e-Bikes – Let’s talk

[bentbike33]

@sjclaeys 166787 wrote:

Sign of the apocalypse?

An e-bike recumbent: http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/terratrike-releases-the-e-v-o-e-recumbent-bike/021771

Yep.

[Dewey]

There a few recumbent e-bikes listed on this review website. I’ve wondered how recumbent tandems ride/brake/corner with >1 riders, a motor wheel at the front would help such a bike train get up hills, I guess you’d have to coordinate braking going downhill.

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[dasgeh]

A long time #bikedc rider recently had a normal-bike-riding ending injury. She’s now on an e-recumbant trike and loving that she gets to continue riding, when she would not be able to without this technology.

[ejwillis62]

I love my trike with the e-assist, I cannot ride my upright because of my shoulder and my 15 mile commute each way was too much without the e-assist. I do not speed and try to always stay below 15 mph. With my health issues I am forever grateful I have this option I cannot imagine what I would do if they ever said e-bikes were not allowed on the trail. I try often to keep the e-assist at the minimum level and use my leg power but it is wicked nice to know that when I am having a bad day with a lot of pain I can have the e-assist help me. There are morning when I know without e-assist I wouldn’t have been able to ride in but with it I am brave enough to start out even on a bad morning and most morning once I get started I am thrilled that I got on the trike. Some mornings not so much but always it is better than a car.
LIZ W.

[americancyclo]

@hozn 166365 wrote:

flying down the trail suggests that the reason for the e-bike is something else.

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[ejwillis62]

I am not sure all of those strava max speeds are correct. I know my trike slows me down at 20 mph yet if you look on my strava rides they have my speeds way up there on my downhills, there is no way I went over 30 mph on my trike I would have had a heart attack, I am very fearful of downhill. and on the MVT I would be bounced off the trike if I went to fast. when I saw the above post I looked at my strava rides and some of those speeds are funny. I do have Beauregard to ride down on the way home and get some good speed on it, but it isn’t because of the e assist. It is all gravity same with going down national harbor in the mornings. It is the uphill where I get my advantage, I can go up national harbor hill at 13 mph without e assist it was more like 4 mph.

[dasgeh]

@americancyclo 166969 wrote:

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I know plenty of roadies that have rides where 22.4mph is their 75 percentile

[Steve O]

@dasgeh 166979 wrote:

I know plenty of roadies who have rides where 22.4mph is their 75 percentile

Really? Plenty? On their commute? Show me one.

[Judd]

@Steve O 166992 wrote:

Really? Plenty? On their commute? Show me one.

You wouldn’t know them. Gillian met them all in Canada, at Niagra Falls.

https://youtu.be/NZwXN5OgikA?t=9s

[SolarBikeCar]

@ejwillis62 166974 wrote:

I am not sure all of those strava max speeds are correct..

My experience is that my phone augments the satellite gps signals with location info from wifi hot spots and the slight variations results in occasional spikes in speed evened out by slower speeds before and after compared to my wheel based speedometer. I also notice it tends to think I’m moving even when my wheels are stopped as the gps osscillates at a stop. End result is that I trust distance but not velocity from Strava and average speed is typically slower than my cycle analyst readout if I have stops along the way.

[sjclaeys]

@Steve O 166992 wrote:

Really? Plenty? On their commute? Show me one.

They go so fast that we do not see them on the MUPs.

[huskerdont]

Yesterday an ebiker passed me at a remarkably fast speed (with no warning). It was quite a speed differential, but he wasn’t on Strava so I can’t verify my perception of it being roughly twice mine. I suppose that *could* have happened with a roadie, but in my experience, that’s uncommon. When passed by a roadie, the speeds are usually comparable. For me, it’s just that if you’re going 15 to 18, you don’t expect someone to pass you like you’re doing a track stand. I shudder to think of what would have happened a couple of minutes later if it had been the ebiker instead of me when a woman walked her dog right across the trail in front of me without looking.

The problem here is that people exercise poor judgment no matter what form of transportation they use, and this form enables more dangerous behavior to be accomplished more easily. I still don’t favor a ban, but at some point, these new machines need to be addressed by legislation/rules, and I do hope WABA or someone will attempt to provide educational opportunities. The general public will not differentiate between ebikes and regular bikes when an ebike kills a pedestrian; they will simply blame all cyclists.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@huskerdont 167013 wrote:

The general public will not differentiate between ebikes and regular bikes when an ebike kills a pedestrian; they will simply blame all cyclists.

I’m not sure I understand…cyclists on regular bikes kill pedestrians every once-in-a-while, so is it really useful to try and make the distinction?

[huskerdont]

@TwoWheelsDC 167015 wrote:

I’m not sure I understand…cyclists on regular bikes kill pedestrians every once-in-a-while, so is it really useful to try and make the distinction?

But less often because of slower speeds, generally lower weight, and the fact that to go that fast as a cyclist (except downhill, of course), you generally learn how to ride better as you build up to it. You may feel differently, and that’s fine, but I don’t look forward to hearing comments about, for example, how all cyclists need to have licenses just because incidences of pedestrian/cyclist crashes go up because of increased ebike usage. I would prefer not to be lumped in with that, although it will happen.

(Note that I’m not talking about people like ejwillis62 or dasgeh here; I realize they are responsible and need the e-assist. I’m more talking about the gearcrusher and solarscootercar types. Any reasonable regulation would not affect the former while addressing the latter.)

[sjclaeys]

@TwoWheelsDC 167015 wrote:

I’m not sure I understand…cyclists on regular bikes kill pedestrians every once-in-a-while, so is it really useful to try and make the distinction?

The pedestrian killed by a cyclist this past March was the first time that this happened in the DC area since 2012. It is also only the 9th such incident since 1905. You have an interesting definition of “every once-in-a-while”. BTW, here’s the source for my info: http://www.thewashcycle.com/2017/03/pedestrian-struck-by-cyclist-in-downtown-dc-dies-from-injuriess-.html

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