Woe betide a pedestrian who gets in the way of a cyclist though! For some reason respect stops at two wheels.
For the a**holes who got into cycling by way of sport, perhaps. Those of us who ride for transportation tend to follow vehicular cycling rules, and don't appreciate being tarred with the same brush.
Bikes and cars can mix well. Vehicular cycling is the school of thought which argues to that effect; here in the US, classes teaching vehicular cycling techniques are available throughout the country (offered by the League of American Bicyclists), covering the techniques necessary to mix with other traffic in a safe, courteous and conscientious manner.
Moreover, bike lanes are often manifestly unsafe; not only are they often undermaintained, but many of them encourage cyclists to ride in the "door zone" (the area in which an unexpectedly opening door from a parked car poses a threat), a common cause of accidents. In areas where parking is allowed in bike lanes, frequent lane changes in and out of the bike lane to avoid parked vehicles can also generate unnecessary risk.
because these are for people that want to look green by riding their bike without actually having to ride it. I prefer getting around on my own power, not a engine, and certainly not a motor attached to a bike with inefficient geometry.
Please see my first post in the thread. There's plenty of exercise involved -- my heart rate is typically around 170ish during my commute regardless of which bike I'm on, but the e-bike is fast enough to make it practical to commute with daily.
"Inefficient geometry" is a matter of which bike you're on. Mine puts the motor in the bottom bracket, and the battery low in the frame just above it; it's beautifully balanced.
The e-bike is plenty green. Going 100 miles on $.13 of electricity (and that's after taking into account charging losses) is massively greener than doing that distance on $10.00 of gasoline, or even moving a 2000lb electric car.
At least here in.tx.us, while gas tax and vehicle registrations pay for highways, city streets are paid for by everyone -- cyclists, motorists and pedestrians alike -- from the city's general revenue fund.
A custom framebuilder can generally help -- the guy here in town we talked with about a bike for my wife warranties his frames for the rider's weight at the time the frame was ordered and designed plus whatever the cargo capacity is for that bike (which I believe for the non-Xtracycle models is about 130 pounds or so). He uses high-grade steel, which is a bit out of favor these days (a lot of bikes tend to use aluminum)... but steel gets flexy long before it breaks, a much better failure mode than many of the lighter/stiffer materials.
Incidentally, one of Opti's marquee customers is DeMarcus Ware of the Dallas Cowboys. He's a big guy, and makes his bike look tiny -- but it still looks like he got a pretty decent fit. (That said -- he got a limited-edition bike with a custom paint job that at full price would have been well out of the "less than a decent used car" range).
Doing a bit more research -- if you want to ride on any mountain trail, and have more than enough range to do your commute even without pedaling, the Stealth Bomber may be the bike for you. The Fighter doesn't have the range you're looking for. The Bomber is way heavier than the Opti or the Fighter, but it meets your range requirement, your speed requirement, and while an Opti is suitable for off-road single track, the Fighter and Bomber are built for heavier jumping and (while they're not as energy-efficient and have a much higher center of gravity) don't have the Opti's "but-I-might-scratch-the-paint!" factor going on.
They're all fun rides, and each have their strengths -- one of the folks quoted under the testimonials group on Stealth's page is an Optibike owner, and his full writeup elsewhere makes it clear he finds all three to have their own distinct niche.
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.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that the particular bike featured in this article is a POS, and I'm disappointed with the Times for painting it in such glowing terms.
That said, I'm pretty sure that each of the bike shops I frequent has something in the $10K-14K range as the most expensive thing they carry. Certainly that was the quote from Bicycle Sport Shop North when a fellow customer made a joke about buying the most expensive thing they had on a credit card mistakenly left on the counter, and I want to say I've seen bikes in that range at Buck's, Mellow Johnny's, Jack and Adam's, etc. as well. They may not move many, but they clearly move enough to make them worth stocking.
