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The Year of the E-Bicycle
theodp writes "Electric bicycles have been around for more than a century, but they have never quite captured the imagination of auto-obsessed Americans. That may be about to change. At CES this month, Sanyo showed off its sleek, lightweight Eneloop Hybrid Bicycle. Priced at $2,300, the e-bike sports a black lithium-ion battery strapped to the frame beneath the seat. Press a button on the left handlebar, and a 250-watt motor kicks in, providing about twice as much power as your own pedaling. Some basic e-bike models, like the Ezip Trailz can be had for as low as $500. Both Trek and Schwinn began selling e-bikes last year, and Best Buy is offering e-bikes in three test markets: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland, OR."
I love the idea of using one of these bikes for my daily commute to work and back, however they don't come anywhere close to solving the beer bottles from pickups aimed at cyclist problem, or the Houston has no safe way to ride a bike much of anywhere problem.
I love to ride my bike, but Houston is a city built by politicians with pockets lined from oil companies. The oil companies decided people in Houston should drive individual cars to get around and dammit, the politicians not only saw that it happened, they made sure the public transit system sucked as well. Sure there's a great bus to get downtown and back, but you still have to drive locally to the bus stop, even if it's only a mile or two away unless you want to become road pizza. Then it's only to downtown, not across town. You can go around your area, you can go downtown, but getting from one area of Houston to another isn't easy, and unlike Phoenix and certain other cities putting a bike on a bus is hit and miss. Some drivers forbid it if they don't have a bike rack and bike racks are rare.
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The price point for these seems way off.
I paid less than that for a used motorcycle *shrug*
No thanks.
In China, riding an electric bike conveys professional achievement, even a certain degree of wealth. People in the United States, said Ed Benjamin, an independent consultant in the bike business, don't quite know whether these bikes are fashionable. The e-bike is "an ambiguous statement," Mr. Benjamin said.
I'm not entirely sure what the cultural significance of that is, but it must mean something.
Qxe4
We had those here (Japan) for 5 years now, they're quite popular in rural areas or for shopping but otherwise everyone takes the train.
So, this will mean people will sit on their assess, riding the electric bike and go "oh, that was some good exercise, now I can eat a tub of chocolate ice-cream since I burned all those calories". Then they bitch everywhere that they can't lose weight no matte rhow much they exercise.
Not that I'm against electric bikes, that would make a 15km trip to work enjoyable, without too much sweat on the way there. But I fear laziness will win for most people.
Surely humans can produce well in excess of 250W. The problem with these things is poor handling due to battery weight and their inability to go uphill again down to weight. Once the hill is steep enough it's harder than without battery assistance! Wouldn't want to ride one of these in San Francisco!
Ever since I saw the little scooter in Reign Over Me I always wanted it. Where can one get something like this today?
I do bike a lot, but I don't get the point of those e-bikes (except for old people maybe). I'd like to have additional power on long tours but for those these batteries are just additional weight for most of the trip, which you'll feel when going uphill. City trips (less than 20 km) shouldn't wear out a healthy person, so no good point having them there. My bike is 10 kg now and I still think it's too heavy. I don't see a very big market for them. Also, more parts means more things can break.
An brand-name electric scooter is ~$300, and much more portable.
A Honda motor scooter is under $2000, can seat two people, and go 30mph.
$2300 for an electric bike is just silly.
Electric bicycles are a great idea for advancing fitness and reducing energy consumption and pollution, but Sanyo did a terrible job at realizing this. Like the eneloop, most e-bikes have the electric motor mounted as the hub of the front wheel, and this is idiotic for a number of reasons. For one, this placement fails to utilize the ~21 gears that happen to be on the bike already, failing in turn to utilize the variability in power and speed. Second, having the motor in the front hub puts all sorts of stress on the forks, limiting the maximum power and accelerating wear on one component you really wouldn't want to fail during run time. Proper chain oriented pedal assist systems are fully possible, I guess Sanyo just figured it was safer to copy the same design that many others have been peddling with limited success. Sigh.
the most powerful intellect is that unbounded by indubitable preconception
Yeah, cause those bike lanes and parks connect to where folks need to go. How dare these people use public roads for transportation!
(I know, don't feed the immature trolls ...)
99,800 / 90 Yen/Dollar = ~$1100
Why is it double the price in the US?
Peak? Absolutely.
Over hours? Not so much.
Anyhow, 250W is the kind of pansy-ass bike they make for the European market where the laws are ridiculously restrictive. US- and Canadian-made e-bikes are closer to 1kW output; my own ride is, an Optibike 850x, weighs 55lb including the internal battery, sufficient for 40-50 miles. The external battery brings the range up to over 100 miles and adds 15 pounds more. Newer Optibikes (and mine, when it gets back from its current round of upgrades) are using the Rohloff Speedhub, which provides a wide enough range of gearing ratios that there's no reasonable question about any hill, including those in San Francisco.
