“Bikes are unsafe” says Mike of the Ford company, known for its “ChildCrusher ™” trucks.
I’d rather my kid cruise around on an e-bike than kill someone in it’s Maibatsu Monstrosity.
Look.
Just because pedestrian deaths went up 70% between 2010 and 2021, much of which is attributed to light trucks, and just because trucks have gotten significantly larger and more geared towards NOT doing the things they were designed for, that doesn’t mean Mike here is a clueless jackass who is also complicit in making life more unsafe for pedestrian-wait
How many kids does it get per gallon?
I think there’s some merit to this, but:
-Saying teens should just ride regular bikes in a country that, for the most part, has shit cycling infrastructure and a car-centric culture that is hostile towards sharing the road with cyclists is a non-starter, unless you are also advocating for changing that.
-If you want to whine about how dangerous it is for teens to ride e-bikes that can go over 20mph then surely you would have a problem with the states that allow teens to drive vehicles that can go much faster than that and cause way more damage to those involved in an accident with them.
cars, dead pedestrians, unwalkable cities and communities, >42,000 deaths/year from car accidents in the US: freedom
threats to car manufacturers’ net worth: danger
I commute in my child crusher™ gigatruck that somehow has a worse mpg than if I were to chug diesel and walk the same distance by foot
ebikes are ‘gay’ or something idk
Oh man, when I was growing up, kids used to ride all sorts of weird things, like fucking gassed up go-karts. An e-bike would have been a relief.
Yeah, kids were all about the terribly, terribly illegal petrol scooters, though I was a bit young for that fad.
Speaking as a curmudgeon, “Today’s Teens” will inevitably find a way to use any new technology for something stupid and dangerous, judging an invention by its misuse is the definition of bad faith.
Car accidents are famously a negligible cause of death amongst teenagers
The only reason I ended up in the hospital from an ebike accident is because a fucking car hit me lol
trendy mode of transportation
This is a
bit waiting to happen. 
the “Rap Band” of vehicles
How many children were killed by collisions with Ford vehicles last year?
Okay, then change design and zoning to make bycicle transportation feasible for more people.
“we can’t because biking isn’t currently feasible for enough people.” –local politicians
rinse, lather, repeat.
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That’s not really an argument against e-bikes though, it’s an argument for lowering the maximum speed they’re allowed to reach using assistance from the motor.
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The problem here is if you live in a place with hills and want bike paths to be major transportation pathways that serve double-digit percentages of the population, you need to.
Grandma is not cycling unpowered for 10 min up a 10 degree incline to get to the shops, even if she can in principle do that. As long as speed limits are enforced, it’s fine to have a motor.
Grandma is not cycling unpowered for 10 min up a 10 degree incline to get to the shops, even if she can in principle do that.
You know who is, though? Joe Biden.
You know who else is?
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What difference does it make if e-bikes are restricted to a speed that the average “analog” bike can easily do though?
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A better solution might be capping the power output of the rider and motor combined at something like 300W (ie a good sustained effort for a strong cyclist), and disabling power assist if the rider breaks that threshold.
This is almost exactly what is done in the country I live in and it seems to work, the only difference being that it’s capped at 250w rather than 300w
So that’s what I was trying to say, but I should have been clearer lol
Reasons why E bikes are actually better than presented here
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My knees like the support of E-bikes, after having argued against them for more than a decade for similar reasons to yours.
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I also take them when I am exhausted, since I can tune in some support if I need it.
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My friend with MS does use her E-bike and when that isn’t possible her electrical wheelchair.
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I use the bike even for hilly and steep routes since then I can add a bit power
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I have more control over when I get to some points, meaning that I ride the bike more (since I can add/reduce the power that is supplied by the motor)
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long trecks and tours are much easier with a group of five when everyone got E-bikes (as long as no wheel gets hurt). In our case that involved kids who we normally had to curate routes for very well. Now we have an ease of use that wasn’t there before.
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the overall product quality of the E-bike is higher and that means it is much easier to ride and the components do last longer than what I would’ve bought instead. The maintenance though is slightly more expensive.
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driving in cities is much less a problem since I am not angry having to stop in front of signals and also getting speed is much faster, meaning I can cut a few minutes from most distances
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transporting heavy things is actually much easier (this includes material from shops, food, but also bike trailers for kids
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I feel much more save with E-bikes next to cars. For various reasons, one is that the base speed I got is good and when I use a short muscle power burst I can get the 28-33km/h that are at tempo 30 zones usual. Couldn’t ride that speed the whole distance though.
