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Electric bike, stupid love of my life

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Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#171

Post by sleepybrett »

mulmen wrote: post #137
nicbou wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a motorcycle and a bicycle. They're not comparable. After riding my motorcycle in almost every European and Central Asian country, I'm about to sell it because every nice motorcycle day is a better bicycle day. My motorcycle is stuck on the road. I can ride my bicycle to the lake and back along nice trails. All of my friends have bicycles, so they can come too. I can also ride my bicycle wearing shorts and a t…

So do I. I have ridden both. Class 3 e-bikes are mopeds at a minimum. I see them on mixed use bike paths daily, going 20mph or more.

I was literally just on a bike/walk trail in seattle on my e-bike, probably going about 15mph and a non-e-bike blew past me like I was standing still. I'd guess he was clocking around 30mph. While e-bikes certainly can contribute to a problem of unsafe biking on a trail, they are not the only source of that problem.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#172

Post by analog31 »

I've been cycling for 50+ years, and bike advocacy predates e-bikes by decades. I'm guilty myself. But I try not to oversell cycling as a universal solution to transportation, because it isn't. I also don't promise people that it will change their lives. Getting them on a bike at all is enough of a hurdle. These days, I advocate e-bikes, though I don't own one myself, because I figure the people who will ride a conventional bike are already doing so.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#173

Post by microtonal »

tjoff wrote: post #104
microtonal wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have insurance with a tracker. It costs about 10 Euro per month. If the bike is stolen, they first try to find it with the tracker. Bikes with trackers are usually put temporarily in public space close to where it's stolen during a cool-off period to check if the tracker is still operational/followed. Usually the insurance will just recover the bike from this cool-off spot. If the insurance company cannot find the…

I haven't seen such insurance, looks favorable. Bikes here are pretty much uninsurable (my opinion) and while I happily get a tracker I have zero hope of it being useful. If you don't want a crappy bike you are going to stand out, guaranteed, and double locks won't deter. Lamp posts is exactly what I had in mind, you can only have one to two bikes per lamp post. So depending on your destination you have your goto and…

That kind of insurance is easy to get here in The Netherlands, of course it may be more difficult elsewhere. Eg.:

https://www.anwb.nl/verzekeringen/fietsverzekering

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#174

Post by kookdonk »

globular-toast wrote: post #163
rcpt wrote: post #126

Greatest thing about bikes, and this still applies to ebikes, is that you actually experience and participate in the city you live in. You learn the small roads, you see other people and they see you, you spot tiny businesses and interesting parks. I lived in Los Angeles without a car for a few years. I often met people who lived here much longer but knew almost nothing about the local area despite having intimate kn…

I know people who can't get around without a car with GPS navigation. They do not know the way to the shops or their friends' houses. It's interesting to me that road rage is non-existent between cyclists and pedestrians. It seems to be a manifestation of the frustration of being reduced to a metal box with a monotone horn, a couple of lights and the ability to go forwards and backwards. On a bike you're still a pers…

I have the opposite experience actually - majority of road "rage" incidents, which have only been contained to near misses or yelling, have been with pedestrians. Bike paths are ignored by pedestrians, they'll walk right in or through them, even when they look and see a bike coming. Pedestrians think they always have the right of way, and its very dangerous. This is in an American city though, btw, reflecting American city culture.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#175

Post by throw0101a »

zimpenfish wrote: post #70
js2 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> E bikes really are the best form of travel Whether an E bike is the best form of travel is going to depend on a lot of factors. It's certainly less flexible than a car. For one person who doesn't need to carry a lot and who lives somewhere that has dedicated bike lanes or can at least safely share the road with cars and where the weather is neither much too cold nor much too hot and there aren't daily thunderstorms…

I know someone who carries a lot, lives in London (some dedicated bike lanes, not many), the weather is, uh, random at best, and he does the shopping, commutes from SW London to Farringdon, etc. All using an e-bike with detachable cargo trailer. If I didn't live on the 3rd floor[1], or had bike storage downstairs, I'd get one ASAP. [1] I need an e-bike for the same reason I can't carry 20kg up 4 flights - my right kn…

> If I didn't live on the 3rd floor[1], or had bike storage downstairs, I'd get one ASAP.

Folding bicycle?

