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> E bikes really are the best form of travel Whether an E bike is the best form of travel is going to depend on a lot of factors. It's certainly less flexible

by js2 3y ago

> E bikes really are the best form of travel Whether an E bike is the best form of travel is going to depend on a lot of factors. It's certainly less flexible than a car. For one person who doesn't need to carry a lot and who lives somewhere that has dedicated bike lanes or can at least safely share the road with cars and where the weather is neither much too cold nor much too hot and there aren't daily thunderstorms, sure. I don't mean this to be critical of E bikes or biking in general. I wish the built environment (in the U.S.) were more supportive of biking. Things like the weather are what they are, but the lack of dedicated bike lanes are a choice we made in the U.S. It can be especially bad in the suburbs and rural areas. Personally (U.S east coast, mid-atlantic), I could reasonably use an E bike for a limited set of my trips in the spring and fall except the roads near me are hostile to bikes and there are no sidewalks in many cases. In the summer (July - Sep), an E bike isn't suitable due to heat, humidity, and on a lot of days severe thunderstorms.

lostNFound 3y ago
Surprised no comment in this thread mentioned speed actually, apart from cargo space of course. In my area traffic is completely quiet. In a car you can go 120km/h in the highways fine, and even almost that in some specific non highway streets. I always want to get one until I remember: 1. I WFH and “university FH”. Both are >100km from my house for when I rarely need to go. 2. My gym is 15km away and I barely get there in time in my car at the aforementioned speeds. There are no closer ones. 3. My non-e-bike is just my weekend workout (which I love) but if using for workout, e-bike doesn’t make much sense. 4. The only other use case for my car is getting groceries for my entire family or other cargo heavy things.
- DANmode 3y ago
  > if using for workout, e-bike doesn’t make much sense. If you have time, or don't have time, but still want variety in your route/scenery, there's no better option.
- atahanacar 3y ago
  [dead]
zimpenfish 3y ago
I know someone who carries a lot, lives in London (some dedicated bike lanes, not many), the weather is, uh, random at best, and he does the shopping, commutes from SW London to Farringdon, etc. All using an e-bike with detachable cargo trailer. If I didn't live on the 3rd floor[1], or had bike storage downstairs, I'd get one ASAP. [1] I need an e-bike for the same reason I can't carry 20kg up 4 flights - my right knee is functionally useless.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- throw0101a 3y ago
  > If I didn't live on the 3rd floor[1], or had bike storage downstairs, I'd get one ASAP. Folding bicycle? * https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a20048132/best-folding-bikes/ https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a20048132/best-folding-... * https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-folding-bike/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-folding-bike... There are e-bike variants available as well. (General consensus seems to be Brompton is (at) the top tier, but not cheap.)
  - giobox 3y ago
    Electric folding bikes are typically pretty heavy, I own a couple - my wife for one would really struggle to carry either of them to the first floor let alone the third. Most electric folding bikes, the fold allows easy moving in cars/elevators or storage, I would not personally recommend them for multi-floor stair commutes unless you are comfortable with what you are getting yourself into. I've also had two former colleagues trade folding e-bikes for folding e-scooters just to avoid the hassle of taking the folding e-bike up two flights of stairs at the office end. The e-scooters are far easier to maneuver/stow on busy commuter trains if that is a factor too - you can get roughly the same range at 50% of the weight and its far smaller folded. As a typical example: * https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radexpand-electric-folding-bike https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radexpand-electric-fo... That's a 64lb/29kg bike, and not uncommon for a folding ebike.
dagurp 3y ago
Temperature is not an issue in most places.
yokoprime 3y ago
I love in Norway and we have studded tires on our Urban Arrow during winter. It can carry probably about a weeks worth of groceries. That being said we have a car too, so it’s about using the right tool for the job: downtown shopping means using the bike, weekend in the mountains we use the car. If it’s a storm outside we usually take the car too.
swader999 3y ago
While I didn't completely replace my car, I was able to go a couple of months on each tank and reduced my insurance to the casual driver level.
hughesjj 3y ago
Depends. If you're out in the boonies with nothing but shoulderless rural highway roads then yeah, ebikes aren't great, but for the majority of Americans (let alone westerners or people in general) ebikes are more than enough. I'm 6'2" 260lbs and can ride a lectric xpedition all over Seattle hills with my girlfriend on the back and enough gear to have a picnic and go shopping for a fun day out. The same bike has a two seater orbiter for little kids on the back and still room for cargo. I just got back from Paris and Amsterdam. In Paris, I saw a dude riding a bike towing a trailer with 6 more ebikes on it. This was around Montmartre, which is notoriously hilly. In Amsterdam, there's this thing called a bakfiet, which is super popular and carries even more cargo than that lectric bike I have. It's big enough for you to put two teenagers into with a parent driving, or two dogs comfortably, or enough groceries for your doomsday shelter. I don't buy the cold either. Bar mitts exist, and are on almost every bike in NYC, which definitely gets cold in the winter. I've seen it in Boston too. You can also get studded tires for the snow, and to be real I'd rather lose control in the snow on a <100lb bike over a >2000 pound car if the snow is really that bad. That said, yeah, there's no climate control in a bike. If you dress in layers and with the appropriate gear it's mitigated but definitely less convenient imo. Also if you're a super commuter, yeah ebikes will take forever, but to be fair super committing sucks regardless. Sucked my life out doing 3-5 hours a day in Philly traffic back when I was doing that, really happy and privileged not to have to do that anymore. The gas was stupid expensive too, I was filling up every other day at minimum. I'm not saying we should get rid of cars. I am saying that there are and always have been alternatives, and those alternatives are pretty darn nice these days, and for me better in every case save for Costco runs and camping/road trips. Mostly, I'm saying that we shouldn't resign ourselves to being car dependent, because it sucks. After getting my first big boy west coast job, I was determined to never have to go through the bs trauma I got being car dependent again, and I'm much happier for it. No more getting stuck on the PA turnpike for hours due to an overturned 18 wheeler. No more rear end collisions from rush hour cloverleaf merging. No more snow rusting out my brake lines and limping back to my mom's house to replace them with my dad before driving back to college to drop my gf off for work. No more borrowing a friend's car because my transmission gave out and my office had a super restrictive WFH policy. No more hailstorms and dealing with insurance who didn't want to cover the brand new rental car I was using when my transmission failed (yes that was literally the same month). No more inspections or tags or biannual maintenance or anxiety over how to get to work when things go wrong. No more stressing about geopolitics affecting the price at the pump when I was barely making enough to get by in the first place. After 7 car free years in Seattle, I bought a car again. I love my Subaru. I've modded it a ton, and drove it all over the west coast. I will continue using my Subaru. My Subaru is a luxury, and it is a convenience, and I'm so much happier that I don't need to treat it as a requirement to earn a living or feed myself or whatever.
microtonal 3y ago
When I lived in Southern Germany, before WFH, I went by bike (non-ebike) literally every working day of the year (22-25 km depending on the route). 35 degrees (just leave earlier), snow, rain, whatever. It was so great, you automatically build up a lot of condition, have a lot of energy when you arrive at work, and some 1-2 days every week I'd cycle back through the hills to get some extra climbing practice. During the weekends I'd often cycle through the mountains/hills as well. Sometimes with our 3/4 year old daughter in a Thule bike trailer. The only downside was that Germany doesn't have a lot of dedicated cycling lanes and drivers are either too careful or completely reckless around bikes. And it was definitely not normal for German standards, I often got questions from Germans how I kept up with it through all weather. At any rate, I have so many good memories of the daily cycling and it's a thing that I miss now. We do pretty much everything by bike now as well, but we live in a city (in The Netherlands) and everything is nearby. I do frequently go for longer trips in nature in spring/summer. The upside is that cycling is much much safer here (dedicated bike lanes, etc.).
- prmoustache 3y ago
  Yeah, weather is such a bad excuse.
  - swader999 3y ago
    Extreme heat maybe, but cold can be handled.
bjornasm 3y ago
>For one person who doesn't need to carry a lot Transport e-bikes can take several people, furniture etc. No problem bicycling in bad weather either, people regularly bike in ice and snow.

