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Long Range E-Bike (2021)

jacquesmattheij.com

211–220 of 345 posts

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The more useful case ime is turning cyclists with reduced mobility into regular cyclists. That's exactly my use case. I've got a bad leg and this thing made all the difference for longer rides.

I am impressed by your solution and I took have at least one bad leg. I have decided against batteries in favour of a basic bike that I can park anywhere and carry up stairs. I want the little and often mobility with a few longer rides over summer. I also have a neighbour in his late seventies that rides 'naturally aspirated' with a buddy that is two years older. His buddy has an ebike and he is giving it a couple of…

I'm 60+ it was either the e-bike, wreck my leg even further or take the car. That was an easy choice :)

Be careful with what you've got... I wish every day that I could do the day I messed up my leg again without making that particular mistake. I rode a low racer recumbent at speed and had a nasty case of leg suck when hitting a (new to me) speedbump.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sypathetic but ... unlike cars, bikes don't have large each to read license plates. People will scream about facial recognition. I'm not trying to take away your freedom. I've just wished they'd enforce traffic laws on cyclists but it's just not going to happen and cyclists know it so they almost all break traffic laws with impunity.

License plates do not seem to prevent dangerous and illegal behavior in cars, why should they help for bikes?

I can stand at any corner in any city in the USA and count the percent of cars that stop vs the percent of bikes that stop. Bikes about 1 of 10 will stop. Cars at least 4 of 5 will stop. So, cyclists, 10% compiliance. car drivers, 80% compliance.

As for license plates, I'd like both cars and bikes to obey the law. The only way I see that happening is cameras and scanners. For that to stop bikes requires the bikes to also have plates.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We recently had a funeral for people killed in an accident that was not caused by the car driver. When cars and bikes share the same space, it might be an impact with a car that kills somebody, but that impact might be the result of a chain of actions initiated by a bicyclist.

Drivers are actually not supposed to crash into people, regardless of where they are. If you can't react fast enough to the situation around you while driving a car, you were driving too fast, full stop. Don't victim blame.

False. If you jump in front of a car who has the right of way and is not speeding it's not the driver's fault. The victum in this case is the driver who has done nothing wrong. The perp is the person who broke the law and faces the consequences.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have the laws. What they’re doing is illegal. I think they need a higher tier of penalties for the repeat offenders, but that would require anyone getting caught first. It’s an enforcement problem. The riders know they’re riding where police cars can’t get them. They also know that the bike cops aren’t allowed to ride ultra powerful electric motorcycles. They also know they can just drive off across some grass int…

Motorcycle cops can ride faster than any e-bike, and go anywhere a bicycle can.

This is not even remotely true.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#215
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure? https://www.r-m.de/en-us/bikes/load5-75/

How many of those have you seen in the US? None, because noone wants to bike 5 miles for 3 bags of groceries.

Maybe a dozen or so? But if you only have 3 bags of groceries you can just use a regular bike + basket.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#216
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the assistance you get from a bike being light is huge. I wonder if expensive light bike > assisted bike in terms of saving human effort per trip. Obviously if the e-bike requires no pedalling at all it wins but then that is not legal everywhere.

Human effort just isn't worth very much. The strongest humans on earth can manage about 400W for an hour. Even very small ebike motors are usually capable of 500w continuous/forever, so long as the motor does not spend too much time stalled or at very low speeds. For a normal human, a "legal" 250w motor is easily doubling or tripling their normal power output, so hauling around an extra 20kg on top of the existing ~1…

A heavy battery makes an ebike extremely unpleasant to pedal manually. You should try it.

I built almost exactly the same size pack (2 kWH) as Jacques in 2020 on a hybrid road bike and hated it so much that I only rode it 20 times or so. The battery still sits in the corner of my house doing nothing.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#217
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know we all carry fully charged batteries in our pockets and sometimes keep them in our ears too. But something about travelling in crowded and closed space like train with a fully charged diy (or even commercial) battery pack sounds risky. This is one of the reasons I didn't go for a diy replacement of TWS pair with dead batteries.

I would never take that pack on a train (or any other closed transport). That would be criminal, but then again, I think that that's the case for all e-bikes. I've seen way too many videos of packs going up without a warning and there is a ton of really bad advice out there from well meaning individuals who have absolutely no idea what they are doing. The welds on this pack are very good, I have checked and re-checke…

> I'm not taking any risks with 170 charged 18650s, if I would so much as drop or bump the bike I would discharge the pack and dismantle it.

I know it was not your intent, but when people hear this stuff about the fragility of EVs, it really makes them feel safer with a gas motor and a tank of liquid that can take a few dents and whacks without completely exploding.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#218
post #96
post #91

I know a guy who tried doing something like this and burnt his house down. One of the batteries exploded and took the others with it.

I was just looking for the comment telling me this is _probably_ a bad idea, so thanks!

Driving a car down a busy highway is way more dangerous than assembling one of these packs and storing it in your garage.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#219

Sort of a hijack, but it rides on the awesomeness that e-bikes can bring about. They truly are incredible if you have never gotten to ride one. E-bikes with throttles should not be refereed to as e-bikes E-peds, e-motos, electric motorycle, whatever. Just don't call them ebikes. The problem is people (especially kids) getting what are essentially electric motorcycles, thinking they are ebikes, and then causing all so…

I agree. I thought the electric motorcycle problem was overstated by people complaining online at first. Then they became popular around my house and I agree it’s a huge problem. I’m fortunate enough to live around a lot of walking and mixed use trails for bikes and pedestrians. Recently they’re unsafe to use in the evenings because you have to be ready to jump out of the way of groups of kids (plus a few adults who…

Try speed bumps ?

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

License plates do not seem to prevent dangerous and illegal behavior in cars, why should they help for bikes?

I can stand at any corner in any city in the USA and count the percent of cars that stop vs the percent of bikes that stop. Bikes about 1 of 10 will stop. Cars at least 4 of 5 will stop. So, cyclists, 10% compiliance. car drivers, 80% compliance. As for license plates, I'd like both cars and bikes to obey the law. The only way I see that happening is cameras and scanners. For that to stop bikes requires the bikes to…

Now do one for speed limit compliance.
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