5 ms·

Maybe other Lithuanians can chime in (I'm not from there, but my girlfriend is), this is something that may only work in countries with similar geographic profi

Maybe other Lithuanians can chime in (I'm not from there, but my girlfriend is), this is something that may only work in countries with similar geographic profile (Netherlands for example). I remember the drive from Riga to Lithuania or travelling by train there, and I don't remember seeing a flatter place in my life (and I've been to most European + American countries). When her parents visited they were surprised with how much we go 'up and down' in just my city alone. I can see this working in some flatter areas of the country (same as I see bike adoption in those areas), but find the e-scooters at least too slow/battery hogs in this scenario (not sure about e-bikes though) In any case, this is a right move for them, but I think pegging this usage to some kind of license is also important.

rev_d 6y ago
I'm not too familiar with the local rules in Lithuania, but the EU has two different possible classifications for E-Bikes: * EU-Spec E-Bike: Up to 25kph, No license / special equipment is required * Speed Pedelec: Up to 45 kph, Requires licensing, insurance, and a special helmet. In the Netherlands, you can't drive these on bike paths / may have to mingle with cars. * US-Spec E-Bikes: Up to 32kph, unregulated / illegal In general, all three categories are capable of easily sustaining reasonably high 25 to 35kph speeds for 40 to 150km on a flat surface. If you're dealing with hills or wind resistance, you'll need the beefier motor & battery of a pedelec, or you'll need a slightly more specialised E-Bike, but there's no reason why you couldn't make it work by throwing a bit more bike at the problem. I've taken E-Bikes around some of the medium sized hills in San Francisco before, and apart from having to pedal slightly harder and my battery usage doubling, cycling on a hill wasn't that much different than cycling along Market Street.
- lki876 6y ago
  > you can't drive these on bike paths But everyone does.
jutaz 6y ago
While this is a nice initiative on many levels (from reducing emissions to getting people on bikes/scooters etc.), but I can't see it working well for few reasons: - We have pretty harsh winters (well not the last one), so any biking/scooter'ing isn't really possible for at least 3 months, thus one still needs a car. - Only few (I'd say only 3 largest) cities have kind of an infrastructure for scooters/bikes and only for major travel paths - outer-most city rings aren't well suited for such traffic. - Local traffic culture (which goes both ways BTW) - car drivers aren't really well adjusted to bikes, and scooter/bike riders also have some not-so-great attitude on pedestrian walkways. TL;DR - this probably would work really well _somewhere_, just not sure Lithuania is the best candidate for something like this, even if I personally still appreciate this. Source: I'm Lithuanian and currently live there.
rmind 6y ago
Lithuania is indeed quite flat, but perhaps not as flat as Netherlands. There are quite hilly areas in the country too. The more important aspect, though, is that the highest car concentration is in the cities and they, in general, tend to be flat(ish).
simion314 6y ago
Question , could this e-bikes be equipped with breaks that will recharge the battery? would help with less flat terrain but I am not sure how expensive, efficient and space consuming such a system would be.
- tda 6y ago
  they are sometimes, but actually that is rather pointless. The energy wasted by braking is quite negligible compared to riding at reasonable speed with some headwind. better invest in a better battery or make the bike cheaper than regenerative braking. At least from my perspective with an electric cargo bike an normal e-bike, and a super expensive speed-pedelc (45km/h) Stromer bike with regenerative braking. Because of the regenerative braking my fastest bike is actually the slowest if the battery is dead. Also it is almost impossible to go faster than the speed limit as the bike actively brakes whenever you go over 48 km/h. That's why I am selling it.
- ip26 6y ago
  It's not worth it. First, I believe conventional wisdom is you can recover 1-3% of total battery capacity, which in a 400Wh pack might be as little as 4Wh, or one AA battery worth. Second, you can only actually do regen with a hub motor, but mid drive is much more popular.
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 6y ago
  You can, and indeed many direct-drive hub systems include this, but it's not a range issue. It's more to save some brake wear. In a 'best case' scenario of many steep hills, such a system will extend range perhaps 5%. Much less in normal use.
pornel 6y ago
e-bikes deal with hills just fine. With assisted drive (required in the EU) there's extra power from human input. The energy you use going up is free when going down.
Antoninus 6y ago
I've been living in Vilnius for 9 months. Scooters see a great deal of use within the city. I use a sharing service daily for my commute where 3km cost about 1.2eur. Steep inclines well if the total load is under 100kg.
piva00 6y ago
If the people in Oslo can and use e-bikes and e-scooters a lot (which made me quite surprised) to move around I'm sure that other non-flat countries can do well.

