Sneaky electric bikes

brianandrews

I nearly blew a lung trying to keep up with a bromton this morning. Only at the 4th set of lights did I realise he had some help. I am no Cav but I can usually keep up with bromptons no problem. There seems to be growing market for electric bike which pretend to be leg powered - there really be some mandatory visual warning to other cyclists trying to SCR! :oops:

redvee

I came up behind a MTB with a 12" dia rear hub at a set of TLs and thought game on but I was quicker off the lights when they changed so the challenge was gone within 12 feet.

The Rookie

As E-assist should cut out at 15mph, either you are pretty hopeless or the bike wasn't legal!

meanredspider

Certainly on the mainland, they don't seem to be limited to 25kmh but then the scooters are meant to be and they're more often doing 40kmh on the bike paths.

The funniest eBike incident I've been in was on the Chouffe Classic (Belgian Ardennes) - and whole group of us busting a gut up a steep incline and a guy on an electric MTB weaved his way effortlessly through the pack to an ironic cheer from the roadies

mattsaw

The Rookie wrote:

As E-assist should cut out at 15mph, either you are pretty hopeless or the bike wasn't legal!

There seems to be plenty around that aren't limited. I got passed on Priory lane by a chap going well north of 20mph

First.Aspect

Yeah the hub based ones seem to have a fairly limited top speed.

In the autumn I had a laugh with another roadie who was also bursting a lung trying to save scr points against this chap who was energetically riding a folder (bobbing, elbows out and going at a slightly embarrasing speed for us). He kept flying away from a stop and we would struggle to get past him on the straights. Chapeu thought we.

We only figured out what was going on when we came to a 10% hill and he crossed over to the pavement and freewheeled up it at about 15mph when we were stopped at the lights.

slowbike

meanredspider wrote:

The funniest eBike incident I've been in was on the Chouffe Classic (Belgian Ardennes) - and whole group of us busting a gut up a steep incline and a guy on an electric MTB weaved his way effortlessly through the pack to an ironic cheer from the roadies

Few years ago the boss and I were in Provence - one windy day we were out on the bikes and came across an incline to a village up the top - it was into the headwind ... so I did my duty and sat on the front whilst she sheltered behind - we were overtaken by a roadie - no great biggy .. we're used to being overtaken ... then followed by a lady on a town bike ... !! I had to do a second look before I realised she had an electric assist and having seen them together later on I guess this was the way he could go out training whilst still riding with his wife/partner.
My wife doesn't have the luxury of e-assist ... she has to put up with Power-Assist - ie, my arm

The Rookie

Cheaper e-bikes are usually hub-motored, you can get silly power hub motors (over 7Kw) but the street legal ones are 250/300W, most can be modded to produce more and also remove the speed limiter for the assistance. Nicer techhnical solution for lowish powered bikes is a central motor driving the cranks so you take advantage of the gearing

brianandrews

The Rookie wrote:

As E-assist should cut out at 15mph, either you are pretty hopeless or the bike wasn't legal!

I don't doubt i am pretty hopeless but he was doing over 20mph easy. Great acceleration on it too.

ugo.santalucia

They are the future. Two years ago I had a chat with Will Butler, MD of Brompton and they are looking into that... the main issue being "portability"... E-bikes are the future, like it or not

rower63

ugo.santalucia wrote:

They are the future. Two years ago I had a chat with Will Butler, MD of Brompton and they are looking into that... the main issue being "portability"... E-bikes are the future, like it or not

we'll soon be seeing them in the peloton

rhodrich

One of my friends regularly goes out on his unrestricted e-bike, logging the rides on Strava. My thoughts are that they should introduce a new category of 'e-bike ride', where the person can log everything, but where they don't show up on any leader boards.

I wonder how many KOMs on Strava are motor assisted......

arthur_scrimshaw

Rhodrich wrote:

One of my friends regularly goes out on his unrestricted e-bike, logging the rides on Strava. My thoughts are that they should introduce a new category of 'e-bike ride', where the person can log everything, but where they don't show up on any leader boards.

