So, I pitched the idea of E-bikes to the local bicycle cops

So, the other day in my town (Peachtree City, Georgia) the police had a bicycle rodeo and safety training course for kids. Very cool. So I thought I'd ride my new e-bike over there and show them. I am very excited about e-bikes.

Keep in mind (if you haven't read much earlier posts of mine) that I live in a town that is interlaced with well over a hundred miles of dedicated multi-use paths (all paved and maintained well). Every single neighborhood, school, church, store, etc. in this town of 35,000 is on the path system, including doctors, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. You can live here without a car if you work here. I teach, and haven't used my car since I got off work at the end of May: just the electric golf car, the e-bike for town, and occasionally the mini-van for out-of-town travels.

We have consistently ranked in the top ten of Money Magazine's top-ten places to live. Family Circle Magazine just named us the second best town in America to raise a family.

There are 12,000 registered golf carts in our town; the vast majority are electric and a few are gas-powered.

Back to the main topic: The police in our town do an outstanding job. Their response time is unbelievably quick (usually under four minutes) and they are very professional. We appreciate them. They patrol the cart paths on bicycle and occasionally a four-wheeler.

So, I rode over to their bike safety show and approached a few bicycle cops to show them what I made, and to explain how e-bikes work.

Please guess at their response (I'll post the answer today in a couple hours):

A. I was greeted with enthusiasm and interest: "Wow, that's a great idea. That could improve how we patrol the paths on our bikes, helping us to keep up with or catch up to golfcarts."

B. I was greeted with arrogance and dismissal: "Any of our bike patrol officers can easily go 20mph and should be able to keep up and catch a golf cart on their own."

Definitely B. Plus they threatened to ticket you if they ever see you riding on it.

Based on the way similar conversations with my local bike patrolling police went, see if you can guess what my cops said.

You did guess B right? The bike patroll is a bit of an elite, who prefer a power bar to a jelly donut. We already have motorcycle patrols.

Amazing how stiff the resistance is eh? Actually a golfcart is really easy to catch. Wait till you get 15s lipo, and they try to catch you. :lol:

C: can i see your license and registration?
followed by D: hey, where do you think you're going?
followed by E: SWAT showing up, in a golf cart

Mike,

Police are revenue collectors appointed by the city. You are their customer! They want to issue you a ticket or arrest you, not be your friend. It's part of their membership rules.

I bet you the police said something in the order of: "OK dude so you want to provide the local kids with fast e-bikes so us bicycle cops can no longer catch them ?"

followed by a good beating jailtime sodomy :|

Wow! ES loves the cops huh?

Since no one else has, and to bring a little positivity to the thread, I'm going to guess A.

Maybe a nice town has nice cops??? I wouldn't know.

I've been thinking about doing the same thing here in Cottonwood but the jist I get from everyone around here is that the cops are sick of e-bikes already because the drunks have been buying cheap ones to circumvent their drunk driving punishment. We have to keep these garbage Chinese e-bikes that, literally, any bum can afford out of America! They just give e-bikes a bad reputation.

Yeah, I tell the bike cops in my city that I can go 40mph and they just laugh. I don't think they believe me. :lol: 8) However, they do answer with option A, as most of them are very nice peoples.

Disclaimer: I audit the police dept, so they typically avoid me at all costs. When we do talk, they tend to try to cut the conversations short and find something else to do... I have a fun job

number1cruncher said:

Yeah, I tell the bike cops in my city that I can go 40mph and they just laugh. I don't think they believe me. :lol: 8) However, they do answer with option A, as most of them are very nice peoples.

Disclaimer: I audit the police dept, so they typically avoid me at all costs. When we do talk, they tend to try to cut the conversations short and find something else to do... I have a fun job

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Audit the police? But they are ABOVE the law...

Yes, the correct answer was B.

They are great guys (I'm friends with one...but he's not a bike cop).

It's just that they had zero interest, and I wanted to say, "there's no way you guys can keep up with a golf cart on your bikes."

The golf carts here are 48 volts, and they have governors, but those usually don't kick in until about 25mph. And they don't slow much on the hills.

Anyone short of Lance Armstrong is going to run out of steam. The golf carts can maintain 20-25mph for 20 miles. No way the cops can do that, especially since it's not humanely possible in that gear (gun, spray, taser, etc.) and they are on mountain bikes, not road bikes. Plus, the heat and humidity here causes you to literally pour sweat checking the mail.


On the other hand, my 48-volt system can, in fact, keep up with and pass golf carts (if I assist with pedaling, of course).


I'm going to try again, but not with the bike cops (who I never see out on the cart paths anyway....never have seen one in 6 years of living here....I've seen the four-wheeler a few times, however. I'll show the police chief).


The reason we need more patrols on the paths is because the teenagers tag bridges, and the majority of petty crime and assaults happen on the path system. Even with that, we still have extremely low crime rates.

E-bikes could save them a lot of money.

