JackFlorey
100 kW
It will be primarily the fast ones due to the greater potential for carnage and death. But the resultant rules will affect everyone.But will it be for all classes of e-bike, or just ones that can exceed 20 mph?
It will be primarily the fast ones due to the greater potential for carnage and death. But the resultant rules will affect everyone.But will it be for all classes of e-bike, or just ones that can exceed 20 mph?
I was talking to a very non-ebike, non-technical friend of mine who lives in Encinitas (nearby community) and her unprompted take on it was "these kids are all riding those things called Sur-Rons, and they get on the internet and they cut a wire or something and then they can go 60 miles per hour. And their parents don't care."I've only seen a couple of Sur-rons, but one was also a kid probably under 16, no helmet and riding wheelies in the middle of the street. Really looking for trouble. They should write tickets for reckless driving and any of the applicable regulations.
I agree with you. There is a kid in my neighborhood maybe 12-13 or so with a sur ron and he is blasting around on it having fun, his dad is watching him every time i've seen him. when i was his age I was riding my yz70 doing the same stuff as him just making a lot more noise. I don't remember media hype about kids on motorcycles in the 1980s. They got to get clicks somehow.I'm gonna beat @Chalo to it: the takeaway is that cars are dangerous and there needs to be better infrastructure for bikes and pedestrians.
I don't want to diminish the tragedy, but:
He wasn't going 55mph, the cars were.
Struck by a van, not an ebike
He hit the car, but also somehow ended up under it?
I get that the article is trying to make a point that ebikes can go too fast for a sidewalk but not fast enough for a road. But that just lends to the argument that better pedestrian infrastructure is needed.
It's an irresponsible article, that tries to use the dangers of 2-ton motorized vehicles everywhere as a reason for why ebikes are bad. It's even acknowledged within the article:
That serious and concerning statistic has nothing to do with bikes or ebikes.
I can almost sympathize with the "news" articles using battery fires as a reason to demonize ebikes. But this article doesn't even do that.
I agree with you. There is a kid in my neighborhood maybe 12-13 or so with a sur ron and he is blasting around on it having fun, his dad is watching him every time i've seen him. when i was his age I was riding my yz70 doing the same stuff as him just making a lot more noise. I don't remember media hype about kids on motorcycles in the 1980s. They got to get clicks somehow.
Apart from people who are limited in mobility due to disability, all children are able to ride a non-electric bicycle to school, or the store, or around the neighbourhood, and it will do their development good to use their bodies and sleep at night because they have exercised.Why more teenagers should ride electric bikes
What's mostly ignored is the annual casualty from traffic accident, rarely discussed in the media.
Hey, that's just the cost of doing business (if your business is in the auto industrial complex).
Sometimes it seems like the entire goal both for car sellers and car drivers is to make the evils they do into somebody else's problem but not their own.
@marvin78
Agree , the battery fire issue just is icing on the cake.
ALL kids know how to care for a dropped battery, instinctively,
and to avoid car traffic and vulnerable cyclists and pedestrians.
My vehicle at 100 mph would have the same kinetic energy as a Hummer EV moving at 15 mph, for comparison. In many states, my vehicle wouldn't be legal over 28 mph. Things have gotten so absurd, police arrested some meth head for operating a child's Power Wheels car at 2 mph for being a "public safety threat", when he was literally a threat to no one at all.
Traffic calming and especially traffic separation is the biggest reason Dutch cycling network is so safe relatively speaking. That is why a 28mph limit to me doesn't sound bad, in fact our limit is 18mph for ebikes. 28-30mph is what I think it should be here, it would be a great fit for our infrastructure.. I say as someone who would be utilizing it. Maybe other users of the same infrastructure would disagree.
I live in a country that doesn't have a cycling network. I have to "share" the road with 7,000 lb codpieces moving at 40-60 mph when the speed limit says 35 mph, as they are fixated upon their ironically-named "smart" devices. And there are also random people driving 4,500 lb Dodge Charger Hellcats without tags or plates or insurance that run from the cops because they know they won't be caught, and can often be found street racing and doing street takeovers where they do donuts in intersections.
That's quite a far cry from what you have to deal with.
28 mph will get me splattered in the middle of the road. No universal healthcare, either. There's no shortage of people who ended up homeless because of medical complications and resultant bankruptcy in this country.
100 mph is more than enough to get me away from trouble, most of the time.
My current iteration does 50 mph, limited by my 46.8V battery, but I am running 10 kW and have adequate acceleration to get away from problems. The 72V upgrade will increase the top end to about 80 mph.
My vehicle is perfectly functional as a "bicycle". It has bicycle pedals, bicycle crankset, bicycle chain, bicycle sprockets, bicycle grip shifters, bicycle cables, bicycle front/rear derailleurs, and because of its aerodynamics, I can disable the motor and race lycra-clad Lance Armstrong wannabes on bicycles and have a decent chance of running away from them, because it has a mass that is less close to that of a motorcycle and more close to that of a bicycle. The only time they lose me is going uphill. I can disable the motor and reach 35 mph on flat ground, with nothing but my own two legs providing motive force. The next body shell might increase that to over 40 mph. Cruising speed on a disabled motor is about 22-23 MPH on flat ground. Keep in mind that this is WITH my hubmotor's cogging torque losses adding significant resistance, otherwise I'd gain 2-3 mph.The I keep having with this is that what you're riding then isn't an electric 'bike' as in bicycle, but an electric motorcycle ( or moped it it's not that fast ). As such, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the same conditions for riding an electric motorcycle as a regular one ( eg license / registration and so on ).
What is COD?The real threat to safety is what Chalo has termed "7,000 lb cod pieces".
What is COD?
Fish?
No, a "cod piece".What is COD?
Fish?
I want a diamond-encrusted one like Murderface from Dethklok. I'd totally walk around wearing that.Jesus marty, did you have to ask...