Dirt Road Cowboy
Member
And then, just a few billion (or trillion) $$$ to build the reactors to charge the batteries...
Texas Riding Blog
- Thread starter biknut
- Start date
mapbike
Well-Known Member
Just to upgrade the electric infrastructure would take around 50 years according to experts and fossil fuels use and extraction is a booming business right now and is actually the answer to our economic problems to a big extent in this country which will keep demand for internal combustion engines in high demand for a very long time.
I agree with you biknut that bicycles, scooters and tiny useless to many of us death trap cars going electric will continue to grow but with all electrics the biggest draw back is lack of distance that could ever compare to a vehicle with an internal combustion engine unless it is a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle or a hybrid Gas/Electric which I think will be the best of the best when it comes to semi electric cars, I dont see Ford building an F350 1 ton dually all electric or electric school buses and even the Hydrogen fuel cell technology can be dangerous in a crash...... no thank you as for as I'm concerned....LOL!
R/C, Bikes and Scooters I see a good use for, they're good clean fun, but like you said biknut, the price is way out of line when I could build 10 motorbikes for what one nice electro fancy bike cost, yep electric is here to stay in some capacity and when the price is down to what a good bike shop city bike cost I'm sure regular people may go for more of them, my local bike shop used to sell some electrics but he hated them and said most people don't have sense enough to take care of them right and all he did was repair them constantly and people always wanted everything warranted.... he loves my motorized bikes but get him on the electric bike subject and the four letter words start rolling....LOL!
I hope none of what I said sounds like I'm debating a point or fact because that is not intended with anything I said here, just pecking out what is rolling across the mind on the subject.
Map
I agree with you biknut that bicycles, scooters and tiny useless to many of us death trap cars going electric will continue to grow but with all electrics the biggest draw back is lack of distance that could ever compare to a vehicle with an internal combustion engine unless it is a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle or a hybrid Gas/Electric which I think will be the best of the best when it comes to semi electric cars, I dont see Ford building an F350 1 ton dually all electric or electric school buses and even the Hydrogen fuel cell technology can be dangerous in a crash...... no thank you as for as I'm concerned....LOL!
R/C, Bikes and Scooters I see a good use for, they're good clean fun, but like you said biknut, the price is way out of line when I could build 10 motorbikes for what one nice electro fancy bike cost, yep electric is here to stay in some capacity and when the price is down to what a good bike shop city bike cost I'm sure regular people may go for more of them, my local bike shop used to sell some electrics but he hated them and said most people don't have sense enough to take care of them right and all he did was repair them constantly and people always wanted everything warranted.... he loves my motorized bikes but get him on the electric bike subject and the four letter words start rolling....LOL!
I hope none of what I said sounds like I'm debating a point or fact because that is not intended with anything I said here, just pecking out what is rolling across the mind on the subject.
Map
biknut
Well-Known Member
That's cause we ride in a gray area of the law with gas bikes. You should be fine as long you pedal away from every stop. That way no one can say your bike is self propelled. If it's not self propelled it's not considered a motor vehicle in Texas.
As long as you respect the traffic laws on one will bother you.
mapbike
Well-Known Member
Be easy wbout askng government for clarification...... you may not like what they come up with, kinda like asking them to do more about crimes comitted by nuts with guns and their answer is to take the guns away from the law abiding Citizens so they end up defenseless against the law breaker who will always find away to get what he wants or needs to commit the crime and then the law abiding people have no way to defend themselves because the governments answer to fighting crime was to make it so that only a criminal has the weapons for crime and the normal citizens can be used for target prac tice with no way to protect themselves...... be real careful what you ask the government for, they dont live in the real world and rarely come up with an intelligent common sense solution and instead use the oportunity for another power grab or tax they call a permit.
Not tdying to be political here mods just makng hat I think is a good point of why we should keep government out of out motorbike community and fly under the radar safely as long as we can and not give them a reason to consider wha they do about our motorbikes on the roads in Texas.
Map
fredric3144
Member
If you don't want a fire don't stir the coals . Ask Austin and they start thinking oh good lets make a new law tags ,license , or what ever they can to get money . I like not being bothered by the law . I like riding my motorized bicycle because it is good cheap transportation and fun .
biknut
Well-Known Member
I can understand wanting clarification about the legality of motorized bicycles in Texas, and elsewhere. 3 years ago right before I started riding I called my local PD about riding motorized bicycles on the street.
