[Dewey]

@bobco85 164371 wrote:

This does not mean I will stop visiting this forum, but it might be a little less often…I will be buying a new bike in Seattle!

Best of luck with your move. In the interim before you buy a new bike if you decide to try out one of Seattle’s dock-less bikeshare bikes please post what you thought of your experience on this forum, I’d be interested to read some first hand opinions.

[Dewey]

@Guus 158072 wrote:

I’m leaning towards a WorkCycles kr8 as well, but it seems like the e-assist might be tricky to order straight from the Netherlands, due to the lithium batteries.

Does anyone have experience with getting an aftermarket e-assist installation for a bike like that?

Hi Guus, I also live in Arlington and have a bicycle that I converted to a pedelec with a mid-drive motor that I use to tow my 2 year old daughter in a Chariot bicycle trailer on trips to MOM’s grocery store or to the park. I read on the Endless Sphere forum that someone converted their Bullitt cargo bike with a Tongsheng TSDZ2 pedelec motor and they reported seeing the same motor fitted to a passing Workcycles kr8. This motor is the same as the rebranded Schachner MM15 motor used for Workcycles pedal assist conversions. There is a 40 page thread on the ES forum about this motor. I think the TSDZ2 looks like it would be a suitable motor for a cargo bike on Arlington hills. According to the manufacturer website it is designed to fit into a standard 68mm bottom bracket, and while I can’t tell if the 42T chainring fits in the Workcycles full chaincase I suspect it does. The 48v battery is connected to a 15a controller which would give a peak power of 720w, 80NM of torque, and limit the top speed on the flats to under 20mph, the Biktrix website suggests their’s is speed limited to 25kmh/15mph which is plenty when carrying kids. That power rating would meet the definitions of an Electric Power-Assisted Bicycle in Virginia and a Motorized Bicycle in DC so you could legally ride it on bike lanes and PBL’s on the street in Arlington and in the District, and on the Custis and 4MR trails in Arlington. I have not used the TSDZ2 motor but my similar Bafang BBS01 motor has a peak power of 648w that is sufficient to power my rig which weighs 300lb fully loaded with me, daughter, and groceries at a speed of 9-14mph up the steepest parts of the Custis Trail.

[Dewey]

@AFHokie 161753 wrote:

Tangent: I though this was photo shopped until I saw that water bikes are a thing…

[Dewey]

WABA’s Greg Billing, Montgomery County’s Casey Anderson and ebike opponent Paul Basken are on today’s Kojo Nnamdi show talking about ebikes on DC area trails.

[Dewey]

@lordofthemark 164133 wrote:

Just as a reminder, ALL bikes, however powered, are banned on sidewalks on King Street east of West Street in Old Town Alexandria, and on Union between Cameron and Prince.

Duly noted, my wife says those sidewalks are just too narrow and busy in any case. Curious as Prince has the new bike lane, do you take the jog over to Duke or ride the cobbled section of Prince between Union & Lee?

[Dewey]

@americancyclo 164124 wrote:

Won’t someone think of the ninja joggers?

Could we throw them hi-viz/reflective velcro bands in our wake like mardi gras beads?

[Dewey]

@dasgeh 164067 wrote:

I would fully support adding ebikes to the CaBi fleet, just like Baltimore’s bikeshare

The technology used in the Baltimore & Birmingham, AL, systems is the Dyname, that uses a flywheel and belt drive separate from the chain and gears. I think the Quebec manufacturer eVox is a subsidiary of Miele – interesting that two German washing machine companies Bosch and Miele with their experience designing motors are into ebikes – I must tell the WashCycle blog there’s got to be a joke/pun in there somewhere. A new light weight shaft drive motor from China’s Bafang is also designed for the bikeshare market.

Ebikes may be a non-option for Capital Bikeshare until the confusing and contradictory local regulations concerning Class 1 pedelecs are harmonized, as you pointed out earlier cyclists would not accept bikeshare ebikes would not be permitted on any sidewalks, bridge paths, or off-street trails in the District, but would be permitted on all sidewalks and some trails (but not others) in VA & MD. I’m picturing a tourist family standing at a mixed ebike/non-ebike bikeshare dock…

[Dewey]

@lordofthemark 164057 wrote:

Perhaps someday ebike speed governors (that is the correct word, right) will be smart enough to recognize if the bike is on a trail or on the road?.

I think you mean the controller? That’s what governs the current flow from the battery to the motor, and can set the motor assist speed limit. For some motors there are controller programming switches, for others there are phone apps, but none are automated and they’re rarely fitted by road ebike cyclists, I think they originated because off-road ebike riders wanted some way to switch between off-road and on-road power modes. I would think an automated application might be well suited for longer distance commuters who might prefer the faster Class 3 speed pedelecs but need to slow down when using bicycle infrastructure closer in – maybe something phone/gps based using gps tracker chips in bike frames and bluetooth controllers, it has to be less complicated/cheaper than autonomous vehicle software.

