Chased an electric assist bike yesterday

[ComedyPilot]

Call me a snob, but I won't even acknowledge people on 'assist' bikes unless they're over 80 years old, riding with both parents and at least 1 grandparent.

 

[jonny jeez]

yep

 

[sheddy]

have I read this right - EU propose to go from 250w 200w to 1Kw ?
http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/eu-s-electric-bike-rule-changes-slammed-by-bicycle-assocation-boss

 

[marafi]

I thought you chased a eldery man who was cycling on a electric BIKE! Lol thankfully you were only competiting with him. Well aslong as you are moving your legs not technically a modped. No engines on a bike.

 

[biggs682]

i quite often ride back to work at lunch time and come up against an electric bike , always try my best to out run him just for the fun of it

 

[Peteaud]

Its not the fact that they are powered, i think thats a great idea, and definately a viable mode of transport, but, why do they all look so bad, (nearly all of them anyway).

Give it a few years for the battery technology to improve and providing the dopey governments dont ban them i can see lots and lots of them being sold. They get my thumbs up.

 

[simon.r]

I think the batery tehnology's well on the way - average speed for a lap of the Isle of Man TT Zero (38 miles) was just shy of 100 mph this year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TT_Zero

 

[ComedyPilot]

Sitting on your idle backside and pressing a button on the handle bars is NOT cycling.

 

[summerdays]

Sitting on your idle backside and pressing a button on the handle bars is NOT cycling.

Surely it depends on whether you then sit back and don't do anything or use it to help you. If someone can benefit from getting out on their bike ... who perhaps wouldn't cycle or couldn't cycle otherwise?

There was a recent thread http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/hello-from-somerset.92139/ where Alan B initially bought an electric assist bike to start cycling and do a 22 mile commute, and in four months he has apparently caught the bug and had an old bike serviced as he is enjoying it.

 

[Hacienda71]

But the thing is, they aren't limited to 15mph. The electrical assistance is limited to 15mph for street legal ones in the UK. So they can fly along on the straight, they're heavy so they fly along downhill, and they're assisted, so they can go uphill easily as well. Where I live, I wouldn't have a hope of catching a reasonably fit person on an assisted bike! And I'm told that it's dead easy to remove the limitation. The one I tried was far faster than that.

I haven't had one yet I haven't caught and passed. Allbeit most of them where I live seem to be ridden by the less fit looking individual and I am happy holding 25 mph on the flat for quite a few miles at a time.

 

[StuartG]

Sitting on your idle backside and pressing a button on the handle bars is NOT cycling.

Yes it is. Its just not YOUR sort of cycling.

 

[Alan B]

Sitting on your idle backside and pressing a button on the handle bars is NOT cycling.

Don't understand this point of view, it is cycling, in addition to my 22 mile commute I was also doing other rides up to 60 miles earlier this year which has fast tracked me to getting fit enough to do similar rides on my (non-powered) mountain bike now fitted with slicks.

It's a shame they don't get more popular, for commuting especially, to create more demand for cycling friendly routes and facilities. A much bigger user base of two wheel users would become a greater lobbying force. It makes a lot of sense to arrive at work NOT hot and sweaty.

My Kudo King rides like a normal bike, if you don't pedal it doesn't go ? It just helps going up hills or against stiff head winds.

 

[zigzag]

there's one chap on my commute riding assisted single speed cannondale. i have no hope of catching him as much as i try (he's fit and lean and could be stronger than me anyway). sometimes i wouldn't mind riding ebike myself, i've tried some and they are good fun.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Don't understand this point of view, it is cycling, in addition to my 22 mile commute I was also doing other rides up to 60 miles earlier this year which has fast tracked me to getting fit enough to do similar rides on my (non-powered) mountain bike now fitted with slicks.

It's a shame they don't get more popular, for commuting especially, to create more demand for cycling friendly routes and facilities. A much bigger user base of two wheel users would become a greater lobbying force. It makes a lot of sense to arrive at work NOT hot and sweaty.

My Kudo King rides like a normal bike, if you don't pedal it doesn't go ? It just helps going up hills or against stiff head winds.

You understand my point of view, you just don't agree with it.

 

[Peteaud]

Don't understand this point of view, it is cycling, in addition to my 22 mile commute I was also doing other rides up to 60 miles earlier this year which has fast tracked me to getting fit enough to do similar rides on my (non-powered) mountain bike now fitted with slicks.

It's a shame they don't get more popular, for commuting especially, to create more demand for cycling friendly routes and facilities. A much bigger user base of two wheel users would become a greater lobbying force. It makes a lot of sense to arrive at work NOT hot and sweaty.

My Kudo King rides like a normal bike, if you don't pedal it doesn't go ? It just helps going up hills or against stiff head winds.

Spot on, if more people ride 2 wheels, assisted or not, surely it gives more power to the cyclist.