7 ms·

"Oh great," I thought, "Now my bicycle needs a battery." Then I remembered that ebikes are getting extremely popular these days... I also remembered how much I

by floren 5y ago

"Oh great," I thought, "Now my bicycle needs a battery." Then I remembered that ebikes are getting extremely popular these days... I also remembered how much I hate dealing with cables on my bicycle. It would be very cool to see one of these in action.

fiftyacorn 5y ago
Most decent road bikes have electric gearing these days
bowmessage 5y ago
No mention of a battery, only a generator in the crankset. Maybe a simple capacitor would suffice.
n8cpdx 5y ago
I had a brief stint as a bike owner and the whole culture around it is maddening. If I want a car, I go to a dealership and I can find a bunch of packages and customizations and there's a dealer to help. The cars have all sorts of technology and it's well integrated. You don't have to buy a car and decide if you want the bright headlights or the bad headlights and then pay extra to have them installed. There's so much that a bike should/could have: automatic emergency braking, turn signals, automatic lighting, regenerative braking, gps/anti theft tracking, speedometor, rear radar, etc. You can get most of those things, but then you have to install them all, there's no standard, each has to be charged separately. Bike nerds ask about your derailleur and nonsense about tires and how the bike should be totally custom, and how turn signals are a stupid idea because you can just balance one-handed while waving and mirrors are bad because you can just look over your shoulder and it's all just a lot. And then they have the nerve to ask why more people don't bike? Why don't more people bike? Because the entire biking community, culture, and market is built around making it hard and dangerous. Edit: my point is that the biking community should embrace electronics/batteries since they're necessary for safety lights anyway, and use that as the foundation to build an integrated consumer product. If you want the world to switch to biking (I do) you can't treat it as a hobbyist market. Car manufacturers figured this out long ago.
- owlninja 5y ago
  I am never trying to break any speed records, but I wouldn't want to attach so many devices to my bicycle.
- greggturkington 5y ago
  Fair gripes, although bikes have "dealerships" too that will typically help you select and maintain your steed. The problem with lighted turn signals is that motorists don't expect them, and don't look for them. Pointing with your hand and head are just more safe and effective. > how the bike should be totally custom Ignore them. It should be what suits you, what makes you feel comfortable and safe when you ride. > Why don't more people bike? There's also not a lot of infrastructure outside of major cities (in the US). Unsafe for cyclists, annoying (at best) for motorists. > the entire biking community, culture Let's not paint too broadly, there are plenty of elitists, but big parts of the cycling community are inclusive; community rides, community maintenance co-ops, things like that.
- fundamental 5y ago
  Bikes are optimized for cost and ease of riding (i.e. less weight when possible), so bikes avoiding bells and whistles by default makes perfect sense to me. If you add on too much then the bike shop prices themselves out of the market. Bike ridership IMO is much more heavily determined based upon how bikable a space is. If it's an environment where you don't have access to safe roads/trails, nearby destinations, or places to lock your bike at a destination no one will bike. The bikes themselves may have quirks, but that's rarely the complaints people voice in the wild from my experience.
- tjr225 5y ago
  Bicycles are beautiful because of their simplicity. This is inherent and god help us if your vision of the bicycle becomes the norm. That would be like wanting Vim to come bundled with all of the functionality of Pycharm by default. All of the things you want added to a bicycle are relatively cheap and easy to install on your own if you want them. If you don’t you pay an expert at your local bike shop to do it for you. In fact, if you were in the process of buying a bike shop from an LBS you could tell them all of the things you wanted. They will literally build whatever bike you want lol. But if the trivial amount of practice that it takes to “balance” while gesturing a turn signal is too much for you, maybe bicycling just isn’t your thing. If getting accustomed to navigating in Vim is too much for you, maybe you just need an IDE, instead.
microtonal 5y ago
Then I remembered that ebikes are getting extremely popular these days... But for e-bikes, why not use internal gears? You do not really need the fine-grained shifting on e-bikes. Besides that, internal gears require less maintenance and allows for models that use a chain guard or belt drive (== less maintenance).
asdff 5y ago
What are you doing where you are even dealing with cables? I've never had to do any maintenance on my roadbike myself. I just take it to the shop for a $25 dollar tuneup once a year and the bike remains in perfect working order without any other intervention. I don't even garage the bike. People always seem to complain about maintenance on bikes when justifying crazy brakes or derailleurs, but in my experience bike maintenance is absurdly cheap at most shops to the point where there is no reason to ever see grease on your hands unless you like to do that stuff as a hobby. Like $20 cheap.
- Kluny 5y ago
  Gosh, where are you getting these $25 tuneups? Shops in my town are charging $150 for a spring tuneup, and booking a season in advance.
  - asdff 5y ago
    The bike coop or mom and pop shops that mostly move low cost used bikes. Sure if I went to the most hipster bike shop in my town where the cheapest model is $800 I'd be quoted that too.