Now... use any of these as a city bike? Hell, no. But if someone who understands their own personal finances, priorities and goals decides they want to buy a $11K triathelon bike, how's it anyone else's place to say they were wrong to do so?
So my question is: can it go 25km uphill (+800m) at speeds above 25km/h on a single charge? And can it ride down any mountain trail without breaking?
Hmm. I typically go around 45kph on flat ground, but haven't paid much attention to measuring my speed on an incline. It's a shame Garmin Training Center lacks a histogram function -- it would make it easier to give you a hard-and-fast answer on average speed for a given grade.
Graphing speed and grade for my historical commutes over time, however -- my impression is that the speed you're looking for shouldn't be a problem if you keep the bike in fast mode and pedal along with it. With respect to range, the company prefers to quote it in time rather than distance -- the official number is 50 minutes at full throttle in fast mode or two and a half hours in economy mode, but I find the official fast-mode numbers to be very conservative (perhaps they were measured with no pedaling at all) and the actual range much longer.
We have several folks on the Optibike Owners Group who ride offroad, some under demanding circumstances, and the Opti handles it well -- one of the advantages of using higher-end shocks. We've had only one frame get warrantied that I'm aware of from reports on the list, and that was a manufacturing fault with aesthetic impact rather than a full failure. The group is open to the public; feel free to ask questions there (in particular, it wouldn't hurt to see if other folks can provide more data on average speed going uphill).
The other off-road electric bikes you might look at are the Australian-made Stealth Fighter and Stealth Bomber; I don't know their range (which will be shorter than the Opti, as they require more power and are considerably heavier), but they're very fast (faster than the Opti and less street-legal, being built specifically for offroading) and very robust.
I've had some mechanical problems, but those surrounded the Crank Brothers Iodine wheels which Opti offered as part of the heavy duty package when I purchased my bike; I understand that my experience was unique among Opti's customers, and that troublesome wheelset has been taken off the table following my experience (my existing set was replaced with a different one under warranty).
How do you deal with the fact that you have to work a full day after sweating in the morning?
It might not be that bad -- except that I live in Texas, so it pretty much always is.:)
The showers in my employer's facilities are free for folks who cycle to work (otherwise they require a gym membership, which is something like $30/month), and include dispensers for soap, conditioner and shampoo. As a result, I shower at the office rather than at home.
Thats insane considering the alternatives. I can find a used *car* for that price.
I could find (no, have bought) a used car for the cost of the frakkin' GPS and headlights sitting on my handlebars and helmet. What's your point?
I don't have that many pet peeves, but the "you're on a bike? -- must be too poor to drive a car" kneejerk response is among them. We've seen that here with business owners objecting to a proposed bicycle boulevard project, though the numbers from other cities show that similar measures have resulted in dramatic increases in residential and retail property values elsewhere (in part because cyclists and pedestrians are going slow enough to actually notice the places they're passing, and thus generate more incidental traffic).
Do you call people who buy sports cars from Tesla idiots too? They're spending some money -- but it's money they have to spend (meaning it's coming out of an income source much higher than that $50K median), and they're getting a unique vehicle and the experience that comes with it. How is it your place or mine to say how well someone else's money is spent?
Further, there are very good reasons to be willing to spend some money on a quality conventional bicycle. If you're using something as your commute day-in and day-out, the last thing you want is back pain (or knee pain, or shoulder pain, or any of the other problems that can come from a poorly-fit bike). If you want something you can haul large amounts of cargo with (and by "large amounts" I mean several hundred pounds with lots of bulk), not a single one of the crappy cheap bikes that Wal-Mart or Target sells will do the trick, and (for that matter) not that many specialty shops sell longtail cargo haulers either.
Anyhow -- sure, you could find a car for that price, but sometimes a car isn't practical.
If you live in the city, parking is bloody expensive. Have only one parking spot for your two-person family, and both of you have jobs? If you ride a bike, that's not a problem.