by js2 3y ago

lostNFound 3y ago

Surprised no comment in this thread mentioned speed actually, apart from cargo space of course. In my area traffic is completely quiet. In a car you can go 120km/h in the highways fine, and even almost that in some specific non highway streets. I always want to get one until I remember: 1. I WFH and “university FH”. Both are >100km from my house for when I rarely need to go. 2. My gym is 15km away and I barely get there in time in my car at the aforementioned speeds. There are no closer ones. 3. My non-e-bike is just my weekend workout (which I love) but if using for workout, e-bike doesn’t make much sense. 4. The only other use case for my car is getting groceries for my entire family or other cargo heavy things.

DANmode 3y ago
> if using for workout, e-bike doesn’t make much sense. If you have time, or don't have time, but still want variety in your route/scenery, there's no better option.
atahanacar 3y ago
[dead]

zimpenfish 3y ago

I know someone who carries a lot, lives in London (some dedicated bike lanes, not many), the weather is, uh, random at best, and he does the shopping, commutes from SW London to Farringdon, etc. All using an e-bike with detachable cargo trailer. If I didn't live on the 3rd floor[1], or had bike storage downstairs, I'd get one ASAP. [1] I need an e-bike for the same reason I can't carry 20kg up 4 flights - my right knee is functionally useless.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
throw0101a 3y ago
> If I didn't live on the 3rd floor[1], or had bike storage downstairs, I'd get one ASAP. Folding bicycle? * https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a20048132/best-folding-bikes/ https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a20048132/best-folding-... * https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-folding-bike/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-folding-bike... There are e-bike variants available as well. (General consensus seems to be Brompton is (at) the top tier, but not cheap.)
- giobox 3y ago
  Electric folding bikes are typically pretty heavy, I own a couple - my wife for one would really struggle to carry either of them to the first floor let alone the third. Most electric folding bikes, the fold allows easy moving in cars/elevators or storage, I would not personally recommend them for multi-floor stair commutes unless you are comfortable with what you are getting yourself into. I've also had two former colleagues trade folding e-bikes for folding e-scooters just to avoid the hassle of taking the folding e-bike up two flights of stairs at the office end. The e-scooters are far easier to maneuver/stow on busy commuter trains if that is a factor too - you can get roughly the same range at 50% of the weight and its far smaller folded. As a typical example: * https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radexpand-electric-folding-bike https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radexpand-electric-fo... That's a 64lb/29kg bike, and not uncommon for a folding ebike.

