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Bike commuter here. Hope I never find one of these in my bike lane. If I'm pedaling hard, I go a little over 30km/h, my body is alert, full of adrenaline, and I

by neves 10y ago

Bike commuter here. Hope I never find one of these in my bike lane. If I'm pedaling hard, I go a little over 30km/h, my body is alert, full of adrenaline, and I'll get tired 20min latter. In an electric bike, you can go at this speed talking in your phone and eating something. Your heavy battery also will increase your inertia. It is really dangerous. If you want to increase bike use, build more showers at the workplaces.

x0x0 10y ago
And secure bike storage that is secure and doesn't suck. The building housing a former sf employer required bikers to use the (slow, smelly, frequently occupied with very slow users) service elevator and store their bikes in a crappy room in the corner of the basement. In what was obviously a hastily converted area. A coworker was locked in the bike storage for 4+ hours. He left at around 2am after putting out some fire, the door to the bike room in the basement was set to lock behind him (yes, this is almost certainly wildly out of code), and the building was solid enough that his cell didn't work from the basement. There were frantic calls to police by his wife. He was found when the basement was opened the next morning. In lieu of suing everyone in sight we got permission to ride the normal elevators with bikes and to keep them in our office.
seanmcdirmid 10y ago
Living in China, the electric bikes were always scary. They were fast, heavy, and silent. Still, there should be a way to make it work with more infrastructure. Maybe self driving electric bikes will be a thing?
terravion 10y ago
As a bicycle commuter, I would love to see more people doing anything that isn't cars and would glad share bicycle infrastructure with these guys. The more drivers see us, the more they look. Their speed differential is no more than what you or I have with a lot of casual cyclists, and the electric battery doesn't weigh more than a fully loaded backpack. Is the real issue that they aren't 'real' cyclists and didn't earn it?
- neves 10y ago
  I'm worried with pedestrians, not with me.
bigiain 10y ago
FWIW, my "cheater bike" tops out at right on 25kmh under power - it'll go faster than that if you pedal hard, but the electrics aren't helping any more. It still makes it really easy to go fast tho, even in jeans and a tshirt, with a backpack full of laptop (and 20+kg too much paunch) - it's pretty easy to out-accelerate most lycra-clad commuters if they don't notice you coming. It's pretty easy to out pace lots of fit looking bicycle riders on long up hill inclines - but if they care, they'll mostly blow past me again doing 40kmh on the downslope on the other side while I'm just rolling along at not much over 25kmh where my assist tops out. (Safety-wise, my battery weights 850g. The motor and controller add up to maybe 1kg. I'm pretty sure I've seen lycra-louts with more weight in their bidons than my electric assist adds!)

by neves 10y ago

x0x0 10y ago

And secure bike storage that is secure and doesn't suck. The building housing a former sf employer required bikers to use the (slow, smelly, frequently occupied with very slow users) service elevator and store their bikes in a crappy room in the corner of the basement. In what was obviously a hastily converted area. A coworker was locked in the bike storage for 4+ hours. He left at around 2am after putting out some fire, the door to the bike room in the basement was set to lock behind him (yes, this is almost certainly wildly out of code), and the building was solid enough that his cell didn't work from the basement. There were frantic calls to police by his wife. He was found when the basement was opened the next morning. In lieu of suing everyone in sight we got permission to ride the normal elevators with bikes and to keep them in our office.

seanmcdirmid 10y ago

Living in China, the electric bikes were always scary. They were fast, heavy, and silent. Still, there should be a way to make it work with more infrastructure. Maybe self driving electric bikes will be a thing?

terravion 10y ago

As a bicycle commuter, I would love to see more people doing anything that isn't cars and would glad share bicycle infrastructure with these guys. The more drivers see us, the more they look. Their speed differential is no more than what you or I have with a lot of casual cyclists, and the electric battery doesn't weigh more than a fully loaded backpack. Is the real issue that they aren't 'real' cyclists and didn't earn it?

neves 10y ago
I'm worried with pedestrians, not with me.

bigiain 10y ago

FWIW, my "cheater bike" tops out at right on 25kmh under power - it'll go faster than that if you pedal hard, but the electrics aren't helping any more. It still makes it really easy to go fast tho, even in jeans and a tshirt, with a backpack full of laptop (and 20+kg too much paunch) - it's pretty easy to out-accelerate most lycra-clad commuters if they don't notice you coming. It's pretty easy to out pace lots of fit looking bicycle riders on long up hill inclines - but if they care, they'll mostly blow past me again doing 40kmh on the downslope on the other side while I'm just rolling along at not much over 25kmh where my assist tops out. (Safety-wise, my battery weights 850g. The motor and controller add up to maybe 1kg. I'm pretty sure I've seen lycra-louts with more weight in their bidons than my electric assist adds!)