by floren 5y ago

fiftyacorn 5y ago

Most decent road bikes have electric gearing these days

bowmessage 5y ago

No mention of a battery, only a generator in the crankset. Maybe a simple capacitor would suffice.

n8cpdx 5y ago

I had a brief stint as a bike owner and the whole culture around it is maddening. If I want a car, I go to a dealership and I can find a bunch of packages and customizations and there's a dealer to help. The cars have all sorts of technology and it's well integrated. You don't have to buy a car and decide if you want the bright headlights or the bad headlights and then pay extra to have them installed. There's so much that a bike should/could have: automatic emergency braking, turn signals, automatic lighting, regenerative braking, gps/anti theft tracking, speedometor, rear radar, etc. You can get most of those things, but then you have to install them all, there's no standard, each has to be charged separately. Bike nerds ask about your derailleur and nonsense about tires and how the bike should be totally custom, and how turn signals are a stupid idea because you can just balance one-handed while waving and mirrors are bad because you can just look over your shoulder and it's all just a lot. And then they have the nerve to ask why more people don't bike? Why don't more people bike? Because the entire biking community, culture, and market is built around making it hard and dangerous. Edit: my point is that the biking community should embrace electronics/batteries since they're necessary for safety lights anyway, and use that as the foundation to build an integrated consumer product. If you want the world to switch to biking (I do) you can't treat it as a hobbyist market. Car manufacturers figured this out long ago.

owlninja 5y ago
I am never trying to break any speed records, but I wouldn't want to attach so many devices to my bicycle.
greggturkington 5y ago
Fair gripes, although bikes have "dealerships" too that will typically help you select and maintain your steed. The problem with lighted turn signals is that motorists don't expect them, and don't look for them. Pointing with your hand and head are just more safe and effective. > how the bike should be totally custom Ignore them. It should be what suits you, what makes you feel comfortable and safe when you ride. > Why don't more people bike? There's also not a lot of infrastructure outside of major cities (in the US). Unsafe for cyclists, annoying (at best) for motorists. > the entire biking community, culture Let's not paint too broadly, there are plenty of elitists, but big parts of the cycling community are inclusive; community rides, community maintenance co-ops, things like that.
fundamental 5y ago
Bikes are optimized for cost and ease of riding (i.e. less weight when possible), so bikes avoiding bells and whistles by default makes perfect sense to me. If you add on too much then the bike shop prices themselves out of the market. Bike ridership IMO is much more heavily determined based upon how bikable a space is. If it's an environment where you don't have access to safe roads/trails, nearby destinations, or places to lock your bike at a destination no one will bike. The bikes themselves may have quirks, but that's rarely the complaints people voice in the wild from my experience.
tjr225 5y ago
Bicycles are beautiful because of their simplicity. This is inherent and god help us if your vision of the bicycle becomes the norm. That would be like wanting Vim to come bundled with all of the functionality of Pycharm by default. All of the things you want added to a bicycle are relatively cheap and easy to install on your own if you want them. If you don’t you pay an expert at your local bike shop to do it for you. In fact, if you were in the process of buying a bike shop from an LBS you could tell them all of the things you wanted. They will literally build whatever bike you want lol. But if the trivial amount of practice that it takes to “balance” while gesturing a turn signal is too much for you, maybe bicycling just isn’t your thing. If getting accustomed to navigating in Vim is too much for you, maybe you just need an IDE, instead.

microtonal 5y ago

Then I remembered that ebikes are getting extremely popular these days... But for e-bikes, why not use internal gears? You do not really need the fine-grained shifting on e-bikes. Besides that, internal gears require less maintenance and allows for models that use a chain guard or belt drive (== less maintenance).

asdff 5y ago

What are you doing where you are even dealing with cables? I've never had to do any maintenance on my roadbike myself. I just take it to the shop for a $25 dollar tuneup once a year and the bike remains in perfect working order without any other intervention. I don't even garage the bike. People always seem to complain about maintenance on bikes when justifying crazy brakes or derailleurs, but in my experience bike maintenance is absurdly cheap at most shops to the point where there is no reason to ever see grease on your hands unless you like to do that stuff as a hobby. Like $20 cheap.

Kluny 5y ago
Gosh, where are you getting these $25 tuneups? Shops in my town are charging $150 for a spring tuneup, and booking a season in advance.
- asdff 5y ago
  The bike coop or mom and pop shops that mostly move low cost used bikes. Sure if I went to the most hipster bike shop in my town where the cheapest model is $800 I'd be quoted that too.