E-Bike Riders Don’t Care About Ego. We Care About Riding

Posted by patrickhamster3458@reddit | ebikes | View on Reddit | 17 comments

No Strava wars. No gatekeeping. Just people who chose practicality over pride.If it gets you outside more, it’s doing its job.

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Jesters__Dead@reddit

The funniest thing is that some lycras are ultra competitive and their egos get bent out of shape when an ebike overtakes them

While ebikers are just enjoying themselves and couldn't care less about who is the fastest

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Fit_Buyer6760@reddit

If an ebike passes me I just say they're cheating and then they go ballistic lol

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Jesters__Dead@reddit

If a lycra says that to me, I say No, I'm winning, and they start crying lol

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Superb_Raccoon@reddit

I ride with lycra weenies. They just draft off me.

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well there is a line somewhere along the spectrum of rider-input-to-motor-power-used where the e-bike becomes no better than a gas powered moped or just using a car. And if you aren't 100% about transportation and look at your fitness as a rider, thatine is actually important.

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DonnPT@reddit

I'm not with OP, I don't want to wave the issue away with "practical transportation", but neither do I see this issue very well characterized. To get there, we need a direction, a notion of what role the ebike should have, as an alternative transportation mode, and at this point that's pretty much up in the air.

Are ebikes going to supplant automobile scale vehicles to any significant level?

Are ebikes going to fit within what little infrastructure is provided for human power bicycles?

Are ebikes going to play any really significant role in 1st world societies?

The answers might be "no" to all. Certainly arguable, but there's reason to doubt. What are we really hoping for here? That will put us in a position to make better judgements about what's getting us there and what isn't.

Personally, I think motor power is at least a more complicated issue. On a common bicycle, putting along at say 18mph, I believe that's about 300W. Add a 5% uphill grade, more like 600W. Add a trailer, ... etc. You could conventionally expect human input ca. 100W, and then the rest is motor. Is there a ratio that should be the threshold here, because there's a limit to the loads ebikes should be expected to support? Maybe ...

The real issues that make ebikes a problem, are of course what people do with them. Running amongst regular bicycles, they will always be unexpectedly fast, unless the rider conscientiously slows down for hills etc. That's really more of a general problem with bicycles, though - significant speed differences - that's going to keep them from working well at high densities. Some of it is just that it makes bicycles more popular among people who normally wouldn't use them, and you accordingly get more bicycles where they don't belong on the sidewalk, etc.

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Superb_Raccoon@reddit

I ride with serious non-ebike riders. Full on lycra weenies. Cat 2 racers.

No one cares.

No one.

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DonnPT@reddit

On the other hand, I don't know if many people care what the lycra weenies think, either.

Mainly what could impact me, is EU legislation at various levels, and I imagine if anything penetrates the fog with them, it's lobbyists and general public sentiment.

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