Electric bike trials in Australia see 50% purchase and change transport habits
cyclingindustry.news
cyclingindustry.news
Total (bike and ebike use): Before: 11% 1st week: 55% 5th week: 65% (peak) 10th week: 50% After: 41% (not everyone bought the ebike)
Car use went from 61% (before) to 46% (after) — bikes decreased walking also.
100% of participants said they were satisfied, with more than half saying they were extremely satisfied with the e-bike.
Did you find information of average length of trip, number per day, and such?
You really need secure bike parking at both ends of the journey given that these are typically $1000+ machines - locks are no obstacle for a determined bike thief!
A cheap push-bike, on the other hand, you can feel comfortable parking on almost any street - which is really what makes a bike so convenient in the first place.
Better security/anti-theft technology needed. Needs to be effective and convenient!
Also, many/most places don't have a bad bike theft problem. Locks are no obstacles for determined house/motorbike/etc thieves either, but people still use those.
I think ebikes are therefore less prone to theft than regular bikes.
Theft is the reason I don't use my bike anymore, unless I don't stop.
Colleagues of mine with e-bikes or other, more expensive, bikes had parts stolen much more frequently.
There's always the risk of vandalism but I guess most thefts will know what an item is worth on ebay, they won't bother about a bike they could only get £50 for.
That's the concern with e-bikes, their battery is probably already worth stealing.
A generic bike on the other hand .. less chances to be noticed (by definition).
A friend of mine had welded a small basket, grinded parts of the frame and let them rust, engraved his name on an old bike for commuting, even with a thick motorcycle chain it got stolen.
Rates of bicycle theft vary widely between countries, cities, and sometimes within cities (poor area / rich area, centre / suburbs, residential area / university campus).
You do have to make sure you're attaching your bike to something solid, though.
Having a good quality bike makes riding more enjoyable, safer, more comfortable, more efficient.
0. It's suited to the task (a Wal-Mart mountain bike is lousy for running around town) 1. Stuff degrades gracefully (cheap index shifting generally does not; friction shifters are a far better choice on a cheap bike) 2. You maintain it. 3. You take the time (and money) to find a comfortable saddle for it.
Crappy bikes become unfun when they're neglected. Unfortunately, they usually get neglected because they were poorly suited for the intended purpose anyway, or because people don't want to pay a bike shop to tune up a $150 bicycle (which was probably poorly assembled in the first place).
This is a case where learning to do the work yourself pays the dividend of both raising the competence of the user and resulting in a useful tool for years to come.
Most people would be much better served by an old 10-speed than a new crappy mountain bike. They're better suited to getting around town, immensely tolerant of neglect because there isn't anything that truly needs to be in top shape to run, and easy to put right.
And yes, I say this as somebody who has a nice road bike, a nice mountain bike, and a road bike that lives outside all year long, looks like hell and that I wouldn't hesitate to ride 15-25 km.
25 km/h on a dual suspension mountain bike is fast enough. Have you ever ridden a mountain bike at this speed? It feels fast. Lots of wind, lots of speed, lots of focus needed, and if you fall off at that speed... OUCH.
Imagine you could increase that limit to 30 or 35 km/h. You are now travelling VERY fast for a mountain bike on a bike path. Too fast in my opinion. Those paths are often shared. Hitting or clipping someone at 30 km/h won't be pretty.
Besides, there's nothing stopping you pedalling faster than 25, the motor stops assisting, but you easily push past that if you pedal in top gear. The motors are efficient enough now that 250 watts will get you to 25 even for a mountain bike.
I also have no idea why they insist on it being pedal assisted rather than throttle based. The regulation states that you have to be pedalling for it to engage the motor, so you can't just engage the electric motor on it's own.
Such a regulation really limits the possible kits and bicycles you can purchase, as the Australian market seems to be lagging behind the rest of the world and the options are fewer.
I'm guessing by "conventional bicycle" you don't mean a mountain bike. Try riding a mountain bike at 30+, it feels wrong. Your whole posture is too upright, it's not designed for speed. Not easy to reach 30 on a mountain bike without going downhill.
(in Europe you can get 45 km/h pedelecs too, but you may need traffic insurance and be banned from bike lanes)
Being in Australia, I believe you have the legendary postie bikes.
I've found when I kick the limiter in on my controller box, I don't have anywhere near enough power to assist with getting up hills. The 25km/h limit probably wouldn't be so bad on its own, its the 250W limit that makes things very awkward.
In Sweden there is a secondary class of bikes that can have motor support up to 45 km/h but those require an insurance that costs a lot of money. And they eat batteries, those has to get better.
Its enough to get me to and from work on one charge though.
I can get up to 30mph on my bike but I stay slower just out of concern for pedestrians. I always slow down to a crawl when passing people, especially those who are walking dogs just to be on the safe side.
Sadly there are those who insist on bombing down the footpath at full throttle who spoil it for the rest of us.
Its just a bodge job, Chinese conversion kit on a cheap frame but it works well.
I dont really need one on my commute (20km each way) but I like to tinker and seems like a fun project.
I bought mine as a bit of a stopgap until I'm physically fit enough to manage the commute unassisted.
Longer distances, higher speed, more weight.... At some (arbitrary) point there's a classification change that puts you in motorbike category.
I think outer suburb commutes in large Australian cities will always push that category. As you say, you need more speed, range, suspension. These add weight, require more saftey measures.
To cover these use cases, we probably need a new light/electric motorbike category, with its own rules.
More details: https://rac.com.au/about-rac and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Automobile_Club_of_Weste...
It's great to see a historically car focused org trying to replace cars with bikes! It sounds like a pretty incredible organization — curious what the Western Australians here think.
I think it’s a great initiative.
