Comments on: City Considering Electric Bike-Sharing Program

By: Mickey

Mickey — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:22:52 +0000

Derek,
I’m not saying that there wasn’t a safety mechanism built in to place that would shut off the motor, it’s just that if such a safeguard was in place it was very slow in terms of reaction speed. The whole control scheme was very awkward and non-intuitive to me. I felt like if you were going to brake in an emergency, you would be fighting the motor initially before it finally turn off. I would very much prefer a way to control the bike’s speed without having to remove my hands from the brakes. Perhaps all electric bikes are not like this, but the one that I rode was.

By: Mindy

Mindy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:04:19 +0000

When I first started riding a year and a half and thirty pounds ago, I felt nauseous every time I rode uphill. I didn’t get an electric bike, just kept pedaling on my Townie, and gradually the nausea went away.

****Exercise enduced nausia?! Jesus, Americans are out of shape.****

Well duh! But the people who post here are either in shape or working on it, so you’re ranting at the wrong crowd.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:25:36 +0000

i am with you on the whole greenwashing business, christian….green, green, green- that’s all you ever see in advertising anymore…it makes me want to puke. BP calling themselves “Beyond Petroleum,” etc. i shouldn’t have used the word “green”…we can just blame my bad writing for that.

and yes it’s all based on the anthropocentric type of BS utilitarian environmentalism that doesn’t get to the cause of all the problem which is civilization itself and that there are too many people here. the story of civilization seems to be synonymous with the destruction of the environment…throughout history. industrial civilization has just exponentially sped up the process. and mass production of anything requires tons of energy and resources and from that perspective bikes are just as bad as rest of the shit people buy.

but i have to say that there is more to riding bikes than just “fun and good exercise.” when i think about where the automobile has taken civilization…decentralized cities, parking lots and strip malls everywhere, people completely cut off from each other and the actual world…the one beneath the impervious surface of the streets and parking lots and office buildings and shopping malls that they spend all day in…and the type of people that it creates…zoloft addicted zombie consumers…

and then i compare those people to the people i see riding bikes…people like you and lori always riding around with huge smiles on your faces and infecting everyone around you with happiness…it makes bikes seem pretty fantastic…and it makes it seem worth the energy to mass produce them…frankly, i want everyone to have one and ride it…

By: karlito

karlito — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:32:00 +0000

Save the planet- kill yourself?!

Why not only ride vintage bikes? Surely a 20 or 30 year old bike is closer to having paid of its carbon debt from manufacture than a brand new one (elcetric or not). Electric bikes seem like a crutch for lazy people, unless you have a physical condition going on that precludes you from pedaling, and I’m not talking about being fat or out of shape. Exercise enduced nausia?! Jesus, Americans are out of shape. I don’t even know where to begin. Please don’t anyone get offended by my statements I’m just ranting a little.

By: Christian

Christian — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:15:36 +0000

“Of course we here at TBL are just a little bit biased towards the purist form of pedaling yourself. It’s the only true “green” way to get around quickly in our opinion.”

Nothing that humans do can be considered “green” or “eco-friendly.” There were over 130 million bicycles produced last year (http://www.earthpolicy.org/Indicators/Bike/2008.htm) which is more than twice as many cars produced. Clearly that’s comparing apples to oranges but 130 million bikes requires HUGE energy and resource consumption. The Second Law of Thermodynamics (http://www.asecular.com/forests/vfw/energy/energy_enviro.htm) assures us that we are all screwed no matter what course of action we take. Being “green” (is anyone else sick of that word?) only postpones the inevitable. Bikes are fun and good exercise… let’s just leave it at that.

PS Truest bumper sticker ever: Save the planet – kill yourself.

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:54:40 +0000

“…the dial is not mounted in a way that would allow you to shut it to zero while braking.”

In order for an electric bicycle to be classified as a bicycle and not a motorcycle, it must have an assisted top speed of 20 mph and applying the brakes must automatically shut off the motor, no matter what the dial is set to.

By: Mickey

Mickey — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:43:34 +0000

Some of those electric bikes can go really, really fast. What concerned me about riding it was the disconnection of the rider from the speed at which he or she was riding. Basically, there was a dial that let you adjust the amount of electric assist was applied. So once you set your speed, it keeps on going until you set the dial back to 0. This system was not very conducive to fast reaction times, as the dial is not mounted in a way that would allow you to shut it to zero while braking. It was supposed to detect when you stopped pedaling to shut down the electric motor, but in practice it was on the order of seconds in terms of reaction speed. Definitely a very scary prospect if you’re going 20+ mph, especially if an inexperienced cyclist is at the wheel. Pretty beefy disc brakes are a must I think, especially considering how heavy these bikes are to begin with.

Maybe not all models are built in this manner or can reach such high speeds, but handing out these e-bikes to people who are not knowledgeable about bike safety or renting them out without the proper equipment (IE: heavy duty brakes) seems pretty irresponsible.

BTW, the model I tried out at my friend’s place cost him over $2k. It definitely weighed over 30 pounds WITHOUT the battery. The brakes on it were ridiculously strong to the point where you would skid the back tire pretty much any time you pulled the right lever. Without the assist turned on, it was really a pain to ride, although it was about 3 sizes too big and I’m spoiled by light weight road bikes. However, for that much money, I was truly disappointed by the performance.

By: Opus the Poet

Opus the Poet — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:42:06 +0000

Well the PDF of the study is at http://www.ebikes.ca/sustainability/Ebike_Energy.pdf, but be warned it was a dissertation for college so it’s a bit wordy, with lots of footnotes, but what it boils down to is there are 17 calories of oil and other fossil fuels in every calorie of food we eat, VS direct energy conversion of fossil fuels to electricity and then into the battery. given the electric motor and drivetrain are about 70% efficient in turning energy into forward motion, and that aerodynamic losses are nearly identical, the electric bike is actually more environmentally sound than the human powered version, at least from the carbon footprint standpoint. For people with atypical diets like mine (I’m heavy into beans and rice, not so much the red meat, and I eat locally grown when possible) it might be a tossup depending on the source of your electricity. If you have a solar charging station then an e-assist bike wins every time.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:16:43 +0000

(I hit “submit” too early)

In addition, if he thinks there is demand to support short-term bike rental, then he can open a rental business and reap the profits without having to get the city involved at all. It’s almost a sure thing that he’s already done the market study and determined that the demand just isn’t there, so he wants to sell $35K worth of product to the city and let the taxpayers shoulder the loss instead.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:08:30 +0000

Oh, and screw this guy’s “program” BTW – his sales are probably down because the price of gas is temporarily down, and he’s looking to milk the ol’ taxpayer funded cash-cow.

If people want electric bikes, they can buy electric bikes – not make you-n-me foot the bill.