truck, then once they're offsite they have as much time as they want to rewrite the firmware or pick the lock so this doesn't really help.

Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#127

Post by stefan_ »

blowski wrote: post #73
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ride around in the gutter then you will get cars squeezing you all day long. Taking your position in the road is absolutely the right thing to do.

This sense of self-righteousness helps nobody. It creates a phoney war between different types of road user, as opposed to looking for ways we can coexist peacefully.

Please do not operate a car in public, it's clear you understand neither the law nor the moral obligations in operating tons heavy machinery.

Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#128

Post by SamWhited »

MivLives wrote: post #97
TulliusCicero wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this still really that common?

Legally in the Boston area nothing with a motor is supposed to go on bike paths. It was a law put in place in the 80s to prevent people on mopeds from using bike paths. The end result is rarely enforced from my own experience and from what I've heard from the local electric skateboard group there.

I don't know about Boston in particular, but in a lot of places these laws only apply to class 2 ebikes (ones with a throttle). Pedal assist often doesn't count, even though it's got a motor too.

Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#129

Post by kumarsw »

Something I've been wondering is in what region(s) Ebikes are becoming popular - it seems to be mostly the UK, East Asia, and maybe some larger coastal US cities.

Hopefully this will (in the US) lead to cities taking the idea of low-speed vehicles more seriously, which are a good fit for medium-density US cities with room for putting in grade-separated paths. For a bonkers example of how it isn't all that hard in moderately wealthy US new development, see Tom Scott's video "The City of Golf Carts" [1] which describes the Atlanta suburb of Peachtree.

[1] https://youtu.be/pcVGqtmd2wM

Re: Reflections on E-Bikes

#130

Post by wishinghand »

blowski wrote: post #73
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ride around in the gutter then you will get cars squeezing you all day long. Taking your position in the road is absolutely the right thing to do.

This sense of self-righteousness helps nobody. It creates a phoney war between different types of road user, as opposed to looking for ways we can coexist peacefully.

It's not a culture war, it's usually recommended by governing bodies and allowed by law.
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