For street-legal bikes in Europe or Austrailia -- yes, you have a point. In the US? No. My moderately hilly commute takes 75 minutes each way on my unassisted bike, 45 on the Opti; that adds up to a big difference in time I have available each week for things I like to do.
my bike commute is 36 miles round trip.
Average speed 16-18mph.
Mostly hills.
I never have needed a motor.
I don't get it. Is this like... for people who are trying to get fat?
I mean. If you want to be fat, go buy a gas guzzling 82 firebird and stay dry. If yer gonna be out in the elements, at least take the opportunity to not be fat.
I have been watching the e-bike market for years now, and almost all of the reasonably priced products suffer from the same problem: when the battery power runs out, they are lousy bicycles. They are single-speed only, or they are outrageously heavy, or both, or have some other drawback that makes them unsuitable for pedaling any distance. A few even have pedals so far apart that you couldn't pedal them for a block comfortably.
I want something I can use as a regular bicycle, with electric power I can kick in if I choose. I am fully aware that motor and battery pack are going to add significant weight. That's fine... it just burns that many more calories. But it should be a good bicycle first, and electric vehicle second. Not the other way around.
By the way, for anyone considering buying an Eneloop for $2,000+, just don't. 250 watts is woefully anemic. It won't get you up an even halfway decent slope. Go for at least 500W or more. The battery life does not suffer as much as you might think: the motor doesn't have to work as hard to get you somewhere.
Twice whose power? Twice the average slow poke pedaling at 12mph? Or twice the average cyclist doing 16+ mph? 250W doesn't sound like much to me. I can peak over that power output myself as I'm sure any avid cyclist can. Seriously, how about some real numbers and not this "twice the power" BS.
Do you really have problems with people throwing beer bottles at you?
Does this comment answer your question?
Here in Austin the frapping bikers are everywhere. It would be so much nicer if they'd stick to areas with bike lanes, parks, etc, rather than making their political point and stressing everybody out trying not to kill them. Get off the road!
Drivers are very impatient when it comes to cyclists and don't care if there are no available bike lanes which push cyclists onto the roads with faster traffic. In my experience, most drivers are very impatient and don't even want to wait on cyclists when it won't effect their arrival time. I've seen it get downright nasty even here in San Francisco (to the point of violence in some cases). The truth is that bikes are only practical in certain places, usually very dense population centers. And even there, there is generally quite a lot of friction between drivers and cyclists. Because of the anger among the cyclists, Critical Mass was started which generally only pisses off the drivers but also is a lot of fun.
And riding a bike in some locations does have a certain amount of cultural cashe (and yes, will even get you laid). The fact that an bike expert doesn't know this says more about the article's lack of research than anything.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
I suppose an "e-bike" might appeal to some couch potatoes, but a good part of the point of cycling is that you actually get some exercise.
Just hike the tail of the bike up, like hot rods do. That way you're always going downhill!
That is one of the fugliest bikes I've seen. I'm a cyclist - road and MTB; there's no way in hell I'd be seen dead even *looking* at that monstrosity.
That will turn more people off biking than it will convert.
There really is no need for electric bikes - road bikes are light and fast, and reliable, most importantly.
Because of the anger among the cyclists, Critical Mass was started which generally only pisses off the drivers but also is a lot of fun.
And you wonder why so many drivers get pissed off to the point of violence? Golly gee, I can't imagine how that could happen.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
A bicycle is unusable for most people where I live because our town is on the sides of a steep sided valley, and the combination of traffic going up the hills at 30mph, and cyclists at 3mph, on narrow English roads, is lethal. To be really useful, an electric bike needs to be able to go up those hills at 20mph.
If there was a political will for this, there would be a Europe-wide specification for an electric bicycle of, say, about 1200W maximum output and a continuous rating of 800, with a test and licence requirement but zero tax and a State-sponsored insurance scheme to overcome the objections of insurance companies, who detest anything new in the way of risk.
Of course there would be a need for new regulations - such as limiting them to 12mph on cycle tracks - but this is nothing that technology couldn't handle (e.g. a "cycle track mode" which flashes a green light, to assist law enforcement.) But an electric bicycle that was fast enough to be safe in European urban traffic would be vastly better than the current situation, where only the very fit can ride a heavy, limited electric bicycle on anything other than the level.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I don't know about anyone else but I wouldn't be seen dead riding that sanyo thing. The go cycle is about the only good looking ebike available right now. http://www.gocycle.com/
They demoed E-bikes on my college campus, and with good reason- college yuppies are actually stupid and wealthy enough to buy E-bikes. I test-rode one, and it's fun, but not $2000 fun. I'll stick with my regular bike.
To make matters worse, these dumbasses ride around stupidly and create more hate for cyclists from pedestrians and motorists alike. Also, they're stimulating the bike theft market by locking up poorly. Last week I saw one locked with a U-lock around a single spoke of the front wheel and a cable through the rear wheel... the idiot didn't even think to take out the external battery.
One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
a black lithium-ion battery strapped to the frame beneath the seat
whatcouldpossiblygowrong?
