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Electric recumbent bikes are 80 more efficient than EV (2018)
- ok123456 3y agoNeed to normalize by vehicle weight and engine output to compare efficiencies. Yes, in absolute terms a smaller, lighter vehicle that only needs to produce a maybe 1kW to move will be more efficient.
- jacquesm 3y agoThese EV recumbents are too low to be safe in traffic, but at least they are trikes and so a bit more stable than two wheeled recumbents. There are a couple of them riding around here where I live and while fast they are a huge nuisance on the bike paths because they're faster than everybody else and the people riding them believe that the rest of the population on the bike path are 'moving obstacles' that they have to overtake, even if it isn't possible (in that sense they are quite similar to the packs of racing bikes that always appear in the summer). Normal recumbents are also bloody dangerous. I'm a pretty experienced cyclist, have taken many experimental bikes out for a spin. Finally, a recumbent got me, a simple traffic obstacle took the front wheel off the ground and that was that. Ambulance ride, complex double fracture and a 7 hour operation later I can walk so I got very lucky. This was 6 years ago. There isn't a day that I think 'why did I have to try that particular bike, it felt dangerous from the first moment'. Recumbents are not stable like normal bikes are. Anything goes wrong, you fall, there is no recovery. If the circumstances are bad enough that will do you in, if you're lucky, like me, you end up with a daily reminder. Don't ride recumbents in traffic, even if it feels like a great idea, they're fast as can be and you have next to no wind resistance. The failure modes are inherent in the way the bike works and there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it (leg suck, balancing by steering) and they're invisible from inside a car. Another problem with these is that they have a bad turning radius and don't mix well with other traffic on a bike path because of their width. Regular e-bikes are also 80% (or even more) efficient than electric cars and don't have the disadvantages.
- jjtheblunt 3y agocars give you an exoskeleton, but e-bikes of whatever sort leave you exposed to the maniacs fumbling with their cellphones, which i see incessantly.
- fnimick 3y agoThat's a policy failure. We can't have people getting into bigger and bigger cars to protect themselves from other people in big cars. Having road designs that leave non-car users vulnerable is a problem.
- Aeolun 3y agoThe only thing I feel save going out in now is a tank.
- jacquesm 3y ago'Drive defensively, drive a Sherman' (seen in the USA on a bumper sticker a long time ago).
- jjtheblunt 3y agoi DO wonder if that sort of mindset is why i see (Arizona) so many 40ish year old moms with huge Escalades or Tahoes (and who are often the ones driving incompetently, distracted).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- megablast 3y agoAgreed, cars should be nowhere near people.
- tbrownaw 3y agoYes, and they should have dedicated infrastructure to help keep them away from people. We could call this infrastructure "roads".
- mkl 3y agoThe title should say "80 times more efficient". These are also trikes, not bikes. As a rider of a regular e-bike I won't be getting into one of these; compared to an upright bike, the rider can't see or be seen well at all.
- tcfhgj 3y agoBeing seen: add a flag
- jacquesm 3y agoDoesn't work. Not lit at night and too small. Besides that they ruin that precious aerodynamic shape and look dorky so nobody uses them.
- klyrs 3y agoA tiny orange triangle floating at hood-height isn't visible by any stretch. People miss entire motorcycles behind their A-pillar when turning a corner. What recumbents need is a 10' flag (with lights) at eye level of jacked trucks. But that's aerodynamic suicide; nobody would want to ride a bike with that much drag.
- deeviant 3y agoA toy-sized tear drop with barley enough room to fit a person in it, and the safety profile of a soapbox car is only 80(x?) more efficient than a full-sized EV? That is surprising.
- dgan 3y agoit is enough for 1 person, and plenty of bags around :) also, 450km range when used with 2 more batteries (only 6kg) 80 times more efficient
- deeviant 3y agoIs there a breakdown of the human-supplied vs battery-supplied energy for 450km range. Is this going down hill, uphill? How much cargo? "Plenty of bags", what type, plastic lunch bags filled with air? In the "80x" more efficient, does it just count human calories as free, because I don't think human calories are as green as you think they are. Let's say I want to do something actually useful, like grocery shop, and I need 30kg of groceries taking up something like .3 m2 space. Where does this vehicle fit into that use case? Also, I want to not die if I impact anything more substantial then a tumbleweed. It's pretty annoying when people put forward a totally unpractical solution then throw their hands up with a "well we had the solution that could save the world but nobody listened!"