They didn't say there was no law covering gas powered motorized bicycles, they said they were illegal anywhere on the street or sidewalk. So next I ask them to point out the statute that pertained to that. 3 years later I'm still waiting for them to do that, and in all this time they've never looked at me twice when they see me riding down the street, nor has any of the other 7 police localities that I ride in.
If you're still unsure about riding, the best place to call is the Texas DPS, motorcycle safety division in Austin. They'll tell you the same thing they told me. We ride in a gray area of the law, but as far as they're concerned we're good to go. They don't want to tell you why though, but the reason is the self propelled argument.
They didn't say there was no law covering gas powered motorized bicycles, they said they were illegal anywhere on the street or sidewalk. So next I ask them to point out the statute that pertained to that. 3 years later I'm still waiting for them to do that, and in all this time they've never looked at me twice when they see me riding down the street, nor has any of the other 7 police localities that I ride in.
If you're still unsure about riding, the best place to call is the Texas DPS, motorcycle safety division in Austin. They'll tell you the same thing they told me. We ride in a gray area of the law, but as far as they're concerned we're good to go. They don't want to tell you why though, but the reason is the self propelled argument.
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biknut
Well-Known Member
So far I've ridden my electric bicycle from Farmers Branch all the way to downtown Dallas twice without any problems. Both times I rode under power part of the way on the Katy Trail. Riding a bike trail under power on an eBke seems a lot less stressful than on a gas bike, because if I'm going slow no one seems to notice me. On the gas bike everyone is giving me the evil eye, even if all I'm doing is pedaling it.
Unlike the gas powered motorized bicycles, eBikes do have specific laws governing their operation, and the one that concerns me most is the 20 mph speed limit. My eBike is capable of 50+ mph. I usually ride my gas bikes between 25, and 35 mph when riding far from home. That's probably going to be the same on the eBike, but sometimes you can't help from let'n err rip. Even 35 mph in traffic could be trouble, but that remains to be seen.
If anything happens you'll know about it.
Unlike the gas powered motorized bicycles, eBikes do have specific laws governing their operation, and the one that concerns me most is the 20 mph speed limit. My eBike is capable of 50+ mph. I usually ride my gas bikes between 25, and 35 mph when riding far from home. That's probably going to be the same on the eBike, but sometimes you can't help from let'n err rip. Even 35 mph in traffic could be trouble, but that remains to be seen.
If anything happens you'll know about it.
biknut
Well-Known Member
Yesterday I rode Electronaut around White Rock lake. Typically police enforcement of bicycle regulations are pretty strict there, more so than anywhere else in the city.
During my ride around the lake I happened to stop to catch my breath near a police officer on a bicycle. This might not have been entirely by accident on my part, because I might have wanted to see what he would have to say about my bike.
So when he looks my way I start a conversation by saying, this is what you need officer. He responded by saying, I don't think the city will spend the money for those, our bicycles were donated. Then he goes on to tell me, that bike is illegal, it's a motor vehicle, but I could tell by the way he was acting he wasn't about to test that theory.
The next thing he said was very interesting, because it revealed to me that he might know a thing or two about the legality of gas powered motor bicycles. Everyone needs to pay attention to this.
He said, it that self propelled? I answered truthfully by saying, yes it is. I knew I could tell him that, because it's ok if electric bicycles are self propelled, but if a police officer asks you that when you're on your gas bike you better say NO. If you don't, he'll consider you to be riding an unregistered moped, and you could get a stack of really big fat tickets if he wanted to be a hard ass. But back to me. After answering that my bike was in fact self propelled, I told him this bike was legal because it's limited to the legal speed of 20 mph. At no time did he ever see me riding faster than that, so he didn't question me further.
I'm pretty sure that since this officer was bicycle mounted, he probably was more informed that average, but I think this goes to show that the self propelled argument is the only thing between gas powered motor bicycles and oblivion. That's why I always say you need to pedal off from all stops so no policeman can say in court he saw your bike riding self propelled.
During my ride around the lake I happened to stop to catch my breath near a police officer on a bicycle. This might not have been entirely by accident on my part, because I might have wanted to see what he would have to say about my bike.
So when he looks my way I start a conversation by saying, this is what you need officer. He responded by saying, I don't think the city will spend the money for those, our bicycles were donated. Then he goes on to tell me, that bike is illegal, it's a motor vehicle, but I could tell by the way he was acting he wasn't about to test that theory.
The next thing he said was very interesting, because it revealed to me that he might know a thing or two about the legality of gas powered motor bicycles. Everyone needs to pay attention to this.