Ebicycle sounds like fuckcycle for russian ear.
I mean making Green less green by loading it with pseudo green tech?
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Ho hum. Electric assist bicycles have been on the streets for years over here in Japan, most often seen on the "Mama-rin" or shopping/school commute bikes used by mothers around town. Moms load them up with groceries and one or even two kids. Typically can be had for around 800-1000 USD in price. Ugly beasts but practical and popular. Por ejemplo:
http://www.yamaha-motor.jp/pas/
The Critical Mass events are held once a month, in a Saturday. A once-a-month event will piss you to the point of violence?
I live within a 4 block radius of both work and my preferred food jobber. While I can hoof it to both easily, when I want to run errands (like picking something up at UPS during lunch), this would be a great alternative to driving my car just to run a few errands during lunch. The $500 model mentioned seems a pretty good investment for me, for my situation. This may not be able to be your main method of transport, but it may work well for those small trips other than a daily commute, depending on your situation. I just need to figure out where the hell I'd park the thing at work. Hmm...
Going faster means you can go further in the same amount of time.
My (hilly) commute takes 1h15m each way on my regular commuter, 45m each way on my electric-assist. I'm still putting in the same effort either way, but on the ebike I go waaay faster for that same effort -- which means that longer distances are practical on a day-to-day basis.
That is 24 km.h-1. I am going at 20 on normal time without breaking a sweat, and up to 30/35 when in a hurry and don't mind getting sweaty. 15.m.h-1/24km.h-1 seems unreasonably low as a limit.
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I don't attend Austin's CM, but I hear that the people who show up typically aren't the same people who are active in more useful pursuits -- benefits for the League of Bicycling Votors, volunteering for Yellow Bike Project, showing up at City Hall to support the Nueces Bike Boulevard, etc.
Tell me I'm wrong, and I'll be glad to hear it.
They've been here in China since I got here (5 years ago), and they can easily be had for under 150 bucks US. There are all kinds of models with different ranges. They are already mainstream and not a trend.
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Because of the anger among the cyclists, Critical Mass was started which generally only pisses off the drivers but also is a lot of fun.
And you wonder why so many drivers get pissed off to the point of violence? Golly gee, I can't imagine how that could happen.
And do you, in turn, ever imagine why cyclists get annoyed with car drivers? There is a simple reason - some are appalling bad. With the exception of Winter months, I try to commute by bicycle and the number of idiots behind the wheel is astounding. Drivers will try to overtake you on narrow roads even when there is a traffic jam in the next 100 yards and so you have to then squeeze past them 5 seconds later.
CM is always on the last Friday of the month at 6pm.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
I have a friend who does destructive testing of Lithium Ion batteries --- apparently the engineers get freaked out when a pierced battery doesn't explode. The thought of a fragile battery like that, big enough to provide decent range, that close to my body gives me the willies.
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Regular bikes also have been around for more than a century and actually also help you get the lard of your ass much quicker. I guess this is why America is fat.
I just read that the Danish Post Office has decided not to buy "male" bikes any more for, citing falling accidents as the reason. A great number of postmen (-persons?) use the bike in Denmark, with short distances, culture, and infrastructure especially well suited for biking.
So, there must be something to the safety issue with "male" vs "female" bikes.
Yes. Deliberate and rude obstructionist behavior that impedes thousands of innocent people does that.
(Not to violence, of course; just to outrage and contempt.)
As an auto-obsessed American, I'd just like to say "So?"
Hey cool! I have another freak now, that earns you a fan!
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On another note, I actually agree with the grandparent post. I ride my bike in a method that does NOT impede other travelers, I live my whole life in a "if I'm not involved get out of the way" manner. I drive a car the same way, rarely do I make a driving action that would cause another driver to change course or speed because of what I just did, why would I expect any different when I bike? I ride on the shoulder - if there is one, or on a sidewalk - again, if there is one, through parking lots, back roads, etc. every chance I get.
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Bikes and cars do not share the road easily, it is dangerous and very annoying for the minority (bike or car).
Ever walked behing someone whose natual pace is half of yours, in a narrow corridor where simply passing him is difficult? Incredibly annoying and nervously tiring, most people simply can not slow down their pace and fall into a very nervous stop/go/stop/go....
Well, when you drive a car behind a cyclist (or another very slow car), it is exactly the same. Slowing down your natural pace is always annoying, within a car, on a cycle (these pedestrian ar soooo slow and imprevisible), or just walking. Making overtake manoeuvre difficult or dangerous is not a good idea for any shared way/track/sidewalk....
For the record - I do not ride in a manner that obstructs motor traffic in any way. When beer bottles have been thrown at me in the past I was either on the shoulder of a large road that had one or riding through the grass off the side of the road. I do not ride my bike smack in the center of a lane when it's a major through fare. As a courtesy to motorist and the protection of my own hide I try to keep my much slower than them ass out of the way. I've never been hit by a beer bottle or soda cup, or any other thing thrown at me except for liquid coming out of said cup, but each time it was the motorist being the jackass, not because I was an in-the-way jackass.
