Ebike riding tips

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Mar 28, 2017
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I figured after the morning commute I had we could make a collection of ebike commuter tips.. This might already exist but I'm wondering if we could do a refresh.


Tip #1
Always look where your turning. I'm not sure this is as much of a cycling tip as it is a motorcycle tip. When I was leading how to ride for my motorcycle endorsement I was told by more experienced riders to always look where you want to turn. One, so that you know the path is clear. Two, if you need to brake, you'll see it ahead of you and you won't drop the bike. Third, that you follow the direction your looking or turning your head, naturally (also a ski tip).

Tip #2
Know which brake lever is the front vs back brake. This may seem elementary but when you get in dire situations you might accidentally pull the wrong lever, especially if your transitioning from throttle on the right hand to quickly pulling the brake lever, you'll end up breaking with your left before right, and in my case, the left is rear.

Tip #3
It's not always about getting hit by cars or avoiding vehicles. In my instance, hence tip 1&2, pedestrians or runners crossing between cars can make it very difficult to predict. I freaking scared a runner to death this am while making a turn at an intersection...he was already bracing for impact as he jumped, poor guy, sorry man! Scary but also kinda funny, but it's only funny when nothing happens...
 
Yeah, look where you want to go. I learned that on motorcycles, but skiing it really worked well. Never look at that tree while skiing. look at the space between them. Works on many things.. hammering nails, look at the nail head, not your hand holding the nail. Amazing how well that helps.


Re #3 Always give walkers or runners big time respect, and right of way. Wizzing by them scaring the shit out of em is a great way to bring the heat down on e bikes locally. I ride all the time on prohibited trails here, but never get blowback because I slow down and overtake walkers with great respect. I never scare the shit out of them. They could care less about my motor, but they care a lot about jackass bike riders. Cops just grin at me when they see me on the no motors bike paths. Its obvious I ride cooperatively.

Plus,, they are just so damn unpredictable, I just dont' trust people on foot one millimeter. Really I slow so much so they won't just blunder into my path constantly. Joggers especially, never know when one will spin around and start running back the other way.

Adding #4. Do assume every car is going to make that maneuver that will screw you. from opening doors to crossing into your path. Always take evasive action to avoid that possibility every time its even possible. So you in the bike lane, and there is a driveway coming up,, Its no damn time to be beside that car. Get behind him, or beat him to the spot, one or the other. If he turns, you can swerve to his left if he turns right on ya.

Now you have one able to turn left cross your path, often an intersection, but maybe also just a driveway entrance. Be ready to turn left too if he does. Can't do it at all if you are going too fast. Think wayyyyyy ahead, always.


Re #2. I was letting somebody ride my scooter once, and couldn't tell him which brake was rear. It has two brake handles on the bars. When riding I know, I just could not tell him which. Funny. Of course, on all my bikes its reversed, so I could screw up easy. somehow I just know which one to grab without thinking, on each.
 
riding too fast eventually suffers

slowing down rarely does

look but never stare fixate

constantly scan using all senses

be aware of everything

assume worst

plan for best

ride long and prosper
 
dogman dan said:
Adding #4. Do assume every car is going to make that maneuver that will screw you. from opening doors to crossing into your path. Always take evasive action to avoid that possibility every time its even possible. So you in the bike lane, and there is a driveway coming up,, Its no damn time to be beside that car. Get behind him, or beat him to the spot, one or the other. If he turns, you can swerve to his left if he turns right on ya.

Re #2. I was letting somebody ride my scooter once, and couldn't tell him which brake was rear. It has two brake handles on the bars. When riding I know, I just could not tell him which. Funny. Of course, on all my bikes its reversed, so I could screw up easy. somehow I just know which one to grab without thinking, on each.

I've had several close calls when a car has just passed me then immediately turns right, crossing my path. Now anytime a car passes me, I slow down enough to leave some stopping distance.

I also suffer from "brake dyslexia" as not all my rides have the rear brake on the same side. I swapped them around on one bike so now most of them are the same. This is especially important when descending a steep hill off road. I have thought about printing front and rear labels for the brakes just as a reminder and for others who may ride it.
 
Most people behind the wheel do not expect an old guy on a beach cruiser to be moving as fast as you are, so they seem to turn in front of you more than when just pedaling along at 10 mph. :x
 
Always have enough battery juice to get you there, and back..... or a place to re-juice in between.

