hi #BikeTooter - what electric bike (if any) would you recommend to an adult who learned to ride fairly recently? Lives in an urban setting, looking to do leisure/fitness riding mostly for now. Fairly cautious rider. #EBikes
@cassey if they have a bike they like and just need mild assist, the hilltopper front wheel is a good option for many, it adds maybe 15lb and freewheels when you're not using it. They're not great for really steep hills except with light rider and load, or effort: you need to keep the speed up to sustain climbing power.
Lots of errands today, finishing with full panniers from grocery shopping topped off with a case of wine. 🍷 (UPS missed me a couple times, so I had them hold it at a nearby store)
Can everyone on #BikeTooter agree whether we're using the plural form or the singular form for hashtags? Or can Mastodon core give us a feature that enables smooshing hashtags together if one is the plural form of the other?
There is not a path to reduced #ClimateChange emissions and a sustainable #transportation system that allows our species to survive #GlobalWarming while maintaining #CarSupremacy with its glut of empty passing lanes and free #parking where all options to choose #eBikes or #transit have been cut off by walls of traffic (cars always either at a standstill or moving at deadly speeds, averaging 20mph.) Many people need to change their plans and stop driving, many car lanes need to be repurposed.
The main thing that we need to do to make our streets safe, safe enough that kids can bike to school or other activities on their own, is to make cut-through car traffic go back to the arterial streets and stay there. Low-Traffic Neighborhood streets are created by diverting car traffic to prevent direct routes through from being useful to drivers. You can still drive to every destination, just going around the block sometimes, and always to the closest arterial rather than through the middle.
There simply is not another feasible way to share narrow residential streets with bike traffic, no space or money to build separated bikeways through the neighborhoods, and no justification for it when you don't need or want the car traffic through there but simply need access by car, trash collection, deliveries. You don't need thousands of cars per day in each direction on every street, and allowing that level of traffic will bleed your city dry in street maintenance.
What is with this plate on the REI #eBikes for the motor controller compartment cover? The edges aren't sealed at all and the tapped steel flat bar floats in there with the controller hooked to both ends, like this is just to clamp it in place. The center screw doesn't thread into anything except the plate and then it touches down on the controller, plus had this red grease only on it. I'm concerned that water is going to get in, since there are no gaskets and it faces up. #BikeTooter
@Will I concluded elsewhere in the thread that the red grease was the total amount of sealing consideration it was given at the factory, and there is at least a drain hole at the lowest point.
Verkehrsministerium: Fahrradblinker sollen für alle erlaubt sein
Egal, ob mit Motor oder ohne: Das Verkehrsministerium will künftig flächendeckend Blinker an Fahrrädern zulassen. Bislang geht das nur für spezielle Modelle. Eine Pflicht soll es aber nicht geben.
@tagesschau solange es nicht Pflicht wird, halte ich das für eine gute Idee, weil bei normalen Fahrrädern erhöht das unnötig das Gewicht und das muss nicht sein. Aber es gibt sicher Leute, die schneller fahren (20 km/h und mehr) und deshalb eher nicht die Hand vom Lenker nehmen sollten.
@lioracle@TheWarOnCars that's easy it's because pickup trucks and SUVs are tools for hauling important stuff like groceries or wood or driving in snow or rain. Whereas bikes are just expensive toys for exercise. Pictures unrelated
The good news, such that it exists, is that there are some emerging local/state programs to subsidize ebike purchases -- and when their effects are studied, they're great! Folks drive less, burn less fuel; towns have less traffic; the results are woven from win-win
@enobacon They should ask couriers who deliver food, how best to carry a cake. There is no guarantee that a cake will arrive intact, if carried in a car. It's all about the container and the care taken.
@Tooden also many people could very soon live much closer to a cake shop and grocery and piano teachers and whatever, besides having more frequent transit options and that associated reach.
Why is the UK govt taking so long to sort out legislation for escooters?
Why do escooters get treated so differently to ebikes as well? Fundamentally, they're the same thing, just one has a seat. The van both be modified to be illegal. They can both be ridden illegally.
Yet ebikes are already covered by law and escooters are not.
UPDATE with more details on #Boston's new #ebikes: they're available to ride now, and you'll find them at several stations around downtown this afternoon.
The NJ legislature just passed a bill requiring low-speed electric bicycles to be registered with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission and to be insured.
Somewhere, either a fossil fuel lobbyist or an insurance industry lobbyist got his wings.
@WearsHats@rgulick
In NY, for a long time, your ebike was unlawful if it had a throttle. At that time I was a big fan of being able to register an ebike as a class 2 moped. I still think it makes sense; I think it potentially opens a market segment for lawful ebikes that are fast enough to replace gasoline scooters.