Analysis | Does anyone really want ebike motor power to increase? ( www.bikeradar.com )

Paragone , 2 months ago

Exactly like minimum-wage, it needs to be calibrated to the local context, not to any ruler-brained arbitrary-rule.

• in a region where it costs $10,000 per year to live, min-wage must provide that.

• in a region where it costs $200,000 per year to live, min-wage must provide that.

• the allowed power for a small 11yo child must be in-proportion to their muscle power, that their nervous-system can work-with, AND it must be in-proportion to their nervous-system's having grown-in sufficiently ( now I remember that some jurisdictions have a minimum-age for ATV's of 16yo, to drastically-reduce deaths .. )

• The allowed power for an NFL eighthback ( or whatever the hell they have in sports ), cannot be legislated to be identical to that for a smaller/weaker person.

IOW, you need to have proportional e-assist motors, up to a certain limit, then stop, because now you're in motorcycle-territory, too much.

Arbitrary, context-free legislation ( like that gaslighting of claiming that "poverty" means being below $2US/day, no matter what cost-of-living one is subject to ), is dishonest.

Always has been.

Crack0n7uesday , 2 months ago

Once you get going faster than about 25mph those things get pretty scary to ride on. The wheels are to small to maintain proper control.

theskyisfalling , 2 months ago

It's not just about speed though. Additional power, particularly with hub motors, can help a lot with steep hills or pulling more weight on a cargo bike etc. E-bikes are improving peoples ability to get out there and be independent as well as get some exercise where they may not have been able to in the past due to a number of different factors.

By increasing the power available can help to make the world more accessible to more people. You can still limit the top speed that is achievable on these bikes whilst also making them more usable in more situations.

Higher power motor doesn't necessarily automatically mean top speed is the sole goal.

WalrusDragonOnABike , 2 months ago

can help a lot with steep hills or pulling more weight on a cargo bike etc.
Agreed. I live in a fairly flat area, but there's still a few hills and one of them, I'm only going a few miles per hour even with pedaling at 750W assist (class 2 ebike in the US). Given this is just proposing 250W->500W change, its not going far enough imo.

Wahots , 2 months ago

Agreed. I live in a city with hills up to a 26% grade, where most are around 18% if they are big steep hills. I have a 750w hub motor, and I have to work pretty hard to ride up the steeper stuff even with the motor helping. I absolutely love conventional bikes for stuff like downhill mountain biking, but if you are just trying to get to a friend's place or go swimming at the lake, taking an ebike is much more practical than finding a parking spot.