I just headed on out, right now and only got a block away before the lvc kicked in. I was in the zone and feeling good until no juice ruined it for say about 30 minutes, starting now. However still feeling good, got the tunes cranked. Perhaps a million pack would suffice to head into the fog, but instead a 3/4 of soda water + 1/4 of Pepsi Cherry has been ordered and dranked for a long time now! The 2L bottles are given my maid, like $100 aint enough for a couple hrs work, once a week. Cash so tax free.
 
fechter said:
dogman dan said:
Adding #4. Do assume every car is going to make that maneuver that will screw you. from opening doors to crossing into your path. Always take evasive action to avoid that possibility every time its even possible. So you in the bike lane, and there is a driveway coming up,, Its no damn time to be beside that car. Get behind him, or beat him to the spot, one or the other. If he turns, you can swerve to his left if he turns right on ya.

Re #2. I was letting somebody ride my scooter once, and couldn't tell him which brake was rear. It has two brake handles on the bars. When riding I know, I just could not tell him which. Funny. Of course, on all my bikes its reversed, so I could screw up easy. somehow I just know which one to grab without thinking, on each.

I've had several close calls when a car has just passed me then immediately turns right, crossing my path. Now anytime a car passes me, I slow down enough to leave some stopping distance.

I also suffer from "brake dyslexia" as not all my rides have the rear brake on the same side. I swapped them around on one bike so now most of them are the same. This is especially important when descending a steep hill off road. I have thought about printing front and rear labels for the brakes just as a reminder and for others who may ride it.

Do assume every car is going to make that maneuver that will screw you. from opening doors to crossing into your path. Always take evasive action to avoid that possibility every time its even possible. So you in the bike lane, and there is a driveway coming up,, Its no damn time to be beside that car. Get behind him, or beat him to the spot, one or the other. If he turns, you can swerve to his left if he turns right on ya.
This is the most likely bad scenaro when riding in the bike lane and I've seen the aftermath w/ Spooky riders. That car just had to get in frt of you, so he/she could slam on the brk.s and turn right.
Have at least a left side mirror and ck to see if anything coming upon you when when you approach intersections, driveways etc.
Know your frt. brk. Although no bicycle is going to be able to stop as fast as a car, learn how to use your frt. brk. to it's max. Practice in a parking lot w/ a helmet.
I used to be able to stand a motorcycle on it's nose (brakie), but the disc.s on my ebikes are not that strong. I know I can grab a handful about as hard as I can and it won't flip over.
 
The #1 thing I do when I buy a new bicycle is change the brakes to motorcycle configuration. There is never a moment of doubt.

I'd never ride an ebike which doesn't have enough brakes to either lock both tires or stand itself on the nose. Part of the reason I build only full suspension bikes is the braking performance on uneven surfaces.
 
Personally I think the tips in the OP are not tips, they are basic necessities that anyone not doing should stay far away from any other person, even if they are just walking.


As far as "tips" go, you might want to look at a couple of other similar threads:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=rid*+tip*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

I really don't know why people refuse to look for existing info.... :roll:
 
If you have a fast e-bike make sure the brakes have some feel to them, ie they are progressive in nature, I did many miles with mechanical callipers that would grab if I braked hard and toss me over the handlebars in a heartbeat or even dabbing the brakes to scrub of some speed would cause a front wheel skid. I now run 4 pot callipers with 203mm discs and they are perfect.

A rear motor setup helps hugely with keeping the back end near the ground. Obviously you would be using all of your spider senses to identify all hazards out front but there will always be that clown who comes out of nowhere and turns in front of you.

I think the biggest issue is that most drivers see a bicycle approaching and fail to judge its speed as an e-bike will generally be doing twice the speed so pull out thinking they have time, again we have to predict they will pull out and be ready to slow down or take action.

A good tip is to make your self as conspicuous as possible, rush hour traffic is bad tempered and chaotic, I always wear a high vis vest and have strobes on the bike in daylight so I stand out as much as possible.
 
Dress conspicuous is a good thing. I think they do see you wearing anything, or not, with the exception of wearing black at night.

However, in my years of commuting, I learned to dress like a college professor riding to the U, vs a bum. So the visibility jacket, helmet, etc helped. Cars seem to give me some space, if I look like somebody with a good lawyer. Dressing for my work, I look worse than a bum. I wear rags, get paint all over them, and toss them after a few weeks. Looking like that, they just try to run me down, almost like on purpose. No respect.

Much better when wearing a bunch of yellow shit, reflective jackets, bike jerseys, and such. That's where I live. I have heard the opposite, they pass closer if you wear a helmet. But not here in the USA southwest. Gear always gets me more space, from those that do see me at all. I still assume they never see me, on the bike, on the motorcycle, in the car.
 
dogman dan said:
Dress conspicuous is a good thing. I think they do see you wearing anything, or not, with the exception of wearing black at night.

However, in my years of commuting, I learned to dress like a college professor riding to the U, vs a bum. So the visibility jacket, helmet, etc helped. Cars seem to give me some space, if I look like somebody with a good lawyer. Dressing for my work, I look worse than a bum. I wear rags, get paint all over them, and toss them after a few weeks. Looking like that, they just try to run me down, almost like on purpose. No respect.