We have a similar climate to the US west coast with only a few weeks of rain a year, relatively flat landscape and way too many cars per person (due to public transport and distance).
It’s pretty common to drive very short distances to pickup something small. I’m sorely guilty of it.
One reason I avoid cycling is that I feel it’s somewhat risky. I lost a close friend in high school who got knocked down by a drunk driver. More bikes on the road raises awareness, so a net positive imho.
There are plenty of other providers and with a little effort I can recall some of their names but when thinking about car insurance RAC springs to mind immediately.
Last time I lived in Australia I owned an electric bike and not a car and it was great. I would rent a car maybe once or twice a year for a long road trip but would otherwise just stick to my bike.
However, they do have some cool things. There's a charging station for electric cars at the RAC offices, and they launched a trial of an autonomous electric shuttle bus:
Personally, I don't own a car, I'm 95% public transport (with the remainder being Uber, with the cost savings I tend to use Uber Black rather than UberX). Most places I need to go to are on the train line, a short bus ride away, or within walking distance.
We have motorbikes. There are obviously huge downsides to an ebike relative to an motorbike. They're faster, for instance.
I think a big part of the story is that ebikes are just fun to ride, aside from practicalities like travel time. This is kind of a weird conclusion, for a tranport policy person to digets. It can't be quantified and charted. What are they supposed to do with it?
This makes me curious about other things. Would a super-light, 4 wheel vehicles also be fun? What would a transport system look like if fun was the major guiding principle?
From what I can gather, 60 participants were given an electric bike for 10 weeks, and around 50% later went on to buy the bike they were given. Usage was 60% at the beginning, dropping to 28% by the end.
So half or greater of the people who purchased a bike weren't even using it.
I don't think you can expect high percentage from people that are not obsessed with cycling - and those already use regular bike. E.g. I need to be home early 2 days/week to drive my kids to classes, sometimes I need to go to grocery store after the work, on some days there's dentist, weather, etc. So the drop in the usage is expected.
All the cycling nuts I know consider them to be heresy...
Most of the cycling nuts who consider them heresy are weekend warriors who've never ridden a daily 14 mile commute in the winter.
But then there's also people who start off with an electric bike and love how convenient, cheap and easy they are. I have a couple of friends who've got e-bikes and use them as regular transport.
One will get you banned from the Tour de France - the other will not...
I confess I'm one of the lycra brigade people (they're not all guys!), and have spent money on trying to save those couple of extra grams.
However, for me, I like cycling also for the exercise benefits - and using an electric monitor would remove all those benefits.
Although for somebody who doesn't want to pedal - I think they're great! You get many of the benefits, without arriving as sweaty.
UCI regulations state a minimum weight for a bicycle of 6.8 kilos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_bicycle#UCI_rules)
Fortunately, I don't race in UCI events, haha.
My understanding was that the rule is around safety - i.e. they didn't want people pushing the limits at the risk of failure. There's calls for it to be scrapped, now that we know more about the limits of carbon fibre.
If you're actually competing against other cyclists then I do understand the desire for fancy expensive bikes. If you're cycling for fun or fitness, though, it always struck me as being like paying extra for the high tech light-weight dumbells...
Contrariwise, those e-bikes which are rigged up to make you pedal a little bit so you feel like you're doing exercise strike me as pose-y. Just get an electric motorbike and be done with it. :P
I am a guy, btw, but I'm trying to get my wife (and hopefully daughter) into cycling. So anything I can do to break that stereotype is awesome. But I saw your smiley face, and I get the joke =).
My wife's first bike was some monstrosity from Kmart (a discount big-box store in Australia). It was heavy (> 12kg), and a burden to ride. It seriously discouraged my wife from riding.
However, the next one I got her was much lighter, and I hope make it easier for her to get started.
To be honest, I never considered electric bikes much, but I might bring it up with her next time.
Personally - I cycle to commute - so lightness is good - but I also do it for exercise, so I do want to pedal. And if you want added weight - it's not hard - just pack some extra water in your backpack =). But you can't go the other way (i.e. shed weight, if you bought a heavy bike).
- drop out of the group and stop cycling?
- every outing, require them to drop down to your speed?
- get a bike that gives you some assistance, so that you can keep up with them?
Similarly, if your speed drops due to age, do you stop making those regular rides to a friend or your favorite cafe, or do you get a bike that helps you a bit?
One of my best rides ever was racing an electric bike up a local 8km climb. I was fitter and my bike was lighter, but he had a motor. Everytime the road got steep I'd catch him up but then on the flatter parts his weight wasn't a hindrance and all I could do was draft. It was awesome.
I don't like seeing eBike times on Strava though.
I personally think they are a great alternative for commuting. E.g. they allow for making a boring 20km single-way commute without getting exhausted, and saving the energy for any other activity/sports which might be more interesting for their user. They also make cycling more accessible for older and handicapped users. All those factors reduce the usage of cars where they are not really needed, which is a good thing.
There are still some fears around ebikes in the mountainbike community. E.g. that they make hard trails high up in the mountain too easily accessible for people without the required fitness and cycling skills. Which could cause them problems for getting down again without crashes. Another fear is that the increased trail usage and speed through ebikes might cause these to wear out faster.
They are comparatively expensive, though. I expect to see a drop in price as popularity grows, since bicycle manufacturing is a volume game.
(An obsessed person probably doesn't have non-biking friends/SO...)
"Usage of the e-Bikes for commuting remained high for the duration of the Albany trial, peaking at 60 per cent in the first week, before dropping to 28 per cent by week nine.
But the uptake in cycling was sustained even after the trial finished.
One in two participants enjoyed riding their e-Bike so much they purchased it once the trial finished. "
[1] http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/electric-bike-trial-in-per...
I cycle almost every day, I just feel this piece is over stating the effect.
I'm sure that is relevant.