Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
I would encourage anyone willing to invest in self supported E bike touring as an exploration of adaptation of technology. It hurts no one and could open a new avenue of pollution free, low impact travel for those who might otherwise only choose fossil fuel alternatives. Where else will they learn/discuss how to adapt their form of bicycle to touring mode other than on a bicycle touring forum.
"It hurts no one" - right, the internet and electronic video games hurt no one, except for the hundreds of millions of children, teenagers and adults who now spend all their leisure time indoors in the air conditioning, only 10 steps away from the refrigerator and microwave oven, basically sitting on their asses and overeating their whole lives. Kids hardly go out to play anymore, grownups never leave their computers or TVs. In this same fashion, ebikes will divert a significant portion of conventional bicycle users to the effortless alternative.
"pollution free" - electricity does not originate from that plug in the wall. It must be generated by hydroelectric, nuclear, fossil fuel, wind, solar or geothermal. In USA,
67% of electricity is generated by the burning of coal, natural gas or petroleum. The generation of this electricity from fossil fuels directly results in
30% of total carbon emissions in the USA. This trend will continue for the foreseeable future due to the vast reserves of natural gas produced from
hydrofracking, whose proponents insist doesn't significantly impact drinking water quality:
So ebikes - what harm could they do?