Much better when wearing a bunch of yellow shit, reflective jackets, bike jerseys, and such. That's where I live. I have heard the opposite, they pass closer if you wear a helmet. But not here in the USA southwest. Gear always gets me more space, from those that do see me at all. I still assume they never see me, on the bike, on the motorcycle, in the car.

I think there is a lot of truth in that, its often said that if wearing a ladies blonde wig rather than a helmet people will give you more room when they pass. Not that I would ever ride in the UK without a helmet as its saved my life twice.

Does anyone else ever come across people walking along unlit roads in total darkness wearing black? I nearly rode into a woman once luckily she had a glass ornamental poppy hanging from her bag that gave a glint of a reflection from my lights so I managed to swerve around her, natural selection or what! I've also had it several times when people are out walking their dogs in total darkness again wearing black, once I caught the reflection of the dogs eyes.
 
dogman dan said:
Much better when wearing a bunch of yellow shit, reflective jackets, bike jerseys, and such. That's where I live. I have heard the opposite, they pass closer if you wear a helmet. But not here in the USA southwest. Gear always gets me more space, from those that do see me at all. I still assume they never see me, on the bike, on the motorcycle, in the car.

I agree. I wear optic yellow/green day and night. My night over-shirt also has very wide reflective strips.

As for for passing closer if you wear a helmet, that's a classic case of of little bit of truth getting being heavily exaggerated. Yes, it is true that a fellow in England did a very nice detailed study and determined that cars passed closer on average if he wore a helmet than if he didn't. Sounds ominous and many anti-helmet folks ran with the headline. But a closer look tells us that this fact is more of an interesting bit of trivia than anything else. Why?

1) While many trips were recorded, there was only one subject and only two routes. The study was done in England. The narrowness of the sampling means that extrapolating the results to other riders and locations is questionable at best.

2) What is often omitted is how much closer the passing was. As I recall, it was about 3-4 inches closer. That isn't much closer. But to be fair, a fraction of an inch can be the difference between a collision and a miss. But read on.

3) The study itself used some good methods and collected objectively using sonar sensors The author also made the data available to others. One group reviewed the data and determined that the on average 3-4 inches closer was not across the board.
It was clustered in one group of passes - passes of a meter or more. At such large distances, a difference of 3-4 inches is meaningless from the standpoint of safety. So while it is certainly a curiosity that drivers passed closer on average when passing that helmeted rider, this has no apparent relevance to safety.

All that said, wearing a helmet is probably one of the least important aspects of being safe on your e-bike. It provides only a marginal bit of extra protection and can only do that if you don't allow it to make you feel safer and hence behave a bit more recklessly.

BTW, I recall reading another study that put a lot of emphasis on having highly visible (neon colored) shoes and or socks. Apparently the color and motion combined are very effective causing drivers to perceive you as a cyclist. I haven't done that yet, but it is next on the list of things to do for greater practical visibility.

And yes, I still make a conscious attempt to ride as though I can't be seen - even after going to a lot of effort to ensure that I am seen.
 
I don’t wear reflective clothing. I wear a helmet, boots and gloves, yet no one passes me any closer because of that. Well, no one passes me anyway... :twisted:

If you are gonna ride like I do and live as old as I, here’s the tip: Be conscious of everything around, trust yourself and no one else, and think all your options in advance for anything that could happen.
 
Yep. like Mad Rhino, I have developed unbelievable situational awareness.

And I ride slower on bikes, so they constantly try to kill me. They never do, because I see it coming, and refuse to put myself in that spot, at that time. I'm braking, changing lanes, whatever, long before that dumbshit makes that right turn into my path, or doors me.


At way higher speeds on the motorcycle, other tactics, including the bye bye method. They can't hurt me in the rear view mirror. But with more speed, even more anticipation, even more situational awareness. Very common for me to be off the road on the shoulder doing 60 mph, between lanes, etc when cars get stupid. Always ready for that evasive maneuver. I just get out of the line of cars when they look ready to stack up on the freeway. 90% of the time stopping in time is possible, and the guy behind me did stop. But just in case, I am never there anymore.


I wear high viz clothing on the motorcycle too, but where its needed, is at 5 mph in the Walmart parking lot.


My main point about bike clothing, is you get a tiny bit of road respect when you look rich, vs like a punk or homeless. The guy on the bike they should worry about hitting though, is that homeless looking guy just out of prison.
 
After taking some time to analyze my encounter with the pavement going 18 mph this morning, and the damage:

Walmart Wrangler cargo pants, shredded.
Left knee and shin, bloody.
M65 canvas field jacket, no abrasions.
Exposed knuckles below bicycle gloves, bloody.

so more durable pants and full fingered gloves are on my list now.
 
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