dagurp 3y ago

Temperature is not an issue in most places.

yokoprime 3y ago

I love in Norway and we have studded tires on our Urban Arrow during winter. It can carry probably about a weeks worth of groceries. That being said we have a car too, so it’s about using the right tool for the job: downtown shopping means using the bike, weekend in the mountains we use the car. If it’s a storm outside we usually take the car too.

swader999 3y ago

While I didn't completely replace my car, I was able to go a couple of months on each tank and reduced my insurance to the casual driver level.

hughesjj 3y ago

Depends. If you're out in the boonies with nothing but shoulderless rural highway roads then yeah, ebikes aren't great, but for the majority of Americans (let alone westerners or people in general) ebikes are more than enough. I'm 6'2" 260lbs and can ride a lectric xpedition all over Seattle hills with my girlfriend on the back and enough gear to have a picnic and go shopping for a fun day out. The same bike has a two seater orbiter for little kids on the back and still room for cargo. I just got back from Paris and Amsterdam. In Paris, I saw a dude riding a bike towing a trailer with 6 more ebikes on it. This was around Montmartre, which is notoriously hilly. In Amsterdam, there's this thing called a bakfiet, which is super popular and carries even more cargo than that lectric bike I have. It's big enough for you to put two teenagers into with a parent driving, or two dogs comfortably, or enough groceries for your doomsday shelter. I don't buy the cold either. Bar mitts exist, and are on almost every bike in NYC, which definitely gets cold in the winter. I've seen it in Boston too. You can also get studded tires for the snow, and to be real I'd rather lose control in the snow on a <100lb bike over a >2000 pound car if the snow is really that bad. That said, yeah, there's no climate control in a bike. If you dress in layers and with the appropriate gear it's mitigated but definitely less convenient imo. Also if you're a super commuter, yeah ebikes will take forever, but to be fair super committing sucks regardless. Sucked my life out doing 3-5 hours a day in Philly traffic back when I was doing that, really happy and privileged not to have to do that anymore. The gas was stupid expensive too, I was filling up every other day at minimum. I'm not saying we should get rid of cars. I am saying that there are and always have been alternatives, and those alternatives are pretty darn nice these days, and for me better in every case save for Costco runs and camping/road trips. Mostly, I'm saying that we shouldn't resign ourselves to being car dependent, because it sucks. After getting my first big boy west coast job, I was determined to never have to go through the bs trauma I got being car dependent again, and I'm much happier for it. No more getting stuck on the PA turnpike for hours due to an overturned 18 wheeler. No more rear end collisions from rush hour cloverleaf merging. No more snow rusting out my brake lines and limping back to my mom's house to replace them with my dad before driving back to college to drop my gf off for work. No more borrowing a friend's car because my transmission gave out and my office had a super restrictive WFH policy. No more hailstorms and dealing with insurance who didn't want to cover the brand new rental car I was using when my transmission failed (yes that was literally the same month). No more inspections or tags or biannual maintenance or anxiety over how to get to work when things go wrong. No more stressing about geopolitics affecting the price at the pump when I was barely making enough to get by in the first place. After 7 car free years in Seattle, I bought a car again. I love my Subaru. I've modded it a ton, and drove it all over the west coast. I will continue using my Subaru. My Subaru is a luxury, and it is a convenience, and I'm so much happier that I don't need to treat it as a requirement to earn a living or feed myself or whatever.

microtonal 3y ago

When I lived in Southern Germany, before WFH, I went by bike (non-ebike) literally every working day of the year (22-25 km depending on the route). 35 degrees (just leave earlier), snow, rain, whatever. It was so great, you automatically build up a lot of condition, have a lot of energy when you arrive at work, and some 1-2 days every week I'd cycle back through the hills to get some extra climbing practice. During the weekends I'd often cycle through the mountains/hills as well. Sometimes with our 3/4 year old daughter in a Thule bike trailer. The only downside was that Germany doesn't have a lot of dedicated cycling lanes and drivers are either too careful or completely reckless around bikes. And it was definitely not normal for German standards, I often got questions from Germans how I kept up with it through all weather. At any rate, I have so many good memories of the daily cycling and it's a thing that I miss now. We do pretty much everything by bike now as well, but we live in a city (in The Netherlands) and everything is nearby. I do frequently go for longer trips in nature in spring/summer. The upside is that cycling is much much safer here (dedicated bike lanes, etc.).

prmoustache 3y ago
Yeah, weather is such a bad excuse.
- swader999 3y ago
  Extreme heat maybe, but cold can be handled.

bjornasm 3y ago

>For one person who doesn't need to carry a lot Transport e-bikes can take several people, furniture etc. No problem bicycling in bad weather either, people regularly bike in ice and snow.