LockH
1 PW
"... and they need an hour or more attention and care every day just to be maintained."
Yes. Reminds me of some "fillies" I have known.
Yes. Reminds me of some "fillies" I have known.
.nomad said:cal3thousand said:r3volved said:Don't forget:
1 horse + 1 horse can produce many horses
1 ebike + 1 ebike = 2 broken ebikes
Uh... not if you have 2 mares or 2 stallions
And yes, that last equation hits home way too hard
To the OP, an ebike would easily surpass a horse in terms of travel if all roads were paved. But the ebike would have to be equipped properly.
And finally, horses only provide 1 horse power. While an ebike can clearly have more.
That pretty much settles it in my mind. Thank you.
To me this means e-bikes are, in a way, capable of a sort of "time travel", technologically speaking. E-bikes are right in between horses and gas vehicles and have really never had their true day in the sun. By choosing to ride an e-bike we are, in effect, going back and forward in time at the same time and living it. When e-bikes were first invented (and bicycles, in general), they were so quickly superseded by gas powered vehicles, people didn't really have a chance to live in the world of e-bikes as a dominant transportation device.
One pertinent question not asked in your OP is: Where are you riding?.nomad said:This is kind of an odd question I've been pondering for some time. Strictly in an ease of travel context, are modern electric bicycles a technological step ahead or behind horses? Meaning, taking a moderately high quality e-bike motor and assuming all associated technologies like a place to recharge we're available, would a traveler say, in colonial times, be better off traveling by e-bike or horse? Or are both horse and e-bike about the same in travel output? Distance is more important than speed to me since, compared to a car, both horse and e-bike are pretty slow.
Cephalotus said:Imho you have to compare solar powered e-bikes with horses.
Here is an excample: http://www.bentrideronline.com/?p=8702 200km/day (and day after day) seems to be possible.
You need much less area of solar panels to keep the ebike running (not counting kcals for the human) compared to the area you need to feed a horse. On the other hand horses do not need mined minerals to be made.
amberwolf said:One pertinent question not asked in your OP is: Where are you riding?.nomad said:This is kind of an odd question I've been pondering for some time. Strictly in an ease of travel context, are modern electric bicycles a technological step ahead or behind horses? Meaning, taking a moderately high quality e-bike motor and assuming all associated technologies like a place to recharge we're available, would a traveler say, in colonial times, be better off traveling by e-bike or horse? Or are both horse and e-bike about the same in travel output? Distance is more important than speed to me since, compared to a car, both horse and e-bike are pretty slow.
If it's in rough terrain, especially where there are no real paths, then there you have a potential for the horse to win out. Might also win out in mud, shallow water, river fording, etc., although you could build an EV to do any or all of those things, it wouldn't necessarily be a regular ebike.
Goathead said:I think history has answered this already. Horses are a lot of work.
This from the Henry Ford Organization:
As a farm boy, Henry Ford disliked horses and the drudgery of farm labor. As an industrialist, he sought to improve the farmer's life through the mechanization of farm work. Beginning about 1906, Henry Ford directed his engineers to devise an agricultural tractor to replace the horse on the farm. At the time, most tractors weighed more than two tons and cost around $1,000. Henry Ford hoped to create a small, inexpensive tractor that most farmers could afford. Literally, a Model T for the soil.
http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/pic/2003/03_aug.asp#more
Also, there was a huge bicycle fad at about this same time, as noted in popular song:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Bell
I'm just not seeing any way in which a horse would be a step up . . . except in some very narrow circumstances and even then you can still get a DUI on a horse.
dogman said:Having to secure feed, water, and in some cases shelter for your horse is part of my general statement, "Horses are a pain in the ass". Also, there is the shit. This can be a valuable item, or a problem depending on where it gets left.
In the cities, the shit was one of the prime reasons why electric trolleys were the real horse replacement, before any gas cars were common.
So really, electric was the first thing to replace the horse in cities.
Reactor said:Unfortunately I grew up with horses!
Surely the biggest difference is the personality.
Am I the only one here that has been thrown off a horse simply because it wasn't use to being riden. Never happen on my ebike.
Or trying to ride a horse on a longer ride than the usual and having the horse constantly turning because the lazy a@# wants to go home ASAP.
Or worse still when galloping through saplings or a forest and the horse wants to go one way while I have my mind set on another, that never ends well! Ebike can be 100% directed by me.
My ebike has never bitten me on the ass as opposed to a particularly spiteful shetland pony my mother bought because it looked "cute".
My ebike has never opened doors to retrieve a weeks worth of feed (energy) in one day.
My ebike is ready to go at a moments notice it does not play "Catch Me If You Can" in a large paddock it doesn't need horse shoes, or a saddle or saddle cloth or reins or irons or physically large area or grass or water.
My ebike doesn't shy away from dogs and leave me stranded, it doesnt zero in on low lying branches.
An ebike wont or shouldn't break down all by itself.
When I am not using it an ebike doesn't deliberately go and roll in horse turd, having just been cleaned!
Ebikes are a definite step UP!
Ykick said:Pretty much align with reactor - the only time I ever desired to use horse on the farm is/was checking property late summer, tall grass.
Give any horse credit for being smart enough to keep their water open during hard freeze but I fail to get what's "technological" about a horse?
They're biological and while I appreciate and enjoy the nostalgia of "horse power" there really isn't a "step up/down" to be found comparing eBike technology to Horse biology, IMO.
As far as usefulness is concerned - horses were then, this is now - eBikes are now!
.nomad said:Horses, while biological organisms, are certainly employed by humans as a technological solution for getting somewhere.
Ykick said:.nomad said:Horses, while biological organisms, are certainly employed by humans as a technological solution for getting somewhere.
Yeah right, that "walking thing" is so very technological, LOL....
???flathill said:horses are powered by the sun and food is everywhere