It kind of sounds like I'm on some weird speed crusade, I still warmly recommend getting an ebike for the kids, but you'll probably find as we have that on the downhill half of your trip to nursery or the park there are like zero bad times with drivers, and on the uphill part you're pegged at 16mph and everyone is squeezing past. If I was less honourable, I can definitely see the attraction of chipping the bike for the return half of the nursery run.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
"The electric bike is not a short-term trend"
(506 posts)-
Posted 3 years ago #
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@Dave - it's a tough one (and when I'm on my Tern HSD with a kid on the back, I experience exactly the thing you describe). My difficulty with letting e-bikes go much faster is the effect fast e-bikes would have on pedestrians when used in shared use infrastructure. You can ride at 25mph on the towpath without a motor. I can ride at 25mph on the towpath without a motor (on a good day) but we're outliers. If e-bikes where to allow everyone to ride at 25mph on shared infrastructure there would be carnage...
Posted 3 years ago # -
I’ve had a number of uncomfortable encounters with Terns on the canal path recently. Definitely some folk who don’t drive them with due care…
Posted 3 years ago # -
@SRD - not me, I hope. Although perhaps you may have passed mine (bright blue) in George Square last Saturday morning.
Funnily enough, on the towpath on Tuesday morning I did pass an identical model to mine coming the other way. The only comment in such circumstances is, of course, "Nice bike!"
Posted 3 years ago # -
Posted 3 years ago #
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“
“Prince Charles’s quaint solution to decarbonise his Aston Martin using a high blend of bioethanol made from cheese and wine wastes should not be mistaken for a serious solution to decarbonise vehicles,” said Greg Archer, UK director of T&E, a European clean transport campaign group.
“
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/11/prince-charles-car-runs-on-cheese-wine-byproducts
Posted 3 years ago # -
@chdot - battery fires article is another worry. Battery boxes often have:
Cargo Aircraft Only
Forbidden on Passenger AircraftPrince Charles - 'but one has to realise that an Aston Martin can go on and on for years." Somewhat like the royal family.
Posted 3 years ago # -
No engine noise but presume they kick up gravel with those tyres. Zero maintenance also a bold claim.
Daily mirror let me through without any pay wall issues, Is this my love of Andy Capp and Flo?
Though this could be the solution for Comelybank Sett noise. Issue all residents with SAS electric motorbikes?
Posted 3 years ago # -
“
“In the last four years, e-bikes were responsible for nearly 200,000 emergency room visits in the US. With our urban safety mission in mind, expanding into rapidly growing micromobility solutions is the logical next step for Terranet.
“We are thrilled to progress in using our unique technologies and continue advancing our mission of revolutionising urban roadway safety.”
“
https://www.bikebiz.com/terranet-unveils-new-e-bike-safety-innovation-blincbike/amp/
Posted 2 years ago # -
Can't help thinking that all these safety related tech solutions merely help to flag up to non cyclists that the act of cycling is a reckless activity. Like having a GPS avalanche beacon to go walking.
In USA having telemetry fitted to your bike no doubt would get a health insurance gain.
In NL they would say it simply isn't required as 90% of external risks from motorised vehicles are eliminated.Posted 2 years ago # -
Re the above three posts
(a) I know the postings about the Zero bike were somewhat tongue in cheek, but I just thought I'd point out (in case anyone was not aware) that the Zero bike is an electric motorcycle, not an EAPCs, so the Comley Bank residents would need to pass their motorcycle tests
(b) in a related vein, I get the impression that electric motorcycles are signiificantly more popular and prevalent in the US than the UK (ignoring the occasional 'bandit' e-bike which I do see around from time to time, which might explain why there are so many injury accidents i.e. not all of them will have been EAPCs as we know them here.ISTR an article recently (which might even have been linked on here at the time) about some famous person injuring themselves on their "e-bike" which turned out to have been a high-powered electric motorcycle - but not before the "these electric bicycles are a menace and should be banned from our roads" commenters had had their little rants.
Posted 2 years ago # -
turned out to have been a high-powered electric motorcycle
Not quite. For a motorbike, 20hp is half-way between a 125cc and 250cc and top out at 70-90mph. A high powered motorbike would be up to 150kW. The Mugen E-motorbike for example averages 120mph around Isle of Man TT 40miles.Posted 2 years ago # -
200,000 sounds like a lot but putting it in perspective it isn't.
In the first half of 2021 over 20,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes on the roads of the USA. Extrapolating that data means 160,000 people died in the same 4 year period. That's the very extreme end of motor vehicle injury so imagine how many ER visits there are as a result of road violence.
Rather than putting technology on a bike which make it harder to ride we need to focus energy on putting technology on cars which make it impossible to drive them dangerously.
