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This person has obviously never ridden an e-bike. E-scooters are decidedly dorky. They can't corner well at high speeds. They carry almost no angular momentum t

This person has obviously never ridden an e-bike. E-scooters are decidedly dorky. They can't corner well at high speeds. They carry almost no angular momentum to keep you moving forward. The only cool thing about a scooter is that you can easily hoist that 3 lb frame up and carry it with you without a second thought... add an 8 pound motor + battery to that and you've lost all your convenience when you have to climb several flights of stairs... An E-bike on the otherhand can benefit from its girth... it makes it harder to steal if you just add a cafe lock. That weight also makes it perfect for cruising. I can ride 10 miles on convoluted paths without touching my handlebars because of how predictable the ride is. I can ride up sharp grade hills at 20+ MPH without breaking a sweat in 90+ degree weather. And while I'm effortlessly cruising to my destination with minimal effort, I'M STILL PEDALING. It doesn't matter if I'm putting minimal effort in while I'm getting where I'm going, it's still exercise (not to mention way better from the perspective of arterial hardening from unnecessarily standing like a jack ass on a dork mobile). If you want to be totally lazy, get a Boosted board. If you want to revolutionize your shit, go to your local e-bike dealer and get them to hook you up with something actually meaningful.

pentae 8y ago
Well the market has responded and it seems your pain points just don't matter to the regular person. You're seriously underestimating the number 1 and number 2 thing people care about.. convenience. Who wants to own something and have another thing you have to worry about and take everywhere with you? When you can just join an app, have no up front cost and dump it on the street for the next person? That factor of convenience beats the shit out of ownership. Regarding handling - do you think someone with no experience riding a bike can 'effortlessly ride 10 miles on convoluted paths without touching the handlebars' or did it take you years of riding experience to get that good? So if you spent that same amount of time riding an e-scooter do you think you'd have handling down to an art as well? I think you would, and how it handles around corners wouldn't even be a consideration. However theres a halo effect at play here which is good news: more people who are using these services who have never used an e-bike or boosted board before after seeing the benefits are now more likely to owning them. Or maybe even just buying their own Xiamoi E-scooter.
tomkarlo 8y ago
I ride both ebikes and scooters, and while the ebikes are a better way to get somewhere fast (and I think, overall, safer) the scooters are generally a much more pleasant ride - you're standing up, you just kind of surf along, and you don't have a 30lb bike to deal with... they're magic-carpet-like. The exercise benefits of both are... questionable. Even just cycling as a commuter on a regular bike isn't very intense exercise, and on an ebike it just seems like you're pretending to pedal. I can't imagine it has much health benefit aside from being better than sitting in a car.

pentae 8y ago

Well the market has responded and it seems your pain points just don't matter to the regular person. You're seriously underestimating the number 1 and number 2 thing people care about.. convenience. Who wants to own something and have another thing you have to worry about and take everywhere with you? When you can just join an app, have no up front cost and dump it on the street for the next person? That factor of convenience beats the shit out of ownership. Regarding handling - do you think someone with no experience riding a bike can 'effortlessly ride 10 miles on convoluted paths without touching the handlebars' or did it take you years of riding experience to get that good? So if you spent that same amount of time riding an e-scooter do you think you'd have handling down to an art as well? I think you would, and how it handles around corners wouldn't even be a consideration. However theres a halo effect at play here which is good news: more people who are using these services who have never used an e-bike or boosted board before after seeing the benefits are now more likely to owning them. Or maybe even just buying their own Xiamoi E-scooter.

tomkarlo 8y ago

I ride both ebikes and scooters, and while the ebikes are a better way to get somewhere fast (and I think, overall, safer) the scooters are generally a much more pleasant ride - you're standing up, you just kind of surf along, and you don't have a 30lb bike to deal with... they're magic-carpet-like. The exercise benefits of both are... questionable. Even just cycling as a commuter on a regular bike isn't very intense exercise, and on an ebike it just seems like you're pretending to pedal. I can't imagine it has much health benefit aside from being better than sitting in a car.