E-Bikes Could Change Cities Forever
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Date: 2021-08-10
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Comments and reviews: 9
HoboGardenerBen
I got a Lectric step thru, it was super fun with assist engaged but was shit when the battery ran out. Bad geometry and gearing for hills. Will likely try Ride1Up next or just stick to regular hardtail mountain bikes and qait for ebike conversion kits to develop. I like the look of that Bimotal kit, but it's new and expensive, mounts near the disc brake and drives through a small gear. The motor can be slid off and the bike will ride like normal.
But yes, the infrastructure is the main barrier to biking, ebike or not. I tried biking long distance with google maps this spring and it did find some nice greenways but also sent me through horrible roads. Much better to plan ahead, will probably just use adventure cycling routes next time. The miles just flow by on a nice bike way, even when on a heavy bike full of gear going up hills. Not having to worry about cars is everything on my next trip. Gotta do a much better job on the gear packing as well, did a rushed two backpack style, strapped one to a rear rack and wore the other. It worked, but sucked.
My dream hobo flow is to take a siesta midday on long ebike trips to unfurl a solar tarp and chill in the shade it makes while recharging everything. I've seen some videos by Darren Lipomi that were way over my head about organic polymers and their potential technologies and packable photovoltaic tarps was one of those. Wearable haptics was another with these tiny graphene structures. Anyways, solar tarp+ebike=hobogasm
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I got a Lectric step thru, it was super fun with assist engaged but was shit when the battery ran out. Bad geometry and gearing for hills. Will likely try Ride1Up next or just stick to regular hardtail mountain bikes and qait for ebike conversion kits to develop. I like the look of that Bimotal kit, but it's new and expensive, mounts near the disc brake and drives through a small gear. The motor can be slid off and the bike will ride like normal.
But yes, the infrastructure is the main barrier to biking, ebike or not. I tried biking long distance with google maps this spring and it did find some nice greenways but also sent me through horrible roads. Much better to plan ahead, will probably just use adventure cycling routes next time. The miles just flow by on a nice bike way, even when on a heavy bike full of gear going up hills. Not having to worry about cars is everything on my next trip. Gotta do a much better job on the gear packing as well, did a rushed two backpack style, strapped one to a rear rack and wore the other. It worked, but sucked.
My dream hobo flow is to take a siesta midday on long ebike trips to unfurl a solar tarp and chill in the shade it makes while recharging everything. I've seen some videos by Darren Lipomi that were way over my head about organic polymers and their potential technologies and packable photovoltaic tarps was one of those. Wearable haptics was another with these tiny graphene structures. Anyways, solar tarp+ebike=hobogasm
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ichbinueber18
as long as the police doesn't care about my bike being stolen, I don't think this can be done.
In my city, many go by bike. Like 7% of all trips or so, but all of them are broken down s bikes. E bikes are only for trips, where you can store the bike somewhere inside like your flat. If it stays outside while you work or shop, your bike better be shitty or you need to be prepared to walk home.
Don't get me wrong. I say this about E-Bikes for a while now, but it will not happen. (me in Europe, ebikes are sold here, yes, but not used in cities, only if you go for trips)
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as long as the police doesn't care about my bike being stolen, I don't think this can be done.
In my city, many go by bike. Like 7% of all trips or so, but all of them are broken down s bikes. E bikes are only for trips, where you can store the bike somewhere inside like your flat. If it stays outside while you work or shop, your bike better be shitty or you need to be prepared to walk home.
Don't get me wrong. I say this about E-Bikes for a while now, but it will not happen. (me in Europe, ebikes are sold here, yes, but not used in cities, only if you go for trips)
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Jeff
I used my bike as part of my commute to school for many years (from home to the train station) and as long as there isn't a thick layer of snow its safe and practical enough; also this depends on the type of car but many short trips in a row are not great for the health of the engine, the engine does not warm up properly, you can observe this take a few short trips (under 5km) in a row and you will see a little bit of white milky residue under the oil cap
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I used my bike as part of my commute to school for many years (from home to the train station) and as long as there isn't a thick layer of snow its safe and practical enough; also this depends on the type of car but many short trips in a row are not great for the health of the engine, the engine does not warm up properly, you can observe this take a few short trips (under 5km) in a row and you will see a little bit of white milky residue under the oil cap
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Mr
The impact (and cost) of EV's is a lot lower than represented here compared to gas cars but the comparison to an e-bike is accurate, plus an EV on the road is still a car on the road so it doesn't ease congestion. The real solution would be to design cities where walking or biking is more practical but that would take decades and e-bikes start helping right away in car dependent North America
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The impact (and cost) of EV's is a lot lower than represented here compared to gas cars but the comparison to an e-bike is accurate, plus an EV on the road is still a car on the road so it doesn't ease congestion. The real solution would be to design cities where walking or biking is more practical but that would take decades and e-bikes start helping right away in car dependent North America
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elizabeth
I have a theory that we could get funding for bicycle infrastructure if they were marketed as being used for senior citizens mobility scooters
So they could stay in their homes and not have to go to a residential facility because they no longer can drive a car
Or make school districts bike friendly and teach safe street cycling as a gym elective
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I have a theory that we could get funding for bicycle infrastructure if they were marketed as being used for senior citizens mobility scooters
So they could stay in their homes and not have to go to a residential facility because they no longer can drive a car
Or make school districts bike friendly and teach safe street cycling as a gym elective
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Joshua
I bought my ebike last July and I've been able to put 1600 miles on it already. I'm not a super fit person and I've not been going out of my way to ride, but for short trips it's significantly faster than my old truck and has cut both gas and maintenance costs on it. If my city had better infrastructure I could do even more of my trips on the bike.
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I bought my ebike last July and I've been able to put 1600 miles on it already. I'm not a super fit person and I've not been going out of my way to ride, but for short trips it's significantly faster than my old truck and has cut both gas and maintenance costs on it. If my city had better infrastructure I could do even more of my trips on the bike.
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Rikarth
We had the E-bike Act in Sweden, most people who used it were already bike commuters, they replaced their regular bike with an e-bike. It wasn't a complete failure but the money could have been spent on other more useful things to get non-biking people biking, like infrastructure investments. But Sweden isn't the US so it might work better there.
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We had the E-bike Act in Sweden, most people who used it were already bike commuters, they replaced their regular bike with an e-bike. It wasn't a complete failure but the money could have been spent on other more useful things to get non-biking people biking, like infrastructure investments. But Sweden isn't the US so it might work better there.
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We
I'm studying urban planning in Cardiff and this is exactly what's happening there, mutiple shops have opened up selling electric bikes and also electric scooters which are really surprisingly popular. The city and surrounding urban area down to Penarth, have nextbike (which is like a Boris Bike, but now they are investing in new electric ones too.
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I'm studying urban planning in Cardiff and this is exactly what's happening there, mutiple shops have opened up selling electric bikes and also electric scooters which are really surprisingly popular. The city and surrounding urban area down to Penarth, have nextbike (which is like a Boris Bike, but now they are investing in new electric ones too.
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Constantin
E-Bikes can be great to replace cars, but:
battery production still generate a lot of emissions to build
Electricity is only green if the production of it is green (e. g. wind, water, etc)
The price - a decent E-Bike usually starts north of 2000, whereas a normal bike can be found even at 300-500 price points
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E-Bikes can be great to replace cars, but:
battery production still generate a lot of emissions to build
Electricity is only green if the production of it is green (e. g. wind, water, etc)
The price - a decent E-Bike usually starts north of 2000, whereas a normal bike can be found even at 300-500 price points
reply
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