Re: Electric bicycles, social policy & culture

On 15 Apr 2025 20:25:48 GMT, Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com> wrote:

Catrike Ryder <Soloman@old.bikers.org> wrote:

She was out in open water with nowhere to hide. On 14 Apr 2025 15:05:12
GMT, Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com> wrote:

 

Catrike Ryder <Soloman@old.bikers.org> wrote:

On Mon, 14 Apr 2025 08:52:26 +0200, Wolfgang Strobl
<news51@mystrobl.de> wrote:
 

Am Thu, 10 Apr 2025 12:40:59 -0400 schrieb Frank Krygowski
<frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>:
 

On 4/10/2025 12:09 PM, AMuzi wrote:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/are-e-bikes-a-godsend-or-the-road-to-
perdition-an-amish-community-is-torn/ar-AA1CAple

 
A couple remarks:

...
 

Holmes County, Ohio is quite hilly. We did a weekend there, riding
tandems with our best friends. One little side road marked the first
time we ever had to dismount and walk a hill despite our tandem's low
gearing. I can see why the Amish there would be motivated to accept
electric assist.

 
Sure. Who wouldn't?   But how many people of those who switched from a
bicycle to a motorized bike during the last decade are Amish people?
Wikipedia tells me that only 0.12% of the US population are Amish, so as
a first guess I'd expect > 99% of e-bike users not to be Amish.
 

 
Finally, while I'll never be Amish, I can admire that a culture has
priorities other than "How much shit can we buy before we die?"
Community is very important to the Amish, and community is a good thing.

 
But switching from bicycles to motorized bikes isn't a good thing in
general, especially not in a country known for their obesity crisis.
 
IMO, this is marketing for a motorized vehicle whose design mainly
consists of giving riders the illusion that they are riding a bicycle.

 
I see adults on the bike trails traveling at 15/20 MPH and peddling at
30 RPM, if at all. They wave at me, pretending, I suppose, that they
and I have something in common. I see many school age kids riding
their electric bikes, scooters, and such. 
 
When did "exercise" become something to avoid?
 
--
C'est bon
Soloman
 

Folks have all sorts of motivation for cycling, and particularly the sort
of old rail trails I believe your riding ie flat traffic free, smooth
surfaces that says chill out maybe get a ice cream and chat to your mates
sort of ride.
 
I?m sure some folks probably do try to get personal bests and so on, but
even among enthusiasts cyclists they are more likely to err to the ice
cream than Strava segments in my experience.
 
And so if the bike is helping them along while they are getting out and
about with the family I?m not really sure I see the problem.
 
I do think that. E-bikes do need to be regulated to keep them to the bike
side of things, ie need to pedal to get assistance and top out at 15mph or
so. As otherwise they are Moped in all but name but that would seem be down
to regulation or lack there of!
 
Roger Merriman

 
I do ride some rail trails, but not very often. One has to leave the
trail I usually ride, the one I rode today, the Suncoast Trail, in
order to get ice cream. The road riders I see are not chatting with
anyone. More often than not, they're riding solo and down on the
drops. There is an occasional peloton, but they're not chatting
either.

>
Either way it’s shared space and appears to be sort of places you’d expect
walkers kids, dogs and so on, which doesn’t sound very conducive for
roadies, pleasant for a potter sure, is a few similar sort of places in or
around London which can be nice but do need to be mindful of others.

 
On the other hand, there are old wobblers who go too slow, and the
ebikers, who go too fast. I've not seen accidents between the two, but
I know there must have been some.
 
Weekdays on the Suncoast are not very busy, but I drive past the
parking lots on weekends and holidays and there are a hundred or more
cars at each one. I seldom ride weekends.
 

That sounds mind boggling busy and huge car park! Certainly similar stuff
in the uk a car park is more likely with a capacity of a handful!

--
C'est bon
Soloman
 

Roger Merriman
>
>

If I have to ride weekends or holidays, I'll wait till the afternoon
when the crowds ease up. I do my best to avoid the crowds.  The
Withlacoochee rail trail, on the other hand, is crowded all the time.
I'll go up there occasionally because it's a great ride, mostly tree
lined on both sides. There's as many trikes there as diamond frames.

None of the trails I ride are any good for transportation. Pure
recreation.

--
C'est bon
Soloman