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e-bikes - the new double wide?

vuk

vuk

\o/ choose anarchy
about 90% of the people riding these things in toronto are vile, reckless and seemingly unemployed (not counting small-time meth trafficking). is it the same in europe?



vuk.
 
I had to google to know what you meant. I don't think I've ever seen an electric bike on the roads here yet - it's mainly hipsters on single-speeds in Manchester city centre and proper cyclists on decent road bikes and MTBs out in the hills and surrounding mill towns. There seems an astonishing increase in the number of morbidly obese people on mobility scooters in town centres though. A hazard both on the pavement and road.
 
Very rare sight so far here. I over-took one once.

Perhaps they make a lot of sense in a city without a habit of bike thefts?

Paul
 
Pretty rare here, but I saw a lot of them in Manhattan used for fast food delivery.
 
Tony L said:
I There seems an astonishing increase in the number of morbidly obese people on mobility scooters in town centres though.
Click to expand...

tony.

these e-bikes are for the non-morbid. typically, this large, scooter type is what they favour:

KGB_Vancouver_Electric_Bike_Scooter_by_Gio.jpg


putting ornamental pedals on them allows the vehicle to bypass normal motor vehicle laws and, suddenly, this is a bicycle that they are now allowed to ride on our cycling paths.


vuk.
 
Tony L said:
I'd just have assumed that was a motor scooter. When I googled 'e-bike' I got this type of thing, i.e. a conventional looking bicycle with a tiny electric motor.
Click to expand...

now you can see the trailer-trash appeal. now imagine these things in the hands of a drunk. i have been hit nearly twice and startled a few times--the motor is silent. luckily, a lot of the time i am travelling fatster than they are (limit is 32 km/h).


vuk.
 
vuk said:
putting ornamental pedals on them allows the vehicle to bypass normal motor vehicle laws and, suddenly, this is a bicycle that they are now allowed to ride on our cycling paths.
Click to expand...
In Canada it's a bicycle that requires no licence or insurance if it has pedals, less than 500W and won't go faster than 20mph. More than that and it turns into something else and the motor vehicle laws apply.

In the UK the rules are tighter, 200W* and 15mph, but no helmet required.

Paul

*I can do 200W all by myself for several hours on a couple of bits of flapjack and some water, and average rather more than 15mph, so I don't really see the attraction.
 
Electronic bicycles are very popular in much of Europe. I have often seen people using them for shopping trips in the hillier areas of Switzerland and Germany.

A few years ago we were climbing Alpe d'Huez at the same time as they were having an E-Bike time trial up there. They are effectively electrically assisted bikes and I think they are fantastic. I look forward to more developments and lighter longer lasting batteries.

As Paul says, here they are stupidly regulated so the market is stunted by the speed limitations. But remove those and they become a very attractive proposition.

Bikes like the Stromers in Switzerland do 45kph and offer all sorts of possibilities.
 
vuk said:
i don't think paul said that at all.



vuk.
Click to expand...


I think Paul said that they were regulated to such a low speed as to severely limit their appeal. I take that to be stupid given environmental concerns and traffic congestion. So apologies, it was my take on what Paul said.
 
What would happen if all these ranty I dislike [insert new thing not encountered before] threads were merged Into a giant opinionated throbbing glob of grumpy middle age'd self indignation and force fed into language parsing tools like so much Foie gras pâté?

And then pushed into supercollider?

I bet it would be a lot like Autechre meets Henry Rollins vomiting. This... Now this has potential...
 
As an old school mountain biker I have a huge problem with these things.

Trail access is hard to get, and there are not a huge amount of sanctioned trails. Quite a bit are on landowners that don't mind the pedal brigade.

There are off-road versions of these things that are starting to cause problems. Not much at the moment but the push-back on trails has started.

KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!
 
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