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Electric bike, stupid love of my life

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Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#371

Post by schubart »

chriswarbo wrote: post #227
carabiner wrote: post #207

What are people's experiences with folding e-bikes? I'm most interested in the Gocycle, but it costs as much as a used car. This Siggi https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/siggi-unfold-everyday-lif... looks great and only weighs 13 kg but has all the risks of a crowdfunding project (massive delays and initial quality issues). It's the first I've seen with regenerative braking, and you can pedal backwards to charge it.

They're useful on the train (my commute's train didn't allow nonfolding bikes, since the line heads to/from London which makes it crowded). I previously left my acoustic bike locked at the station all day; but wouldn't dare with an ebike, so I got a folder.

“Acoustic bike” as opposed to e-bike… I’ll steal that!

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#372

Post by jdjdjdhhd »

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…

> 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.

Too bad you can't do that with cars or as a pedestrian /s

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#373

Post by jdjdjdhhd »

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 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.

You can use GPS on a bicycle ... Or even as a pedestrian

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#374

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

daveoc64 wrote: post #262
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an interesting problem here in Bristol where a couple had improvised an e-cargo bike locking solution on the side of the road using a couple of planters. Unfortunately, the council aren't happy about it and are threatening to remove them. Seems like parking spaces are unfairly prioritising cars or at least aren't flexible in providing locking points for e-bikes. Bristol City Council do have a scheme for bike…

>Unfortunately, the council aren't happy about it and are threatening to remove them. Quite rightly too - it's simply not legal for them to put it there. There are proper processes in place to get an official hangar installed. These might be challenging, but that's the only fair way to do things. I think the biggest problem with cars is that we happily accept the impact they have on the entire community, just so that…

> There are proper processes in place to get an official hangar installed. These might be challenging, but that's the only fair way to do things.

I don't believe the council provide official hangars that can fit a cargo bike and there's a significant waiting list for hangars as well as needing multiple neighbours declaring that they're going to use them. Unofficial solutions seem to be the only thing possible.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#375

Post by globular-toast »

isoprophlex wrote: post #196
globular-toast wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you are a tourist in a Dutch city you will quickly be disabused of the notion that there is no road rage between pedestrians and cyclists. Do not ever idly wander into a Dutch cycle lane, at any cost. You will be treated as invisible, people will cycle straight through you. Should they for some reason take notice of you, they will not slow down one bit, but swerve away imperceptibly, infinitesimally, from a collis…

Oops, I see everyone misread my comment. I meant to say road rage between cyclists and road rage between pedestrians. Not between cyclists and pedestrians. The difference is car people have road rage with each other. Pedestrians and cyclists intermingling is a problem with the infrastructure. Car people can't even blame that as they have the best infrastructure of them all.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#376

Post by CogitoCogito »

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 have the same strategy of exploration except I do it by running. I recently moved to Prague and my way of learning the city layout is to look at a map and plan a rough route that connects certain landmarks and then I go out and try to run it by memory. Rinse and repeat and pretty quickly and I quickly end up knowing the city layout better than almost everyone including the locals. The only issue with this approach is that you naturally end up knowing your are much better than the rest of the city, but even that can be helped by starting out with a tram ride to some other part of the city and then running back.

That said I like doing this both by bike, tram/metro, _and_ by car as well. By bike it's the same process, but you see everything faster and take different routes. Riding the tram/metro connects you to places in other ways and kind of teaches you those routes. By car it's the same thing, but another level. For me the important part is to basically not look at any map throughout the process and find your way around by landmarks, signs, etc. Looking at a map before/after is fine, but during you should just be navigating own your own.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#377

Post by tim333 »

wpietri wrote: post #78
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 feel that one for sure. I live in San Francisco and was a dedicated cyclist. I had 6 bikes stolen in my first years here. But I was stubborn, got cannier, and kept the 7th long enough for it to look scruffy. Which let me keep it for years. But then it got stolen while locked up behind a 12-foot fence and something went out of me. I just gave up. I still make occasional trips on the Lyft bikes, which are fine. And I…

Dunno if it would work in SF but in London I have an old rusty bike, left outside with a D lock and not many problems - there are always more saleable looking bikes if the thieves are at it.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#378

Post by tim333 »

constantcrying wrote: post #278
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…

There is nothing worse than using a bike in a dense city. I love cycling, but the moment you are confronted with high concentrations of pedestrians and cars it quickly gets unbearable and unreasonably dangerous. Not to mention that it is impossible for some people, 1:30 with a train, 45 minutes with a car and about 3 hours with a bike, makes thr choice rather obvious.

It probably depends on the city but it can be surprisingly relaxing in London these days. They've build a lot of cycle ways. With the concentrations of pedestrians you just have to slow down a fair bit.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#379

Post by tim333 »

constantcrying wrote: post #370
Chilko wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a particularly nuanced take there - my road legal '250W' e-bike in New Zealand provides electric assist up to 45 km/h, which lets me keep-up with & over/undertake traffic in my dense city. Definitely doesn't feel suicidal, rather practical actually (especially compared to my 60+ km/h hill bomb commute on my previous vintage non-electric bike).

Where I live it is illegal. In a car, basically any accident at 50 km/h is survivable, even being seriously injured is rare. With a bike you just need one mistake to die.

Not sure with ebikes but with regular bikes the overall death rate is lower for cyclists than drivers in my demographic (oldish bloke). Cyclists may crash but drivers get fat and heart attacks.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#380

Post by bjornasm »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #51

Unless there is already such a thing, I want to start an open-source electric bike (well, scooter/motorcycle actually, I see the pedals as more of a hindrance to adpoption) project this Winter.

By not having pedals it stops being a bicycle, and you are just creating another motorvehicle in traffic, defeating any purpose of an e-bike.
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