Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
This is not a thread about debating whether e bikes are bikes. It is about whether threads related to touring that use an e bike but relate to the touring side should be allowed here and what they might add to the global conversation. The answer appears to be yes, according to the mods, and it allows some people to participate and share their unique stories.
no and yes. over the course of 17 pages this thread has incorporated multiple themes.
one of which is a debate as to whether e-assist-bikes are properly classified as "bicycles."
without re-reading the entire 17 pages, i see one mod deleted some nasty stuff around
post #340, but in no way said "we the moderators hereby declare ebikes to be bicycles".
seemed to me more of an acceptance that touring can be done on a device resembling
a true bicycle, and that there are many areas of mutual concern, so please be polite.
Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
If anyone has a "save the children" mentality, in the correct usage of the phrase...
the "save the children" maneuver is a debating tactic often used to shut down
debate. it is an appeal to emotion and feelings rather than to facts. the point is to
add "sob stories" (as another poster put it) that may be completely irrelevant to the
topic, but that will be used to show the inhumanity and insensitivity of the opponent.
the other guy is dared to reply with facts, hurting the feelings of some third party, and
thereby showing himself to be evil incarnate.
Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
The debate about whether ebikes are bikes should perhaps be brought up to Bike Forums directly though I suspect it might be a case of the horse out the gate already.
i'm sure they are aware. there is a subforum for ebikes. ebikes are permitted here
due to their similary to true bicycles.
you may call ebikes bicycles if you wish, but that won't make it so.
they aren't quite mopeds, yet they aren't true bicycles. they fit
in their own category between the two. sort of an evolutionary
missing link on the march to goldwings. that's not a bad thing, and
it doesn't make it a lesser creation. but they are different and it won't
hurt to acknowledge that reality.
Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
[*] and at least two mods have posted into it (by my count) to correct someone who was saying the thread didn't belong and/or arguing e bikes weren't bikes by posting random pics of motor bikes ripped off the net........The fact that you are using a pic of a gas powered bike to argue against e bikes doesn't help your cause either. You can try to find a more appropriate pic but then I would just refer you to the bulleted points above.
doesn't help my case? silly, it makes my case! i was argueing the
slippery slope......if you "feel" that an electric assist bicycle is still
a bicycle, then we must also consider the gas assist bicycle as well.
you declared it was futuristic fairytales. i posted the first five of my
google search for "gas assist bicycle." the "pic" was the forum
software showing a screenshot of a youtube video.
trying to get across is that some point these devices will appear on
this very forum. a gas-assist bicycle that meets your requirements,
no throttle - max % assist - max power output, either exists or can
easily be built.
for $120 bucks you can snag a 49cc engine that bolts onto the
seattube of your stock bicycle. easy enough to set it up similar
to the e-assit bike. my question to you is....will you
accept a gasoline assist bicycle (which meets all your criteria of
the e-assist-bike with the exception of electric power) as just
a bicycle? or will you exclude it, 'cause, well...it runs on gasoline?