[Dewey]

@Harry Meatmotor 164050 wrote:

Why does a cargo bike need to go 15mph up a hill, anyway?

John MacArthur at Portland State U surveyed US ebike owners in 2012 and published a slide set (a 2017 survey recently closed):
– slide #32…30% reported they have a physical condition that makes riding a standard bicycle difficult,
and
– slide #36…compare the male/female responses in columns 4, 5, and 6. Difficult to generalize because the survey sample was so skewed towards males but it suggests ebikes help people and families who otherwise might not have made the journey get up hills, run errands, commute to work, etc.

I hope this years survey had more participants, a more even gender balance, easier to identify sub-groups such as cargo bike owners, etc. Moar data…

[Dewey]

@lordofthemark 164023 wrote:

1. I don’t think ebikes are the only way to grow cycling. I think we should aspire to continue to grow human powered cycling…
2. We can also grow legal ebike usage

I appreciate that smarter people than me are doing research on this. The increasing number of commuter cyclists is encouraging, although the injury rates are sobering. I partly put a motor on my bike after 10 years of daily commuting by Metro train, to be able to bike up hill after work so I could get out in the open and build a little exercise into my routine, its also enabled me to go grocery shopping or take my daughter to a class or playground towing a child trailer. Reading this thread has been an education, as a commuter/family/utility pedelec cyclist the benefits of a low powered electric motor appear obvious whereas as @hozn astutely observed “there’s also an entire athletic (and competitive) world of cycling that doesn’t apply to e-bikes at all.” I completely agree, competing doesn’t come into it when I’m slowly climbing the hill from the grocery store with a load of diapers. At times the confusing regulatory landscape and cross talking about defining what is a bicycle/ebike have approached Pythonesque levels, but I’ve appreciated reading others opinions about how to solve practical infrastructure obstacles. I think about my 2 year old daughter and what kind of cyclist she will want to be when she is older, I’m getting her a balance bike for Christmas and already looking forward to taking her on the 4MRT training loop.

[Dewey]

@Judd 164030 wrote:

Subby – I thought I told you that making jokes is not allowed on this forum.

I choose to interpret the fervent hand gesturing from the athletes on this thread towards us ebike riders as representing a twist-throttle action, nothing rude oh no.

[Dewey]

@LhasaCM 163942 wrote:

And here’s a link to the handy chart DC put together regarding its laws:

https://dmv.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dmv/publication/attachments/May%2017%202013%20Non-traditional%20Motor%20Vehicle%20chart.pdf

Except this fact-sheet mis-interprets 18 DCMR §§ 1201.18 by claiming motorized bicycles are not permitted in DC “bike lanes” when that rule applies to “off-street” sidewalk, bikepath, or bicycle routes. Rule 18 DCMR §§ 1201.19 states “a motorized bicycle may be operated on any part of a roadway designated for the use of bicycles” therefore ebikes that meet the CPSC & California Class 1 & 2 ebike definition (<20mph) are allowed in DC on-street bike lanes and PBL's as they are in Virginia and Maryland.

[Dewey]

@lordofthemark 163873 wrote:

A word to the wise though. If I ride the WOD at 9:30 and hit a pedestrian (I ride particularly slowly and carefully at those hours) the ped is also unlawfully on the trail. I assume thats a wash in a civil suit. If I ride an ebike on the MVT and hit a ped, well …..

Regarding protection from civil suits, when I was investigating insurance for 3rd party liability I spoke with my auto insurer and two independent Virginia insurance agents: no household, rental, umbrella, or motorcycle insurer would agree to cover an ebike, the only insurer I could find that would issue a liability policy in Virginia is Markel/Velosurance who cover ebikes that meet the CPSC & California Class 1 & 2 definition (<750w, <20mph). I'm not a lawyer so have only a hazy understanding of concepts such as contributory negligence and rebuttable presumption of guilt but it would be helpful if regulations on those trails where ebikes are in a grey area but implicitly permitted to ride (your post #343) were changed to explicitly permit ebikes that meet the Virginia definition of an electric power assisted bicycle.

Thank you for accepting the need for a safe, legal, Potomac crossing for ebikes, I am dismayed DC DDOT/NPS continue to resist reasonable requests to improve bridge bicycle/ebike infrastructure, this is important for Virginia cyclists commuting into DC.

[Dewey]

GGW article “Congress and auto industry move to ban cities from regulating self-driving cars”

[Dewey]

Arlnow featured a video of an autonomous driverless van going up and down Wilson & Clarendon Boulevards in Arlington. At 30 seconds in you can see it passing a cyclist.

[Author]

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