Duplicate post

MikeFairbanks said:

E-bikes could save them a lot of money.

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And that's where you fail to understand a cop's mentality. They want to spend as much taxpayer money as possible. Trust me, I audit their books. They are entitlement junkies. It is going to be very interesting once all the Federal homeland security grants dry up. Talk about unfunded mandates. Most of the grants, which provided funding for certain types of gear, require the jurisdictions to buy new gear every so many years with their own money.

tuxman said:

Audit the police? But they are ABOVE the law...

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They are a protected class, but do have some accountability, sometimes...

I actually just assembled an e-bike for the local police to test drive in my town.

My brother in law is a captain in our town's police force and he went to a police convention in Vancouver a few months ago where he test rode an ebike from a local vendor that was trying to sell them for police patrol use.

He liked it and the vendor shipped him a bike free of charge for a pilot project. He first sent it to me for final assembly and testing. The bike is nice and rugged although a bit slow (speed is limit is locked to 35 kph). Its got a Bafang geared motor so it climbs well. It also has hydrolic disk brakes, 48 Volts 12ah Lithium battery, front suspension, rugged rear rack and average quality components. Hi hate the "pedal assist" mode on it, but you can bypass it and use the throttle only instead.

It's this bike: https://eliteelectricbikes.com/index.php/store/velocity-electric-bike.html

The bike is now being used on patrol by the local police bike girls (yes its 2 police women in my town). I should get some feedback when I see my bro-in-law this Sunday.

He was quite impressed with the bike when he tried it, but after he tried my wheely popping 100V / 100A at 45+MPH, he wanted that instead

There's still a weak/geek/grandma stigma attached to ebikes. I think this has to be overcomed and replaced by a "this is cool" feeling before ebikes become widely accepted. I'm doing my part by giving rides to has many people as I can on my powerful bike.

The cops just radio each other in a pursuit anyway. But I agree, a REAL ebike would be a fantastic tool for them. Something along the lines of 48v 20 ah a123 battery pack, and a decent dd hubmotor. Any previous ebikes they may have tried, were likely to have 250 watts.

The primary use for a bike cop in my town, is to monitor a big fiesta of some kind. On the bike, they can get two blocks down to where the ganbangers are rumbling FAST. They aren't really out riding those things daily very far. The bike is on the rack behind the car 80% of the day. It's drive to the high school, then bike around a few alleys and behind buildings at lunch hour looking for dope smokers, and such. No need for a motor on any of that duty. No way are they out on that bike for that many miles.

All the better that they stick to their golf carts, it will really be no competition should you ever meet one on the path, and encounter some *** cough*** resistance....

Seriously though, the ebike is the ABSOLUTE perfect bicycle cop vehicle.

mdd0127 said:

Wow! ES loves the cops huh?

Since no one else has, and to bring a little positivity to the thread, I'm going to guess A.

Maybe a nice town has nice cops??? I wouldn't know.

I've been thinking about doing the same thing here in Cottonwood but the jist I get from everyone around here is that the cops are sick of e-bikes already because the drunks have been buying cheap ones to circumvent their drunk driving punishment. We have to keep these garbage Chinese e-bikes that, literally, any bum can afford out of America! They just give e-bikes a bad reputation.

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i happen to resemble that remark, jacka**. i don't happen to appreciate that some lazy, opportunistic, revenue collecting, pos, decides to hang out (the lazy part) near bars at 2 in the morning (the opportunistic part), and pull people over, make up some lamea** excuse (the pos cover his a** part) to justify the stop, and make you take tests until he finds the one you that you can't do exactly right (never mind the half a dozen other that you did just fine), arrest you (just because he can), then literally lie on the police report (the just wrong part), all in the name of "justice" (the revenue collecting part). i just think the punishment should fit the crime. so i call it what it was, redistribution of wealth. i got pulled over for supposedly having my tires cross an intersection at a stop sign in the middle of nowhere. and ended up with probably about $5000 worth of punishment, between the court, the schools, and the insurance. now, not all cops are like this, but it only takes the one wrong one to ruin your day, and it reflects on the profession. so, no love loss between me and them. actually hurt someone while drunk driving?, sure, increase the penalty, but don't impose a penalty on the few, and force them to bear the brunt of fiscal irresponsiblity. that's taxation without representation, so, just wrong.

then i gotta listen to crap like this from you (and if that's your idea of positivity...). this holier than thou, you don't deserve to breathe the same air, i don't care if you gotta walk two miles to get a gallon of milk, racist (without the land across the sea, btw, you'd probably be pedaling your mary poppins a** everywhere, wait, you might not even have a bike), elitist, hold on a minute, you sound like a cop. are you a cop? well excuuuuuuse me for looking for a cheaper alternative. and i'm not circumventing anything, i'm adapting, the law says here's the line, i ain't crossin it, so leave me f alone.

to everyone else, i apologize, sorry about the venting, it just hit a nerve is all.

