3 ms·
We haven't seen many electric motorbikes yet, though ebikes (bicycles) are taking off. It'd be interesting to see how the two merge (fast/powerful ebike vs elec
by Chris2048 5y ago
We haven't seen many electric motorbikes yet, though ebikes (bicycles) are taking off. It'd be interesting to see how the two merge (fast/powerful ebike vs electric motorcycle).
To me the main concerns are:
- Commodity vs personal: taxis, trains and hire-bikes are convenient from a shared-ownership perspective, but inconvenient in that you can better customise the experience of having you own vehicle.
- luggage & shelter: a bike / motorbike limits how much luggage you can carry. Also, a car is a much nicer environment that motorcycle leathers in all-weather; It's also easier to get in/out of a car than it is to change clothes.
I wonder if some of this can be improved by mere infrastructure: better dedicated roads highways for certain types of vehicle, better (secure) parking, city storage facilities for commuters etc.
- GLGirty 5y agoI think inherent safety issues will keep ebikes classified as-is. A fast human humans can sprint 30km/h, and our skulls and skin can mostly survive a fall at that speed. Every ebike is limited to that speed because that's the safe speed. 40km/h doesn't feel much faster when you're doing it, but a fall at that speed is an order of magnitude more likely to need hospitalization. I expect something between a velomobile and a tuktuk could be engineered to protect a rider from a fall, but where would you drive it? It wouldn't be safe to share a road with trucks, and but it would be a danger to cyclists. Edit: We have the tech to do it right now--the homebrew combo of bafang motor and phaserunner controller can turn a mountain bike into a suicide machine. It would be a sensible upgrade for a dutch-style cargo bike though. Keep it locked under 30kph and you could take little kids on a grocery run. (Where city trail infrastructure exists.)