elocs

Thank you. You are likely right that what I write has been influenced by the attitudes I've seen expressed in some of the other subforms. Although sometimes it is not preaching to the choir but just preaching when the choir is present.

Roody

I don't have the figures, but it seems like motorcycles are a dying breed. Most of the people I see riding them are aging baby boomers, with very few young riders. Millennials don't seem to think that any vehicles are cool, whether cars, bicycles, or motorcycles. Around here anyways, they mostly travel by bus or skateboard.

salcedo

This looks like a supercool commuting beast

https://www.yamahabicycles.com/bikes/urbanrush/

Walter S

Number of riders is way off. 14% down just this year. Interestingly ridership is down for small bikes, which is where the largest number of motorcyclists have historically been. But ridership is up for big bikes - not by nearly as many riders but those bikes cost more too, so the revenue hit with the downslump is not as big.

Motorcycle sales suffering | MCN

jon c. 

Figures have shown that the biggest area affected by poor sales has been with low capacity machines under 125cc, which have taken the largest hit so far this year. Last month recorded a massive drop in sales by 32.2% for machines ranging between 51-125cc.

I'm guessing this includes all the small scooters. They exploded in this area about a decade ago. Might be there are more used machines on the market now which would cut sales of new units. New cycle registrations being down doesn't necessarily mean the overall number of riders is down that much. They may just no longer be buying new machines.

350htrr

WTF do scooters and mopeds have to do with E-Bikes,... Not in the same category IMO...

Walter S

Go WAY back to post 27 and you *might* get it.

Dahon.Steve

Speak of the devil! I saw two Yamaha E-bikes from Giant at a local bike shop today.

I did not get to test ride it but they were nice! To my surprise, I was actually able to lift both wheels off the ground! Yes, it was that light so it's an improvement over the 70 pound e-bikes I've seen at another shop. If you remove the battery, I can see someone being able to carry this bike up a flight of stairs using two trips. One to carry the bike and then the battery.

I would still be cautious about buying new technology even from a name brand company like Yamaha. After all, this is a huge investment at 3.1K, I would hate to end up going back and forth to the bike shop for repairs. Personally, I would wait at least 3-4 years before buying a new Yamaha e-bike to see if they intend to stay in the business. The only thing I didn't like was the black color! LOL. Can someone please tell Trek and Giant that men want bikes other than grey and black??

This was the bike.

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/bikes-quick-eplus

3alarmer 

.
...I've visited two of the larger bike shops locally in the last month. Mike's Bikes is the local Specialized dealership, and Specialized is selling all sorts of ginormous all terrain type e-bikes (NO REDUCED for holiday bargains !!!)

Performance is selling an e-bike version of their Fuji Sanibel beach cruiser.......not making this up. They're here, get used to it.

350htrr

Name brands of E-Bikes have been around for years and years now, and they have it figured out... You do not need to worry about it being "new technology", I have had my BionX for 5 years and the wife has had hers for 3 years, I have had my bike in the shop once and was fixed under warranty, and the wife has never had her bike in the shop...

TiHabanero

What advantage does the electric moped have over the gas powered one? I know gas powered motors will last 20,000 miles or more. How long will an electric go for?

3alarmer 

What are the pros and cons of electric motors vs. internal combustion engines?

cooker

I get annoyed when they confidently state that electric engines produce no pollution. It's either lazy or deliberately deceitful.

jon c. 

I saw nothing deceitful in their statement.

350htrr

I saw nothing deceitful in there either... But then the real world intrudes and... depending on where your electricity comes from, I have also read that it could take 7 years where an electric vehicle would break even compared to ICE... But hey, in the long term it almost certainly IS, less polluting... JMO But as far as E-Bikes are concerned , if you ride an E-Bike instead of driving a car we are ALL way ahead, not as far ahead as if everyone rode a "normal" bicycle, but still WWAAaayy ahead as a civilisation where everyone drove an ICE vehicle. JMO ...

cooker

in the top rated answer the guy said an electric system produces no 'local' pollution. I didn't notice the word local, I guess, but even so, pollution from power plants does cover a wide area, so he may not be strictly correct.

Roody

Noise.

As for how long they will last, potentially an electric motor would last a LOT longer than an gas one. (Refrigerators and pumps will keep going almost forever with little maintenance.) But I don't know the particulars when it comes to mopeds or assist bikes.

Dahon.Steve

I trust BionX because they have been around for years. When it first came out, I used to hear complaints all the time as people struggled with failing controllers, batteries and hubs. It's totally different now because BionX figured out how to make a durable product. I don't trust Yamaha, YET!

gregf83 

An electric bike can implement a very smooth pedal assist that increases the torque applied by the rider so it feels natural. That’s not possible with a gas engine. Also, no regenerative braking with an engine.

350htrr

https://www.yamahabicycles.com/the-yamaha-evolution/

52telecaster

+1 roody, you're the cyclist!

3alarmer 

...point source pollution from IC engines is more difficult and expensive to control than that coming from central power sources. And there's no practical reason we can't generate considerably more electricity from renewables and cleaner sources.

I've had an electric car long enough to have heard all the false equivalence arguments against them, and insofar as I can tell, they are universally misinformed opinions, that take worst case scenarios from the past practices of electric power production and extrapolate from them to produce erroneous conclusions.

Sullalto

Rural areas are bad places for electric vehicles, I can tell you that for certain. About once every 2-3 weeks we get one stranded at the remote hotel I work at. We get people frantic about the lack of charging stations much more than that, but we can sometimes accommodate them with an RV hookup if they let us know the night before.

It is more of an owner problem than vehicle problem though, I'll admit that. But if supercharger stations are 180 miles apart...maybe don't take a pair of 80 mile detours? When you were down 1/3 of a charge passing that first station?

Admittedly I'm not just in a rural area, I'm an area that's pretty undeveloped. 50 miles between gas stations, etc. And one of them doesn't even take credit cards at the pump-and the store is only open limited hours in tourist season. Etc.

noisebeam

Can I assume if electric two wheel vehicles are 'OK' then so are electric three and four wheel vehicles?

tiger style

Where I live ebikes are a menace. They are far and away the most dangerous vehicles on shared bike/pedestrian paths. I'm all for them as green transportation, but I think they need to be speed regulated. It's unnerving to have an ebike pass you silently at 25mph when you're on a bike. One swerve to miss a pothole and...