rev_d 6y ago

I'm not too familiar with the local rules in Lithuania, but the EU has two different possible classifications for E-Bikes: * EU-Spec E-Bike: Up to 25kph, No license / special equipment is required * Speed Pedelec: Up to 45 kph, Requires licensing, insurance, and a special helmet. In the Netherlands, you can't drive these on bike paths / may have to mingle with cars. * US-Spec E-Bikes: Up to 32kph, unregulated / illegal In general, all three categories are capable of easily sustaining reasonably high 25 to 35kph speeds for 40 to 150km on a flat surface. If you're dealing with hills or wind resistance, you'll need the beefier motor & battery of a pedelec, or you'll need a slightly more specialised E-Bike, but there's no reason why you couldn't make it work by throwing a bit more bike at the problem. I've taken E-Bikes around some of the medium sized hills in San Francisco before, and apart from having to pedal slightly harder and my battery usage doubling, cycling on a hill wasn't that much different than cycling along Market Street.

lki876 6y ago
> you can't drive these on bike paths But everyone does.

jutaz 6y ago

While this is a nice initiative on many levels (from reducing emissions to getting people on bikes/scooters etc.), but I can't see it working well for few reasons: - We have pretty harsh winters (well not the last one), so any biking/scooter'ing isn't really possible for at least 3 months, thus one still needs a car. - Only few (I'd say only 3 largest) cities have kind of an infrastructure for scooters/bikes and only for major travel paths - outer-most city rings aren't well suited for such traffic. - Local traffic culture (which goes both ways BTW) - car drivers aren't really well adjusted to bikes, and scooter/bike riders also have some not-so-great attitude on pedestrian walkways. TL;DR - this probably would work really well _somewhere_, just not sure Lithuania is the best candidate for something like this, even if I personally still appreciate this. Source: I'm Lithuanian and currently live there.

rmind 6y ago

Lithuania is indeed quite flat, but perhaps not as flat as Netherlands. There are quite hilly areas in the country too. The more important aspect, though, is that the highest car concentration is in the cities and they, in general, tend to be flat(ish).

simion314 6y ago

Question , could this e-bikes be equipped with breaks that will recharge the battery? would help with less flat terrain but I am not sure how expensive, efficient and space consuming such a system would be.

tda 6y ago
they are sometimes, but actually that is rather pointless. The energy wasted by braking is quite negligible compared to riding at reasonable speed with some headwind. better invest in a better battery or make the bike cheaper than regenerative braking. At least from my perspective with an electric cargo bike an normal e-bike, and a super expensive speed-pedelc (45km/h) Stromer bike with regenerative braking. Because of the regenerative braking my fastest bike is actually the slowest if the battery is dead. Also it is almost impossible to go faster than the speed limit as the bike actively brakes whenever you go over 48 km/h. That's why I am selling it.
ip26 6y ago
It's not worth it. First, I believe conventional wisdom is you can recover 1-3% of total battery capacity, which in a 400Wh pack might be as little as 4Wh, or one AA battery worth. Second, you can only actually do regen with a hub motor, but mid drive is much more popular.
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 6y ago
You can, and indeed many direct-drive hub systems include this, but it's not a range issue. It's more to save some brake wear. In a 'best case' scenario of many steep hills, such a system will extend range perhaps 5%. Much less in normal use.

pornel 6y ago

e-bikes deal with hills just fine. With assisted drive (required in the EU) there's extra power from human input. The energy you use going up is free when going down.

Antoninus 6y ago

I've been living in Vilnius for 9 months. Scooters see a great deal of use within the city. I use a sharing service daily for my commute where 3km cost about 1.2eur. Steep inclines well if the total load is under 100kg.

piva00 6y ago

If the people in Oslo can and use e-bikes and e-scooters a lot (which made me quite surprised) to move around I'm sure that other non-flat countries can do well.