Hacker News Reader

Comment by utopiah | Hacker News Reader

I don't have that model but I can very confidently say :

- do NOT buy an e-bike with custom parts, no matter how "cool" it is!

I bought a CowBoy years ago and honestly, it was great. Until it wasn't. Inexorably, it does not matter how good the parts are, how well designed it is, wear and tear WILL create problems. You WILL need to replace parts. If nobody but the company making the bike sell them you will get in trouble. It's the same with the App, if it's not open source relying on standard AND with existing, not upcoming, GadgetBrige support they will stop supporting your bike and brick it.

Please, pretty please, as consumers who expect to keep on maintaining your bike over years, ASK your repair shop what THEY think is a good bike to fix. Not what is a good bike to ride.

PS: I now ride a Fixie because screw CowBoy and all those e-bike startups who believe they are the new Apple. They aren't and I was the one paying for their delusion.

View on HN

I have been riding a Panasonic "Gyutto" [1] for about 10 years. I bought it when I had young kids, as it's designed to hold two child seats (one on the back, and one on the handle bars). Now that they've grown up I've replaced the child seats with baskets and use it for commuting every day and grocery shopping.

The thing is an absolute tank - the only parts I've had replace are the tires and brake pads. And the design is really simple with all of the consumable parts being easy to replace. At about $1,400 USD, it's not cheap, but I'm shocked at how long it's lasted and how little maintanence it's needed.

Definitely not "cool" - but one of the best purchases I've ever made.

1. https://cycle.panasonic.com/products/gyutto_croomr_ex/

Pretty sure at $1,400 it's cheaper than most worthwhile eBikes on the market.

so it's been riding on the same battery for 10 years? That's a great lifespan

I think it's a generally good place to start when buying anything, especially anything of high value. You want to be able to truly own it, which includes maintaining and repairing it.

Now of course there are areas you can make trade offs. A lot of people like MacBooks despite them not supporting other operating systems very well and Apple still mostly being hardasses about outside repair, but they come with good performance and battery life.

Making sure to keep maintainability in mind when making a product decision is critical to making an informed purchase.

app is a big point. i was apalled by the fact that the app for the bike (in the video) could no longer connect / authenticate with the bike

i have a e-scooter and judging by the decompiled code it's some sort of chinese e-scooter reskinned by a european company. I know the app is not going to be around for long, so I slowly been trying to make my own.

> I now ride a Fixie

With a conversion kit? ^_^

When building my bikes I quickly found out that are no standard parts.

There was a sweet spot where there was. My road bike frame is from the 80s or 90s. It was built for downtube shifting, but now it has brifters. It has mixed shimano group parts from a maybe 2 decade span of time. Quill adapter to use modern handlebars made over the last 2 decades. Pretty standardized 8 speed stuff.

electro magnet hubs that go on a particular “ size wheel are pretty standard in the US now!

Ooph... I didn't even consider that! First because I didn't really want to give up on the CowBoy (I did have few problems with it after a while but manage to somehow gradually get it back, kinda, but honestly as I said, not worth it) but mostly because it's damn heavy. It's perfectly fine for an e-bike but even without the battery it's a bit of a tank.

So no, I bought an entry level single speed where you can flip the back wheel as fixed gear or just free wheel. I wasn't sure I would stick to Fixie... but it's been months now and I don't remember ever considered going back.

PS: this model https://www.decathlon.be/fr/p/velo-ville-single-speed-500-gr... for ~275€

>PS: I now ride a Fixie

Fixies are the way to go. Less parts, less things to break. Very Unix-y.

All the fixie bros say this but my road bike takes basically no maintenance at all. Even when it does, adjusting the derailleurs is a 5 second task with a small Phillips head. Relubing the chain takes 2 minutes. Brakes only needed adjusting when the brake lines were brand new and still stretching and this was also maybe a 30 second task. Rest of maintenance you’d have to do like bb, repacking hub or steerer grease, etc, you’d have to do with a fixie too.

I’ll take my mechanical advantage with gearing.

different spokes for different folks :)

I'm not specifically advocating for fixies for everyone. Rather I'm saying that if you don't consider maintenance you are comfortable handling, either yourself or even delegated to others, it will inexorably come and bite back. Whatever is good for you, we all have difference preferences.

TL;DR: I'm warning against deeply problematic dependencies that only appear later on.

You do you. I have a fast and light road fixie, and I have a nice carbon fiber road bike. Do I ride my road bike in fondos? Yes. Do I ride my road bike around town and for training? Mostly, no.

Why?

Never in my entire life have I ridden a flawless bicycle. Inevitably, small imperfections in the drive train creep in. A flawless bicycle isn't flawless for more than a few hundred miles. All it takes is one whack on a bike rack, one hurried toss, one oops where the bike falls over as I'm grabbing my gels from the pantry. And never mind actual crashes! Ever broken a derailleur hanger?

The fixie keeps going basically no matter what. A problem for the fixie is the kind of problem that sends me to the hospital. Which is to say, that the fixie can take a lot more abuse than I can. Does the drivetrain wear out? Sure! And it costs basically nothing to replace!

Personally I think any serious cyclist should have one. They are super fun to ride, robust, cheap to work on, and they make you stronger. What's not to like?

8 speed parts that I use are dirt cheap and robust. Thicker chains, thicker cogs. Never broke a derailleur. Yes I park in racks. I looked on ebay and I can get another rear derailleur for like $20. And the mechanical advantages for gearing are so nice. I benefit from that every time I ride. Versus whatever fixie benefit comes from worst case scenario. If my bike was truly wrecked I’d just hop on a bus.

You and the person you are replying to are both using dimensions (price, fun, maintenance, availability of public transport, physical health) that are important yet apparently the other one does not value.

Ah, the fixie benefit is in every stroke, especially the ones where I'm slowing down with my legs and doing whatever else I want to be doing with my hands that doesn't involve the brakes. I wish I could transmit to you the pure zen-like joy that I experience when riding the fixie. It is not "worse case" anything. It is absolutely a wonderful experience and I will never, ever, give it up.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com