Mandatory liability insurance? Bicycles very rarely generate substantial liability, hence such laws don't apply. Vehicle registration fees? In my state, those go to fund highways rather than regular roads; bicycles don't use highways, thus moot. Gasoline? Hah.
A folding bike (there are some good ones, and the custom builds tend to run in the neighborhood of or somewhat more than that $2300 watermark) will let you take public transportation for part of your commute or bring your vehicle with you when you travel by air. You can't do that with any car.
If you get a cheap used car, it'll need lots of TLC and maintenance -- and the skills and tools to do bicycle maintenance yourself are much cheaper.
A bicycle in the $2-4K range can be the Right Vehicle for many people.
Use a cheap disposable camera and get the license plate.
If I'm trying to recover from a near-collision or other unexpected event, I don't trust that I have time and composure to stop, get my hands free, and pull out a camera (disposable, cell phone, whatever) in the few available seconds to get a clear shot of the plate.
I imagine anyone intent on harassment is counting on that.
For lead-acid batteries, you're right -- China is having big problems disposing of all the cheap batteries from their electric bikes and scooters -- but for more modern chemistries, the environmental impact is lower and the useful lifetime longer.
You might find the analysis here (comparing environmental impact of e-biking to other modes of transport, including human-power-only cycling, accounting for caloric intake and the environmental costs of the average first-world diet) interesting; likewise the one here.
Compare to the price of an unmotorized downhill racing bike using the same class of components (never mind the custom frame), and you'll see that it's not out of line. High-end bicycle parts are built not just for performance (as is your sports bike), but also to minimize weight; the premium that comes with that latter goal is significant. (Also, $13K is a bit more than the 850X ran... I think that's what they're charging for the 850R now? The German-made Speedhub and associated parts run in the area of $2K or so, so there's a substantial difference in component costs between the models; that Speedhub, however, has a design lifetime of 100km with little maintenance beyond oil changes, and they tend to last well beyond that lifetime; 10 years into production, not a single unit had failed yet.
There's value for that money -- the focus on high-end parts buys robustness -- including suitability for offroad use, which most ebikes lack -- amazing handling, longer range (over 100 miles between both internal and external batteries, with an energy cost for that 100 miles of less than $.30) and a 20lb weight advantage on most other fully suspended ebikes. Really worth it? The money would be doing me a lot of good had I put it to principal on my mortgage, sure, but I'm healthier, happier... and as I said, it's a shiny toy. I could have bought plenty of vehicles (including many cheaper electric bikes) if I just wanted to get from point A to point B, but I had a tax return and a performance bonus, and I put them to use supporting an American business making a top-grade product with first-world parts, and in hindsight have no complaints.
Re:Great, still doesn't fix the Houston problem.
on
The Year of the E-Bicycle
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· Score: 2, Insightful
People like to pick on easy targets - and you on a bike are an easy target to anyone in a car (he can drive away)
An increasingly risky sport, as helmet-mounted cameras become more popular.
Actually you can buy and drive e-bikes with more than 250W in Europe (well, at least in Germany), but for anything more you need some sort of drivers license as a more capable e-bike is legally considered to be a scooter (IIRC).
A driver's license won't do in and of itself -- the scooter also needs to pass type certification, meaning extra equipment that a bicycle typically doesn't include (brake lights, turn signals, etc).
One German manufacturer actually does have an ebike that passes type certification as a motor scooter, but to the best of my knowledge they're alone in that.
Let me follow up taking a different perspective on the argument...
$2300 is considerably less than what an unmotorized high-end bicycle costs. The local custom framebuilder I recently got a quote from has longtail cargo bikes starting at $3500, plus $1700 to add a motor. Keep in mind, these are vehicles custom-built to the driver's dimensions and specifications, from the frame up, and with capacity to haul a passenger, a load of groceries from Costco, or whatever else you might want -- considerably more cargo capacity than the Honda motor scooter you compare them against. Someone who buys these might be getting a lower top speed, but in other respects they're getting considerably more for their purchase.