I suggested it too ( parts of where i live are quite hilly ) and got the answer of 'we need excersize' after being in the car all winter.

To that i say, you have a fine point sir.

The silver comet trail in my area has 4 wheelers and club car truck/gas golf cart cops patrolling the trail. There are a few bike cops. I was pulled over by one in the gas club car.. blue light and everything. I was going like 16-20mph. He passed me and saw me getting on my bike not pedaling to get it going... The club car doesnt go faster than 25mph.. My bike at the time went 45mph+... 5303 on 66v not even a match... He said u may be faster and I could never catch you but you cant out run my radio.. we will be waiting at the ext intersection. He showed intrests... said he could ticket me.... he told me to pedal through his city... and i went on my merry way.

icecube57 said:

he told me to pedal through his city.

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I Fedal (fake pedal) on any road where I might come across an officer. I make it look real convincing when I'm going over 30 lmao.

number1cruncher wrote:
And that's where you fail to understand a cop's mentality. They want to spend as much taxpayer money as possible. Trust me, I audit their books. They are entitlement junkies. It is going to be very interesting once all the Federal homeland security grants dry up. Talk about unfunded mandates. Most of the grants, which provided funding for certain types of gear, require the jurisdictions to buy new gear every so many years with their own money.

Click to expand...

Yep and all the road blocks and dui grants and seatbelts have to generate their own money.

ptd said:

i happen to resemble that remark, jacka**........blah...blah...blah......whine.....piss.....moan.......I'm a drunk driver......unfair......cops.....blah....blah......waaaaaa........

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Drinking and driving is stupid. You won the stupid prize! Be proud of it. I've had a few drinks and driven home before in my past...even got pulled over a few times. I never got a DUI because my ability wasn't impaired, I passed ALL of the tests, and most importantly of all, I was nice and respectful to the officers.

I'm definitely not insinuating that the cops are justified in every DUI stop....or that the DUI penalties are just and fair, but you have to admit it, you knew the rules, played the game, and got caught. You went drinking at the bar, screwed up driving, and got busted. Time to either pedal or walk to work. If you don't like the system, don't play the game. Stay at home and make yourself even dumber.

As far as bikes go, I don't have an e-bike yet. I have a shop and enough parts to build 4 or 5 but I don't have one yet. I still ride my pedal bike everywhere.....and I'm about as far from a cop as one can be. I am sick of having the industry that I've chosen to become a part of blemished because of people with bad judgement on cheap crap bikes though.

I'm sad but not surprised that the answer was B though. When people don't understand something they usually do one of two things, either ban it or ignore it. I'm hugely disappointed in our species because there's still an obvious need for cops and laws. It's not to difficult to be honest and respectful to others and those that don't know right from wrong are obviously missing something very important in their brains. I do think that people that need cops and laws in order to function with respect towards others ARE subhuman and ranting ignorant posts like the one I'm replying to sure don't help......By the way, the way you display your need for cops and laws is generally by doing something stupid that brings you into contact with them.

Let's make really cheap e-bikes and make sure they're totally unregulated so the career drunks have an easy time getting home from the bar where they just spent their welfare check! That will help!!! (sarcasm)


On the issue of police and e-bikes.......I have no doubt they'll figure something out as soon as it's in the budget. :wink:

In the city I used to live in the cops had ebikes as far back as '96 or so.

The first time someone out runs a bike cop, or ditches a patrol car by going through a no car zone, they will want a fast ebike.

That or they'll crack down on "illegal" "modified" ebikes.

That velocity ebike your in law is trying out doesn't look that bad, but honestly it I don't think it'd survive too long in use. RST forks, Alivio components, "king meter" computer, and who knows what components. It doesn't look BAD, but it certainly isn't the $2k custom bikes made with top of the line stuff my local department has.

Best bet for the police would to just buy a Stealth. That bike looks like it could survive the apocalypse, and there would be no where to hide from it.

Of course, Dogman has it right; cops on bikes are deployed to monitor small areas from the back of cars. The only real benefits and ebike would offer would be that it's quieter than a motorcycle, and you wouldn't have to worry about the heat.

Btw, whats wrong with DUI people riding ebikes? Are they not allowed to ride scooters and mopeds too? So any motorized vehicle EXCEPT an electric bicycle is a no-no? I guess those chinese lead sleds with non functioning pedals aren't really the same as a bicycle.

Here the cops have 2... well I can't call them E-bikes. They have standing 3 wheelers, similar to a Segway with 3 wheels. Funny, they are driven by a man and woman cops with helmets and bullet proof jacket, we call them Duracell and Eveready.

The bike patrol cops have seen my bikes many times. They know that they are well overpowered, but they don't care. One of them said once, that he wished the city provide them with bikes like that. I'm not gonna pitch them though. I know that as long as there are not a bunch of crazy overpowered E-bikers in the city, I can ride free and I want it to last. 8)