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

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#41

Post by DaveExeter » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:00 PM UTC

swader999 wrote: post #29

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)

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…

>defective power tool battery packs off eBay

They have some good cells and some bad ones?

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#42

Post by swader999 » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:00 PM UTC

zdragnar wrote: post #25

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 would love to get some e-bikes for my family. However, they're not terribly useful aside from recreation for us. We don't live in an urban or even suburban area. Bikes are a local thing. If the weather is too hot, or cold, or wet, or snowy, you're out of luck. Cars appeal nationwide. They'll get you hundreds of miles, comfortably, between remote destinations that aren't served by public transport or airports. Or, t…

I moved rural a decade ago and it's the only reason I miss the city. I turned my ebike into a rope tow for the kids: https://youtu.be/KSyzwj-Faxw

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#43

Post by macintux » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:00 PM UTC

swader999 wrote: post #29

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)

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.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#44

Post by jeffbee » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:00 PM UTC

itsagavin wrote: post #21

Anecdotally it seems like these things are causing a crazy amount of head injuries. I get all the tales from the ICU at the dinner table and if I had kids I don't know if I would even let them hang out with another kid if they had an ebike. They seem super cool and I always stop to watch someone zoom buy but I can't help but notice that a lot of the people on ebikes shouldn't be going that fast and aren't built to ta…

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 regular bike. The power isn’t the problem, it’s the human interface.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#45

Post by readingistuff » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:00 PM UTC

bluescrn wrote: post #15

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…

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)

I have a cargo e bike, I use it for everything from hardware store, to nursery, to Costco, to child transport. It's an incredibly versatile mode of transport and it's what I use for about half of my local travel now.

With a heavy chain and a cafe lock, theft is pretty low on my list of concerns.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#46

Post by treprinum » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:02 PM UTC

bluescrn wrote: post #15

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…

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)

What prevents anyone from using e.g. embedded Apple tags to monitor their bike whereabouts?

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#47

Post by readingistuff » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:02 PM UTC

ryukafalz wrote: post #33

zdragnar wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to get some e-bikes for my family. However, they're not terribly useful aside from recreation for us. We don't live in an urban or even suburban area. Bikes are a local thing. If the weather is too hot, or cold, or wet, or snowy, you're out of luck. Cars appeal nationwide. They'll get you hundreds of miles, comfortably, between remote destinations that aren't served by public transport or airports. Or, t…

They're of course not the solution for every transportation need, especially if you live out in the middle of nowhere, but two things: > If the weather is too hot, or cold, or wet, or snowy, you're out of luck. I really don't think the weather is as much of a barrier as it's often made out to be. The Netherlands is famously windy and rainy and Oulu, Finland has snow 5 months out of the year, but nevertheless lots of…

I live in Seattle, and it's really pretty easy to get a shell for rain and cold. Or shorts for heat.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#48

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:02 PM UTC

bluescrn wrote: post #15

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…

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)

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 hangars which are placed on the road (take up about the same space as a car, but provide storage for about 6 bikes), but there's a long waiting list and a cargo bike wouldn't fit in one.

https://road.cc/content/news/cyclist-couple-challenge-counci...

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#49

Post by ndsipa_pomu » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:03 PM UTC

treprinum wrote: post #46

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)

What prevents anyone from using e.g. embedded Apple tags to monitor their bike whereabouts?

Wouldn't a thief receive a stalking alert if they've got an iPhone?

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#50

Post by js2 » Sun, Jul 16, 2023, 3:03 PM UTC

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…

> 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, sure.

I don't mean this to be critical of E bikes or biking in general. I wish the built environment (in the U.S.) were more supportive of biking. Things like the weather are what they are, but the lack of dedicated bike lanes are a choice we made in the U.S. It can be especially bad in the suburbs and rural areas.

Personally (U.S east coast, mid-atlantic), I could reasonably use an E bike for a limited set of my trips in the spring and fall except the roads near me are hostile to bikes and there are no sidewalks in many cases. In the summer (July - Sep), an E bike isn't suitable due to heat, humidity, and on a lot of days severe thunderstorms.