Community > Non-Thorn Related

Don't buy an eBike

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mickeg:
There is an e-bike store in my community.  They are located next to a bicycle and pedestrian path (motor driven vehicles not allowed, but that is a different story).  There is a shallow hill on that path, not steep enough for me to need my granny gear on my triple crank, but steep enough that I am down to  maybe half the speed that I ride on the flat.

I am always amazed at how many obese people I see trying out e-bikes.  They seem to really enjoy getting fit while they do not even have to pedal.  In fact they coast up the the hill twice as fast or maybe even three times as fast as I can pedal up the hill.

***

Fixed gear bikes - I never understood the interest in that.  The main thing that concerns me on fixed gear bikes is that my knees have been much happier since I stopped standing on the pedals to accelerate from a stop light or power up a hill.  Now I gear down and stay in the saddle, knees are much happier.  I suspect with a fixed gear bike that I would be on crutches within a week.  With gears, I can change gears for different grades.

energyman:
Locally there are two types of E-Bike.  The ones you can just sit on and the E just drives you along if you are too lazy to pedal and the other type, like mine, where you have to pedal or go nowhere. My E-Bike a lot heavier than my other bikes what with a 3.5 kg battery and a frame that feels like it's carved out of solid rock.  It is a sit up Dutch style riding position.
There was a study by a Dutch University that came to the conclusion that the energy expended on a pedal assist type was just the same as an ordinary bike but you just went a bit faster.  (I read that in one of the "London" papers so it must be true !)
I wonder if AARC would convert my Moulton ?

Mike Ayling:
This bloke makes some good points.

https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/tourdefrance/e-bikes/

Mike

Andre Jute:

--- Quote from: Mike Ayling on July 03, 2018, 06:11:56 am ---This bloke makes some good points.
https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/tourdefrance/e-bikes/

--- End quote ---

Thanks for posting that, Mike. That fellow has his head screwed on right. His conclusion is spot on: a very apt and concise statement of what the tourer who is no longer young or fit should and can expect an e-bike to do for him:

--- Quote ---"What this has all meant for us in practical terms, is that our daily distances and total trip length has returned to where it was eight years ago."
--- End quote ---

Notice that underlying his entire screed, and axiomatic in his conclusions, is the fact that they are experienced cyclists who know what they want and how much they want to and can contribute to forward motion, a factor that in its absence looms large in the e-bike failures I described above. Also worth saying is that it applies not only to big time tourers like this couple but also to credit card tourers who hardly ever go more than a day's journey from home*.

*I should explain that a day's journey from home in the Irish countryside can actually be a hundred or two miles further than I would normally cycle. See, at the bus driver's discretion, you can load your bike in the luggage compartment of the bus; he may also charge you, but most don't and the inspectors don't care about it** -- this practice is so firmly established that I cannot actually tell you what the charge for a bicycle is. Nor has my bike ever been refused, though I'm careful not to demand service on a Friday evening when the bus is full of students going home, with their laundry being taken home to mom crowding out the luggage department. But at all other times, by the time the bus gets to my village, everyone has a good idea of how full the luggage compartment is likely to be.

** A footnote to a footnote! The bus drivers and inspectors are generally very agreeable. Once when my train from Dublin was an hour late, I found the scheduled bus still waiting at the station, and he made a detour at my destination to drop me in front of my door. On another occasion, I asked the bus driver to slow down as he crossed the only side street in another village so I could take a photo of a piece of topiary. "Nay, lad," said the inspector who joined us at the previous village, aware that the bus was full of American tourists returning from the same musical festival I'd attended, "we'll stop for you, and everyone can have a looksee and take a photo." A few weeks after that the editor of a magazine distributed to Americans of Irish origin sent me a piece for an opinion before she published it, and I was happy to reassure her that I was the "charming Irishman" for whom the bus was stopped, and to confirm that the story was true in every particular.

Bill:
I was riding along a bike path in the city last week, when I was passed by a bike that was powered by an internal combustion motor.
He was towing a trailer filled with landscaping implements. Obviously a small landscaping/gardening contractor.

It got me thinking. Has anybody seen an e-trailer that could be used with a bicycle? It seems to me it would be useful. You wouldn't need a new bicycle, but if you had to move a heavy load it would make it possible to do it by bicycle. You could take your kids for a ride, or pick up a Costco sized load of groceries.

If you've ever carried or towed a heavy load, you will know that hills are killers. A boost on the hills would make an other wise tough ride easy and fun.

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