This is why gas bicycles have no future

[biknut]

I’ve had both ..like both. But like the ride of the motor bike better.
I just don’t see how sneaking bye the law(s) and riding onto trails,sidewalks or bike paths is a reason to to ride a ebike over a gas bike ? I pedal on side walks or path .. but usually stay away. When a sign says No Motor Vehicles allowed that means Ebikes tooooo!

You are uniformed/misinformed.

First of all ebikes have no need to sneak onto a trail, or a commuter train for that matter. Federal law requires access to be given to certain low power electric vehicles. That includes personal mobility vehicles, Segway's, electric wheel chairs, and eBikes, if any, or all parts of a trail were made with federal money. That's going to include most city multi use trails, and also commuter trains in the country. Furthermore federal law specifically states electric bicycles "are not considered motor vehicles". Most state ebike statutes follow federal guidelines, so when a trail is posted no motor vehicles, it most certainly does not mean ebikes. Taking my eBike on the train to downtown is a luxury I enjoy often. There's really no comparison of the freedom eBikes have compared to gas bicycles.​

 

[indian22]

If it has wheels I'm a fan, power source type or lack of one not withstanding, though two or three wheels occupy the majority of my interest. Actually riding is of more concern to me than classifications and judgements. I've actually enjoyed the die hard bicyclist tirades, through the years; their insults & childish snubs directed towards those who would dare employ any type of power other than human driven. Either/or motor type exclusionist thinking falls into that same category of judge mental mindset & to me this is just fun forum material for our consideration & entertainment, no problems.

If a certain power type gets more people involved in actually riding up on two wheels more I'm for it. Meanwhile I'll build and ride all types including self propelled, but one day, probably sooner than later, I'll be forced to use motor power mostly or only on two, three and eventually 4 wheels. I'm already good with that prospect.

I suppose I could be considered a snob and superior because of this contrarian outlook towards biking predilections, both my own and others, yet till it turns ugly as it often unfortunately does; it's still just fun forum!

Rick C.

 

[PeteMcP]

I take the viewpoint there's room for whatever type of bicycle power floats your boat. Here in the UK motorized bicycles aren't even considered legal - but that hasn't stopped me building and riding two and I'm almost finished a third. It's the engine noise and smell that does it for me - neither of which I'd get from battery powered electric bikes. That doesn't rule out me having a crack at building a leccy board-tracker one day.
Remember when records were superceded by cassettes? Then in short order by CDs and now downloaded music? Who'd have bet money on vinyl's re-emergence and growing popularity?
Same story in another of my hobbies, model railroading. The varying methods of controlling model locos has, in a relatively short time, gravitated from traditional analogue DC electric, via on-board microchip DCC (Digital Command Control) including the now almost standard on-board sound, to the latest trend of rechargeable on-board battery power, in an effort to eliminate electrical continuity problems between track and loco. This latest trend driven by ever smaller battery miniaturization. And yet the hobby allows all modellers to participate using whatever method of control they prefer, including those hard core old-schoolers who still enjoy winding up their clockwork trains with a key!
Motor bicycling is a broad church for us devotees to enjoy however we prefer.

 

[Tony01]

What I wanna know is... if you have a hybrid, and you turn the gas engine off, is it an ebike until the ICE is started up again?

 

[indian22]

What I wanna know is... if you have a hybrid, and you turn the gas engine off, is it an ebike until the ICE is started up again?

Tony that's a great question that I'd also like answered. I once asked a deputy about pedaling a bike with a gas motor attached though not running and he said it's just a bike carrying a motor. Next cop probably would look at it differently. The e-motor on a hybrid is a similar situation, but who knows. We have so many conflicting jurisdictions Fed, state, local each with it's own set of regs and each claiming priority and this is further confused in states with tribal law enforcement on their lands...more or less following Fed regulations but with local twists. State park and Fed park officers...and you addressed the campus police with a photo in another post Tony. A couple of months ago I cruised a campus on the hybrid using e-mode while pedaling and they gave me a complete pass and thumbs up. I'd say campus cops have a lower tolerance for forgiveness than most law officers.

I think ya'll know what I think is good common sense when it comes to motor bike regulation, but what I think isn't necessarily common.

Tony I'd say it's an e-bike till the ICE is employed & a pedal bike when the two motors aren't operating, but I'm just guessing here.

Rick C.

 

[Greg58]

I never knock a guy's bike like I said earlier, we've had people build what they can afford or what they have the ability to build only to get shamed for it. That person usually never comes back to the forum. The only time I say something is when some guy does something unsafe, like the guy a couple of years ago that disabled the coaster brake and was flying around on the thing. Several of us here tried to convince him it was dangerous, after he flew down in a culdesac and did a Endo he understood.

 

[biknut]

What I wanna know is... if you have a hybrid, and you turn the gas engine off, is it an ebike until the ICE is started up again?

I used to ride my china girls on city trails with the motor off, and occasionally even with the motor on, but if looks could kill I'm a ghost now.

I was really into china girls. Remember the Atomic BB?

 

[biknut]

Oh yeah, the Atomic rode the trails

 

[biknut]

This was my last china girl build. What this should tell you is I wouldn't go electric without a good reason.

moto 2697

• biknut
• Dec 19, 2012

 

[biknut]

Low BB

• biknut
• Jun 14, 2012

This is what the Atomic BB evolved into before I sold it.