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Like those damned people that dare to obey the laws?
HOW DARE YOU DO THE SPEED LIMIT!!!! ARRGUAHHHHH!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I wonder what thought has actually been given to designing safe battery compartments (e.g. strong metal casing facing up, weak plastic base facing down so that a fire will cause all the nasty stuff to head straight for the road)
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Note that E-Bikes have to be registered as motorcycles in some states (such as Utah). ... three or less wheels on the ground ... not a farm tractor"
"A motorcycle... has a motor
I live in Japan, and I see these electric-assist bikes all the time.
I have yet to see a male or anyone shy of 70 riding one. I use them to tease my wife: "Hey, hon, look! They have electric bikes on sale! You want one?"
Perhaps kdawson would like an electric wheelchair, too, rather than using his legs like a sucker?
But you would need to totally rebrand them to be cool, much like Steve Jobs has totally revived the Apple brand in the last decade. After that, you'll need to sell them cheap, possibly via sites like http://www.dubli.com/ to encourage people who aren't so rich that this is a great transportation method. Bingo - e-bikes are in!
i've seen bike messengers pedal up fast to delivery trucks
then HANG ON. we're talking 30-40 mph, dense city traffic
can't imagine what the hell they are thinking. i mean if that truck driver hits the brakes fast...
then again i used to room with a bike messenger when i lived in brooklyn, and every other week he would bring home some new constellation of bruises (car doors, etc)
however, i think toronto bike messengers beat new york city bike messengers in the abuse department: one guy held onto a car which swiped him, and the car driver purposefully tried to brush the guy off... into a mailbox, killing him. the car driver was ontario's ex-attorney general who made his name being tough on street racing!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bryant_(politician)#2009_criminal_charges
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“The average auto trip in the U.S. is five miles or less”
A round-trip of 8 km! I sure hope thats an overstatement (understatement?). In most other countries around the world, that's bording on walking distance and hardly considered worth getting the bike out of the garage for. No wonders USA allways terrorise oil producing countries into submission.
I don't get it. We've had these things in the Netherlands for years now. Before the electric verions became en vogue, we had them with tiny petrol engines fitted that powered the rear wheel. The electric ones are much better because they don't pollute their surroundings with noise and gases.
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I have a friend who does destructive testing of Lithium Ion batteries --- apparently the engineers get freaked out when a pierced battery doesn't explode. The thought of a fragile battery like that, big enough to provide decent range, that close to my body gives me the willies.
You and your friend are probably too terrified to even discuss the far more dangerous vehicle gas tanks, propane grills, and electrical power outlets... Frankly, I think propane grills with a 20 pound pressurized tank just inches from a flamethrower of a burner and burning grease everywhere is an insane idea, although I do own one.
Whats the best way to blow up a lithium battery? Piercing didn't work for me. A couple years ago I had an old cell phone battery that wasn't holding a charge like it used to, after about 300 or so cycles. Being a typical slashdotter, I wondered just how dangerous these batteries are, because they spend most of their time approximately two inches from my balls in my pants pocket and I hear constantly about how they're terrifyingly dangerous, you know, like "refer madness" level of terror propoganda (agitprop?). So, safety glasses, leather gloves and clothing (don't laugh), all cotton everything else (no flammable fake fabrics), two fire extinguishers, full face shield, water hose at the ready, hard hat, nothing flammable or valuable for several meters around, earplugs in case of loud explosion, I hit the back yard patio like a bad episode of mythbusters. My wife is convinced there will be a giant blast crater and is not amused. I short it, I smash it with a brick, I drip water on it, nothing happens, although it did get pretty darn hot when I shorted it. Pellet gun rather explosively disassembled it, but no worse than anything else of similar size that I've shot, like, say, a Prince cassette tape. Lighting it on fire did nothing obviously different than lighting a comparable piece of plastic. Smashed it to freaking bits and continued its viking funeral. I did this at a very relaxing pace to make sure any "reactions" had plenty of time to bloom. Eventually gave up and disposed of the remains in the ash barrel. I don't think pyro kids are going to switch from gray market M-80s and bottle rockets to used lithium batteries anytime soon, to say the least.
Now I do realize there's a lot of stored energy in there. I've certainly seen some amazing equipment explosions in real life. In my little electronic lab at home, plenty of electrolytic caps have popped, reverse biased tantalum caps have blown up, and I've smelled the aroma of burning transformer/motor varnish and burning resistors on many an occasion. I've unintentionally blown up NiCads and NiMH batteries. I'm quite certain a lithium powered electrical fire could be most exciting, but then again, any electrical fire is exciting regardless of battery chemistry. I know journalists are profoundly ignorant, so smoking a laptop CPU power supply or high voltage backlight supply or lint in the CPU cooling fan catching fire, in a lithium powered laptop, WILL be reported as a "lithium battery fire", because thats how magic and mythology work, but that doesn't mean its a real problem.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
MIT has a product in the works called the Copenhagen Wheel that's a straight replacement for your rear tire. The motor, batteries and regenerative brakes are all contained in the oversized hub and the controls are connected via bluetooth to eliminate wiring. They are planning to enter production sometime this year, but no hard details yet.
