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Electric Bicycles

Started by Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth, August 18, 2020, 06:53:25 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Are these good, or are they shit for cunts?
I just chucked out my old bike, after five years of neglect left it a rusted out heap. I wasn't particularly thinking about replacing it, but a recently mooted move to the middle of mowhere (plus the my unease regarding public transport during the pandemic) has got me thinking that a new one might not be a bad idea after all. With potentially greater distances to cover (and me being a lazy sod) my mind wandered to these newfangled electric jobs.
From what little research I've done, The UK is limited to the pedal assist variety - no motorbike style throttle - which sounds less fun, but isn't a deal breaker. The bigger stumbling block is price, with even the cheapest models seeming significantly more expensive than a normal bike of comparable quality.
There's also my lack of confidence cycling on the roads, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.

PlanktonSideburns

Yea if you've hills they're ace

Dex Sawash

I bought a shitty little folding $300 one at Costco last weekend. 350 watt twist throttle. 16mph 16 mile.range. it is fun but too small and sort of pointless, going back tomorrow.

I've ridden one of the $3500 Specialized mtb a few times (bike shop adjoining my work) it is amazing. It only has electric assist, the motor responds to pedal pressure (no throttle) kind of makes you feel like a superhero. I like the throttle option to do fuck all pedaling better though.

Dex Sawash

BTW, I am sure some of the pedal assist ones can have throttle control added. The shops probably sell the stuff along with the bike.

MojoJojo

That's sort of backwards. An electric bike can have a twist throttle, but it needs to be type approved if it has a twist throttle. This should be done by the manufacturer (too expensive to be practical for an individual).

In practice though you can buy all the stuff to turn a bike into 70mph motorcycle and probably not get picked up so yeah just whack a throttle on.

Inspector Norse

I've been using my girlfriend's a bit for getting around without needing to use public transport and I really like it.

It cost around £1500 so midrange I guess but it's got good battery power, is a big help on hilly bits and is a good deal faster than a normal bike:[nb]unless you are a lycra-muscles type who is just really into cycling[/nb] from our place in the suburbs to the city takes about the same time as it would on the metro. Plus you get less sweaty than you would cycling round a city on a normal bike but as it's pedal assist you still get a bit of exercise.

What is a pain is having to disconnect the battery and lug it around with you whenever you leave the bike somewhere, because those things are heavy, so not that convenient if you've cycled somewhere and want to then walk around a bit. The battery is also pretty fragile, prone to playing up when it gets scrapes and bangs, which are pretty much inevitable with any kind of bike.
It's also pretty heavy and unwieldy, which just makes parking and storing it slightly more awkward.

I'm considering getting one myself - they're expensive, yeah, but no more than a monthly metro card over 18 months - but not sure whether I'd feel the same way in the darkest depths of February in Stockholm.

sevendaughters

Never ridden one in my life but yesterday I was out on my normal bike going up Horseshoe Pass near Llangollen and some bloke absolutely burned me off like he was Usain Bolt and I was on a Sunday stroll on the steepest part of the climb. And he would have been miles from real civilisation so I guess he was confident about his battery power too.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Dex Sawash on August 19, 2020, 02:20:31 AM
BTW, I am sure some of the pedal assist ones can have throttle control added. The shops probably sell the stuff along with the bike.

Probably. Some models seem to have the limiter as a wire plug you just disconnect, but for others you can get a 'dongle' you fit in-line that simply divides the reported speed in two when it goes over a certain threshold.

Zetetic

The problem I'm running into is that - as with normal pedal bicycles - almost everything is junk built to stuff a spec sheet rather than designed to be a useful method of transportation.

That there are any electric "commuter" bikes with a) crossbars or b) anything other than a hub gear with a small and fairly narrow set of ratios, let alone most such commuter bikes having these things, is a fairly bad sign.

As Inspector Norse hints at as well, the electric side of things is full of unreliable dogshit as well.

All a bit of a shame really.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Zetetic on August 23, 2020, 11:22:56 AM
The problem I'm running into is that - as with normal pedal bicycles - almost everything is junk built to stuff a spec sheet rather than designed to be a useful method of transportation.

After commuting daily, I came to the conclusion that bike ownership is similar to car ownership in that the moving parts will wear out and need replacing. Thankfully replacement parts are often cheaper even if you upgrade them during replacement. So if you do it right, your bike will become more useful over time.