* https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a20048132/best-folding-...

* https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-folding-bike...

There are e-bike variants available as well.

(General consensus seems to be Brompton is (at) the top tier, but not cheap.)

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#176

Post by sleepybrett »

gerbilly wrote: post #83

Unpopular opinion: Ride a regular bike. In terms of theft, just use a beater bike for commuting. By getting rid of the 'E' part of the bike, you'll get more exercise and won't have to worry about theft. For years I rode a beater that I found in the garbage and that I fixed up with some parts I had lying around. Later I upgraded to a singlespeed because derailleurs freeze up in the winter. It's a trek earl. Seriously…

Here is why I like my ebike. I'm pushing 50 and out of shape, just hopping on a bike and trying to commute is going to be a disaster. So point one for the ebike, it allows me to ease into a bicycle commute.

Generally on my way to the office I don't want to get all sweaty and have to use the showers, so point two for the ebike. I can use higher pedal assist or lean on the throttle a bit more on the way to work and arrive fresh. On the way home I can turn down/off the pedal assist and ignore the throttle as much as possible to start acclimating myself to a truer bicycle commute.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#177

Post by triceratops »

aBioGuy wrote: post #152
bluescrn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless bike theft is solved, an e-bike will remain a toy for the weekends for most people. An expensive e-bike is a prime target to thieves. They require a secure indoor storage space at both ends of the any journey, and many potential users lack that, either at their workplace or their home (e.g living in an apartment only accessible via stairs)

Unpopular (?) opinion: don't worry about theft. If you are making developer-money then a $1000-$3000 bike is a trivial amount of money. Just use a cafe-lock with a sturdy chain and go about your life. It gets stolen? Buy a new one. Seems silly to be hesitant on a eBike because of a theoretical concern. Finding an environment where you are reasonably safe from getting murdered by a vehicle should be your primary conce…

I make developer money but that's just stupid. Sorry, no other word for it. $1000-3000 is absolutely not a "trivial amount of money" objectively. If I was going to lose that kind of money, I'd at least want to donate it so it could help someone in need.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#178

Post by ez_mmk »

bluescrn wrote: post #15
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #3

It amazes me how little attention e-bikes are given in terms of reducing traffic, pollution, CO2 etc. The BBC is especially bad at this - they promote lots of articles singing the praises of electric vehicles (i.e. cars) and almost never mention e-bikes as being far better for a lot of use cases. It also grinds my gears that there's tax breaks for getting e-cars and nothing for getting e-bikes. It's almost as if poli…

Unless bike theft is solved, an e-bike will remain a toy for the weekends for most people. An expensive e-bike is a prime target to thieves. They require a secure indoor storage space at both ends of the any journey, and many potential users lack that, either at their workplace or their home (e.g living in an apartment only accessible via stairs)

High quality locks prevent theft

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#179

Post by johnwatson11218 »

I have had three eBikes and I have no doubt they are the future. They are where the internet was in the 90s. My electric mountain bike has been wonderful but all the normal parts like gears, brakes, and tires wear out much faster. One of my local bike shops has allowed me to trade in bikes towards the purchase of even better bikes and that helped shape my experience. If I were going to get a new one today it would most likely be the surly skid loader.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#180

Post by SmellTheGlove »

sleepybrett wrote: post #169
SmellTheGlove wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Rad City and I kinda like how stupid looking it is - especially the step through model, which I definitely have. But the nice part is that the bike components are all regular parts. Rad seems to be having serious issues as a company, which is a shame because for the price they’re good frames - but if they go under, it’s not like I relied on them for parts or service anyway. Anyway digression aside, you might…

I have the rad-expand, which also looks 'stupid' but I love it anyways. But yeah it's great that they didn't go the way of vanmoof with an app required to unlock it etc. If they do in fact go under my only concern would be a replacement battery I guess? Or is that all standardized (it looks similar to the batteries on all the rent-to-ride e-bikes I see around).

Yeah I think these batteries aren’t uncommon, as far as the voltage and form factor goes. My understanding is the biggest risk is safety. There’s a lot of junk out there, whereas Rad did a good job ensuring it’s supply chain on these. My battery is nowhere near any noticeable capacity loss so I haven’t really looked hard at batteries yet.
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