Professional athletes can generate 900Watts and any healthy individual should be able to get at least half of that. Why would I want a 250 Watt motor? It would only make me weak in the process by depending on yet more technology.
These guys have a Euro-tuned servo that gets more than 40miles per charge plus NO-CHAIN!
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Some folks there are in the multi-KW range, others commuting almost daily testing various motors and batteries. Lots of, well, roll-your-own activity.
knight |nt|
noun
1 (in the Middle Ages) a man who served his sovereign or lord as a mounted soldier in armor.
(in the Middle Ages) a man raised by a sovereign to honorable military rank after service as a page and squire.
poetic/literary a man devoted to the service of a woman or a cause : in all your quarrels I will be your knight.
dated (in ancient Rome) a member of the class of equites.
(in ancient Greece) a citizen of the second class in Athens.
verb [ trans. ] (usu. be knighted)
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DERIVATIVES
knightliness |natlin1s| noun
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ORIGIN Old English cniht [boy, youth, servant] ; related to Dutch knecht and German Knecht. Sense 2 dates from the mid 16th cent.; the uses relating to Greek and Roman history derive from comparison with medieval knights.
"Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance." - G.K. Chesterton
Why not an air hybrid for bicycles? The conversion efficiency of mechanical to air and air to mechanical is quite a bit higher than the conversion efficiency of mechanical to chemical and chemical to mechanical. Moreover, it seems that with a carbon fiber tank you don't have as much weight as with the battery.
Seastead this.
In NY state , ebikes are illegal. It's dumb, but true.
mountain biking mecca. And I had much the same experience cycling in the city. There are few bike lanes, but the roads are pretty wide. You wouldn't think there would be a problem. But the motorists often got angry at bicycles simply because they were there. I OFTEN got honked at by passing cars (they'd wait until they were right on your tail or next to you, then HOOOOONK while they yelled out the window) and I got a decent number of things thrown at me.
Worst was a 7-11 double gulp cup that was full. It hit me on the side of the head, the lid came off, I got drenched in Coke and then the edge of the cup got stuck between my crank and my chain causing me to wipe out. I was sticky, covered in soda, and had to walk my bike home and use tools to get the thing out and the bike cranking again.
This was in the '90s before the "national concsiousness of greenness and cycling" hit. Hopefully things are different now.
These days I live in NYC and would cycle everywhere (there are a lot of cyclists and motorists are aware of them) only my wife forbids it, being absolutely terrified that I will succumb to NYC traffic. :-P
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I am searching for a light (preferably less or around 80kgs) electric dirt bike for some time, but battery time still prevents decent length enduro rides.
The leader at the moment seems to be :
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/ - on the dirt bike 2 hour/64 kilometers (almost double on the street version) with 2 and 4 hours to charge.
Then there is Quantiya
http://quantya.com/ - similar to zero, seems sturdier, less bicycle like.
An interesting hybrid is the Stealth:
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/ - looks more like a downhill bike (it is) with a motor. It has pedals, so you can trick police into thinking that this is only a bicycle (it is).
At the point only Zero has a decent site with shopping cart and an easy way to orde one.
Also worth to note, that KTM (best enduro/offroad bikes currently) is planning an electric bike:
http://hellforleathermagazine.com/2008/10/ktm-presents-electric-enduro.html
This is a little like the Apple tablets, with all the sites showing the same few pictures, but they seem definitely authentic, however no news on the rumored 2010 mass production.
Well, just my 2 cents on the topic. All I want now is a bike that can deliver 60-80 kilometers and can take rough enduro riding. Unfortunately most owners say that with hill climbs, aggressive riding or on a MX track, even the zeros empty a battery in half an hour. While 2 hours and 60 kilometers sound like a nice after work ride (I actually go 3-5:30 2-3 times a week after work, and usually put 60-80 kilometers of trails/road into my KTM 450 or my 300), but half an hour is completely unacceptable, as these bikes do not have pedals to get back to the truck or home after your batteries die (except the Stealth, but it is too bicycle like for what I do.)
Hope this sheds some light on the offroad segment of the electric market!
If you ever cycle commuted, you should know that the main issue isn't getting "worn out", it is arriving soaked in sweat.
You need shower facilities, you need to bring a change of clothing, store sweaty clothes etc... To much aggravation for me.
But if I could just twist and go and arrive clean and dry at work, then it would be viable. I could pedal on the way home.
The Netherlands in general is bicycle-friendly. I currently live in Groningen, where there are more bicyclists on the road than cars. Most main roads have separate bicycle lanes that are sometimes sectioned off from the main road with center dividers. You can ride for miles (or kilometers) without having to worry about running out of bicycle lanes. They even have stop lights for cyclists that give them the right of way. Cars are generally not allowed to ride in the city center, making it a safe place for pedestrians and cyclists to do their shopping and go to work or school.