The top of the line in US-made electrics is Optibike. They're expensive toys -- but when you take into account that many of the individual components (just the regular bicycle components that folks might put on a high-end mountain bike, mind you) retail for more than half the cost of your $2000 Honda motor scooter (and some of the individual parts they use on their more expensive bikes, like the Rohloff speedhub, cost more than that scooter as a whole)... they're entirely fairly priced for the market segment they're aimed at.
There are kits for electrifying your existing bike for $400-600. Perhaps one of those is what's right for you -- but if a $10K conventional bike makes sense for someone (and lots of them do sell!), there are plenty of market niches and price points for ebikes as well.
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.
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.
Re:Great, still doesn't fix the Houston problem.
on
The Year of the E-Bicycle
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· Score: 1, Insightful
Thanks -- you've reminded me of why I don't leave Austin unless the destination is out-of-state.
You're making it sound like an e-bike is (or should be) a poor man's scooter; that's missing the point.
A good e-bike makes cycling practical for people whose commutes otherwise are too long. I pedal just as hard when I'm on my e-bike as on my conventional one -- but on the e-bike my average speeds are almost double what they are unassisted (and remember, wind resistance makes much more than twice the power necessary to hit double the speed). I don't always have the 2.5 hours necessary to commute round-trip on my old bike -- the hour and a half on the Opti, on the other hand, is less time than what it'd take to commute by car and then work out at the gym, and a lot more fun.
So -- I'm getting great exercise, I'm way less stressed, I don't have the temptation to skip days like I do with the gym... all these are benefits that a scooter (motor or otherwise) just can't deliver.
By American and Canadian standards, 250W is a lousy excuse for an ebike -- but for the European market it's the standard, as that's the limit there to be street-legal.
This article was ridiculously ill-researched -- there are (and have been for years) much, much better bikes out on the US market, the higher end ones having upward of 650W sustained output where the rubber meets the road, and peaking up around 2hp when combined with a strong rider. See the power meter readings at http://groups.google.com/group/optibike-owners-group/browse_frm/thread/3e6e907b3a99f3c1 if you're interested in some numbers.
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.
The BMS programming makes a big difference in terms of how long the batteries last.
My bike has a 3-year / 30,000 mile prorated warranty on its batteries -- but they do that largely because the battery is overprovisioned; it only charges to 80% of what the cells are rated for, and the battery management system also has a hard cutoff before allowing the voltage to drop too low. (Excessive battery temperature? A limit is placed on drain. Excessively low battery temperature? Needs to warm up before being able to charge; etc).
Also, there's no regenerative braking -- regen tends to strain batteries substantially, provides relatively little benefit on a vehicle as light as a bike, and is incompatible with a freewheeling mid-drive design.
I'm entirely happy with these limitations, as that kind of expected lifetime and warranty is next to unheard of in this space at present.
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.
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For the a**holes who got into cycling by way of sport, perhaps. Those of us who ride for transportation tend to follow vehicular cycling rules, and don't appreciate being tarred with the same brush.
Bikes and cars can mix well. Vehicular cycling is the school of thought which argues to that effect; here in the US, classes teaching vehicular cycling techniques are available throughout the country (offered by the League of American Bicyclists), covering the techniques necessary to mix with other traffic in a safe, courteous and conscientious manner.
Moreover, bike lanes are often manifestly unsafe; not only are they often undermaintained, but many of them encourage cyclists to ride in the "door zone" (the area in which an unexpectedly opening door from a parked car poses a threat), a common cause of accidents. In areas where parking is allowed in bike lanes, frequent lane changes in and out of the bike lane to avoid parked vehicles can also generate unnecessary risk.
At least here in .tx.us, while gas tax and vehicle registrations pay for highways, city streets are paid for by everyone -- cyclists, motorists and pedestrians alike -- from the city's general revenue fund.
