Re: e-bikes are low powered motorcycles, not bicycles

On 4/22/2024 3:05 AM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:

Am Sun, 21 Apr 2024 20:09:08 GMT schrieb Roger Merriman
<roger@sarlet.com>:
 

AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

On 4/21/2024 6:52 AM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:

Am Thu, 18 Apr 2024 21:04:42 GMT schrieb Roger Merriman
<roger@sarlet.com>:
>

Wolfgang Strobl <news5@mystrobl.de> wrote:

...

...
 

Adding a strong motor to a bicycle, as it is done with e-bikes limited
to 25 km/h, eliminates most of that.  Arguing "but this still is
cycling!!" is like selling electric wheelchairs to healthy people and
pointing to the Paralympics to justify it.
>

>
"looking at what people do who _are_ into ebikes I conclude
that people are even more lazy..."
>
That's what I see as well.  Your post is well considered as
an observer of the actual situation now.

>
If it’s using a bike for utility which most of the hire bikes are nowadays
I really don’t see the problem?

 Obviously. That doesn't mean that the problem doesn't exist, though. The
relevant fact is, cycling for utitity purposes creates strength and
fitness too, in the long run. It isn't the intent which counts, it's the
effect.
 

>
Road/Gravel seems folks are rather missing the point with E bikes or they
essentially become mopeds, with MTB while I don’t own one I do get why
folks do like them, are close enough and for folks sessioning stuff ie they
are riding the trails down, and then a fire road climb or get a lift up, a
E bike allows them to do more and so on, it’s very much not my type of
riding, but I can absolutely see why folks do like them, plus wanting to do
longer rides and so on.

 Oh, I can absolutely understand why people like e-bikes, sugar, opioids,
or driving their car around the block, when just crossing the street and
walking to the other side would do*).  It is addictive and they develop
a physical dependenciy of various degrees.  How often have I heard
healthy colleagues half my current age say "that's far too steep" when
talking about that ridiculously short and easy climb to the campus. 60 m
altitude gain over 1 km, varying from 2 % up to a few meters with 7 %.
 When the weather outlook is unstable, I'm doing a local hill with 50 m
altitude gain and continuous twelve percent grade just for fun and
excercise - twelve times in a row. Two hours, 28 km, 845 m altitude
gain.
 <https://www.mystrobl.de/ws/pic/fahrrad/20231031/Z1profil.PNG>
<https://www.mystrobl.de/ws/pic/fahrrad/20220718/20220718_00003.jpg>
 Being able to do that doesn't come easy, when you haven't used the
muscles needed for cycling for years,  that's for sure. Muscles atrophy
very quickly, as anybody knows who had to give up for a few months or
more, because of an accident or an illness.
 But it comes essentially for free, when regularely riding to work or
other utility purposes and _not_ giving up because a few hundred meters
with, say, six percent seem impossible to handle on a bicycle.
  *) Decades ago, when your children where still young schoolchildren,  a
family friend with children and we visited some U.S. countries along the
east cost, by driving north, visiting Cape Cod, Boston, Salem and some
other places, on the way.  In Boston, we stayed at a small hotel for a
day, having a strange experience when going for breakfast the following
morning. "Where is everybody", one of us asked. No hotel guest in sight,
empty parking lot.  Well, we crossed the road on foot, to check some
shops offering snacks over there, but finally settled for a McDonalds on
that side, after walking perhaps another 100 m - and met many of the
hotel guests there, including their cars in the parking lot.  Driving
one km to the next crossing, making an U-turn, driving back another km
and parking in 100 m distance from the hotel obviously was easier for
them.  I doubt that it was faster, though.
 

Further to your Boston anecdote, out here in rural USA people really do drive large pickups a few hundred feet from the garage to the mailbox and back.  This wouldn't be noticeable when driving past but on a bicycle the entire cycle is obvious.
--
Andrew Muzi
am@yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971