Yes. This is the way. Thank you, Dutch government.
If somebody feels like wheezing an almost completely silent 200kg projectile, godspeed. But please gtfo from the urban bike paths, if at all possible.
My 'commute' is 64 km, it takes me two hours on the dot door-to-door.
I am probably 140kg with bike, battery, laptop, clothes, and stuff.
Outside the cities I can go in the bike lane, and I am absolutely twice as fast as most bikes.
I live in the Netherlands, so everything being flat helps.
The €250 travel charger is only 80W, so a full charge takes 12 hours. I ended up writing a script to poll the api to make sure the bike was actually charging when at work.
That is why being able to use the bike as normal when off/dead battery was a primary criterium for me. The bike I have now has a cheap little hub motor on the front wheel, and it lets the wheel spin freely when the bike is off.
A final remark, I used my Stromer ST2 exclusively for commuting. Just not practical in the city, only in between cities. I use my regular ebike for almost all trips, so I get a lot more value from it.
Hehe, what a funny coincidence that your bike has that glitch :)
Or by pedestrians!
My brother curses the number of pedestrians in Glasgow that cross the road while looking at their phones... they're by far his biggest hazard.
Everything else is so tiny as to not count.
Exactly. I'm in the same situation. I used to ride a motorcycle (that I still own but almost never use now) and am on an ebike every day.
It's not about "assuming" no on "can" see you: it's that nobody does see you, and nobody cares.
It's also the fact that people don't think about your speed or your ability to slow down fast -- they only care about your general volume. People will be more careful around a big parked truck than when faced with a small barrel rolling down a hill at full speed.
The way to stay alive is to be able to predict what everyone is about to do. I think I have become quite good at this, although one is always learning.
This pisses me off so much. I know harley riders that have straight pipes and ride around with ear plugs in to keep from going deaf. Anyone caught over the legal noise limit should have their ride confiscated. It's asshole behavior masquerading as 'safety'.
He's doing 40mph in traffic with his bike shorts and a flimsy helmet. The power to weight ratio also gives him enormous acceleration, so he can jump from the red lights in front of everyone. Other drivers often misjudge how quickly he can move and he had some close calls like this.
If I were the author I would reconsider using one of these, especially with his history of accidents...
Power two weight is very modest, it's only a 350 W motor in there for this one.
My history with accidents is simple: I was cycling on a low racer recumbent and hit a traffic obstacle at a very unfortunate angle. Shit happens. But this bike is about 100x times safer than that recumbent. And a lot slower too, in spite of being assisted, low racers are very fast for unpowered bikes.
You probably mean "one wheel" riders? (As in the electric, low profile, self balancing type, not the traditional large wheel, seated, fixed axle unicycle) Unless you live around an inordinate amount of rude unicyclists. In that case, I must see that as it sounds very humorous.
hold up, forced your bike into the bike lane? Why were you not there in the first place? (Not meant accusatory, I must be misunderstanding or missing something; I don't even know where "here" is.)