A custom framebuilder can generally help -- the guy here in town we talked with about a bike for my wife warranties his frames for the rider's weight at the time the frame was ordered and designed plus whatever the cargo capacity is for that bike (which I believe for the non-Xtracycle models is about 130 pounds or so). He uses high-grade steel, which is a bit out of favor these days (a lot of bikes tend to use aluminum)... but steel gets flexy long before it breaks, a much better failure mode than many of the lighter/stiffer materials.
Incidentally, one of Opti's marquee customers is DeMarcus Ware of the Dallas Cowboys. He's a big guy, and makes his bike look tiny -- but it still looks like he got a pretty decent fit. (That said -- he got a limited-edition bike with a custom paint job that at full price would have been well out of the "less than a decent used car" range).
Best of luck!
Doing a bit more research -- if you want to ride on any mountain trail, and have more than enough range to do your commute even without pedaling, the Stealth Bomber may be the bike for you. The Fighter doesn't have the range you're looking for. The Bomber is way heavier than the Opti or the Fighter, but it meets your range requirement, your speed requirement, and while an Opti is suitable for off-road single track, the Fighter and Bomber are built for heavier jumping and (while they're not as energy-efficient and have a much higher center of gravity) don't have the Opti's "but-I-might-scratch-the-paint!" factor going on.
They're all fun rides, and each have their strengths -- one of the folks quoted under the testimonials group on Stealth's page is an Optibike owner, and his full writeup elsewhere makes it clear he finds all three to have their own distinct niche.
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.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that the particular bike featured in this article is a POS, and I'm disappointed with the Times for painting it in such glowing terms.
That said, I'm pretty sure that each of the bike shops I frequent has something in the $10K-14K range as the most expensive thing they carry. Certainly that was the quote from Bicycle Sport Shop North when a fellow customer made a joke about buying the most expensive thing they had on a credit card mistakenly left on the counter, and I want to say I've seen bikes in that range at Buck's, Mellow Johnny's, Jack and Adam's, etc. as well. They may not move many, but they clearly move enough to make them worth stocking.
Now... use any of these as a city bike? Hell, no. But if someone who understands their own personal finances, priorities and goals decides they want to buy a $11K triathelon bike, how's it anyone else's place to say they were wrong to do so?
Hmm. I typically go around 45kph on flat ground, but haven't paid much attention to measuring my speed on an incline. It's a shame Garmin Training Center lacks a histogram function -- it would make it easier to give you a hard-and-fast answer on average speed for a given grade.
Graphing speed and grade for my historical commutes over time, however -- my impression is that the speed you're looking for shouldn't be a problem if you keep the bike in fast mode and pedal along with it. With respect to range, the company prefers to quote it in time rather than distance -- the official number is 50 minutes at full throttle in fast mode or two and a half hours in economy mode, but I find the official fast-mode numbers to be very conservative (perhaps they were measured with no pedaling at all) and the actual range much longer.
We have several folks on the Optibike Owners Group who ride offroad, some under demanding circumstances, and the Opti handles it well -- one of the advantages of using higher-end shocks. We've had only one frame get warrantied that I'm aware of from reports on the list, and that was a manufacturing fault with aesthetic impact rather than a full failure. The group is open to the public; feel free to ask questions there (in particular, it wouldn't hurt to see if other folks can provide more data on average speed going uphill).
The other off-road electric bikes you might look at are the Australian-made Stealth Fighter and Stealth Bomber; I don't know their range (which will be shorter than the Opti, as they require more power and are considerably heavier), but they're very fast (faster than the Opti and less street-legal, being built specifically for offroading) and very robust.
I've had some mechanical problems, but those surrounded the Crank Brothers Iodine wheels which Opti offered as part of the heavy duty package when I purchased my bike; I understand that my experience was unique among Opti's customers, and that troublesome wheelset has been taken off the table following my experience (my existing set was replaced with a different one under warranty).
Best of luck!
It might not be that bad -- except that I live in Texas, so it pretty much always is. :)
The showers in my employer's facilities are free for folks who cycle to work (otherwise they require a gym membership, which is something like $30/month), and include dispensers for soap, conditioner and shampoo. As a result, I shower at the office rather than at home.
