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Electric bike, stupid love of my life

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Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#71

Post by analog31 »

tjoff wrote: post #35
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…

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.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#73

Post by woleium »

swader999 wrote: post #63
DaveExeter wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>defective power tool battery packs off eBay They have some good cells and some bad ones?

Yes, I did this 15 years ago with the Dewalt A123 cells. Usually only one cell had failed. Betty you could still do the same.

police auctions of confiscated scooters, ones that folk abandon on the wrong place and get impounded are a great source of cells.

hit up the homebrew powerwall forums for more sources.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#74

Post by acover »

jeffbee wrote: post #68
acover wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another solution: use an age limit rather than ban. Motorcycles are dangerous but I'm still allowed to use them.

The person I saw crash the ebike was a full grown adult woman. She needed training, not more years of life.

Training doesn't make bikes safe, especially when driving near cars.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#75

Post by analog31 »

readingistuff wrote: post #57
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 also need a higher quality, impact rated helmet. I'm sure plenty of folks buy am expensive bike and the cheapest helmet.

This could be a new market. Presently, there's no motorsport rated bike helmet. You can buy a motorcycle helmet, but it's a heavy, cumbersome beast. Or a bike helmet that comes with virtually no useful rating system except for the Virginia Tech rating program.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#76

Post by dagurp »

js2 wrote: post #50
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…

Temperature is not an issue in most places.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#77

Post by woleium »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #49
treprinum wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

sop for thieves is to move the bike and leave it for a week then come pick it up if the owner hasn't come to get it.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#78

Post by wpietri »

tjoff wrote: post #35
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…

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've been thinking about getting another bike. But especially with e-bikes, which are much more expensive and therefore much better theft targets, I just can't sign myself up for years of fretting about theft.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#79

Post by analog31 »

bluescrn wrote: post #36
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.

Car theft is rather more policed because a 2-ton 100mph+ car can easily kill or cause a lot of damage in the wrong hands. Bike theft is down there with shoplifting or recreational drug use when it comes to policing priorities. But when a bike is stolen, often a person is losing an important means of transportation, so perhaps it should be taken more seriously. Not going to happen in a ‘soft on crime’ society, though.

It may be that car theft is more policed because of political pressure from insurance companies, and because cars were typically more valuable than bikes.

Fighting car theft lowers insurance rates. But virtually nobody insures a bike.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#80

Post by wyre »

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.

Pretty sure it needs pedals to be legally classified as a bike, otherwise it is an electric scooter and a whole separate list of laws apply, but this could vary by state and country.
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