Electric bike, stupid love of my life • Hacker News Board

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#241

Post by atahanacar » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:07 PM UTC

lostNFound wrote: post #66

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…

Surprised no comment in this thread mentioned speed actually, apart from cargo space of course. In my area traffic is completely quiet. In a car you can go 120km/h in the highways fine, and even almost that in some specific non highway streets. I always want to get one until I remember: 1. I WFH and “university FH”. Both are >100km from my house for when I rarely need to go. 2. My gym is 15km away and I barely get th…

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Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#242

Post by dicriseg » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:08 PM UTC

dghlsakjg wrote: post #198

jeffbee wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rad brand bikes with hydraulic brakes do not integrate the brake lever with the motor controller. Even on the ones you mention, that integrate the brake and motor controller, it’s still possible to come to a stop, release the brake lever, and then take off unintentionally into cross traffic because you were holding the throttle open the entire time. It’s a bad interface. Total agreement on the other part but the inju…

Huh. I wonder if this was an early model thing. My 2020 Rad has a throttle disconnect on both brakes and the rad parts and instructions for those parts include the brake sensor. The brake handle sensor on mine also operates a brake light. On the mechanical disc brake rad that I have they even go so far as to disable the brake lever adjustment by putting a warning sticker over it to ensure that you don’t adjust it out…

The newer Rad bikes have hydraulic brakes - the older ones (like my City 3) had cable brakes with the integrated motor cutoff.

I upgraded to hydraulic brakes and wanted to keep the motor cutoff - it was hard to find levers with the integrated switch. I ended up with a kit using XOD brakes, which have the integrated cutoff and are otherwise just fine. I did, however, toss their included brake pads after a bit of riding and replaced them with Tektro P20.11 metal/ceramic pads, and those made a huge difference. That and bleeding the brakes properly.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#243

Post by wl » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:09 PM UTC

analog31 wrote: post #71

tjoff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem of thieves is such a downer though. Against all kinds of bikes, really takes both the joy and the utility out of it. Same with owning a scooter and similar vehicles. And even if you have good and safe parking at home and at the office (great!), which will cover the vast majority of trips it still limits the usefulness of a vehicle to be so tied up. Yes, there are solutions/mitigations/compromises. But exp…

Murphy's law for bicycles: All bikes weigh 35 pounds, because the lighter the bike, the heavier the lock needed to secure it.

If you’re riding a bike you’ve actually weighed, the bike should be in your sight or locked up at home. If you’re leaving it locked up in public, that should be a different, far less valuable bike.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#244

Post by DANmode » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:10 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #122

wpietri wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A big reason cars don't require secure storage is better policing. Here in San Francisco there's been a lot of talk about how the SFPD these days isn't taking theft from cars and theft of catalytic converters very seriously. They aren't wrong; the SFPD seems pretty slack to me. But what they're missing is that the SFPD has always been like this for bicycles . A while back I had only locked my front wheel and my frame…

I don't know what my local police are like for bike theft, but given how poorly they handle theft from inside cars, I have no hope that they can do anything about any kind of theft, ever. They even had a security camera video of the person, knew who it was, and even where they frequently are, but flat-out told us they weren't going to do anything because it was pointless and they'd just be back at it soon. We weren't…

Name and shame the region.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#245

Post by bluGill » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:10 PM UTC

abeppu wrote: post #218

bluGill wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60 years ago it wasn't hard to hot wire a car. Car locks are very good, 20 years ago encryption was added so you can't start the car withour the authorized keys. Decades before that the lock was attached to the steering wheel so you couldn't drive even if you srarted.it. and car locks are hard to pick (unlike many house locks)

... btw, since we know how to make locks that are harder to pick, why _don't_ we use them basically everywhere including houses. Are they a lot more challenging to manufacture?

I'm not an expert, but my understanding it is about tolerance and quality control, both of which increase costs. It is rare for someone to pick a lock to get into a house so it isn't worth the costs.

All locks can be picked, but it takes more skill for the better ones. Modern encryption is (so our math says, though i'm not sure what the limits are) essentially unbreakable, and so a better solution.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#246

Post by ohwellhere » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:10 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #92

tjoff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem of thieves is such a downer though. Against all kinds of bikes, really takes both the joy and the utility out of it. Same with owning a scooter and similar vehicles. And even if you have good and safe parking at home and at the office (great!), which will cover the vast majority of trips it still limits the usefulness of a vehicle to be so tied up. Yes, there are solutions/mitigations/compromises. But exp…

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 had a coworker have his bike stolen on 5th Ave in New York City while thoroughly chained and U-locked to scaffolding at 9am with hundreds of pedestrian passersby in the time it took him to go up the passenger elevator and down the freight elevator.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#247

Post by DANmode » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:11 PM UTC

somerandomqaguy wrote: post #87

blamazon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars once upon a time required a secure storage space for security. Technology improved, comprehensive insurance became a social norm, etc, and now you can just snug it against a curb, hop out of your car and press a button and generally not worry about theft, but if it does happen you're covered. Why can't e-bikes be this way? My answer: they can and are, just not all of them yet.

Technology improved, but cars one main advantage. To steal a 4000lbs car one needs either a tow truck, or to enable the engine, or a lot of guys to push. To steal a 15 lbs bicycle, one need only pick it up and walk away.

Good ebikes are/will be 75-150lbs.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#248

Post by atahanacar » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

the_snooze wrote: post #23

> Depending on which country you live in top speeds will differ. In Japan the bike’s are capped at 24km/h. In America, 32km/h. Some places only allow for pedal-assist — meaning the motor only works when pedaling. Others allow throttles, blurring the line between bike and scooter. I’m lucky enough to live somewhere that I use a regular human-powered bike for my workweek commute. I think pedal-assist e-bikes are great…

>pedal-assist e-bikes are great for making this accessible to more people

They also make every excuse against bike infrastructure invalid.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#249

Post by georgeoliver » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

mulmen wrote: post #130

Rnonymous wrote: post #5

Coincidentally, this past week, VanMoof, the X3 discussed in the article, closed all stores and are on the edge of bankruptcy, with a lot of media attention in the Netherlands. Beautiful smart bikes, but the quality of components is horrible.

Yeah very disappointing. I'm e-bike curious but they're all so _ugly_. Something with VanMoof style and a "dumb" drive system would be perfect. Give me a conventional derailleur-and-cassette in the back and an electric drive up front without screaming "this is an e-bike!" in my face and I would be the first in line.

Ebikes are ugly (subjectively speaking) because of the battery, but there are significant trade-offs when you design that away, like vendor-locked designs and energy capacity/performance. Assuming battery technology will improve, which seems likely, ebikes should get nicer looking (again, subjectively) in the future.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#250

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 7:16 PM UTC

entropicgravity wrote: post #211

tjoff wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem of thieves is such a downer though. Against all kinds of bikes, really takes both the joy and the utility out of it. Same with owning a scooter and similar vehicles. And even if you have good and safe parking at home and at the office (great!), which will cover the vast majority of trips it still limits the usefulness of a vehicle to be so tied up. Yes, there are solutions/mitigations/compromises. But exp…

Having rode motorcycles and an ebike scooter in the past, both of these have an integrated lock for the handle bars. This means a thief can't just cut the lock and roll the bike away because the handle bars are locked at an angle. The thief then has a choice of carrying the bike, breaking the handle bar lock, or awkwardly picking up the front tire and dragging it. All of which takes time and is obvious to on lookers…

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