I could find (no, have bought) a used car for the cost of the frakkin' GPS and headlights sitting on my handlebars and helmet. What's your point?
I don't have that many pet peeves, but the "you're on a bike? -- must be too poor to drive a car" kneejerk response is among them. We've seen that here with business owners objecting to a proposed bicycle boulevard project, though the numbers from other cities show that similar measures have resulted in dramatic increases in residential and retail property values elsewhere (in part because cyclists and pedestrians are going slow enough to actually notice the places they're passing, and thus generate more incidental traffic).
Do you call people who buy sports cars from Tesla idiots too? They're spending some money -- but it's money they have to spend (meaning it's coming out of an income source much higher than that $50K median), and they're getting a unique vehicle and the experience that comes with it. How is it your place or mine to say how well someone else's money is spent?
Further, there are very good reasons to be willing to spend some money on a quality conventional bicycle. If you're using something as your commute day-in and day-out, the last thing you want is back pain (or knee pain, or shoulder pain, or any of the other problems that can come from a poorly-fit bike). If you want something you can haul large amounts of cargo with (and by "large amounts" I mean several hundred pounds with lots of bulk), not a single one of the crappy cheap bikes that Wal-Mart or Target sells will do the trick, and (for that matter) not that many specialty shops sell longtail cargo haulers either.
Anyhow -- sure, you could find a car for that price, but sometimes a car isn't practical.
If you live in the city, parking is bloody expensive. Have only one parking spot for your two-person family, and both of you have jobs? If you ride a bike, that's not a problem.
Mandatory liability insurance? Bicycles very rarely generate substantial liability, hence such laws don't apply. Vehicle registration fees? In my state, those go to fund highways rather than regular roads; bicycles don't use highways, thus moot. Gasoline? Hah.
A folding bike (there are some good ones, and the custom builds tend to run in the neighborhood of or somewhat more than that $2300 watermark) will let you take public transportation for part of your commute or bring your vehicle with you when you travel by air. You can't do that with any car.
If you get a cheap used car, it'll need lots of TLC and maintenance -- and the skills and tools to do bicycle maintenance yourself are much cheaper.
A bicycle in the $2-4K range can be the Right Vehicle for many people.
If I'm trying to recover from a near-collision or other unexpected event, I don't trust that I have time and composure to stop, get my hands free, and pull out a camera (disposable, cell phone, whatever) in the few available seconds to get a clear shot of the plate.
I imagine anyone intent on harassment is counting on that.
For lead-acid batteries, you're right -- China is having big problems disposing of all the cheap batteries from their electric bikes and scooters -- but for more modern chemistries, the environmental impact is lower and the useful lifetime longer.
You might find the analysis here (comparing environmental impact of e-biking to other modes of transport, including human-power-only cycling, accounting for caloric intake and the environmental costs of the average first-world diet) interesting; likewise the one here.
Compare to the price of an unmotorized downhill racing bike using the same class of components (never mind the custom frame), and you'll see that it's not out of line. High-end bicycle parts are built not just for performance (as is your sports bike), but also to minimize weight; the premium that comes with that latter goal is significant. (Also, $13K is a bit more than the 850X ran... I think that's what they're charging for the 850R now? The German-made Speedhub and associated parts run in the area of $2K or so, so there's a substantial difference in component costs between the models; that Speedhub, however, has a design lifetime of 100km with little maintenance beyond oil changes, and they tend to last well beyond that lifetime; 10 years into production, not a single unit had failed yet.
There's value for that money -- the focus on high-end parts buys robustness -- including suitability for offroad use, which most ebikes lack -- amazing handling, longer range (over 100 miles between both internal and external batteries, with an energy cost for that 100 miles of less than $.30) and a 20lb weight advantage on most other fully suspended ebikes. Really worth it? The money would be doing me a lot of good had I put it to principal on my mortgage, sure, but I'm healthier, happier... and as I said, it's a shiny toy. I could have bought plenty of vehicles (including many cheaper electric bikes) if I just wanted to get from point A to point B, but I had a tax return and a performance bonus, and I put them to use supporting an American business making a top-grade product with first-world parts, and in hindsight have no complaints.
