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| fallacy:
My friend got me into biking this summer, I never thought I liked biking that much; I always thought it was too hard to get up hills and your ass, wrist and back get sore after a little bit on a bike. I bought a new bike anyway and we would explore different trails and get lost. It was hard at the start but still fun, I have built up my leg muscles to the point now where a 20 mile ride does not phase me anymore and I am getting kind of addicted to where I have to ride everyday. I want an E-bike now because the tech is so cool but OMG going down this rabbit whole is overwhelming. There are sooo… many brands and sooo…. many different styles and different tec, all trying to combine software hardware and man into the perfect fusion of a biking machine. The worst part is you can not try most of them out. You are lucky if your bike shops in your area decide to carry one brand and actually have that bike built and not sold so you can try it out. I will probably end up with a garage full of different E-bikes. The only thing I know right now is I want a Mid-Drive motor not a rear Hub motor like most of the cheaper E-bikes have. I also want the bike to be light and feel more like a regular bike. I was looking at this one which meets all my requirements https://www.specialized.com/us/en/turbo-vado-sl-5-0-eq/p/154892?color=263681-154892 Specialized Turbo Vado SL 5.0 EQ Specialized - is the company brand Turbo - Stand for Electric bike Vado - means urban flat bar bike SL - means super light at 33 pounds not the 60 plus pounds most E-bikes are 5.0 - spec it gives you a headshok, upgraded brakes, 12 speed drivetrain, carbon fork which is less weight EQ - means Equipped giving you fenders and a rack The mid drive motor gives you 2x the power, so for any force you put on the pedal it doubles it for you. The result is it does not feel like the bike is pulling you along with its motor, it feels like you were given a strength and agility buff. No bike store has this bike in stock and it is even sold out online. |
| pbj:
I rode around on one last summer in New Mexico and it was fun as hell. Went up and down steep hills without issue. Must have been a mid-drive because it mostly gave your pedaling a boost. Because of the weird weight distribution, and my lack of experience, I did have to hop off a couple times to get up particularly steep hills, but you just engaged the throttle and let it pull itself as I walked alongside it. I spent a lot of time thinking about buying one. I used to live three blocks away from a paved bayou trail that would have taken me straight to work. Unfortunately, there were several bridges and a freeway intersection that would have had you crossing at ground level in Houston rush hour traffic. My current situation is even worse now but it’s absurd that I sit in traffic surrounded by the same cars every day. :cheers: |
| fallacy:
That would be ideal being able to go to work or run errands on your bike. But I don't like to be in the street as little as possible. I am also not quite sure how to secure it in front of a store since all locks can be broken. I just so happen to be next to a lot of paved trails by my house that cut through the city and have a underpass walkway on every street. |
| Xiaou2:
If you cant bring your bike into the building you work at... its likely not a good idea to leave it outside, unattended, for more than a 15min span. I live in a mid sized city. Its not particularly crime ridden... Though, there are some really bad spots... some streets where shooting occur regularly. At one time, I was living about a minutes drive, from the center of downtown... in a tiny apartment on top of an Asian grocery store. Rent was dirt cheap, but the intersection traffic noise was unbearably awful. Someone had locked their bike up to the parking lot railing... and maybe a night later... the front tire was missing. By the end of the week... almost everything except the main frame, was missing. For whatever reason, the thief, of multiple thieves, decided not to break the lock, and just to strip parts off of it. Its one thing to lose a cheap bike... but quite another, to potentially lose an expensive e-bike. Not sure how easy it is to make them... or if you can find them pre-made... but Id bet that motor powered roller blades, would be a better option, in many cases. At one point in my youth, I bladed to work a bunch of times. The effort was similar to a bike, because you are not trying to move a heavy metal frame around. I was surprised how fast I was able to get those things going. Not all blades are equal though. You want the highest quality bearings, for the least amount of friction... as well as need to clean them often, or performance will take a huge nose dive. I will say, that I wasnt that fond of how much the blades had to extend outwards.. especially when having to use the street, rather than a sidewalk. Anyway... If you put on a backpack... you could place a good sized battery in the lower part of the bag, and still have plenty of storage space left over. And since you are only moving your own body mass... the battery would likely last a lot longer than an ebike. You would also need to make a brake system... because stopping at the speed I imagine you might be able to travel on motor powered blades, would be quite a challenge. |
| Gilrock:
I ride 90+ miles a week but I only get to ride twice a week. But its a real bike. The only time I consider an e-bike acceptable is when you have a wife and husband and one of them can't keep up with the other so the slow one rides an e-bike. The rest of you realize that every time you pass regular cyclists they are laughing inside at you. |
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