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Electric Bikes


IanHenry

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On Saturday whilst out with my Wife cycling along an ex railway line, we stopped for a coffee at an old station that has been converted to a cafe/bike shop. Talking to the owner (who was in top gear selling mode) and he insisted that I give an e-bike a quick run. It was the most fun I've had in ages!

 

I've got to have one! If you haven't had ride on an electric bike, I urge you to try one, you'll love it.

 

Ian

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when i lived in toronto, alot of people commute by bicycle. when the electric bikes got to the point of afford-ability that anyone could have one, they became a nuisance. those same people were a nuisance before, but they had to pedal, in order to ignore traffic laws and basic common sense.

 

i wouldn't mind having a recumbent with an electric motor on it. something like an hp veloteknik streetmachine. i don't know what brand motors are the good stuff these days.

but i would want lots of power and long range.

 

hp_velotechnik_street_machine_lg-1.jpg

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when i lived in toronto, alot of people commute by bicycle. when the electric bikes got to the point of afford-ability that anyone could have one, they became a nuisance. those same people were a nuisance before, but they had to pedal, in order to ignore traffic laws and basic common sense.

 

i wouldn't mind having a recumbent with an electric motor on it. something like an hp veloteknik streetmachine. i don't know what brand motors are the good stuff these days.

but i would want lots of power and long range.

 

hp_velotechnik_street_machine_lg-1.jpg

 

I understand how much of a nuisance they could be in a city environment. The ones I've been looking at need to be pedalled, it's just the motor gives it an extra boost up to 15.5 MPH (that's the max speed they can assist you to here in the U.K, after that it's classed as a motor bike). I also find riding on the country roads where I live a bit scary, I stick to off road cycle paths.

 

 

Ian

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I understand how much of a nuisance they could be in a city environment. The ones I've been looking at need to be pedalled, it's just the motor gives it an extra boost up to 15.5 MPH (that's the max speed they can assist you to here in the U.K, after that it's classed as a motor bike). I also find riding on the country roads where I live a bit scary, I stick to off road cycle paths.

 

 

Ian

 

the ones i mean, they look sorta like a moped or scooter, but are electric. i don't know what speed they can do. but like i said, it's not the bike's fault. the people i spoke of were fun-dummies before electric power. hahahaha. you know, 15.5 mph is agonizingly slow. usain bolt is nearly twice that fast. hahahaha

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I tried an earlier edition sometime ago (3 years?) in France and it was a hoot!

As soon as I started to pedal the thing the motor kicked-in and, initially, it was unnerving to feel the resulting acceleration...

 

I can definitely see the attraction for certain applications; using one instead of taking a car for the Saturday Supermarket trip and suchlike.

 

...15.5 mph is agonizingly slow. Usain Bolt is nearly twice that fast...

The downside is that he can only sustain his very impressive pace for around ten seconds and cover 100m in the process whereas an electric bike can maintain a speed roughly half that of Mr. Bolt but can travel roughly 8,500 times the distance on a single charge...

 

FWIW the speed limit on the vast majority of roads in my immediate vicinity is 20mph so using an electric bike - for local use - would make an awful lot of sense with no discernible real-time loss of speed. In fact it would almost certainly be quicker considering the traffic-volume situation hereabouts.

 

Pip.

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I bought a couple today and we went for a short ride about 14 miles, they are hilarious to ride. It's not about the top speed, it's the acceleration.

To put it in perspective, in May I went to Italy and hired an expensive red Italian sports car (it was on my bucket list) but I'm having as much fun on this bike as I did driving the car.

 

 

Ian

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FWIW the speed limit on the vast majority of roads in my immediate vicinity is 20mph so using an electric bike - for local use - would make an awful lot of sense with no discernible real-time loss of speed. In fact it would almost certainly be quicker considering the traffic-volume situation hereabouts.

 

Pip.

 

Unfortunately, in America you'd be run over by a 1 ton pickup going 50 MPH. I have a friend who bikes to work regularly and he has been lucky in many instances to survive the trip.

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