

Electric Bike Review: We Ride the Pacific E-Bike Terra 7-Speed - MikeCapone
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/electric-bike-review-assist-pacific-e-bike-terra-graham-hill.php

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jrockway
This bike has a weird design. I understand that they are trying to make it as
inexpensive as possible, but why do they put (expensive) disc brakes and front
suspension on but then use fake fenders? Why not use regular brakes and a $30
pair of fenders that actually work? Also, do people really want to be confined
to one handlebar position for 20 miles? (I am also confused as to why you need
front suspension when riding on pavement, especially if you are trying to cut
costs. Why not a sprung saddle?) Finally, no chain guard? Do people think
rubber bands around their pant legs are stylish, or something?

Anyway, I will save my detailed rant for another day... but I think the reason
Americans hate cycling is that the bikes that are marked towards them suck. A
simple, traditional (steel!) road bike with a chain guard and eyelets for a
rack and fenders would be cheaper, more reliable, and more flexible than most
of the crap people are trying to sell today. I don't get it.

~~~
tayhukase
The reason is because of engineering.

If you are really going to fly down the road at 20 mph, you cannot use caliper
brakes. They won't have the stopping power or "bite" you need to stop quickly.
If they get wet or dusty, then for get abou tit. Ditto for suspension if you
are going to be making a turn at 20 mph or even 10. At speeds above 10 you
really have a motorbike.

I work in san jose and saw some guy on a, as you put it, simple traditional
steel roadbike with some kind of gas motor on it, going about 20. He tried to
take a gentle turn along Tasman in front of Cisco building D or something and
almost lost it. It was busy traffic and he could have died if he had gone
down.

These things aren't bicycles with electric motors. They are motorbikes. These
are not the same things. The handling is all different ( you lean into and
push into turns ). A serious bicylist might know what I'm talking about. I
think the difference is the motor. :) The torque it makes has different
characteristics than a bicycle with a fast rider on it.

Executive summary: be careful out there. It's harder than it looks.

As far as hating bicycling...I don't...but I'm not going to get killed for the
sake of commuting since bicycles on roads meant for cars are more or less
incompatible in traffic.

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jrockway
All I can really say is "citation needed" on all of your points.

You don't need suspension to turn a heavy bicycle. Look at all the tandems and
cargo bikes without suspension. (I routinely load 35 pounds of groceries onto
my bike without even thinking twice. Handling is barely affected, if at all.)

Caliper brakes develop plenty of stopping power, even in the rain. I have gone
down hills fairly quickly (say, 35mph) only to encounter a red light -- and
caliper brakes work just fine for stopping the bike quickly. (I have also
ridden bikes with disc brakes. They also work very well, but are unnecessary
if you are not riding through mud.) I am sure they are not adequate for
stopping a motorcycle driving on the freeway, but that is a completely
different case. The forces involved are an order of magnitude apart. This is
an electric bicycle with a top speed of 20 miles an hour.

I am especially confounded with your statement, "At speeds above 10 you really
have a motorbike." 10 what? At 10 miles an hour, you are struggling to
_balance_ a bicycle. Stopping and turning is not going to be a problem, even
if you have a battery.

 _As far as hating bicycling...I don't...but I'm not going to get killed for
the sake of commuting since bicycles on roads meant for cars are more or less
incompatible in traffic._

This is completely false. Bicycles can use the road as well as cars can, as
long as the cyclist obeys the same laws as the motorist.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicular_cycling>

(Yes, drunk drivers or psychopaths might hit you. But plenty of people die in
car accidents, too, and nobody has any qualms about taking their car on a
public street.)

(As an aside, I am not even going to comment on your anecdote of someone
"almost losing it" while turning. That could be due to anything, most likely a
flat tire.

Continuing along the path of making hasty generalizations from personal
experiences -- I have crashed my bike. I did not die. Therefore nobody dies in
cycling accidents...)

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ph0rque
For me, the biggest problem with biking anywhere worth going is sharing the
road with cars, and thus the possibility of getting hit by a car (something I
saw almost happen a few days ago.)