He said, it that self propelled? I answered truthfully by saying, yes it is. I knew I could tell him that, because it's ok if electric bicycles are self propelled, but if a police officer asks you that when you're on your gas bike you better say NO. If you don't, he'll consider you to be riding an unregistered moped, and you could get a stack of really big fat tickets if he wanted to be a hard ass. But back to me. After answering that my bike was in fact self propelled, I told him this bike was legal because it's limited to the legal speed of 20 mph. At no time did he ever see me riding faster than that, so he didn't question me further.
I'm pretty sure that since this officer was bicycle mounted, he probably was more informed that average, but I think this goes to show that the self propelled argument is the only thing between gas powered motor bicycles and oblivion. That's why I always say you need to pedal off from all stops so no policeman can say in court he saw your bike riding self propelled.
biknut
Well-Known Member
I rode back over to White Rock again yesterday with a new friend on his electric bicycle. I noticed there was a big difference in reactions between his bike and mine. He doesn't pedal, but I always pedal. Not pedaling seems to bring the haters out. When I'm riding the trails by myself it's like I'm invisible.
maurtis
New Member
Haha, tell him to ghost pedal to keep up appearances -
I like to pedal backwards, just for giggles on mine
Dan
Staff
I like to pedal backwards, just for giggles on mine
LOL Maurtis. I do that and look blankly at folks trying to figure out how it is propelling me and the bike.
I haven't been bothered with the PoPo's with any of my ebikes. I mostly ride the legal 20mph limit, but on the 50mph feeder I do go above the limit just so I don't piss off people during rush hour. I too like ghost pedaling in reverse just to mess with people. Riding the single track trails with my latest bike does attract more attention vs my mid drive mtb.
fredric3144
Member
wish I could find an accurate speedometer so that I would know what I am doing the digital electronic ones just go crazy , the old school ones do fine up to about 20 mph then the needle jumps everywhere . My best guesstimate is done by time and distance using the old school speedometer but in all my runs I have to slow down to allow someone to pass and quit goggling .
biknut
Well-Known Member
Most of the wireless bicycle speedo's won't work reliably because of rf. The wired ones aren't guaranteed, but mostly work ok. I have a Bontrager Trip 2 on the Atomic BB that works pretty good for $30. You can also try a resistor spark plug, or cap.
SBP sells a Magnecor plug wire that works well to block rf too.
mapbike
Well-Known Member
I have great results with the wireless speedometers myself, I also have a wired on that I ordered last fall that is working great also, I'm using a suppressor plug wire on bike with the wired speedometer and on the others with wireless I use either solid copper core wires or suppressor core and I don't have any issues with interference from ignition, one point I'll make is that I also mount my ignition coil on the seat post tube as far away from the speedometer as possible, I tried using the wired speedometers with the coil mounted on the front down tube and they wouldn't work because of the RF interference, but if you will move your coil to rear seat tube and run a suppressor core/graphite core plug wire you should be able to use either speedo with out any issues and they are very accurate in my experience when you use the right tire size measurement in the program of the speedo, the suppressor core wires have not made any change in performance either, I cruise on this one bike all day @ 42+mph running a 36T sprocket, so rpms are great and power is as good as I could expect, below I will post a couple pix and links to the exact speedo's I'm using with good results.
Map
First one is wireless, second set of pix is of the wired which I actually like the best because the magnet that attaches to spokes is a better design, other than that the two perform equally as good in my experience, I been running the wireless design since 2009, if you look on ebay and don't mind waiting about 10 days for delivery you may do like I did and order direct from mainland China and get a really good price on them, I bought three of the wireless ones for $0.99 each with cheap shipping last time I ordered them, for that price if they only last a year, that is still a great deal in my opinion, but I have one that has been going strong with only one battery replacement in the last 4 1/2 years, not bad for a $0.99 investment.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Wireles...=100010&prg=8934&rk=3&rkt=15&sd=360738780783&
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360738780783?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
fredric3144
Member
Ok thanks I just ordered the wireless one I'll try it out it was $7.99 with free shipping so even if it doesn't work not much lost . The shipping time is unimportant as I am not riding much in the winter anyway lol .
mapbike
Well-Known Member
You're welcome, like I said I've had good luck with those speedos, just had to replace batteries in them a couple times so far, I know KCvale said the digital ones dont hold up in Arizona because the sun is just to hot on them, and might be the same here if they were left just sitting in the sun in th hottest part of our Texas summers but my bikes dont sit out and even when I ride in the triple digit temps here I have not had an issue with these little speedos.
Locating the coil away from them and uusing a suppressor plug wire is a good thing and they have worked great for me on every bike I have used them on so best wishes..
Map