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Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#291

Post by rjbwork »

user_7832 wrote: post #199
rjbwork wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an e-bike and I disagree with your assertions. I'm a fat asthmatic and I have absolutely no problem maintaining 40kph for long stretches of time on my bike. The fastest I've done on it (on a large hill but still) is 42.7MPH (~68Kph). Average cruising speed on flat land can easily be 30-33mph(48-53kph). Not all e-bikes are capable of this, but they are certainly not some kind of rare expensive impossibility - m…

I'm not sure why you would assume the author is being disingenuous. Your bike is almost certainly very different from the author's, and a more powerful motor is going to get you faster. Fun fact/side note - power requirements generally scale with the cube of speed due to rapidly increasing air drag, so going at 50km/h is much harder (and requires a much stronger motor) than going at 30km/h.

I specifically did not choose the word disingenuous. I asked him to be more ingenuous.

His assertion was "there is absolutely no way you are going to sustain 40 Kph+ for anything but a very short period". I disagree, and I think minimizing the capabilities of these machines in the rhetoric is counterproductive to converting skeptics.

In the US it's 100% legal to go 28MPH on them for as long as you can - which for me would be nearly forever on flat ground.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#292

Post by rjbwork »

jacquesm wrote: post #256
rjbwork wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>At a guess your bike outputs more power than is legal here. From a brief look - no. Belgium says "4000 W 45 km/h limited "speed pedelecs", which are classed as mopeds for all requirements." Mine has a 750W nominal motor, but seems to output around 1050W at peak.

4000 W? That sounds a little excessive :) A typical s-pedelec is somewhere between 350 and 750 W nominal and with peaks of maybe twice that.

Yeah it's totally excessive, lol. That's just what wikipedia says about your country's laws. No idea if it's accurate, haha.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#293

Post by rjbwork »

m4x wrote: post #238
rjbwork wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an e-bike and I disagree with your assertions. I'm a fat asthmatic and I have absolutely no problem maintaining 40kph for long stretches of time on my bike. The fastest I've done on it (on a large hill but still) is 42.7MPH (~68Kph). Average cruising speed on flat land can easily be 30-33mph(48-53kph). Not all e-bikes are capable of this, but they are certainly not some kind of rare expensive impossibility - m…

I'm curious - what ebike do you have that can easily cruise at 48-53 kph for extended periods? In most countries that would be far above the legal limits imposed on ebikes. As a result, the ebikes available for purchase are all limited to 25-32 kph max and typically have power limits of 250-300 W. Since ebikes are a lot heavier, exceeding 32 kph for more than a few seconds is generally very difficult. I don't think G…

I have a JuicedBikes CrossCurrent X. They only made my particular configuration for a short amount of time around early 2018 - it has a massive battery, a 52v system, a 750W Bafang hub motor, and location tracking within the battery (though I stopped paying for it since I moved out of the city). Their newer models are just as, or even more capable.

Yeah, that is the legal limit but I turned it off in the bios. When cycling on roads I want to be going as fast as possible to keep things safer for me by moving at roughly traffic speeds and disincentivizing dangerous maneuvers by motorists. On bike trails and such I keep to 20mph or so as safe.

I actually tried to get mine registered as a moped with a license plate and insurance coverage etc. but was essentially told to take a hike by the state and insurance companies. So I did.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#294

Post by gglanzani »

jacquesm wrote: post #239
gglanzani wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using my Stromer ST1X — which lacks the top of the line motor of the ST3 and ST5 — I can bike at 45kph at any battery % above 30. I am probably 140kg with bike, battery, laptop, clothes, and stuff. Outside the cities I can go in the bike lane, and I am absolutely twice as fast as most bikes. I live in the Netherlands, so everything being flat helps.

That's a very neat bike and that motor is twice as strong as the one on the Bosch models. What kind of range do you get out of it at 45 kph?

Something like 50/55km on the 800Wh battery.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#295

Post by seanmcdirmid »

whimsicalism wrote: post #289
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A "bicycle" that can accelerate without the need to pedal at all is an electric motorcycle, no matter if you put pedal on it or not. That sounds very American. Don’t we have Vespa scooters and mopeds in the USA as well? There are plenty of bike formats between bicycle and motorbikes. In China most e-bikes aren’t pedal assists and no one would ever claim they were car road worthy vehicles, they got bike lanes or the…

I would not feel comfortable bicycling in Chinese "bike lanes", they are basically just separate lanes for the mopeds.

In China, the rich drive while the poor make do with e-bikes. Yes, you wouldn't feel comfortable in those lanes, but people still need to live.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#296

Post by ryzvonusef »

jacquesm wrote: post #33
dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the speed of motorcycles without the sound awareness, what could possibly go wrong? My overall experience is that E-bike riders generally have decent cycling manners, it's the scooter and unicycle riders that seem to think they can just crank their walking speed up to 30mph and go everywhere a pedestrian would. I usually just give them a firm "heads up next time" when I get buzzed by an electric motor whine at 20…

Scooters are a plague (and this bike is classed as a scooter, unfortunately, so I'm lumped in with the worst), but a bigger danger is mobile phone use by cyclists. That's roughly 1/3rd of all the adults and 2/3rds of the teenagers here.

you should get a "trail bell", you can turn it on to make a constant noise to make people aware, much earlier, that you are coming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRLZ1MMk3mc

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#297

Post by DonHopkins »

masklinn wrote: post #144
QuercusMax wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife just bought an ebike (from RadPower) that has both pedal assist and a throttle that doesn't require pedaling. You can also adjust the amount of pedal assist so you can "feather pedal". Who's going to confiscate this bike????

> Who's going to confiscate this bike???? Most european cops if they catch you: some countries may treat s-pedelecs as bikes, but in most it's a moped, you need a driving license, insurance, a license plate, and all the legal equipment of a moped (e.g. lights, rear view mirror), and commonly type approval (which is going to be very, very expensive). Also can't use cycle paths. Over the last few years many (but probab…

On the day that daylight saving time changes so it's dark an hour early, the Dutch police sneak out all around the city, hide behind bushes, and jump out to surprise unsuspecting bike riders who don't have their lights on yet, and write them traffic tickets.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#300

Post by spamizbad »

fragmede wrote: post #179
TacticalCoder wrote: post #27

We really need a terminology to differentiate better between pedal-assist only e-bikes ("pedelec") and electric motorbikes. A "bicycle" that can accelerate without the need to pedal at all is an electric motorcycle, no matter if you put pedal on it or not. I see the two as totally different things: I've tried pedal-assist e-bike and they're great. But... Although I have nothing against motorbikes I'm not cool at all…

And scooters, electric-scooters, and sit-down electric scooters. And electric wheelchairs, and non-electric wheelchairs and mobility assist carts with handlebars. We also have to delineate between a daydreaming cyclist who's top speed is slow, and a hard-core cyclist with a $3000+ bike that can hit 40 mph in the right conditions. Those cyclists should be banned from using the same paths as the first kind of bicyclist…

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but even a The only difference is the experienced, lycra-clad cyclists with expensive bikes just get up to speed faster, maybe with less of a tailwind or downward grade. However, unlike their speedy novice kin, they (should, in theory) have better bike handling skills.

Overall, I think a strategy of banning with people the highest cycling skills from bike paths seems like a bad idea. Sure, you got weekend warrior dentists with fancy expensive bikes but their mediocre fitness level doesn't allow them to really extract significant benefit from their high-end cycling equipment. Their fancy aerodynamic carbon fiber bikes are probably only getting them a few mph over a classic steel frame. For more serious enthusiasts and professionals, those seconds matter... for everyone else it's just a flex.

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