~~~
nradov
That and not being able to take a shower when you arrive at work.

~~~
lsb
But that's only a problem if your officespace is dreadful. For all the time I
was at Songkick, the office had a full bathroom (and kitchen), and most fancy
law offices I've seen have this as well.

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psranga
IMHO, this is the future of transportation. 20 miles one way should be
sufficient for a _HUGE_ proportion of workers (you'll recharge the battery at
work).

Have any of you converted a regular bicycle to electric DIY-style? I see
articles about that on the net. I'm wondering if it's worth it to do that.
Would appreciate pointers.

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jules
How fast does this bike go with engine+pedaling? I don't mind cycling 20
miles, but sometimes you have to be fast.

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netsp
20-50 km/hr would probably be a normal range for your overall average
depending on where & who.

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run4yourlives
Wouldn't an electric scooter or motorcycle be more attractive?

I suppose the bike riding crowd is already keen to the cons of bike travel
(lack of comfort, exposure to weather, etc), but I'd be game to exchanging my
car to a powerful electric motorcycle, at least in the summer. Although my
wife wouldn't be too keen on the idea.

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anigbrowl
Indeedy,and I believe some are available. However the bike in question is only
$900, which is really quite competitive. If you don't mind looking French,
they also make a scooter-format _velo_ (like a small scooter but with pedals,
which is even cheaper). <http://www.pacificebike.com/bk1.html>

~~~
Luc
What is so French about that bicycle?

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anigbrowl
Back in the 1970s little motorized scooters with pedals (or little pedal
scooters with motors, depending on your point of view) were popular in France.
They may well have been popular elsewhere in Europe too, but stuck in my
memory ever since because I never saw one until I went on a trip to France.
They weren't popular in the British Isles.

~~~
Luc
Oh, I think I know what you mean. We used to have one, a Peugeot. Something
like this:
[http://www.vintagebikeguys.com/images/OurBritBikes/pages/pgo...](http://www.vintagebikeguys.com/images/OurBritBikes/pages/pgot001.html)

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joshwa
E-bikes are everywhere in (urban) China and are a certain kind of status
symbol--you graduate from a bike to an e-bike to a scooter to finally a car as
you move up the economic ladder.

If my office actually had proper secure bike parking, I might get one of these
to replace my monthly metrocard.

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netsp
I agree with the premise that an electric bike is a great way of commuting
5-20km.

However, the problem is the same for electric bikes as it is for good quality
push bikes: theft. Bicycles get stolen like nothing else in a lot of places.
In cities where bicycle transport is common (The places I have experienced
this have been Amsterdam & Beijing), they seem to have arrived at an inelegant
solution to this: Cheap bikes you can afford to lose. That way you can rely on
a combination of crappy wheel lok (no need to tie to a pole), low resale value
& indifference to losing a bike or two a year.

For me, this is what keeps me from replacing my driving with cycling more
often.

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cubicle67
At what point does a motorised bicycle become a motorbike?

Here (Australia), anyone of age age can ride a bike pretty much anywhere for
just the purchase cost of the bike, but to ride a motorbike I need to be of a
certain age and have a license. I also need to page yearly rego and insurance,
and pay stamp duty on top of the purchase price.

At the moment, I think there's still a reasonably clear division, but with
improvements in battery life and capacity, and better motors soon there won't
be a lot separating an electric bike from a scooter or basic motorbike. At
which point I'm sure some bureaucrat will notice and well... we all know what
will happen then :(

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stcredzero
I usually find Treehugger to be a bit soft on scientific rigor, but this is an
intriguing idea. Make this a folding bike, where the wheels have the same axis
when folded so it can easily be rolled around when folded. Also give it an
internal hub shifter. Such a bike would be perfect!

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boredguy8
<http://pimobility.com/index.html>

Also for a ton of links: <http://www.electric-bikes.com/bikes/index.html>

