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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."
Yeah, you can get a Honda Metropolitan for less than $2000. It's less eco-friendly, but also less gay looking, more useful and has a higher resale value. The downside I guess is that you can't really get away with riding a scooter on the sidewalk.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
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
I don't really know if it'd be a great idea to ride an e-bike in Seattle: you'd likely get side swiped by all of those hipster douchebags riding fixed gear bikes.
"Hegelians, who love a synthesis, will probably conclude that he wears a wig." - Bertrand Russell