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I’m a total convert to ebikes and use a VanMoof (mentioned in this article as an example of vertical integration - its a great bike when it works, but it has a

by cianmm 5y ago

I’m a total convert to ebikes and use a VanMoof (mentioned in this article as an example of vertical integration - its a great bike when it works, but it has a high failure rate. My parents use more traditional brands with a much lower failure rate but about twice the price) to move around my fairly bike unfriendly city. This article gets a lot of points right, but a few important ones wrong. Firstly, I find it pretty surprising that the author would want to remove the drivetrain. I frequently do 75km (47 miles) in a weekend on a single charge on my bike, and I imagine that a lot of that range is due to the power that I’m providing to the bike rather than relying entirely on the inbuilt motor. The ability to go far is central to the goal of replacing as many car journeys as possible with sustainable transport such as bikes. In addition, bikes provide decent exercise with relatively little effort, built into day to day. Cycling makes us healthier. Also, if you run out of battery then you’ll just have to push the bike, rather than cycle a bike roughly the weight of a city-share bike back home, which isn’t a particularly difficult task for most. I do however see the benefit of this type of bike for some who use bikes as an accessibility tool, although maybe in those cases a scooter with a seat would be more convenient since it’s smaller. The second idea in the article which made me double-take is the idea of removing direct mechanical brakes from the bike. As somebody who commutes around a busy city on a daily basis, this had me wondering if the writer actually cycles in a city or not. As a bike commuter I need to deal with drivers who want to kill me, pedestrians who jump out from behind obstructions with no warning, and other cyclists are too indifferent to their surroundings that they’re likely to injure the both of us. I need to fully trust that when I squeeze that brake lever that my bike will come to a stop in the exact way that I intend. Including if the electricals fail for some reason. Finally, not bike related, the writer demonises the idea of making specific streets bike and pedestrian only, banning cars, and even seems to dislike the idea of the 15 minute city, where you aren’t required to leave your local neighbourhood on a day to day basis. This might be coming from the perspective of living in American city where the car is king, but it seems incomprehensible to me that somebody wouldn’t want to have all of their daily necessities easily accessible by foot, and be able to bike, or scoot, or take public transport to pretty much anything else they could need within a 15 minute window. There are both social and economic benefits to this, as it increases neighbourliness as people get to know each other, and also moves away from a small number of big box shops to a much greater number of local green grocers, butchers, book shops, and so on. Reduction of emissions is another huge benefit of course. Overall I agree with the article directionally but think it gets a few pretty important things wrong.

chrismorgan 5y ago
> I need to fully trust that when I squeeze that brake lever that my bike will come to a stop in the exact way that I intend. Including if the electricals fail for some reason. I take it you’ve never experienced mechanical brake failure. It can happen, and is probably more likely to happen than an electrical brake, because of the greater forces applied on the flimsier brake cable. One of my sisters once was riding her bicycle to school, which had only one operable brake at the time—the other was ineffective for some reason and she hadn’t mentioned this to us, so it didn’t get fixed. Well, going down the final hill, the brake cable snapped; and when she reached the bottom of the hill where you turn onto the campus, she panicked and turned despite her speed, and so tumbled over a low brick wall at the gate and broke an arm, rather than just going up the other side of the hill until she stopped.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Brake cables need periodical exchanging. Many people don't do this for some reason. A well maintained brake cable will support your whole weight, one that is ignored for a decade or so will snap when you need it most. There is no periodical roadworthyness review for bicylces, if I look at the things people sometimes cycle on I shudder. Broken / not properly tensioned spokes, cracked rims, missing brake pads, brakes not working at all, fixies, broken ball bearings, skipping chains etc. Bikes need maintenance, like every other vehicle.
  - chrismorgan 5y ago
    > for some reason (a) it takes effort; (b) it’s working, right? so why would I spend $6 + my own labour, or probably $50 for someone else to do it, on a new cable? You are quite right that bicycles need maintenance, but they work well enough for many people with limited to no maintenance, so that even when they experience what their bike is like when maintained, they often still won’t find it worth the bother. (I would be inclined to be like that if only using the bike for fairly short trips; as it stands, my standard trip is 40km each way, so such losses would become too galling.) This preference not to maintain incidentally points to a way in which I think electric drive-trains have real potential: they should require much less maintenance, and generally retain higher efficiency. “5% less efficient than a chain”, perhaps, but that’s a maintained chain. Minimally-maintained chain drivetrains will probably have lost that 5%, and unmaintained ones can easily lose 20%.

by cianmm 5y ago

chrismorgan 5y ago

> I need to fully trust that when I squeeze that brake lever that my bike will come to a stop in the exact way that I intend. Including if the electricals fail for some reason. I take it you’ve never experienced mechanical brake failure. It can happen, and is probably more likely to happen than an electrical brake, because of the greater forces applied on the flimsier brake cable. One of my sisters once was riding her bicycle to school, which had only one operable brake at the time—the other was ineffective for some reason and she hadn’t mentioned this to us, so it didn’t get fixed. Well, going down the final hill, the brake cable snapped; and when she reached the bottom of the hill where you turn onto the campus, she panicked and turned despite her speed, and so tumbled over a low brick wall at the gate and broke an arm, rather than just going up the other side of the hill until she stopped.

jacquesm 5y ago
Brake cables need periodical exchanging. Many people don't do this for some reason. A well maintained brake cable will support your whole weight, one that is ignored for a decade or so will snap when you need it most. There is no periodical roadworthyness review for bicylces, if I look at the things people sometimes cycle on I shudder. Broken / not properly tensioned spokes, cracked rims, missing brake pads, brakes not working at all, fixies, broken ball bearings, skipping chains etc. Bikes need maintenance, like every other vehicle.
- chrismorgan 5y ago
  > for some reason (a) it takes effort; (b) it’s working, right? so why would I spend $6 + my own labour, or probably $50 for someone else to do it, on a new cable? You are quite right that bicycles need maintenance, but they work well enough for many people with limited to no maintenance, so that even when they experience what their bike is like when maintained, they often still won’t find it worth the bother. (I would be inclined to be like that if only using the bike for fairly short trips; as it stands, my standard trip is 40km each way, so such losses would become too galling.) This preference not to maintain incidentally points to a way in which I think electric drive-trains have real potential: they should require much less maintenance, and generally retain higher efficiency. “5% less efficient than a chain”, perhaps, but that’s a maintained chain. Minimally-maintained chain drivetrains will probably have lost that 5%, and unmaintained ones can easily lose 20%.