Texan in Downtown Denver

I am a Texan and in my neighborhood people don't ride scooters OR bicycles. I pretty much live in a SUV/Ford F250 Dualie truck world.

I am doing a contract in Denver. Tonight I went downtown for dinner. Saw a TON of conventional bicycles. Saw LOTS of little Honda Scooters. What I found amazing was I saw ZERO Ebikes. Wonder why.

I never see an ebike in San Francisco or Marin Co unless I'm meeting a friend who has one. Marin has more Prius and bicycles per capita than any place in the country but ebikes are the cutting edge. Plus I don't really know any ebikes one can buy that have enough power or don't take a friggin mechanical/electrical genius to get it running. Except maybe the EMB-36 with a Lipo at EV Tech might be ready to plug & play.

I live in Fort Collins, Colorado. This morning, I counted 32 bicycles on the bike rack at my company. There's about 350 employees who work there. There's about 6 motorcycles. I'm the only e-biker.

I'm not sure why this is. As near as I can tell, most people didn't even realize that quiet, fast, pedal-assist e-bikes exist at all. Some co-workers and I had a lunch meeting at a nearby restaurant, and I showed up on my bike and walked in carrying my battery pack. It became the main subject of the lunch and when lunch was over, all 14 of us filed out and about half of them tried it out. Beyond the lack of knowledge about them, I think a lot of people consider bicycling to be exercise (which it is) and motorized biking not to be exercise (although I seem to get a good workout on my e-bike).

In general, people seem to think my e-bike is neat, but no one seems to be asking me how/where they could buy one. I don't think I'm converting anyone.

Still ~10% of the company biking to work daily in the summer is definitely a good thing.

E-bikes just aren't "cool" yet.
Practicality and economy are there, just not the cool factor.
The "average person" still thinks they are dorky.

Once we can overcome the dork factor, and find a company that can make a decent one, I think e-bikes would become very widespread.

We need more press....

fechter said:

E-bikes just aren't "cool" yet.
Practicality and economy are there, just not the cool factor.
The "average person" still thinks they are dorky.

Once we can overcome the dork factor, and find a company that can make a decent one, I think e-bikes would become very widespread.

We need more press....

Click to expand...

I'm taking a different tack by trying to make dorkiness cool.
If ebikes are perceived as dorky, and looking like a dork becomes cool, then it will be cool to be seen riding an ebike. Simple logic my dear Fechter.

Lol..

I like to think i'm making a difference.. but maybe i'm not.. not sure yet.

But i'm doing my part !

in 2005, " What the hell is that ? you go out in public with that thing ? "

In 2006, " Hey, what's up with the funny looking bike ? '

In 2007, " Hey.. can i try that ? does it charge when you pedal ? "

I make it a duty to use up 6ah per day and do some PR, on my way home from work i'll take a detour to the local nature park, sports events, pubs, etc.. and basically park it and wait for people to walk up and ask questions.. rarely does a day go by that i don't initiate someone to Ebikes.

We are the " Future of transportation " sort of thing.. one clueless human at a time !

Ypedal said:

in 2005, " What the hell is that ? you go out in public with that thing ? "

In 2006, " Hey, what's up with the funny looking bike ? '

In 2007, " Hey.. can i try that ? does it charge when you pedal ? "

Click to expand...

In 2008, "Now only if the batteries would charge at the same time as when you are driving it, that would sell!?!"

I live in Highlands Ranch, CO and work in downtown Denver (16th and Curtis if you're in the area). Last weekend I was at Wal-Mart and saw a guy chaining his bike up. Noticed he had a bike rack and was wearing a motorcycle-type helmet. He had a front hub motor! First time I've seen an e-bike in the wild.

I ride my bike to the train station in Highlands Ranch and then park it in a "bike locker" during the day and take the train to/from downtown. Believe it or not, the official RTD train rules explicitly state that you can take a muddy and/or greasy bike on the train, but all motorized bikes are prohibited.

his past month I have seen a record number of ebikes. Including mine it makes the total four. Two were in Ormond Beach, just N of Daytona, one was a guy older than me, bigger than me on a Currie at the local shopping center and the other was me.

Except for me that is three more than I have ever seen, anywhere, live and in person.

LOTS of folks know I ride a ebike and have for years. Except for my boat mechanic no one has asked to ride it and the questions are always minimal such as does that thing have a motor and how fast does it go. Despite the dozens of websites and a couple of forums they might just as well be non existent except for mine.

A ride through my subdivision will always uncover a few folks riding their bikes and they don't ride hard enough for exercise. I have, on occasion, ridden alongside for a moment or two and simply accelerated away and I don't think anyone even noticed I wasn't pedaling. Oh well, maybe next year but this really answers the questions why battery R&D sucks, there really isn't a big enough market. At least not here.
Mike

i've only seen 1 ebiker in the wild. in norwich.

i think the will be more demand here in the UK because people cycle more here and our roads are narrow and cities smaller than in the US. so ebiking really offers an advantage over driving.

in rush hour i can be home twice as fast on my ebike than by car. ebiking is way more fun than being stuck in traffic!

when i upgraded to crystalite i had every one asking questions and test driving it. everyone that has riden it loved it

i do worry when strangers notice because 750watt is not legal here. i dont like to advertise.