- dgan 3y agoThere is whole youtube channel for someone who regularly rides one to go to work, so I guess that's practical enough for him. He is still alive too. https://www.youtube.com/@TheVelomobileChannel https://www.youtube.com/@TheVelomobileChannel, and specifically the video about luggage space and other things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1bU5SIVq6k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1bU5SIVq6k. Note that he is using full leg-powered velomobile, not even electric one > does it just count human calories as free Are we really also gonna include the fact that exercising reduce medical bills in long run?
- deeviant 3y ago
- zer0-c00l 3y agoRecumbents are more efficient than regular bikes too but it turns out nobody rides them because they make you look like a complete dweeb.
- r00fus 3y agoThat's only because the UCI regulated them out of existence a century ago [1]. Otherwise every single cyclist in races today would be using recumbents. They're that much more efficient. My (aging, limited mobility) mom often uses her recumbent electric bike for grocery grabbing (bike score of 75, ymmv). [1] https://daily.jstor.org/who-killed-the-recumbent-bicycle/ https://daily.jstor.org/who-killed-the-recumbent-bicycle/
- timbit42 3y agoThat's just your opinion, man. I think people in SUVs look like dweebs.
- andrewstuart 3y agoOnly Unix admins with beards are allowed to ride recumbent bikes.
- dbuscher 3y agoIs there a reason why this links to the French translation rather than the (as far as I can tell) original English version [0]? [0] https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2012/10/electric-velomobiles.html https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2012/10/electric-velomobiles...
- djbusby 3y agoThe trike in the article looks like a modernized version of an electric car featured in Murdoch Mysteries (Canada) which is set early 1900s. That show has a lot of other cool (but old school) "modern" technologies.
- jacquesm 3y agoIt's called a velomobile. https://www.velomobiel.nl/ https://www.velomobiel.nl/ (Dutch)
- Steltek 3y agoThe article is specifically talking about velomobiles: fully enclosed recumbent trikes. They're distinctly not better than a regular e-bike: * Where do you park this monstrosity? Are you really gonna hop the curb chain it a post? If you're a cyclist, why would give up the amazing parking opportunities that regular bikes provide? * Protected from the rain, sure, but hot as hell inside. Every cyclist knows that rain gear is just bad as the rain. You're either soaked from your own sweat or nature. * Visibility, both for you and of you, is nil. Covered by nearly every other comment here. * Maintenance looks like hell. Bike shop people will hate you because it won't even fit through the door. Or you could DIY at home, regularly removing the fairing for trivial jobs like brake pads or chain cleaning. * The speeds mentioned in the article, 40-50kph, aren't even particularly notable for e-motorcycles (class III e-bikes). Long ago, recumbents had an advantage over acoustic bikes but times have very much changed.
- dgan 3y agoI thought "acoustic bike" was referring to some type of obscure sound propulsion technology I never encountered in any of the blogs or press articles. Turns out, "acoustic bike" means "regular bike"... go figure
- notacoward 3y agoAnd a human-driven bike (recumbent or not) is infinitely more efficient than an electric one. That's the real comparison, because functionally this is a lot closer to a regular bike than to a car. The efficiency argument doesn't seem very compelling to anyone coming from either alternative. Better IMO to focus on ease of use for those who would use a regular bike except for physical limitations.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jaclaz 3y agoNot exactly a recumbent bike like the one in the article, but there was an attempt to mass-produce a tiny electric trike in the UK in the '80's (which failed miserably): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5
- TacticalCoder 3y ago> aussi Rapides et Confortables que les Automobiles "As quick and comfortable as cars" Yeah. Sure. About the "comfortable" part by looking at that picture about 99% of all the cars on earth want to have a word with you. That's plain bullshit.