summerdays
Cycling in the sun
- Location
- Bristol
I have certainly read on another forum (non-cycling) of someone who bought the parts to make an electric bike which he also modified to remove the restriction.
Chased an electric assist bike yesterday
- Thread starter BrumJim
- Start date
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There's an article on them in Cycling Active (ironic) this month. The thing is that we see them as an alternative to bikes, whereas most users and buyers see them as an alternative to cars. And, compared to cars, they are fantastically green.
ComedyPilot
Secret Lemonade Drinker
- Location
- The Kingdom of Yorkshire
Norm, looking at it like that I can see the logic.
I have been looking at it from the point of view of someone who couldn't ride more than a couple of miles in 94/95 then I started doing a bit more. I still had to get off and push when I ran out of gears/legs. At no point did I use any form of assistance.
I can now ride 100 mile days on tour fully loaded with relative ease, and don't have to get off and push.
I just see a lot of people short-cutting the good few thousand mile cycling apprenticeships - if that makes sense?
I have been looking at it from the point of view of someone who couldn't ride more than a couple of miles in 94/95 then I started doing a bit more. I still had to get off and push when I ran out of gears/legs. At no point did I use any form of assistance.
I can now ride 100 mile days on tour fully loaded with relative ease, and don't have to get off and push.
I just see a lot of people short-cutting the good few thousand mile cycling apprenticeships - if that makes sense?
summerdays
Cycling in the sun
- Location
- Bristol
Plus also enabling some cyclists to keep going later in life ... as a elderly neighbour of mine uses his to cover reasonable distances, but I normally see him pedalling it even when going uphill so I assume it is just used as he needs it.
As pointed out by CP a few posts back, legal electrical-assist pedal cycles (EAPCs) can only assist pedalling, they can't be the "twist'n'go" solution.
So, your neighbour will need to keep pedalling to get anywhere.
summerdays
Cycling in the sun
- Location
- Bristol
No sorry I wasn't clear - I meant that I think he seems to pedal it most of the time as if it was a normal bike just that it takes some of the strain out of the hills around here. As far as I remember he had a normal bike previously. His twin brother used to use the bike (I could never work out if they had one each or shared the one bike), until he died a couple of years ago. Never saw them on the bike at the same time.
Whereas the teacher didn't seem to have to pedal her bike ... I must watch out for her again just to check ... but I haven't seen the bike at the end of last term... I think she is a fair weather commuter.
I think that you were perfectly clear. My response was meant to confirm that he would need to pedal it just like a normal bike. That is part of the legal requirement to be exempt from motor vehicle regulations.
jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
The restrictions are easily removed, by replacing the rear cassette (which every dealer i sopke to when I researched these a while back was happy to do).
this does effect the max speed dramatically ( by allowing an average 25 mph...regardless of hills!) but also shortens the range to a much greater effect. A 20 mile battery will last only about 5-10 miles etc.
Either way, it is currently illegal to ride a powered bike that can allow such speeds...not that that stops people. I looked at assist bikes as a way of allowing me to ride my commute every day and to drop the second car. At the end of the day I reached my choice not to buy one...through education rather than assumption that these things were the devils contraptions.
I think they have hold a viable position in the cycle community and are...in the right hands...a very good thing.
I'm surprised so many of us find them quite so distasteful
OP
OP
BrumJim
Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
- Location
- Selly Oak, Birmingham
I think it is the first post that may hint as to what our problem with electric assist is.
To buy the best car involves a bit of reading, and plenty of cash. Once you have both of these, then it isn't too difficult to get the fastest thing on 4 wheels. With a bike, this gets turned around completely. Put Cavendish on my £500 bike, and me on his £5,000 beast, and he'll still leave me for dead. In fact he probably won't be much slower, and I will have a big grin on my face, but won't have been much quicker.
Electric assist seems like taking the easy option. You chase a cyclist ahead, bust a gut to draw alongside, and find that they are "cheating", i.e. doing better, or as well as you, without doing the hard miles of building up strength and fitness. If we see them as targets rather than competition, electric assist is good. If we see them as competition, then it is bad - its just a chase for the biggest motor and lightest battery.
Me? I'm lazy, but love cycling hard and fast. I like to think that they are good targets, and can feel really pleased with myself if my legs and lungs alone can beat electrons and copper assist.