 

[biknut]

img 1008

• biknut
• Jan 17, 2012
• 1

This is the Cadillac

 

[zean]

Beautiful Bikes. Yes it is a huge deal that anyone can ride an electric bicycle on almost any trail, road or bike lane without any type of State issued license. I respect the job police officers have to do. There are so many more police than when I was young that it is only a matter of time that a gas powered bicycle will get pulled over and given a ticket for violating two or three laws four or five different ways. Almost always when you're talking with the police you either have been screwed over or you're getting screwed over. Yes society promotes electric power as a fuel alternative for transportation I think because it reduces our need for foreign dependence and it gives the illusion of being cleaner. I think almost all of the electricity in this country is produced by burning coal. I believe wind, water and solar power account for a small percentage of our electrical needs. Burning coal is one of the nastiest and dirtiest industries. Using electricity moves the pollution from one location to another and then it gets swept up by the wind and spread around the world. I think many cars in this country burn cleaner than the air around us. I believe advances in the technology of electrical power will appear first in automobiles then trickle down to bicycles. At any rate electric bikes are cool. They are clean to work with and 100 per cent solid and reliable. They have performance with good looks. Working on my gas powered bike is like therapy for me. I enjoy it. I find it satisfying. When Jay Leno was reviewing an electric bike he said something similar to this: "I like anything that rolls, explodes and makes noise. One out of three isn't bad."

 

[biknut]

My china girls all ended up dependable, and went 40 + mph. In texas gas bicycles are tolerated by the authorities, that should be obvious from seeing my videos. They claim we ride in a gray area of the law. I've been riding motorcycles all my life, and for me, what I ride has little to do with anything other than how much I fun it is. People that have known me a long time find it difficult to believe what's happened to my riding lol. Electric took me over like the borg.

 

[biknut]

So why did I finally give up on gas bikes when I had such nice china girls to ride? This is what happened. I wanted to commute 13 miles across town to my martial art school. The master was afraid I would get killed riding it in 5 o'clock traffic, and ask me not to. So in response to that I bought a moped, which was fully licensed, and insured. Nothing much he could say about that. At first this seemed like a nice step up from a china girl, but it didn't last.

This is Black Sheep

What happened after that was, I soon came to realize how fond I had become of riding the city trails. On a china girl I could at least turn the motor off, and pedal down a trail, but even that wasn't an option now, because as someone pointed out motor vehicles aren't allowed, and a license plate definitely made it a motor vehicle. So limiting. You can never go back to less freedom after having it. At the time my opinion of eBikes was still very uninformed.

 

[biknut]

Soon after that I was browsing the moped army website where I noticed a link someone posted for something called a Stealth Bomber electric bicycle. It pict my interest enough to look. That lead me to a site that opened my eyes about the potential of electric bicycles. What caught my attention was the claim was 50 mph, and 50 mile range. My china girls were more like 40 mph, and 40 mile range. Next thing I know I got to have one, which took 3 months to get here from Australia. The very first ride was all it took to change the fabric of the universe.

I like to modify all my bikes to suit my own personal preferences, and after 5 years of trying this and that, perfection. Silent, fast, and can go anywhere, any time. It hits all my buttons at once.

 

[biknut]

My transformation wasn't done though. I always say there's no perfect bike, and the Stealth is no exception. One problem it has is, it's so superior to everything else that everyone loves to hate it. It's akin to a beautiful woman walking into a room full of uglys. When it shows up, your bike instantly morphs into a pile of stink. No one likes that.

We all know how fun it is to ride in groups, so I decided maybe a bike a little less awesome would be better for those rides, so next I bought a much more pedestrian bike. At the time this bike was actually considered at the bottom of the heap. Exactly what I wanted. After my custom personalization make over it's now one of the most attractive plain Jane's out there, and it intimidates nobody. What I learned from it is, electric bikes are so much fun, you don't really need a bike as capable as a Stealth to find happiness. You can now turn any eBike into an acceptable replacement to a gas bike, and it doesn't have to cost any more than a good china girl.

This is Fatty, a lowly Sondors eBike that I made my own.

 

[Tony01]

Yeap. My first ride on mine suddenly changed it all for me too. I have this great design 2-speed I wanted to build for a future 212, one chain in/one chain out like a typical jackshaft only heavier... but now it’s like, what is the point? Nobody will buy one... from the same design it could be a hybrid like a Prius... Only for long trips. When I could save myself the trouble for almost all rides and just get a bigger battery.

Also IMO the future of hotrodding is in electrics...

 

[zean]

Excuse me. I just read a title to an article that said: "US and China agree to end Trump Tariffs on electric bicycles. Prices will come down."

 

[indian22]

I like low prices but that's just one small part of the ongoing trade problems the world faces. I really hope we solved some vital trade issues that led to this end of tariffs.

Rick C.

 

[biknut]

Excuse me. I just read a title to an article that said: "US and China agree to end Trump Tariffs on electric bicycles. Prices will come down."

Actually the prices were never effected by the tariffs. China couldn't afford to lose market share because of higher prices from tariffs. All Chinese company's are partially owned by the chinese government. Losing market share would be devastating to china's already teetering on collapse economy. The government was forced to cover the cost of the tariffs for the company's effected. This is the reason china is so eager to make a deal. Like him of not, president Trump has china by the balls, and they know it.