I wonder how many KOMs on Strava are motor assisted......

Probably about the same number done on mopeds/in cars or is that what you meant?

iPete

I do like the look of the Copenhagen Wheel. Slap it on a modest SS bike (like the cinelli road rat in their demo videos) and you have a 1k elecric town bike.

However most I encounter on the road are not limited to 15mph!

ugo.santalucia wrote:

They are the future. Two years ago I had a chat with Will Butler, MD of Brompton and they are looking into that... the main issue being "portability"... E-bikes are the future, like it or not

Is there still life in project x?

ugo.santalucia

rower63 wrote:

we'll soon be seeing them in the peloton

In the UK, cycling is very much lycra based, but it's not the same in other EU nations, where E-Bikes are getting very popular. Tyres for E-bikes are already popping up... They are better than any other motor assisted form of transport, no fumes or nasty emissions, what's not to like about them... Can't wait to build my first E-wheel... 8)

The Rookie

ugo.santalucia wrote:

They are better than any other motor assisted form of transport, no fumes or nasty emissions,

Well there are two arguable points there, but lets take the latter, yes there are just its at the power station....but the same can then be said of the electric car as that has arguments for being better than an E-bike (speed, range, comfort etc), if you want to go from London to Inverness there are lots of better forms of transport than a E-bike.

They are better FOR SOME USERS would be true!

I do agree, e-bikes are a way of getting many more people out of cars and into a more efficient and space efficient form of road transport.

ugo.santalucia

The Rookie wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

They are better than any other motor assisted form of transport, no fumes or nasty emissions,

Well there are two arguable points there, but lets take the latter, yes there are just its at the power station....but the same can then be said of the electric car as that has arguments for being better than an E-bike (speed, range, comfort etc), if you want to go from London to Inverness there are lots of better forms of transport than a E-bike.

They are better FOR SOME USERS would be true!

I do agree, e-bikes are a way of getting many more people out of cars and into a more efficient and space efficient form of road transport.

The problem here is not global CO2 emissions, but localised NOx, SOx and other crap that pollutes urban areas.
If you want to take CO2 as a parameter, then I've got the figures, as I give a lecture about that and even there, taking into account efficiencies and waste in the distribution/grid, you are looking at significantly lower emissions for electric vehicles over petrol/diesel, even assuming 100% of the electricity was produced by coal fired power stations, which is not the case. E-bikes are great, as a way to get people out of their cars and congested public transport in urban areas. And remember an E-biker is a cyclist after all, it all helps to build critical mass to get the much needed infrastructure. The more, the merrier.

combatsapph

Ahh, trolling people on Strava - many an ebikers hobby



It's not as nuts as it used to be though - 45mph on a rigid front fork and rim brakes was a bit suicidal!



My off roader:-



If anyone has any questions, feel free.

rick_chasey

Don't get these people who sit there drafting riders on e-bikes or hooning it at 20 odd MPH.

They were great for my 80yr old grandparents who rode their entire lives (just around, to an from the shops etc - not roadies or anything), when they got a bit weak. Meant they could go as far as they used to.

If you want go at 30 mph without a big effort, buy a moped.

meanredspider

I'm with Ugo on this. Get the bloody mopeds off the street: smelly, noisy, smokey inefficient things. I'd much rather see eBikes or eScooters.

ugo.santalucia

Many people are weak and/or lazy and an E-bike is a way to get started doing a bit of "sport"... next thing they might go fully self-propelled, when they realise pedalling is not so bad after all.
Even thinking really hard, I can't see any negatives in E-bikes

bendertherobot

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads ... 232/page-2

CardiffMark was the bloke who scalped me while I was not exactly hanging about. Shot past me, one of those overtakes that you don't try to catch. If you read through the thread you can see why.

I agree with Ugo. We're going to see more and more of these. But, as you can see, we're also going to see those being used by people to, quite fairly, commute. But, some perspective, this guy lives 15 minutes away and has a shared use cycle path/trail all the way in. He could get fit. He chooses, it appears, to cruise both ways each day. Great transport, poor health.