Posted 2 years ago # -
@le_soigneur: Thanks for the link to the story. You're right, 20hp isn't all that powerful in traditional motorcycle terms. It's still 60 times more powerful than an EAPC is allowed to be, though.
Posted 2 years ago # -
The US doesn't have such strict safety standards for ebike though so a 15kw motor is perfectly legal. It's also a lot lighter than a 20hp petrol bike so I'd bet it would out perform one (and not in a safe way)
Posted 2 years ago # -
SWINB weighs 105lbs. Comparable to a cheaper petrol motocross/dirt bike from 130-200lbs and 20-40hp (which is what it emulates, really).
US doesn't have such strict safety standards for ebike though so a 15kw motor is perfectly legal.
Not quite. US restricts EAPC to 750W & 20mph to be street legal.Posted 2 years ago # -
“
“We are seeing e-bikes being a car killer,” he added. “They increase the range and the frequency of bike riding.”
“
Posted 2 years ago # -
“
Swytch’s new battery still provides 250w of power and nine miles of range, in a package that weighs just 700g.
Swytch’s CTO and co-founder, Dmitro Khroma said: “Our new improved Swytch Kit is a game-changer. It is going to totally disrupt the e-bike industry because it is so much lighter, smaller and more affordable than anything else out there”.
“
https://www.micromobilitybiz.com/swytch-unveils-first-pocket-sized-e-bike-battery/amp/
Posted 2 years ago # -
“
Tapping into support can be the catalyst that turns a good idea into a world-changing one. Dr Amrit Chandan and Carlton Cummins launched Aceleron Energy in 2016 after inventing the world’s first fully serviceable and recyclable lithium-ion battery, with the aim of finding a solution to the growing issue of battery waste.
“A battery is made up of lots of components but usually it’s impossible to access them, swap them out or repair them,” says Chandan. In contrast, Aceleron’s battery can be stripped into its core components in five minutes. There’s a smart management system and it’s possible to swap out individual cells to maximise the lifetime of every element.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
It's the right idea in principle, but I'm not seeing it being all that much use in practice tbh. Sodium chemistry is coming online in the near future that will have comparable energy density by mass(and close by volume) and charge/discharge rates to Lithium Phosphate, so Lithium as the basis for batteries in stationary deployments and even large-mobile deployments like vehicles should be a thing of the past within a few years. Where we really need recyclability is for mobile devices, which are probably going to be stuck using Lithium(though hopefully not Cobalt cathodes soon) for a while yet barring a breakthrough in one of the more esoteric battery chemistries being tested, to get the maximum possible power in such a small form factor, and Aceleron's solution seems to be geared towards larger units.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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Current e-bike performance is principally limited by normative legislative intervention, not by the intrinsic potential of the technologies. Existing decisions as to what an e-bike can (and should) be are shaped by the performance expectations of late 19th- and early 20th-century bicycle designs. Shaping modal shift for longer trips returns us to thinking about the place of cycling travel time as a function of the relationship between distance and speed. Increased speed allows for greater distance without time penalty. However, speed is itself governed by available energy, coupled with the efficiency of use of that energy. Without entirely substituting human power, e-motors allow us to augment the human power available in different ways. Changes in cycle design (velomobiles, for example) allow us to increase the efficiency of use of available power in overcoming resistance to movement.
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Posted 2 years ago # -
Ingenious way of loading cargo onto a trailer pull by an ebike.
Bonus points for the Cargo arriving by boat and then last mile by bike.
https://twitter.com/oschneider_fub/status/1518530946810720256?t=vZzoTP_uZddow_8WKXPA4w&s=19
Posted 2 years ago # -
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How easy is it to drop the car when living in rural Scotland?
That is exactly what six families in Aberdeenshire have been finding out as part of a pilot project.
For one year, the volunteers have been given electric bikes - with the aim of challenging their travel behaviours.
“
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-61580373
Posted 2 years ago # -
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However, as mobility behaviour is highly habitual, convincing people to switch from cars to e-bikes is challenging. One strategy to accomplish this is the disruption of existing habits—a key idea behind an annual e-bike promotion programme in Switzerland, in which car owners can try out an e-bike for free over a two-week period in exchange for their car keys.
“
Posted 2 years ago # -
Are there any good places to buy a conversion leccy front wheel hub thing like the ones I see food delivery people on?
That would be a fun way to update my old hybrid without forking out for a whole new leccy bike with the bonus I could take the wheel off again if I wanted to go back to leg powered.Posted 2 years ago # -
Not sure what the food delivery folk use (I see them on a pretty wide variety of bikes) , but I got a swytch conversion earlier this year and r,y happy with it.
Posted 2 years ago # -
We got our front hub tandem retrofit kit from Woosh bikes.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Probably the best source of info
Posted 2 years ago # -
Spotted - E-scooter style rider - pedaling not using throttle. Good sound system!
Posted 2 years ago #
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