[jnva]

[ATTACH]7120[/ATTACH]

[jnva]

@vern 99923 wrote:

I saw a grand total of 11 cyclists this morning on my commute between Reston and Crystal City.

I saw 11 puddles of ice!

[jnva]

In case you need to make a phone call…
[ATTACH=CONFIG]7017[/ATTACH]

[jnva]

I had a confusing situation happen to me on my commute home. On the WOD crossing Shreve rd, I almost always come to a stop. But there was a car there stopped waving me on. A fairfax police car. Should I stop even though he was waving me on or keep going and break the law in front of him? I kept going. Man these laws are cornfusing.

[jnva]

@Sunyata 99247 wrote:

You: A fellow “cyclist” in a black SUV VA plates (surprisingly) with your shiny Trek road bike in the back
Me: The cyclist that you buzzed WAY too closely (considering that was another ENTIRE lane on the left side of me for you to drive on) heading north on GM Drive just before the Route 50 crossing

When I got to your window, I was going to start the conversation with “Pretty cool bike you have in the back, as a cyclist, I just wanted to make sure that you were aware that there is a 3 foot passing law in VA to make cycling safer for everyone”, but instead, you started the conversation with “you were riding in the middle of the lane, I am a cyclist too, but you were in the middle of the road”… Unfortunately, I was unable to complete my conversation with you since the light turned green and you spun your tires as you sped off. I would like to continue the conversation and remind you (as a driver and a “fellow cyclist”) that sometimes the middle of the lane is the safest place for me to be (even if there are bike lanes), and that just because you are driving your bicycle around in the back of your giant SUV does NOT make you a cyclist.

I was really disappointed to be almost hit by someone who claims that they are also a cyclist, especially since this person should know how dangerous and rude that is. Especially since from the brief conversation I had with you, it seemed that you buzzed me on purpose because I was not riding where you thought I should have been. 😡

On lee highway going west there is a short section where the right lane ends as the turn lane can’t remember the road name. If you aren’t turning right the best place to be is right in the center of the center lane. It’s three lanes here. Once, some dude started honking at me. Instinctively without even looking I flip him the bird. Then he rolls down his window and shouts that I can’t just ride my bike wherever I want. I’m flabbergasted and then I see he has a bike on the back of his car. The only thing I could think to say is that I own this road and I can ride wherever I want!

[jnva]

[ATTACH]6958[/ATTACH]

[jnva]

It’s a problem. I’ve seen several people crash in front of the Quincy hotel. There is a bollard in the middle of the bike lane that breaks a lot and the base stays.
Send a tweet to @ddotc and @bikepedantic

[jnva]

@rcannon100 98203 wrote:

Its not going to protect you from a concussion. And if you get hit by a truck, its going to do almost nothing.

http://www.arlnow.com/2012/11/27/bicyclist-survives-after-dump-truck-rolls-over-his-head/

[jnva]

http://greyborgusa.com/products-2/frames/

This is my next project. It’s a perfect combination of full suspension and battery capacity. All DIY. I’m working on the battery, controller, BMS and variable regen braking. Hoping this will make commuting more comfortable than my old hardtail I’m using.

[jnva]

@jabberwocky 98177 wrote:

The thing is, I think tech like this is seriously awesome! Having that sort of power would enable people to undertake longer commutes via bike, and use roads that might be too unsafe on pure human power. Like I said, I’d much rather see people on e-bikes than in cars. Its just such a murky thing when it comes to multi-use infrastructure that has traditionally been for non-motorized traffic. Sure, the bikes commonly available today aren’t really any less safe than human powered ones. I’ve chased a few e-bikes over the years, and aside from steeper uphills I could keep up alright with some effort. I get that you guys are probably perfectly polite trail users, and just want to get to work, same as me. Allowed or not, I would never give an e-bike rider any crap for riding on the W&OD, for example, as long as they weren’t being colossal dicks. Buts its also almost certainly true that e-bikes will continue to get more powerful and cheaper. Just in the last 10 years things have advanced enormously, and electric propulsion and battery tech is being heavily invested in. I don’t blame people for being resistant to changing the legality of things, at least in some circumstances.

I’m glad we are on the same page! The thing that pisses me off though is that I think battery technology has NOT advanced nearly as much as it should have in the last 10 years. Instead, we have cheap gasoline.

And batteries that you buy for ebikes are either RC lipo or defective cells that the car manufacturers don’t use. I would much rather have a long lasting cell with a low c-rate than a high power cell. But these are all made for the auto industry.

I think we are at the beginning of the light electric vehicle revolution. I can’t imagine getting back in my car wasting time in traffic ever again. I was hooked the first time I rode an ebike, after commuting for years (like since the mid 80’s) on bicycles.

[jnva]

I don’t, but I did notice the new sharrows between vienna and reston. That sucks.

[jnva]

@jabberwocky 98147 wrote:

But the motors are simply designed for whatever common voltage is out there. And they tend to work with a range of voltages pretty well. The voltage limit is usually the controller, not the motor.

The point is that the reason bikes aren’t faster isn’t that the motor tech isn’t there (it is), its mostly that running a more powerful motor takes larger batteries, which increase the weight and expense beyond what people are comfortable with. If the batteries get cheaper and lighter, motor power can increase. More powerful motors already exist, and they aren’t that expensive.

EDIT: for example, here is a group buy for chinese 3000w hub motors for less than 200 bucks, designed to run at 48v:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63394

3000w will easily get you into motorcycle-esque speeds. The real limit to these is hooking up enough batteries to them to get reasonable range, and the expense of such.

I catch your drift. You do need larger gauge phase wires to handle the current, which I’m pretty sure this motor has. This isn’t the type of motor you’ll typically find on production ebikes though, except for the stealth. My point is that if you want that level of power, you might as well buy a motorcycle. Unless like me you like spending more money to build it yourself

Also, I think there is a law in va now that you have register as a moped if it is capable of more than 30mph. On my 15 mile commute, whether I go by car, bike, or ebike, my average speed is never more than 20 mph. This afternoon I averaged 16mph. High speed does me no good, except for safely keeping up with traffic on short sections of lee hiway. Even if I had a 3000 watt motor I couldn’t use it around here. Kind of like having a Ferrari to commute on 66. It’s just a waste.

Edit to add that riding metro consistently gives me the slowest average speed in my commute. Something like 10mph. Ugh, I’ll never ride metro again!!!!

[jnva]

More “powerful” batteries are not the only thing holding up ebikes. It’s the higher voltage and amperage that necessitates every electric component to be upgraded to handle the increased power. It’s not cheap or as easy as simply replacing a battery. 36/48 volt systems are pretty standard, similar to how 12v is the standard for autos. Try upgrading your car battery to 36v and see what happens, I dare you!

[jnva]

Look at the bigger picture. It’s not about speed or causing havoc on local trails. That will happen no matter what, it’s human nature. This morning i tried keeping up with a guy going faster than 30mph on the WOD. Nothing unsafe about this since this part of the trail happened to be empty. I’ll just leave this here:
http://youtu.be/BQpX-9OyEr4

[jnva]

@americancyclo 98059 wrote:

again, the League of American Bicyclists survey: http://bikeleague.org/content/survey-perceptions-electric-bikes

They have some visual examples that gave me pause when I took the survey.

I learned that I am ok with an ebike going 20 mph, a little uneasy about 30mph, and vehemently against 50mph.

I think my personal perference for unassisted speed is a 25mph cutoff. or maybe 20 mph.

Let’s mandate that cars be speed limited to 65mph. Cars kill people.

[Author]

Posts