The Rookie

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Many people are weak and/or lazy and an E-bike is a way to get started doing a bit of "sport"... next thing they might go fully self-propelled, when they realise pedalling is not so bad after all.
Even thinking really hard, I can't see any negatives in E-bikes

Well you need to look at it from the viewpoint of the person you are trying to convert, if it's a car driver they can come up with a lot of actual and perceived negatives I'm sure!

ugo.santalucia

The Rookie wrote:

Well you need to look at it from the viewpoint of the person you are trying to convert, if it's a car driver they can come up with a lot of actual and perceived negatives I'm sure!

Last saturday I had to park the car north of Chiswick bridge (closed for maintenance) and walk home, as it was impossible to drive across the river. There was a queue of about 2 hours to get onto Kew bridge from any direction. I then went to collect the car on sunday morning at 7 AM. You will find a lot of drivers can be easily persuaded to avoid this kind of misery... especially those who do it routinely, but they don't want to go around in lycra shorts, understandably.

meanredspider

One of the reasons that cycling is so popular in NL is because it's flat. Electric bikes will make it virtually flat. No need to get sweaty, no need for a licence, no requirement for a lid. If ANYTHING is going to get people out of their tin boxes, eBikes are likely to be it.

rick_chasey

meanredspider wrote:

I'm with Ugo on this. Get the bloody mopeds off the street: smelly, noisy, smokey inefficient things. I'd much rather see eBikes or eScooters.

Then they should ride them like scooters,i.e. not drafting etc.

meanredspider

Rick Chasey wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

I'm with Ugo on this. Get the bloody mopeds off the street: smelly, noisy, smokey inefficient things. I'd much rather see eBikes or eScooters.

Then they should ride them like scooters,i.e. not drafting etc.

Well, whilst they need to ride sensibly, if they are bikes then they can be ridden like bikes. I don't mind people drafting me in most circumstances as it's no skin off my nose (and might even help me by reducing the low pressure area behind me). Whether they're power by electricity, legs or honey badgers makes no odds to me.

rick_chasey

meanredspider wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

I'm with Ugo on this. Get the bloody mopeds off the street: smelly, noisy, smokey inefficient things. I'd much rather see eBikes or eScooters.

Then they should ride them like scooters,i.e. not drafting etc.

Well, whilst they need to ride sensibly, if they are bikes then they can be ridden like bikes. I don't mind people drafting me in most circumstances as it's no skin off my nose (and might even help me by reducing the low pressure area behind me). Whether they're power by electricity, legs or honey badgers makes no odds to me.

Go ride in London traffic with some numpty 2 inches from your back wheel, and then tell me you don't mind people drafting you when you're commuting.

And I don't trust people at the best of times, let alone when they don't have full control over the input power.

meanredspider

Rick Chasey wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

I'm with Ugo on this. Get the bloody mopeds off the street: smelly, noisy, smokey inefficient things. I'd much rather see eBikes or eScooters.

Then they should ride them like scooters,i.e. not drafting etc.

Well, whilst they need to ride sensibly, if they are bikes then they can be ridden like bikes. I don't mind people drafting me in most circumstances as it's no skin off my nose (and might even help me by reducing the low pressure area behind me). Whether they're power by electricity, legs or honey badgers makes no odds to me.

Go ride in London traffic with some numpty 2 inches from your back wheel, and then tell me you don't mind people drafting you when you're commuting.

And I don't trust people at the best of times, let alone when they don't have full control over the input power.

Well I commute in Amsterdam with mopeds up my chuff - an electric bike is probably lighter.

rick_chasey

meanredspider wrote:

Well I commute in Amsterdam with mopeds up my chuff - an electric bike is probably lighter.

combatsapph

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Many people are weak and/or lazy and an E-bike is a way to get started doing a bit of "sport"...

It's not as lazy as driving

And you still pedal on an ebike. It just like cycling all the time with a strong wind behind you, and who doesn't enjoy those commutes