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Electric bike, stupid love of my life

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Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#341

Post by nerdbert »

karaterobot wrote: post #54
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…

I love my e-bike (and feel like I have to point that out in threads like this), but while the use cases for them are many, they do not realistically replace ICE cars for most people. They just don't. People with families need cars, and would never forego owning one (or two, or even three) of them just because they have the option of riding electric bikes. That's why electric and hybrid electric cars remain a big deal…

> People with families need cars

We have kids and since moving somewhere with good cycle infrastructure and convenient city planning I have never missed having a car. It works fine with cargo and individual bikes.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#342

Post by nickthegreek »

acover wrote: post #324
thrown1212 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes them safer, including when driving near cars. Lobby for no training if you want but don’t pretend like it doesn’t help.

Do you have evidence it helps? What course? Obviously more training can help. For example it would be useful to practice riding in the rain, ice, and wet leaves. But at what point does more training not help? When will you be safe? Riding a bike next to cars is inherently unsafe. When a car hits you, you are ducked. There's a limit to how vigilant you can be and most riders accept it's a when and not an if. Note moto…

Motorcycles do not have mandatory training in Ohio. Just a written test and quick obstacle course. Temp permit is just a written test.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#343

Post by ComplexSystems »

DANmode wrote: post #336
jeffbee wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think this can be ignored. The bulk of ebike injuries to children are coming from throttle-having class 2 bikes and in my view these should simply be outlawed. I’ve seen people crash then who clearly thought they were stopping, but who were holding the throttle. They were riding a motorcycle without motorcycle training. Torque-assist pedal systems are perfectly intuitive to anyone who knows how to ride a regu…

You want to take away people's e-bikes because...there exists a class of people so poorly coordinated that they presumably can't operate any vehicle safely 100% of the time?

That's a huge strawman. Nobody's saying get rid of them, but if they're as dangerous as motorcycles then they should be regulated similarly.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#344

Post by r00fus »

rpozarickij wrote: post #256
readingistuff wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electric bicycles are actually more efficient than bicycles (which are themselves more efficient than walking). The combination of human power and electric assist uses less total energy than human power alone!

I wonder how is it possible to use less total energy? If you need to apply an amount of energy to travel a given distance, the amount can't be that different whether the energy comes from muscles or from an electric motor (or a combination of both). These are different sources of energy, but it's still energy. I'd imagine the movement of the legs while pedalling would affect the aerodynamics, but is there something e…

Wouldn't recharging an electric battery be more efficient than cooking the calories to fuel the human?

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#345

Post by stevenhuang »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #270
DANmode wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good ebikes are/will be 75-150lbs.

wtf, no? How would a 150 lbs ebike even look like? That's an electric moped.

Same cargo ebikes near this weight. I have the radrunner plus and it's 75 lbs.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#346

Post by r00fus »

rcpt wrote: post #108
swader999 wrote: post #6

E bikes really are the best form of travel. The only issue is how do you get rid of that ridiculous looking grin on your face. You just had a huge rush, got a bit of exercise, paid nothing for parking, eight pennies for 'gas', and beat all your co-workers who were stuck in traffic. The grin is real and not a good look professionally at the office when commuting. Thanks ebikes.ca, endless sphere forums and Sheldon Bro…

> how do you get rid of that ridiculous looking grin on your face Getting buzzed by an SUV or honked at a stoplight works for me

#1 purchase for bike owners traveling near cars: Garmin Varia. Cheaper ones exist, but this one a) pulses at drivers to let them know you exist and b) informs you on your head unit that car(s) exist(s). It's not a panacea but it'll turn a bad situation (inattentive driver) into a better one.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#347

Post by euroderf »

macintux wrote: post #43
swader999 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solved it by buying crappy police auction bikes, defective power tool battery packs off eBay and cheap hub motors from China. Make the bike look ugly take your home made soldiered pack with you when you park. $1500-4000 depending on how fast and how far you need to go. I can rearrange the packs and there isn't a bike that is faster, but 48 volts at about 50km/hr is the sweet spot for safety and practical commuting. N…

My father took the “make it too ugly to steal” approach with his bicycle in college. Still got stolen.

In Finland there was a trend to paint bikes in gnarly solid colors. My buddy chose pink. Too ugly, and too much work to unidentifiable.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#349

Post by vwcx »

blamazon wrote: post #20
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)

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.

Agreed. People forget that until the late-90s, many were still buying theft protection devices they installed every time they exited the vehicle.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#350

Post by georgeoliver »

raisedbyninjas wrote: post #233
c-cube wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't tried but I'm curious about them: would a foldable (e)bike do it for you? You just don't leave it outside at all! I've been eyeing the Bromptons but without a commute it's harder for me to justify the cost.

Is there a model made where the motor, battery and electronics are all easily detachable?

In theory it wouldn't be too hard to take the battery, controller, and a front wheel with hub motor. But I think in practice even the extra few minutes to unplug, remove and reinstall, not to mention carrying all this stuff, would raise the friction to the point where it would be quite a chore.
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