Re: Bicycle road test & review

Wolfgang Strobl <news51@mystrobl.de> wrote:

Am 19 May 2025 19:03:02 GMT schrieb Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com>:
 

Wolfgang Strobl <news51@mystrobl.de> wrote:

Am 19 May 2025 15:20:51 GMT schrieb Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com>:
 

Wolfgang Strobl <news51@mystrobl.de> wrote:

Am 19 May 2025 07:53:26 GMT schrieb Roger Merriman <roger@sarlet.com>:
 

AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

Absolutely hilarious.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB7pBrudFbg

 
He’s a good watch I enjoyed him getting on of the hire bikes working
yesterday?
 
And yes those bikes are kinda the worse example of “the Tesla of the bike
world” ie IT fantasies about bikes than reality and all that!

 
The whole concept of "electrical assist" is a bad joke. Combine that
with “designer bikes” and it becomes completely ridiculous.
 
 

It’s more the black box electronics and dumb stuff like hubless wheels and
so on.

 
That's the "designer bike" part. If it looks nice on the drawing board
and and a person knowing its shortcomings can ride it for the time it
takes to record a few videos, it has served its purpose.

 
He tends to collect bikes particularly if interesting ones, so i suspect
he’s ridden it a fair bit, I don’t believe that bike ever worked well motor
or not it’s simply not designed well, ie the stiff uncomfortable ride and
so on.

 
I wouldn't call designer bikes like these interesting. Bikes like the
Rival Reevo hubless ebike are dangerous crap powered by a 750 watt motor
that gets hyped and is marketed to idiots.
 
When you look up the web, hype outweigths critical reviews.
Hype: <https://mrgadget.com.au/reevo-the-hubless-e-bike-review/>
Critical review
<https://cyclingmagazine.ca/mtb/the-reevo-hubless-ebike-a-futuristic-disaster-on-two-wheels/>
 
Dubious designer bikes existed long before the advent of ebikes, but got
out of fashion, for obvious reasons. The ability to mask some of their
shortcomings by using a powerful electrical motor and some software
voodoo might change that. Some of those who want to sell this crap at
least seem to believe it.
 

The IT dudes idea of bike and “Tesla” bikes has only resulted in very few
even so which as ever boils down to the non cyclists idea of bike, and
hence and predictably tends to fail.

Don’t get me wrong I believe Lotus helped with bike technology and
generally fresh pair of eyes and experience to look at bike technology.

 

 

 
Which is step above the e bike technology which after all can be ridden and
used if off even.

 
 
That's missing the point.  In both cases, the motor is a necessary
ingredient to hide some shortcomings.  Some people might add that a
motor powering a bicycle essentially _is_ a shortcoming. I tend to agree
with this view.
 

No plenty of hire bikes don’t have motors and ride fine for what they are,

 
That's missing the point again.  We are talking about a specific ebike,
here.  What does bike rental of conventional bicycles have to do with
that?

He has recently bought a hire bike, whose company went bankrupt and has got
it working mainly by buying and fitting a new controller.

 
 

both have rather ponderous ride and so on, and neither go particularly
fast, the vast majority of London’s Boris bikes aren’t electric.
 
The Lime bikes and similar dockless bikes do all seem to be electric, but
doesn’t make much difference to the bike, both plod along and so on.

 
It may not make a big difference to the bike, but it does to the rider.
I wouldn't care if these motorcycles weren't marketed as bicycles and if
the successful lobbying of groups interested in selling them hadn't
resulted in these motorcycles being equated with bicycles by law in most
European countries.
 
 
 

Certainly in the Uk they are pedal assisted ie no throttle and top out at
15mph the lime and other dockless seem fairly mediocre, and within the
window of what you’d expect a urban designed bike to perform, I overtake
them both off the line and riding along on both the old commute beastie,
which I’m slightly faster, or whizz past with the old school roadie.

Don’t have the more moped like stuff here at least legally.

Roger Merriman