Hacker News Reader

Comment by boxcardavin | Hacker News Reader

Riding an ebike has dramatically changed the routes I take when commuting because I now prioritize safety and enjoyment over pure efficiency or avoiding inclines. My commute is 25 minutes on an ebike vs 70 on a regular bike, or 30 in a car in traffic.

View on HN

Also something to consider is that I can happily cycle 2-3 hours on a flatish route on a normal bike, but will find hilly routes something I do not do.

On my eBike I'll happily explore hills without thinking about it. Given that my eBike is pedal-assist, you still have to work hard to get a top speed going up a hill but I no longer feel hills are a problem.

Barely related but EV drivers also change their path. I don't have an EV (car or bike) don't really like driving in traffic (too chaotic for my brain) I often take smaller, slower roads where I just coast along smoothly. That said I wish I could try an ebike or even an EV.

Reminds me of how I had to take feeder roads and turn off the freeway during bad traffic when my shitty old toyota would overheat if I couldn't get good airflow into the radiator :P

Oh terrible flashback. I had an '87 Jetta with a similar propensity. Stuck in traffic in the summer, I had to run the heater on full. Brutal. Handy that the heater core is a mini-radiator, though.

My first car was a beaten-up old hunk of junk. I knew it was time to get rid of it when I realised that every time before I drove it, I was planning my route so that I'd be least inconvenienced if it broke down at any point along that route...

"mechanical sympathy"

It is amazing how folks have to plan when their vehicle is ‘non-optimal’. For the almost opposite effect, I had a Ford Ranger (passed unwillingly to me) that even with 700lbs of weight on the back axle and good winter (non-stud) tires sucked in winter. I was very careful about my route anywhere.

Allow me to extrapolate wildly: progress considered harmful ?

Well, progress of time considered harmful. Also, poor design will accelerate that quite a bit.

heh, don't get me started on this.

To go back to the first point there are issues with too much progress. It makes us lazy. Not enough and we might suffer. The balance is important.

I remember one anecdote about Northern African culture. They don't mass produce tech, instead they go with the flow and find solutions on the spot, by the means of a few tools. They say it's smarter to do it this way (maybe, maybe not), surely it keeps your mind creative.

Also, in dev circles, having too much compute power makes your solutions bad. Because you can just ignore the innefficiencies. Plus it's self feeding through the hardware market (more bloat, more sales)

Can I ask what ebike you use?

Buying an eBike is a lot about choosing the motor you want then hunting down a bike that uses the motor. I would strongly suggest that you buy from your local bike shop and buy the brand that the bike shop normally stocks.

My pick was the Brose mid-drive motor available in Tour 50nm/City 75nm/MTB 90nm models. I then bought an ex-demo one off model from a localish bike shop. https://www.ebike-manufaktur.com/en/e-bikes/11lf-shimano-deo...

Problem with battery meant it took 11 weeks to get it back on the road as the shop did not have a relationship with the bike manufacturer.

The bike however is phenomenal. I weigh 130kg and it takes me up ANY hill in Bath. There's a couple of 1 in 3s that I can cycle up one handed.

What makes it worth 3100 EUR?? That's seems a lot of money even for an electric bike. (I'm guessing your ex-demo was a bit cheaper)

Cost me £1700 (about €2000). High-end Mid-drive motors pushing 75nm+ are expensive. Bosch Pro CX line and Shimano Steps are the other two types available. If you start looking around, you see the cheaper mid-drive, i.e. Bosch Active Line starting around £2000 and are suitable for lighter people. The high end motors are usually combined with high end parts and bigger batteries. Thus you end up with bikes costing between 3-4k.

It's saved me an absolute fortune. In fact after owning it for a month, my wife wrote off my car. We just took the insurance money and didn't buy another car going down to a one car family.

Interesting. How do you keep it from getting stolen ?

Electric bikes are not as easy to take apart and sell on. (I'm sure I'll be proved wrong.)

I have a gold standard D-Lock that is side mounted on the frame (weight not an issue) that I use when parking up. There is also a dutch style rear wheel lock mounted to the frame I also use. The battery has a key that keeps it locked to the frame. The head unit for the eBike display is removable and I take that with me whenever I leave it locked up making the motor unusable.

Basically you're trying to steal a 25kg (55lb) bike with multiple security features and relatively unique electric parts that people would be wary of buying due to lack of guarantees.

Sometimes if I'm popping into a shop/café, I use the bike stand, lock using the dutch lock, and just take the head unit off. I'm guessing somebody could pull up in a van and just lift the bike but the opportunistic 'snatch' is so not going to get very far.

Not having and using a bike is costing you many times that.

(Though if you don't need the e-thing 310€ will get you started)

I'd recommend multiple bikes. Ebikes can be inherently boring to go for a long ride on as you are essentially free-wheeling. Nothing quite like the quiet of the road as you are cycling along. Ebikes always make a whirring noise.

As a way to get from A to B quickly, nothing beats them in a city.

I did an Air Pollution piece for the BBC comparing exposure of somebody walking, cycling, and driving in and around Bath. As the cyclist, they told me I was travelling around the city a bit too fast for the pollution monitor to get all my data correctly. ;)

High-end non-electric bikes are in a similar price range...

I don't have an e-bike, but a friend got one. In addition to the motor, his advice was that you should choose the control system. There's a small handful of companies that make the controls, and his impression was that he preferred the behavior of one particular brand over the others.

Not the OP but I've heard good reviews of Karmic bikes: http://www.karmicbikes.com/shop/koben-s which are expensive but do "everything" and Propella bikes: http://www.propellabikes.com/ which are much less expensive but still supposed to be good.

I'd still go with whatever your local bike shop stocks. They do go wrong at some point and you will need a repair and even a courtesy bike while it gets repaired. Shipping a bike is not fun.

I daily a Felt Nine E-20, it's a mountain bike with front suspension. I also have a Cube 400 and a Juiced u500 cargo bike.

I recommend spending $3k on a bike with a Yamaha or Bosch motor, it's easy to justify that crazy price if you look at the money you'll save in gas/payments/gym expenses. Most importantly, I enjoy my commute now and I feel like a part of the city in a way that car commuting doesn't give you. Also, get a pedal-assist bike not one with a hand throttle, trust me it's not better to have a throttle.

Disclaimer: My new startup is ebike related but I'm not going to be selling any bikes or hardware.

One of the benefits of cycling to me is the work out that I get twice a day commuting to work. Doesn't the e-bike take the work out of cycling?

You can choose how much help you want from the motor and you normally go faster with a ebike (using a bit less muscle power). I shaved a few kilos off my weight by using an ebike for a few months.

If you like your bike commute and don't mind getting sweaty you might prefer a normal bike.

No, I still expend enough power to keep my heart rate at ~160bpm during my ride, but now I cut my commute time in half and I ride more than twice as often.

An ebike is just a lowpass filter for hills. Does a flatter route take the work out of cycling?

My route to work is flat, so if I get an assist on the flat then I get less of a workout.

In that case you're right. I live in the mountains and my ebike makes it possible for me to bike at all.

Wow that's a big time difference. Why? Is it due to the extra speed the bike gives you or because you're not avoiding inclines...?

For me it's a combination of consistent speed and being able to not care about inclines at all. The safest bike route to work for me is ~2 miles longer than the optimal route and includes a steep incline. This is a pain on a regular bike, but no big deal on my ebike.

Also with an ebike you are almost never going slow. Accelerating to cruising speed usually takes a couple of pedal cranks, not a full city block.

I live in Seattle and there are a lot of hills when going east/west because it's a glacial area and the glaciers come down from Canada north/south. Fun!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com