Hacker News Reader

Comment by HardlyCurious | Hacker News Reader

I lived very close to my work for a period and tried bike commuting. I don't disagree with the benefits of doing it, but it's not very realistic for most people in most places.

I was having a hard time NOT getting sweaty on my ride into work because humidity is the highest in the morning. And when I wasnt sweating I was getting rained on, or my hands were freezing, or I got chain grease on my pants.

View on HN

If you got an electric bike, that could help with the sweat. The breeze with the extra speed and the reduction in effort really reduce the amount of sweat dramatically. Or just bring a change of clothes and maybe a towel if that is tolerable. For the rain, a bike poncho works pretty well, especially if you pair it with rubber boots (maybe have a change of shoes ready). For the cold, gloves or bar mitts work pretty well. For the chain grease, you can get a full chain guard to house the entire chain if you want, or just tuck your pants into long socks, or get a pant clip. Given how much maintenance people often have to do on cars, a little care to have the right gear for biking is often easily well worth the effort and cost.

Yes, there are solutions or work arounds for these issues. It just makes commuting on a bike inconvenient for many people.

Electric bikes are great, but other than price, it starts to blur between having an electric motorcycle. Especially after you need to don appropriate gear for the commute to stay dry / comfortable. And the motorcycle would have greater range and more use cases.

And at the end of the day, while riding a bike to work is great and I would encourage everyone to try it if they can, do you really think it works without a backup plan? Even people I know who have taking bike commuting pretty seriously didn't do it literally every single day.

Bike specific trails make a huge difference here. An electric motorcycle is less flexible, costs more, and doesn’t provide exercise. Pedal assist going in + a workout on the way back is hard to beat.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com