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Comment by slimbods | Hacker News Reader

It is ace, but I wonder if you'd get cycling as mainstream anywhere else. That country is almost uniquely and famously flat.

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sigh

Every time people post about great cycling cities, the immediate reaction is a pile of reasons why it would never work here because I live in a place that's completely different and special.

There are challenges in every task. Either you overcome them or you wimp out. These are not unsolved problems. Montreal literally means Mount Royal - it's a city built around a mountain. They manage to have great cycling infrastructure.

Even worse is the moaning about winter cyclists - almost every one of the great cycling cities have bitter winters.

You're always going to have an excuse not to do something.

Cycling in Chongqing would be a bit hard; even when China was the "bicycle" kingdom people rarely peddled in one of the world's hilliest cities.

I'm not looking for an excuse not to cycle, I'm a pretty fit cyclist and spend at least 10 hours a week on a bike. I'm saying that holding this up as an example that others can follow isn't ideal as they have a big natural advantage over practically anywhere else. Unless you can overcome the issues of terrain and climate, it's just not going to become mainstream like it has there. Look at the bikes they're riding, big heavy comfortable clunkers. Most people simply couldn't get those up the hills surrounding my town, they'd have to push.

As a cyclist, I'm sure you already know this.

Properly geared, bikes aren't hard to get up hills - they're just slow.

I think the ultimate solution long-term are assisted electric bicycles. They aren't fully electric, you always have to pedal, but when you're going up hill you can enable the assistance to help you go up the hill faster.

Think of it like gym bands to aid you doing pull ups.

If the bike could charge itself through pedaling that would be a double plus.

A lot of people don't cycle because it's slow, and they may not care about the exercise benefits. If commuting they don't want to wear special attire or be sweaty when they show up to work. However, they would probably be cool with an assisted electric bicycle if they could get up hills faster without breaking a sweat.

Perhaps, but it's a tough sell to get someone to ride a £2k electric bike instead of buying a car.

Yet San Francisco is one of the best cities for cycling in the United States? Flatness is plainly not crucial.

There used to be a chap who commuted by unicyle through central Edinburgh - he cycled up the Mound, a hill linking the New and Old towns.

Given how hilly Edinburgh is and how popular cycling is here (and getting noticeably more popular each year) I don't think having hills is really an excuse for nobody cycling.

[Need I also point out how unpredictably miserable the weather can be here...]

Best by US standards. It's hardly mass adoption compared to the Netherlands is it?

Please note that if you add a small electric motor to your bike and use that as a help getting up hills, you can bike mostly anywhere, flat or not.

I'm someone else who would love to cycle, but live in a very hilly area ...

Some problems with this: Electric bikes are expensive (like £2000 vs £200). UK Government regulations make the status of electric bikes dubious, particularly the more powerful ones needed to ride up hills. If no one else can afford to cycle or is allowed to cycle, this prevents a mass of cyclists which would make the road a bit safer.

I'd really love for there to be both government will and a solution to the price problem here.

A mayor-supported electric bike hire scheme for Muswell Hill in London suggests that they're legally ok: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24651760

No, the laws on higher powered electric bicycles are not clear:

http://www.atob.org.uk/electric-bikes/electric-bike-legislat...

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/article/electric-bikes-and-the...

(Edit, better link)

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