To buy the best car involves a bit of reading, and plenty of cash. Once you have both of these, then it isn't too difficult to get the fastest thing on 4 wheels. With a bike, this gets turned around completely. Put Cavendish on my £500 bike, and me on his £5,000 beast, and he'll still leave me for dead. In fact he probably won't be much slower, and I will have a big grin on my face, but won't have been much quicker.
Electric assist seems like taking the easy option. You chase a cyclist ahead, bust a gut to draw alongside, and find that they are "cheating", i.e. doing better, or as well as you, without doing the hard miles of building up strength and fitness. If we see them as targets rather than competition, electric assist is good. If we see them as competition, then it is bad - its just a chase for the biggest motor and lightest battery.
Me? I'm lazy, but love cycling hard and fast. I like to think that they are good targets, and can feel really pleased with myself if my legs and lungs alone can beat electrons and copper assist.
Archie_tect
De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
- Location
- Northumberland
All depends on why you cycle doesn't it?.
Fitness and health benefits of working hard to build up strength and stamina, or to get to work as efficiently as possible but still getting benefit of exercise.
We're all somewhere between each end of this spectrum. Don't see what the fuss is about.
Fitness and health benefits of working hard to build up strength and stamina, or to get to work as efficiently as possible but still getting benefit of exercise.
We're all somewhere between each end of this spectrum. Don't see what the fuss is about.
I bought one a few years ago as an alternative to driving to work. I had an old mountain bike i cycled with the kids, but my commute was 8.5 miles, and 220 metres of climbing, including some big ones. I couldn"t imagine cycling it, and then i saw the electric bike idea, and bought one for £500 with back to work.
I cycled on the flat, amd on small hills, and used the motor to get up the big hills. It was easier, but it certainly wasn't coasting, doing it almost every day my legs hurt to the touch for a month. I could have started partway along the route, (though the last mile was seriously uphill), but this worked well. As it happened, at six weeks i had to replace the battery, and while it was away started using my mountain bike. Felt like it nearly killed me even then, but the electric had made enough difference that i could ( and so i sold the electric).
Three more years of commuting, and this year (having changed jobs and cities too) we've dropped the second car, and I cycle everywhere, we even cycle the kids to school. I don't think any of it would have happened without the first electric one, even if it could have.
I cycled on the flat, amd on small hills, and used the motor to get up the big hills. It was easier, but it certainly wasn't coasting, doing it almost every day my legs hurt to the touch for a month. I could have started partway along the route, (though the last mile was seriously uphill), but this worked well. As it happened, at six weeks i had to replace the battery, and while it was away started using my mountain bike. Felt like it nearly killed me even then, but the electric had made enough difference that i could ( and so i sold the electric).
Three more years of commuting, and this year (having changed jobs and cities too) we've dropped the second car, and I cycle everywhere, we even cycle the kids to school. I don't think any of it would have happened without the first electric one, even if it could have.
One more thought. Since i started cycling i've had a few friends who've been inspired to try cycling instead of using the car. (i'm big guy, i think they figured if i can...). Mostly though they've tried a couple of times, arrived exhausted, sweaty and feeling beaten, (midly hilly area) and not tried again. I've often thought it would be great if i could lend them an electric rather than regular bike, so they could get the bug first...
BentMikey
Rider of Seolferwulf
- Location
- South London
Nothing wrong with electric bikes. You can be against them personally, but to shout them down on here does seem a little like elitist snobbery to me.
markharry66
Guru
I have also had some experience with electric bikes when I first started I got an izip clone with an engine that sounded like a motor bike.
There are bikes out there that are capable of over 25 miles an hour,using an off road switch. Alien bikes are one of them they have an ebay shop. Distances are now going beyond the fifty mile mark with one charge. Prices are still high and lot of the bikes are still heavy. Sla super leaded batteries are heavy and dont last long. Most of the cheaper models are based on this technology. Wilkinsons and even tescos have sold a range of electric bikes in the past. Anything that gets someone on a bike for whatever reason is a good thing.
There are bikes out there that are capable of over 25 miles an hour,using an off road switch. Alien bikes are one of them they have an ebay shop. Distances are now going beyond the fifty mile mark with one charge. Prices are still high and lot of the bikes are still heavy. Sla super leaded batteries are heavy and dont last long. Most of the cheaper models are based on this technology. Wilkinsons and even tescos have sold a range of electric bikes in the past. Anything that gets someone on a bike for whatever reason is a good thing.