Even in the winter, the snow plows clear off the bicycle lanes so that cyclists can continue riding to and from wherever they please. It's virtually unnecessary to have a car here. And only a few people ride an e-bicycle (most of which I would call lazy, because they're in perfectly good shape to be pedaling).
If all of the major US city governments would have thought to do the same, you would see a large number of people avoiding cars and riding bicycles. You'll also notice when coming to Holland that there aren't very many overweight people here.
Why is it double the price in the US?
It has to be packaged and shipped to the states - along with stocks of spare parts, etc.
It has to have an American distributor.
It has to be successfully advertised and promoted here.
It has to be sold with a warranty and service plan that will attract the American buyer.
yea.. riding anything with a motor is strictly prohibited on "bike paths" in the states, too.
I yell at people riding rented segways and tell them I'm gonna call the cops! damn lazy folk!
Since I generally ignore laws, I'd like to try out this motorized contraption in Vail, CO and see how far up Vail Pass the thing can go. I have a hunch the battery would be drained near the end of east vail, before the pass :).
"Electric bicycles have been around for more than a century, but they have never quite captured the imagination of auto-obsessed Americans. "
That may be due to the fact that in america we have this phenomena called weather. 2 wheeled vehicles don't work so well on ice and snow covered streets, and -30 degree wind chills are not pleasent when riding.
Batteries don't work as well at 20 below either, people have trouble starting their cars. I would think that a bicycle with a battery that is parked outside won't go very far. At least a hybrid car has the gas engine to warm it up.
The electric bicycle rules need to be changed. A 20 mph limit is just not useful to commuters. I can't even fathom the 15 mph limit set for other countries. If I want to use it to commute, I want it to be able to keep up with traffic in a 25mph zone and not block traffic. Even with a 20mph limit, it should maintain at least 20mph going uphill. 275 Watts is just insufficient to keep it going even 5mph up the hills where I live. The only advantage to these e-bikes, is that they can prevent you from sweating profusely when you arrive at work, especially if you had no access to a shower there. Which is what I used it for when I started out. I didn't have to sweat going up the hill.
I tried out an older 375W Charger Bike when I got back to bicycling to work and my muscles had atrophied from 7 years of having to drive an hour each way to work. It sells for around $750 from a guy who bought the remaining stock ( http://abc.eznettools.net/D300013/X300109/eBike1.html ) and it just wasn't enough power to really go up the hills where I live. It went about 7 mph uphill unless you stood up and forcefully assisted it and possibly doubled the speed. Has anyone seen how fast Lance Armstrong biked up a hill while huffing & puffing? He's not exactly speeding up a hill.
The 20 mph limit is also too low for me since I now pedal faster than that on a level surface. It's absolutely useless for going downhill too. The motor would cut off at the legally set speed of 20mph. The only time I got the extra power was when I went up a hill and at best it added 5mph to my peddaling. It's been sitting in storage for several years now since I use a more convenient folding bicycle for easier commuting on public transit legs of my trip. The batteries are likely dead now, and I haven't used that in a while. Luckily, the bicycle is still usefull by itself without the battery pack.
In the netherlands you move arround fastest in a city on a bike. But it better be an old bike, it will be stolen someday. (~750.000 stolen bikes per year, on 15 million people).
Because of its simpler, smaller (= leightweight) design, the self-balancing unicycle seems more promising: Focus Designs SBU. I'm not sure if it's really that easy to master, but I plan on getting one.
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
Electric bikes have been used and encouraged in Toronto for over three years. They can appear like stocky bicycles, or scooter-style. They have a maximum speed of 20 mph, and you don't need a drivers license, motorcycle license, license plate or insurance. A whole industry has sprung up around the legislation with many models of electric bicycles being sold.
Ontario Ministry of Transportation e-Bike FAQ
There are a few things here that might be problematic:
These bikes are not new, though I haven't seen a lot of bike shops push these. They are super fun to pace though; 450W on a flat road means a pretty high pace to follow... :-)
and don't even want to wait on cyclists when it won't effect their arrival time.
Does riding a bicycle give you psychic powers?
The fact is, this is a fast-paced world. People plan arrival times, and a bicycle going 25mph on a 40mph road can affect it. That doesn't excuse violence, but try to understand their point of view and don't assume that you aren't making them late.
E-bikes are bringing a couple of new problems to bicycling.
I live in Portland Oregon, and I put about 3,000 miles on my bike last year. I'll probably double that this year, since I'm riding through the winter for the first time since I was a kid.
We've started to see e-bikes last summer, and two problems are emerging:
So e-bikes are not without problems. There is a place for them in the grand scheme of things, but their introduction is going to be disruptive and a lot of persons are going to get hurt.
Will
I a bike can affect their arrival time in any meaningful way, the arrival time wasn't really planned...