An increasingly risky sport, as helmet-mounted cameras become more popular.
A driver's license won't do in and of itself -- the scooter also needs to pass type certification, meaning extra equipment that a bicycle typically doesn't include (brake lights, turn signals, etc).
One German manufacturer actually does have an ebike that passes type certification as a motor scooter, but to the best of my knowledge they're alone in that.
Let me follow up taking a different perspective on the argument...
$2300 is considerably less than what an unmotorized high-end bicycle costs. The local custom framebuilder I recently got a quote from has longtail cargo bikes starting at $3500, plus $1700 to add a motor. Keep in mind, these are vehicles custom-built to the driver's dimensions and specifications, from the frame up, and with capacity to haul a passenger, a load of groceries from Costco, or whatever else you might want -- considerably more cargo capacity than the Honda motor scooter you compare them against. Someone who buys these might be getting a lower top speed, but in other respects they're getting considerably more for their purchase.
The top of the line in US-made electrics is Optibike. They're expensive toys -- but when you take into account that many of the individual components (just the regular bicycle components that folks might put on a high-end mountain bike, mind you) retail for more than half the cost of your $2000 Honda motor scooter (and some of the individual parts they use on their more expensive bikes, like the Rohloff speedhub, cost more than that scooter as a whole)... they're entirely fairly priced for the market segment they're aimed at.
There are kits for electrifying your existing bike for $400-600. Perhaps one of those is what's right for you -- but if a $10K conventional bike makes sense for someone (and lots of them do sell!), there are plenty of market niches and price points for ebikes as well.
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.
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.
Thanks -- you've reminded me of why I don't leave Austin unless the destination is out-of-state.
You're making it sound like an e-bike is (or should be) a poor man's scooter; that's missing the point.
A good e-bike makes cycling practical for people whose commutes otherwise are too long. I pedal just as hard when I'm on my e-bike as on my conventional one -- but on the e-bike my average speeds are almost double what they are unassisted (and remember, wind resistance makes much more than twice the power necessary to hit double the speed). I don't always have the 2.5 hours necessary to commute round-trip on my old bike -- the hour and a half on the Opti, on the other hand, is less time than what it'd take to commute by car and then work out at the gym, and a lot more fun.
So -- I'm getting great exercise, I'm way less stressed, I don't have the temptation to skip days like I do with the gym... all these are benefits that a scooter (motor or otherwise) just can't deliver.
By American and Canadian standards, 250W is a lousy excuse for an ebike -- but for the European market it's the standard, as that's the limit there to be street-legal.
This article was ridiculously ill-researched -- there are (and have been for years) much, much better bikes out on the US market, the higher end ones having upward of 650W sustained output where the rubber meets the road, and peaking up around 2hp when combined with a strong rider. See the power meter readings at http://groups.google.com/group/optibike-owners-group/browse_frm/thread/3e6e907b3a99f3c1 if you're interested in some numbers.
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?
The BMS programming makes a big difference in terms of how long the batteries last.
My bike has a 3-year / 30,000 mile prorated warranty on its batteries -- but they do that largely because the battery is overprovisioned; it only charges to 80% of what the cells are rated for, and the battery management system also has a hard cutoff before allowing the voltage to drop too low. (Excessive battery temperature? A limit is placed on drain. Excessively low battery temperature? Needs to warm up before being able to charge; etc).
Also, there's no regenerative braking -- regen tends to strain batteries substantially, provides relatively little benefit on a vehicle as light as a bike, and is incompatible with a freewheeling mid-drive design.
I'm entirely happy with these limitations, as that kind of expected lifetime and warranty is next to unheard of in this space at present.
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.