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> S-Pedelec (...) top speed 45 kph (...) in many places you are forced to ride in traffic Yes. This is the way. Thank you, Dutch government. If somebody feels

> S-Pedelec (...) top speed 45 kph (...) in many places you are forced to ride in traffic Yes. This is the way. Thank you, Dutch government. If somebody feels like wheezing an almost completely silent 200kg projectile, godspeed. But please gtfo from the urban bike paths, if at all possible.

fnord77 5y ago
I have a class 3 and I don't feel safe riding in bike lanes at full speed, zipping by slower bicycles. There's no place to go if someone swerves. I will usually ride in traffic instead.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Riding in traffic here is suicide. Drivers get very irritated when you are not exactly at the speed limit and I've had more than one instance where someone essentially overtook and then forced me into the bike lane. And that's just here in town, where there is absolutely nothing to gain.
  - lucb1e 5y ago
    > forced me into the bike lane hold up, forced your bike into the bike lane? Why were you not there in the first place? (Not meant accusatory, I must be misunderstanding or missing something; I don't even know where "here" is.)
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      Here is NL, legally in town I'm supposed to be driving in traffic with this bike, it's an s-pedelec, not a normal e-bike. It's insured and has a yellow license plate, and it is legally treated like a 45 kph scooter even though it clearly isn't a scooter visually and so drivers get irritated by the slowpoke in 'their' lane.
      - lucb1e 5y ago
        Ooh sorry I thought you were talking about the bike, not the 45km/h thing. Got it!
        jacquesm 5y ago
        Np, it's a confusing subject in practice and to talk about. There are 6 different classes of vehicle here that you can find on a bike path and probably more when you start to factor in cargo bikes and such.
jacquesm 5y ago
It weighs half that, including me, and the average speed over a longer trip is about 33 to 35 Kph. In cities you ride just as fast as the rest of the bike traffic, there isn't any point in trying to go faster, and top speed is rarely achieved, you'd need a 100% full battery and a rider in very good condition. More usual you'll be around 35 to 38 kph in open country where there is very little other traffic. My 'commute' is 64 km, it takes me two hours on the dot door-to-door.
- gglanzani 5y ago
  Using my Stromer ST1X — which lacks the top of the line motor of the ST3 and ST5 — I can bike at 45kph at any battery % above 30. I am probably 140kg with bike, battery, laptop, clothes, and stuff. Outside the cities I can go in the bike lane, and I am absolutely twice as fast as most bikes. I live in the Netherlands, so everything being flat helps.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    That's a very neat bike and that motor is twice as strong as the one on the Bosch models. What kind of range do you get out of it at 45 kph?
    - gglanzani 5y ago
      Something like 50/55km on the 800Wh battery.
      - jacquesm 5y ago
        Nice! Stromers are great gear, I like the looks too.
  - tda 5y ago
    I recently sold my ST2. I could get only 30-60km on a full (1kwh) battery at max speed (46 kmh). But then why would you go below max speed om a 7k bicycle? I got rid of it because it was also very expensive in maintenance, and because cycling on the road slightly slower than cars really sucks (a few too many encounters with aggressive cars). The stromers are near impossible to ride without assist, think because of the regenerative engine. When the battery was empty or I had one of those weird error 18 things I could go abou 17kmh with a lot of effort. I got a vanmoof bike instead niwy, so much nicer. 30kmh, easy to pedal past assist speed cause of light front wheel motor. Lightweight, 500wh battery is pretty ok (also same 30-60km range). Lots of repairs (under warranty) though, build quality is subpar. My 30km commute is 65 minutes now on my vanmoof, where it was 50 minutes on a stromer.
dQw4w9WgXcQ 5y ago
All the speed of motorcycles without the sound awareness, what could possibly go wrong? My overall experience is that E-bike riders generally have decent cycling manners, it's the scooter and unicycle riders that seem to think they can just crank their walking speed up to 30mph and go everywhere a pedestrian would. I usually just give them a firm "heads up next time" when I get buzzed by an electric motor whine at 20mph.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Scooters are a plague (and this bike is classed as a scooter, unfortunately, so I'm lumped in with the worst), but a bigger danger is mobile phone use by cyclists. That's roughly 1/3rd of all the adults and 2/3rds of the teenagers here.
  - megablast 5y ago
    The biggest danger is cars that kill 2 million people every year around the world. Everything else is so tiny as to not count.
  - _Understated_ 5y ago
    > but a bigger danger is mobile phone use by cyclists. Or by pedestrians! My brother curses the number of pedestrians in Glasgow that cross the road while looking at their phones... they're by far his biggest hazard.
    - pawelwentpawel 5y ago
      Screen-zombie pedestrians annoy me as well. So do uneven pavements, trash, rocks and any other obstacles that appear on my way. If I'm on an electric scooter or a bike though it's my responsibility to ensure that I'm not riding a silent, heavy and fast vehicle into someone. Especially if they can't see me because I'm approaching from behind. And to emphasise - there is an entire range of pedestrians that might have a disability (mobility issues, seeing, hearing etc.) which makes them much more vulnerable to accidents.