Although someone else I worked with had a different approach, cycling almost 20 miles daily, they found they wore out most of their bike in about 3 years, which isn't bad given it's about 15k miles, but found at 2 years they could sell their bike for half to 2/3rds its value and replace it with a nice new one.

Hand Solo

#10
I've bought 3 second-hand bikes in the last few months over lockdown to get some exercise.. planning on selling at least one of them. They're not electric. One is just an old crap bike with a luggage rack for carrying shopping home, but it was a cheap impulse buy. One of them folds up but it's a steel frame mountain bike and weighs 18 kg so my plan of taking it with me on the train isn't as smooth as I imagined, I can roll it when it's folded but it's so heavy it wants to fall over and it takes two hands to carry up into the carriage, but at least when folded up I can store it in the hall at friends'. I might get rid of it, I don't know if it's the weight but even on a flat ride I'm shagged out going a couple of miles on it. The other mountain bike is much lighter and easier to ride and I go 10 miles easy on it.

Has anyone owned a Brompton folding bike? They're fucking expensive even second hand but I've been thinking about it for ages. They do electric dynamo attachments too and fold down so small you can easily take then anywhere with you without having to chain them up somewhere outside. The wheels are so small I'm not sure if it would work for me as I ride out into the country quite a bit so there are a lot of bumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMnqFShmML8

Cuntbeaks

Rode a Brompton once and it was fucking terrifying. The small front wheel affords no confidence whatsoever.

PlanktonSideburns

I've got two 1980s stridas

Now there's a weird ride! Like being on a Toblerone

Hand Solo

Quote from: Cuntbeaks on August 24, 2020, 10:52:39 PM
Rode a Brompton once and it was fucking terrifying. The small front wheel affords no confidence whatsoever.

Maybe they just take getting used to, you mean there's a very sharp turn obviously due to the size?

They're incredibly popular and the people who buy them tend to become obsessed with them and stick with the brand.

They rent them from lockers in some areas but not near me, maybe the best option is to find a hire shop and test one for a day before I bother trying to get hold of a less expensive second hand one? They just look really good for folding up and shoving in the luggage compartment above you on the train etc or taking into a pub or cafe with you and stowing under the table. I'd mainly just leave it round my friends' houses when visiting, bringing in a big mountain bike and leaving in their hall for a few days would piss them off as it would majorly be in the way.

There are a load of other folding bikes by Dahon and other brands that are a bit cheaper but they're harder to find in the UK, and I've read horror stories from the brands Halfords and that sell that are much cheaper, basically snap in half on your first ride or fall to pieces very quickly, so fuck that.

Cuntbeaks

Yeah, I'm sure you would get used to it. I'm used to a mountain bike with 27.5" wheels and can confidently ride over most obstacles. Even a regular kerb felt like a potential for disaster on the Brompton.

Hand Solo

Quote from: Cuntbeaks on August 24, 2020, 11:42:16 PM
Yeah, I'm sure you would get used to it. I'm used to a mountain bike with 27.5" wheels and can confidently ride over most obstacles. Even a regular kerb felt like a potential for disaster on the Brompton.

Yeah, it's definitely a road/cycle lane bike, but there's bumps, stones, potholes and the like so I'm wondering how badly that will effect one. There's a few videos of people riding them on rough terrain without seemingly too much trouble. There are folding bikes with much bigger wheels so I might look into some of those if I can find one of decent quality.

Have you seen the size of the wheels on Clive Sinclair's A bike? Fucking hell.

jobotic

What are these electric scooters that every other young man seems to have now, but that didn't exist a month ago?

Dex Sawash

I downloaded the hire scooter app while parked up waiting for my wife yesterday. By the time I set up paymrent, some turd took the scooter I was going to try.

Hand Solo

Quote from: Dex Sawash on August 25, 2020, 01:06:15 AM
By the time I set up paymrent, some turd took the scooter I was going to try.



Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Hand Solo on August 24, 2020, 11:56:32 PM
Yeah, it's definitely a road/cycle lane bike, but there's bumps, stones, potholes and the like so I'm wondering how badly that will effect one. There's a few videos of people riding them on rough terrain without seemingly too much trouble. There are folding bikes with much bigger wheels so I might look into some of those if I can find one of decent quality.

Have you seen the size of the wheels on Clive Sinclair's A bike? Fucking hell.

This looks pretty good. I googled and it seems the uk/EU ones are almost half the price of the US one yet the only difference is the plug. At least they went to market I suppose.

Dex Sawash