One that hath name thou can not otter
The interest in these has never been lacking. They simply cost too much for a reasonably well designed model to make any real headway though. If they could get the low end down to below $300 and the high end closer to $800-$1000 they might actually make some progress, but until then, there will be no significant change in the way people use bicycles.
Especially when you consider the fact that most people (in the USA at least) use bicycles because they either can't afford something more practical/versatile or are using it as a way to exercise.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
That is just BS. In my country roads seem to even up to two times narrower than in the US (yeas, probably not really two times, definitely much more narrow though). Nobody has nervous breakdown just because of the need to pass bikes.
One that hath name thou can not otter
"The year of the E-bicycle"?
But: Is it ready for the desktop?
Most office buildings have shower facilities, you just need to track down the building manager for access.
I cycle to work and clean up after the ride one of two ways.
Knowing I had the shower at work got me started but I eventually figured out I could get by with just a sponge bath and a change of clothes. Shirts and pants come out fine if you roll them into a log before putting them in a backpack.
As a cyclist, I rarely "impede" any vehicle more than about 5 seconds, but am often cut off, trash thrown at me, yelled at, etc. Is five seconds of time worth threatening another person's life?
Well, apparently it is, if some of the motorists I've met can be believed. Once I understood this, the nature of war and other human conflict became easier to understand.
You're lucky then. When I was riding near Ft. Worth back in the '80s I got hit in the back by a six-pack and the bottles were not empties, they were all full. I crashed into the ditch really hard, wrenched my knee and my back. I gave up cycling after that, just too risky.
Ever walked behind someone whose natural pace is half of yours, in a narrow corridor where simply passing him is difficult?
I work in a nursing home. You have no idea...
Redundancy is good And also good.
I was just given a setup 650 watt with battery and controler.
It has about a ten block range. and back home. Maximum speed up hill dead slow . Maximun speed with a head wind Dead Stop.
My ICE powered motorized bicycles use about 70 cents a week. Nice speed and infinite range (depending on how much gasoline you purchase during the trip).
Battery power needs to come way down in price, and size.
Most people try to use RC batteries. For greater range . LIPO 3 They are VERY DANGEROUS.
Like those damned people that dare to obey the laws?
I don't know about GP's jurisdiction, but around here (Vancouver), every time a Critical Mass event happens, the police reminds everyone that it is, in fact, illegal, as the way it's organized it violates the local traffic laws.
However, because politicians are wussies and can't afford to offend the hip "screw the establishment" crowd, and because dissolving the crowd at Critical Mass would probably end up being effectively a riot control operation with all that entails, the police is told to stand by and watch it, not trying to arrest anyone.
(Oh, and I do the speed limit)
When passing a cyclist, the motorist may need to slow for a minute or so, but then is able to catch up the the next car in traffic anyway. If that person was not on a bike, they would be in a car, and would be contributing to congestion -and congestion does slow overall travel time.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
Living in Texas is about like living in most other places, though the streets do seem to be kept cleaner than in most other states I've lived - this is perhaps because everyone drives everywhere (while it is next to impossible to get anywhere in Houston without driving, most other places in Texas have a same citizen-mentality that if you want to go somewhere you drive--though it is usually possible to not).
Gun laws are pretty much on par with other places--Perception of immediate harm to self or those around you or invasion of property (yes, this last is not par for the course if I remember my Minnesota law correctly).
Yes yes, drivers hate cyclists because all cyclists are idiots, and cyclists hate drivers because all drivers are idiots. Does anyone know which group threw the first metaphorical punch? Until someone stands up and says "I don't know who threw the first punch, but I'll be damned if I throw the next", nothing will ever change.
Not saying you should just stand there and take it, but hatred just breeds hatred.
I've yet to see a 40mph road that did not allow for a car to safely pass a cyclist, and have been on both sides of that equation. The idea that a bike can slow a car down for any meaningful time is ridiculous. More often I've (in a car) been slowed down to 25 in a 40 zone by a slow car, where there is no safe or legal way to pass that car. Trying to understand the angry point of view is like trying to think of an appropriate and equally impossible metaphor (sorry . . . can't do it right now, but you get it . . . it's impossible).
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/04/health/nutrition/04bike.html
you're beating your prostate into submission. the result is impotence and erectile dysfunction. the male prostate was not designed to take the pounding a bicycle seat gives it
they need some form of new bicycle seat for men. greener lifestyles should not result in men who can't have children... to carry on the greener lifestyle
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The number of aging baby boomers with good environmental sensibilities -- and tired knees -- only rises over time. And the biggest cost in a really good electric bike -- a lithium-based based battery -- only declines over time (especially because those are the same batteries that hybrid- and all-electric cars use, and huge investments are being made to drive those costs down.) Those two curves are fated to cross sooner or later. Interested in joining the electric bicycling community? Please join us at http://electriccyclist.com/
A good philosophy -- but I'd urge you not to compromise your own safety simply for others' convenience.