fnord77 5y ago

I have a class 3 and I don't feel safe riding in bike lanes at full speed, zipping by slower bicycles. There's no place to go if someone swerves. I will usually ride in traffic instead.

jacquesm 5y ago
Riding in traffic here is suicide. Drivers get very irritated when you are not exactly at the speed limit and I've had more than one instance where someone essentially overtook and then forced me into the bike lane. And that's just here in town, where there is absolutely nothing to gain.
- lucb1e 5y ago
  > forced me into the bike lane hold up, forced your bike into the bike lane? Why were you not there in the first place? (Not meant accusatory, I must be misunderstanding or missing something; I don't even know where "here" is.)
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Here is NL, legally in town I'm supposed to be driving in traffic with this bike, it's an s-pedelec, not a normal e-bike. It's insured and has a yellow license plate, and it is legally treated like a 45 kph scooter even though it clearly isn't a scooter visually and so drivers get irritated by the slowpoke in 'their' lane.
    - lucb1e 5y ago
      Ooh sorry I thought you were talking about the bike, not the 45km/h thing. Got it!
      - jacquesm 5y ago
        Np, it's a confusing subject in practice and to talk about. There are 6 different classes of vehicle here that you can find on a bike path and probably more when you start to factor in cargo bikes and such.

jacquesm 5y ago

It weighs half that, including me, and the average speed over a longer trip is about 33 to 35 Kph. In cities you ride just as fast as the rest of the bike traffic, there isn't any point in trying to go faster, and top speed is rarely achieved, you'd need a 100% full battery and a rider in very good condition. More usual you'll be around 35 to 38 kph in open country where there is very little other traffic. My 'commute' is 64 km, it takes me two hours on the dot door-to-door.

gglanzani 5y ago
Using my Stromer ST1X — which lacks the top of the line motor of the ST3 and ST5 — I can bike at 45kph at any battery % above 30. I am probably 140kg with bike, battery, laptop, clothes, and stuff. Outside the cities I can go in the bike lane, and I am absolutely twice as fast as most bikes. I live in the Netherlands, so everything being flat helps.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  That's a very neat bike and that motor is twice as strong as the one on the Bosch models. What kind of range do you get out of it at 45 kph?
  - gglanzani 5y ago
    Something like 50/55km on the 800Wh battery.
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      Nice! Stromers are great gear, I like the looks too.
- tda 5y ago
  I recently sold my ST2. I could get only 30-60km on a full (1kwh) battery at max speed (46 kmh). But then why would you go below max speed om a 7k bicycle? I got rid of it because it was also very expensive in maintenance, and because cycling on the road slightly slower than cars really sucks (a few too many encounters with aggressive cars). The stromers are near impossible to ride without assist, think because of the regenerative engine. When the battery was empty or I had one of those weird error 18 things I could go abou 17kmh with a lot of effort. I got a vanmoof bike instead niwy, so much nicer. 30kmh, easy to pedal past assist speed cause of light front wheel motor. Lightweight, 500wh battery is pretty ok (also same 30-60km range). Lots of repairs (under warranty) though, build quality is subpar. My 30km commute is 65 minutes now on my vanmoof, where it was 50 minutes on a stromer.

dQw4w9WgXcQ 5y ago

All the speed of motorcycles without the sound awareness, what could possibly go wrong? My overall experience is that E-bike riders generally have decent cycling manners, it's the scooter and unicycle riders that seem to think they can just crank their walking speed up to 30mph and go everywhere a pedestrian would. I usually just give them a firm "heads up next time" when I get buzzed by an electric motor whine at 20mph.

jacquesm 5y ago
Scooters are a plague (and this bike is classed as a scooter, unfortunately, so I'm lumped in with the worst), but a bigger danger is mobile phone use by cyclists. That's roughly 1/3rd of all the adults and 2/3rds of the teenagers here.
- megablast 5y ago
  The biggest danger is cars that kill 2 million people every year around the world. Everything else is so tiny as to not count.
- _Understated_ 5y ago
  > but a bigger danger is mobile phone use by cyclists. Or by pedestrians! My brother curses the number of pedestrians in Glasgow that cross the road while looking at their phones... they're by far his biggest hazard.
  - pawelwentpawel 5y ago
    Screen-zombie pedestrians annoy me as well. So do uneven pavements, trash, rocks and any other obstacles that appear on my way. If I'm on an electric scooter or a bike though it's my responsibility to ensure that I'm not riding a silent, heavy and fast vehicle into someone. Especially if they can't see me because I'm approaching from behind. And to emphasise - there is an entire range of pedestrians that might have a disability (mobility issues, seeing, hearing etc.) which makes them much more vulnerable to accidents.