🎶🎸 'I want to ride my bicylcle' ist nicht nur eine Strophe aus einem bekannten Queen Song, sondern auch in 🇩🇪 Programm. 🚴 #SchonGewusst: Bei uns gibt es mehr Fahrräder als Einwohnerinnen & Einwohner!
Eine Studie des Zweirad-Industrie Verbands (ZIV) zeigt, dass der #Fahrrad- bzw. E-Bike-Bestand im vergangenen Jahr auf 84 Millionen angestiegen ist. 🥳
Darunter sind 11 Millionen #EBikes, welche auch im Rahmen des steuerbegünstigten Dienstfahrrads gefördert werden.
If riding an ebike is "cheating" compared to other exercise, why do my ebike rides have such a profound effect on my happiness and physical well-being? Why do I have measurably better health and get dramatically more minutes of activity compared to when I was riding a non-electric bike? Why can't I find a single downside to this form of exercise other than cost?
If it walks like exercise and quacks like exercise, maybe just call it exercise and leave off the judgment.
The UPP battery I got for the tandem #BikeFriday project has been okay, afaict (or might be part of the hangup that happens in regen braking), but I hate that it has this XLR plug with that fiddly sliding plastic cover, also seems to lack a fuse, unlike the previous generation of generic downtube pack (dolphin) that had a barrel connector charge port. I can see the argument against the barrel connector, but why have a 3-pin port and not include a thermistor? #eBikes
Welcome to the May 24th BikeNite! Thanks for joining, and I hope we all enjoy chatting about cycle stuff! Feel free to answer whenever at your convenience. Anyone can join, now or later. Reply to what you like, and boost for visibility.
We'll start out with our introduction (with help from @jfparis)
Q1. Where are you posting from today? Where we are, Spring semester is over or almost over for many students. How does this affect your riding?
I'm posting from mountainous Felton, California, where I've just completed a successful test ride with a new-to-me bidirectional ebike throttle on my cargo ebike.
Twist right and it engages the motor to accelerate. Twist left and it engages regenerative braking. Pretty happy with it!
@clive If you are writing about ebikes I'm sure you know that #ebikes outsell non-ebikes in The Netherlands. In 2022, 486,000 of 855,000 new bikes sold were electric: hundreds of thousands of cargo delivery bikes, family bikes, and everyday get-around-the-city bikes.
If ebikes make sense to people using flat, safe #Netherlands roads, surely they make even more sense to use on the hilly, car-clogged streets in the rest of the world.
I got regenerative braking working on the new motor! With regen active on a long downhill, controlling our downhill descent was very easy, and we reclaimed 150-370W/h along the way.
Seeking volunteers for 2-hr shifts with BikeLoudPDX.
Show off your #cargoBikes! Answer questions on hauling kids & large loads #CarryShitOlympics#eBikes
"The way to fight #crime is not with stops based on hunches and pretext, but by investing proactively in communities and with #policing targeted at people for whom there is suspicion of serious criminal conduct.
On the other hand, there is a real #trafficSafety problem in this country… #transportation officials should focus their efforts... better lighting… #protectedBikeLanes & pedestrian crossings; self-ticketing cars with speed limiters, … [#transit]" 🚎 🚲
meanwhile in #Portland, "PPB Expands Central Bike Squad" ...to ten (10) total. It wouldn't hurt a few of the rest to get out of their ($80k/each) cars sometimes though, the city is less than an hour wide on #eBikes.
Q5. Do you also ride when it's dark? And if so, what precautions do you take to be seen? Just what's legally required or much more? Battery vs dynamo lights? Multiple lights? Additional reflective clothes or stickers?
#BikeNite A5. On #eBikes, the danger of riding in the dark isn't so much about whether drivers see you as it is about correctly judging your speed. Two non-flashing headlights with distance between them, like on the fork and handlebar, seems to register more effectively than one. Similarly with spacing between tail lights, I get fewer sketchy passing attempts by drivers. Blinking lights make drivers perceive you as a stationary obstacle, besides blinding people on bikes. @ascentale@xtaran
Several old friends came to visit my wife for her birthday. She wanted to ride on a nearby trail, a 5km ride. One friend hadn't biked in 20 years, and was not really wanting to ride that far.
So my wife leant her friend the e-bike, and took an old hybrid bike. The friend was blown away: "this is sooo much fun!".
That's what #ebikes can do. People who just aren't interested in biking get to have fun on a bike again.
From the perspective of a non-technical user, an e-bike that is built and designed to use a motor will generally be superior to a regular bike turned into an e-bike with a conversion set.
At least in Finland conversion sets are fairly rare. Arguably there are obvious issues with the vendor lock-in that major brands like Bosch push on their users, but the reliability is okay and there are certified maintenance shops. #ebikes
I always love that @ternbicycles knows how to build bikes that speak to me, as. queer person.
The new Tern Orox: an all terrain cargo e-bike! In case I want to ride to the grocery store through the mountains! (Being very utterly serious about this!)
It's basically the Subaru for climate conscious lesbians like me
@kim_harding#eBikes will replace cars if we let them: "#infrastructure must make e-cycling as well as cycling safe, efficient, and attractive at the scale of the urban region. Electric assistance cannot compensate for the lack of cycle ways. ... must be thought in combination with other modes (walking, public transport, carsharing, #cargoBikes) to make it possible to live car-free… planning should aim to regulate urban sprawl and promote more compact development to avoid automobile dependence"
I biked from noe to the conservatory of flowers today with the kid on the back and HOT DAMN it was honestly one of the most incredible experiences of my #biking life.
Gorgeous gorgeous day. Got to ride up Page #SlowStreet, which is just so lovely. Then down #JFK which is honest to good one of the most beautiful promenades on the planet right now. There was art! There was nature! There was community!
God, #SanFrancisco you can really show off when you want to.