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Greg LeMond’s New 26 LB. Carbon Fiber Ebike

lemond.com

171–180 of 308 posts

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

#171

For what it's worth, the Taiwanese company Gogoro already has an e-bike on the market that ships to the USA (the Eeyo 1s) that has the same weight, same range, and same motor wattage at the same price point. The design is a little more stylish too in my opinion, although it lacks fenders (which the Prolog has). [1] [2] Personally, I've looked at the Eeyo bike but can't really justify the price, given that you can buy…

eeyo is single-speed tho, LeMond has gears.

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

#172

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…

> whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves I'm a fluid dynamics researcher, and I'll tell you the money these people spend on "aero" and "weight saving" and "higher drivetrain efficiency" stuff is 99.9% snake oil. Unless you are among the top 1000 road bike racers in the world. Increasing your exercise load by half an hour per week, or spending a little time understanding and implem…

"Ride up grades, not buy upgrades"

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

#174

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…

Lots of hobbies (I want to say male hobbies , but presumably there are female examples as well) attract people buying equipment that cannot be objectively justified by the skill level of the practitioners buying it: The proverbial titanium head drivers in golf, fancy mics, amps, and instruments in music, tricked out hiking gear, etc. This might be an increasing phenomenon in advanced middle age, as we have more money…

Darn, I have a laser cutter for sale very cheap - let me know if you ever want / need another one.

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

#175

Shame it only does pedal assist up to 20mph. I consider 28mph/Class III to be essential if one is riding around potentially hostile motorists. This is a decent-ish price for a rear hub motor plus exotic frame but my dream verson of this would have a mid drive motor by the pedal crank, a belt in place of chain, and an internally geared rear hub.

> This is a decent-ish price for a rear hub motor plus exotic frame but my dream verson of this would have a mid drive motor by the pedal crank, a belt in place of chain, and an internally geared rear hub.

Very much this. It's weird seeing the fantastic products coming out of places like Luna who really understand the market and then this...

I'm looking at picking up either a Fat BABE or a Galaxy right now even and haven't been able to really make up my mind.

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

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves I'm a fluid dynamics researcher, and I'll tell you the money these people spend on "aero" and "weight saving" and "higher drivetrain efficiency" stuff is 99.9% snake oil. Unless you are among the top 1000 road bike racers in the world. Increasing your exercise load by half an hour per week, or spending a little time understanding and implem…

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 a fairly serious mountain biker and I’m not sold on Carbon Wheels. I’ve seen plenty of them get destroyed on the trail where an aluminum model would probably have been ok. I will admit to having a carbon frame, but I’m now looking at some aluminum ones as the price difference is hard to ignore for about 2.5 kgs of weight.

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

#177
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

As a data point, my 2006 (carbon frame) Ibis Mojo mountain bike has seen quite a few crashes (in the woods) without sustaining any real damage. Maybe mountain bikes are less delicate?

There's almost certainly more margin built in to a mountain bike frame, but carbon fiber has a scary failure mode compared to metals no matter what- it appears absolutely fine until catastrophic delamination.

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

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whose performance bottlenecks are imposed by the bike instead of themselves I'm a fluid dynamics researcher, and I'll tell you the money these people spend on "aero" and "weight saving" and "higher drivetrain efficiency" stuff is 99.9% snake oil. Unless you are among the top 1000 road bike racers in the world. Increasing your exercise load by half an hour per week, or spending a little time understanding and implem…

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…

if you do the math you can quickly prove to yourself that reduced inertia isn’t doing anything for you. you then either have to conclude that newtonian mechanics does not apply to bikes or perception can’t be trusted!

if you do a blind experiment, where you don’t know the wheels under you, or a third party adds weights to the rim you can demonstrate this. be sure to use the same tires, at the same pressure, as tires and pressures make massive differences in comfort feel and efficiency.

source: me, long time triathlete, cat3 bike racer, coach of a professional cyclist and state tt record holder, gear nerd who has done lots of power meter experiments and spreadsheets

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

#179
post #176

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 a fairly serious mountain biker and I’m not sold on Carbon Wheels. I’ve seen plenty of them get destroyed on the trail where an aluminum model would probably have been ok. I will admit to having a carbon frame, but I’m now looking at some aluminum ones as the price difference is hard to ignore for about 2.5 kgs of weight.

As everything carbon-fiber, a lot depends on the quality of the build.

Look for "Danny MacAskill Tests Santa Cruz Reserve Carbon Wheels": he really tries to destroy those rims, and it takes him doing ridiculous things to do so. Aluminum rims would have cracked/ bent much earlier.

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

#180

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…

> Coming from conventional bikes, I don't understand who this is for.

People who want an ebike and have a good chunk of disposable income and are willing to pay (a lot) more to have the best experience on a bike. The weight and integrated lights and non-shitty look are particularly nice next to the typical ebike offering.

> Suffice it to say, you'd rarely see a commuter using a carbon bike.

The first thing I thought about seeing this bike is how great it would be for commuting. I live in a rainy city and work on the second floor. I've carried my fairly light non-ebike up to the second floor about 200 times and it's still no fun. Pulling a bulky ebike of those stairs is a hard no.

Likewise, I know a lot of apartment dwellers who have to carry their bike up to the second floor. Plus, in general older people. Lifting a 35 pound eBike onto your bike rack is a non-starter. A lot of my older friends who bought ebikes also bought newer lower bike racks because of the weight.

This bike isn't a general use-case bike for certain, but it's got a lot of appeal in my eyes. Doubt I'll buy one (an e MTB is way higher on my list!), but if I was looking to replace my commuter bike it would be up there.

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