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I just use the bike much more than my non E-bike during similar times and get more distance covered with it.
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Yeah, even on an E-bike…going over 35km with motor is getting dicey. Luckily where we are they are already illegal (though the government is looking at moving to slightly more permissive NZ standards that allow 300w motors up to 30kph.
20mph
Omg this is so dangerous, I am so much safer with a 2 tons machine that goes 180mph and needs the driver to pass a exam that a monkey would pass.
I wish a monkey could pass the test, then maybe I’d be able to. I keep failing it because I’m disabled. That’s why I need and love accessible infrastructure.
Also, it’s not particularly hard to reach that speed on an acoustic bike.
I think in some states you can even do the test online.
this guy sucks but he’s not entirely wrong. There’s a memorial on my street from a bit over a decade ago when Chinese quads were really popular. All the tweens in a local neighborhood used to ride them around with their even younger siblings on them, usually 3/4 of them not wearing helmets, doing wheelies, etc. It was extremely unsafe, but for whatever reason (either ignorance or stupidity) their parents allowed them to ride them when they weren’t home. All of that stopped after a little group of them were hauling ass on the side of the road in tall grass and one of them tried to outrun the line of them next to the trail in the tall grass. He ran head-on into a telephone pole, flat out, without a helmet, and died instantly.
They’re not comparable. Average ebikes can’t really go any faster than a fit rider on a good road bike.
I can easily go 50km/h on flat ground for a short amount of time in a mountain bike if I want to and I’m almost obese - an ebike that can go appreciably faster than that for more than 10 minutes is very expensive and very much looks like a motorcycle.
Just copying my reply to the other user here:
There’s a lot of “ebikes” that are just electric dirtbikes with vestigial pedals. It’s easy to modify them to put out way more power than they’re sold with, too. There has to be some kind of grappling with this new category of things that can pretend to be a bicycle but still spin tires, rip past 30mph, etc. They need to either be hard limited or treated more like motorcycles than bicycles.
Those are already legally considered motorcycles and since they look exactly like motorcycles the law often ends up getting enforced (cops don’t like unplated motorcycles). In fact I just saw one of them get impounded yesterday.
The ebikes I’m talking about don’t look exactly like motorcycles, and to be clear, they have bicycle pedals and are considered e-bicycles. Glad to hear your local cops are enforcing it, either way.
Can you give me an example? I built my own ebike so I’m familiar with the componentry, going something like 40mph (ripping past 30mph) requires a serious battery and a very expensive motor. You can’t just modify a normal legal ebike to go that fast, the motor will overheat and the battery won’t last 20 minutes on a charge or long in general.
Also, nothing that can go past 28mph is considered an ebike in the US. The moment it goes any faster it’s an unplated scooter/motorcycle
I don’t have any specific examples because I’m not really into ebikes, I’ve just been passed by them hauling serious ass before
I can easily go 50km/h on flat ground for a short amount of time in a mountain bike if I want to and I’m almost obese
Very much doubt that
50km/h for a short amount of time is far from unusual for most cyclists. The fastest cyclists can do 90km/h in a burst which requires ~5x more effort than going 50km/h.
Most people with a little training can do ~1200W which is enough to get to those speeds with a good position on a well adjusted bike.
You’re right, my bad. Seems fast to me!
I broke 20 mph on my longboard regularly on flat ground.
It’s fast and I’d have to probably stop for a break, but for a sprint on a light bike on a good road…yeah, not unheard of. I can keep up 30kph for 10 min or more if trying.
Both of these are not “commuting in your work dress” levels of effort though. In normal use you’re rarely going above 20-25 unpowered and 30 powered on the flat.
Yep, but it is teenagers doing stupid things levels of effort, though.
I understand, but quads and ebikes are quite different. They’re much smaller and aren’t gas powered, far less force. They can be modified to go up to like 30 miles an hour, but normally cap out around 15.
If mopeds and cheap quads like that can be driven and easily bought by children, ebikes are a form of harm reduction.
There’s a lot of “ebikes” that are just electric dirtbikes with vestigial pedals. It’s easy to modify them to put out way more power than they’re sold with, too. There has to be some kind of grappling with this new category of things that can pretend to be a bicycle but still spin tires, rip past 30mph, etc. They need to either be hard limited or treated more like motorcycles than bicycles.
He ran head-on into a telephone pole, flat out, without a helmet, and died instantly.
Well…
Kids aren’t equipped to make good decisions, the poor kid paid the price for his parents’ mistake
auto execs get the wall
