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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.
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.
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.
Probably Lance Armstrong can produce over 250W for much of a day. I on the other hand, break a sweat just thinking about it. A hardworking horse can keep up about 750W (definition of a horsepower). Imagine yourself and two buddies playing tug-of-war with a Clydesdale.
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.
That, in fact is not the problem. The e-bikes perform quite well on steep climbs and recharge a bit on the way down. The test has been done on the Mont Ventoux without problems. I do have concerns on how long it takes for the battery to lose it's full power capability. Six months? A year, maybe? And what will be the price of a new battery?
Not all ebikes are built alike.
I ride a mid-drive bike. The motor (built into the bottom bracket) is optimized to work with a rider pedaling with a cadence in the 85-90 range, and the bike just doesn't feel right unless you're working along with it. Indeed, one proponent of a competing product has made a point online of calling us "Optibike huffers", referring (I presume) to our tendency to be getting enough of a workout to be panting at the end of a ride. (My commutes are fast, and fun... but not by any means sweat-free; thankfully, work has showers).
My heart rate is regularly in the 150-170 range for about 90 minutes a day while I'm riding -- which is pretty much where it should be for the kind of exercise I'm trying to get -- and the regime has my employer's health coach downright thrilled with my weight loss, lowered cholesterol, lowered resting heart rate, etc.
So -- enough of the stereotyping, 'kay?
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.
It's not the weight. I can easily do that distance around here (some long hills), although my commute is about 33.
It's that I have no place (shower) to become tolerable to my co-workers for the rest of the day.
With an electric (not the silly Sanyo, but a proper one with a decent CG, and the drive to the rear wheel, if I can ever find one), I can "ride" to work and pedal home. Dragging the extra weight of the batteries would be even better exercise (for that trip) than just a bicycle.
> I know I'm able to produce around a kilowatt for 5 minutes or so at a time, and can sustain 500W practically indefinitely.
Maybe you can beat Lance Armstrong and the others:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/weekinreview/24kola.html
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."
Surely humans can produce well in excess of 250W.
Yes. 250W is only "twice as much power as you provide" if you're taking it very easy. Based on measurements provided by the exercise bikes at my gym, I know I'm able to produce around a kilowatt for 5 minutes or so at a time, and can sustain 500W practically indefinitely.
OTOH, there are regulatory reasons for the motor being 250W: at least here in the UK, you'd need a full drivers licence, annual vehicle inspection and all-around crash helmet to ride it if it were more powerful. It should also be designed so that the motor cannot make the bike go faster than 15mph.
Errr... according to this:
Lance Armstrong can ride up the mountains in France generating about 500 watts of power for 20 minutes, something a typical 25-year-old could do for only 30 seconds. A professional hockey player might last three minutes and then throw up. (source)
...it sounds like you're either an olympic-level athlete... who reads slashdot... or your gym equipment is severely miscalibrated. I've tried those bikes at the gym, and 250W is
my limit for a 10-15 minute stretch, and I'm by no means unhealthy. Are you sure those weren't imperial units? I know the UK has switched to metric, in theory, but I know some of you poms still get confused. 8)
I call BS.
Perhaps you're an elite cyclist, or someone is editing Wikipedia to make you look silly, but averaging anything like 500W for an hour (much less indefinitely) would make you the worlds best distance cyclist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_performance
Lance Armstrong near his peak was reputed to be capable of ~520W for 20min.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/weekinreview/24kola.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
Ok... so your gym exercise bike is a flattering, but I agree that 250W is within the range of most regular cyclists, although most won't push that hard.
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?
Nice stereotyping. What's wrong with laziness, anyway? One of the virtues of a good programmer.
That is actually one statement I disagree with completely. Laziness is not a virtue. Code reuse is a virtue. If you're really lazy you do an ugly copy-paste, and leave it like that. Then you hardcode some stuff in there because it's easier. If you put some effort in it, you integrate it properly, which is more work, but it'll make it easier to maintain in the future. Laziness in all IT in general is bad, horrible in most cases. Put some effort in it and you reduce your workload.
Yes. Deliberate and rude obstructionist behavior that impedes thousands of innocent people does that.
(Not to violence, of course; just to outrage and contempt.)
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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The average in-shape 70kg person can produce 200W for a more than an hour on a bicycle (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_performance)
Ever sat on a bicycle in a gym with a wattage meter? It is actually very hard to only produce 125W on a bicycle. On the road you'd go very slow and risk falling over, and in the gym the pedals almost spin faster than your legs.
And of course Lance Armstrong can do that. I am a "recreational" amateur cyclist who does no more than 2500 km/year and can maintain more than 250W for hours. It's not difficult.
You are mistaken. I suspect you mixed up "watts" with "kilocalories per hour". Sustaining 500 watts indefinitely would make you superhuman. Sustaining 500 kcal/h makes you about ... average. Coincidentally, that is just about the 125 watts that the OP referenced.
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
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
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.
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
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.
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.
Energy cost, perhaps, but I don't know about kinetic energy output. If you're saying you can use 500W for long periods (let's say a couple of hours), then match that to calorie intake. That's 860 kcal to replace the energy cost for that additional work. That's believeable right?
Muscle efficiency http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle#Efficiency
"The efficiency of human muscle has been measured (in the context of rowing and cycling) at 18% to 26%"
So if you were right, you'd actually need 3400 kcal to replace losses from that 2 hour exercise. That's waaay too much.
With my logic, that means you actual power output is actually more like 125W, almost perfectly inline with the motor being twice as powerful.
jh
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
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."
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
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.