One of the things they teach in the TS101 class from the League of American Bicyclists is that getting on and off the sidewalk is considerably more dangerous than staying in the road -- and that while using an improved shoulder is legal (and often the safe thing to do, if it's clean and in good condition), getting too far over to the right within a lane can encourage cars to pass you when it's unsafe to do so.
The classroom portion of the course spends a fair bit of time on accident statistics breakdown and discussion on how each class of accidents can be avoided or mitigated. I think it's time well spent.
... during last week's 8 degree mornings with ice all over the place and a bunch of Virginians that can barely drive anyway trying to kill me. No thanks.
that is hellbent on breeding itself out of existence
of course an ideology is not genetic, but values are values: they tend to overlap mightily generation to generation. you can't depend upon the offspring of the gas guzzlers to always adapt your point of view. that's not a valid mechanism for the continuation of your ideas to remain alive and fruitful in the coming generations
think of the problem as one of sustainability ;-)
i agree the planet is overpopulated, and we should have less kids. but the paradox is that anyone who follows through on that thought only leaves the earth to those human beings raised by people hellbent on having 10 kids and consuming everything they can
its a genuine problem
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
In-city driving is hardly effected by cycling. There is a remote chance that *on occasion* a cyclist might cost you a stoplight. Typically when I approach a cyclist, if I I can't get into (or there doesn't exist) a left-hand lane, I'm able to get by him/her within a matter of seconds. If it is so god-awful that you need to slow down momentarily to pass a cyclist, how do you deal with slow drivers, stoplights, and any other minor inconvenience on the road?
+1 Disagree
Yes, and people sticking their hands out the window trying to smack you on a high speed drive by, and attempting to side swipe you.
Don't be such a pussy and shoot the fuckers who are attempting to kill you. At a minimum, fuck up their paintwork.
Deleted
Oh sorry, I forgot that all bicyclists are nice, courteous, and stick to the right side of the road.
Most of the time I get upset with them, they're taking up the entire lane. Now they're entitled to by law, but there are lots of things one can do under the law that would make me an asshole and make a reasonable person upset.
If I'm able to pass the cyclist easily, then I'm barely going to notice them and it's not even going to register in my memory as an annoyance.
If in most every other e-something, the E stands for Electronic, it's just annoying to use it to stand for Electric here. It's like how homophobia is an alarmist umbrella term for anyone who disapproves of homosexuals for any reason, while every other phobia only describes an irrational fear. From Wikipedia:
Phobia: "an intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people"
Homophobia: "a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards homosexuality and people identified or perceived as being homosexual. Definitions[1][2][3] of the term refer variably to antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, and (irrational) fear"
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
I can't really speak from experience since I've never used electric assist on my bike-- but I wonder if it would have some use for smoothing out the spikes of a commute (ie, those damn hills at the beginning and end of the ride). I'd expect to use a motor to assist my pedalling, not replace it. So, while it won't get up the hill on its own, hopefully it makes the pedalling a bit easier? Anyhow, I suppose what I'm getting at with regards to the power, is that 250 watts roughly matches what an average rider puts out (granted, if I'm really hammering up a hill, I should be somewhere north of that)-- so you double the power available when you really want to push it.
I'm just thinkin out loud here and I suppose it does matter on the implementation, but I could see 250 watts for the climbing sections being a reasonable means of keeping some speed up the hills. Of course, whether that offsets the extra weight you carry around and need to push along the flats is a different story.
+1 Disagree
When do I get my e-e? It would go so well with my e-bicycle that i would ride to my e-business to write some e-mails to my e-partners and e-buddies of my e-social e-net.
I’d take two, so I’d have a e-e-e-e!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
"When bikers pay into the highway system, then they can have bike lanes."
What an incredibly boneheaded statement. I drive a car and I ride a bike and I pay taxes at the federal, state and local. Why shouldn't I and millions of other cyclists have a portion of our tax dollars go towards bike lanes and bike paths? The same people who complain about cyclists being on the road, whine about using tax dollars to provide safer alternatives. Get reasonable.
No single snowflake ever thinks that it is the cause of the avalanche.
Again, not excusing the violence.
I live in Queens NY and have an eZip. It's all right, not great. Speeds ok, mileage isn't. They claim 20 miles on a charge and I can only get about 12. As far as buying an ebike for $2300, I'd rather have a second hand motorcycle or a new scooter.
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
I don't understand why they wired regenerative braking on the front wheel to the rear wheel brake lever. I understand that it lets them have a single brake lever for the whole bike, but generally speaking, most bicycles and motorcycles have separate controls for each wheel's braking for a good reason.
Alexey
No, in San Francisco, at least, it's held during rush hour on the last Friday of the month. In other words, the time is chosen specifically for maximum interference with motorists.
If we would have an avalanche (of cyclists; and not as a "critical mass" BS), then that would be a damn good thing, as far as changing attitudes towards transportation goes. In which case hijacking cities by motorists shouldn't be also as acceptable as it is now.
One that hath name thou can not otter