ScottCommutes

Take your pick - sailboats or gliders. For years, manufacturers have offered a small motor for their otherwise un-powered vehicles. As far as I know, everybody considers this an upgrade because it lets you do more.

E-bikes aren't like that at all. No parallel. E-bikers want a cargo ship or a speedboat disguised as a sailboat. They want a Cessna or a cargo plane disguised as a glider.

2old

I agree 100% although that's not my concern since there are plenty of bike paths with no congestion here. My problem is off road where idiots riding well past their skill level fly around blind corners with abandon. In all my years of riding I've been fortunate not to have a head on collision.

Dockhead

I would respectfully disagree with that.
I ebike and I sail, and I find a lot of similarities in the two activities.

Both are vehicles which are inherently far more efficient than the fully motorized alternatives. Because of the engineering necessity to conserve a more limited power source.

This efficiency gives pleasure. In both cases you are mostly just gliding along -- so much more pleasurable than using a fully motorized transport device.

Both are incredibly efficient. I get around 100km out of my ebike on less than 750 watt-hours of power -- that's orders of magnitude better than a motorbike, not to mention a car.

Both can be used with little or no motor power for hours on end in good conditions, just gliding along. Then the motor is always there when it's really needed.

I don't know what you're on about with the cargo stuff. My sailboat is 31 95/100 registered tonnes and can carry a bunch of people and stuff when needed. I've crossed oceans with it and lived autonomously with 5 on board for months. My e-bike is a cargo bike which can carry all kinds of stuff. This doesn't detract at all from the nature of it.

Dockhead

Yeah, this is right. If we want to keep the right to mix our traffic with pedestrians, we had better hope for better legislation.
In Europe, you can only use pedelecs with assist limited to 25km/h (about 15 mph) on bike paths and other places where there are pedestrians. E-bikes with throttles are forbidden, and "speed pedelecs" (assistance over 25km/h) must stay on the road with the cars, and in some countries require a license. This is very sensible. It is a great, great advantage for us not to have to ride with the cars. Successful mixing with pedestrian traffic requires speed limits. And probably training and education.

Dockhead

Riding a bike in car traffic is dangerous.

I'm not sure I agree that more speed makes it more dangerous -- I would think that the better you can match the speed of car traffic, the safer. Especially on hills I would think ebikes should be safer than pushbikes. But best of all is to get out of traffic and onto bike paths, and bike highways (like they have in Scandinavia). Bike lanes in roads help somewhat, but this is a half-measure. To be really useful they need to be physically separated from the road with car traffic. In Europe more and more they put the bike lanes on sidewalks rather than in roadways.

cat0020

There’s a new trend making electric bike batteries safer: Potting battery & controller.

https://electrek.co/2024/05/02/there...tteries-safer/

Smaug1

It doesn't seem like that would make the batteries safer; just more waterproof. Potting the cells in there would make it so that when the cells need to vent; they cannot and then it would be pressurized. Like the little Chinese firecrackers with just a tiny amount of gun powder, but wrapped up in paper super-tight to contain that energy, so that when they explode they explode with more force. One of the big safety features of lithium ion cells is that cell venting be tested and effective. Plug that up and it's bad news.

Controllers? Yes, it would make them more rugged and that potting compound would also dissipate heat. It also would make them not repairable, even by the manufacturer.

We'll see what happens!

2old

The theory is that by isolating the cells, thermal runaway is averted. As you say, we'll see. Luna has been doing that for about five years. I purchased one from their first batch and it's been perfect for my son's hardtail. They also used a very innovative way to mount the battery with strong magnets which also is perfect (even for off road).

jeneralist 

Here's a link to the same article, no paywall: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/n...smid=url-share

tds101 

Thank you... I'd already disabled JavaScript on the page, so I'd read it already.
​​​​​

Doc_Wui

I was skeptical about potting the cells, because of the vent issue, but I watched a Grin ebikes Video where the mad scientist in charge tried it, The cells still vented, and fhere was less fire. I'm convinced it works better than using air. He is a mad scientist, but pretty smart and making money too,

I believe that many of the batteries that catch on fire didn't even use air as a separator. They placed the cells next to each other, with only a thin layer pf PVC plastic as insulation. This was an accepted practice for stationary batteries but not so good for ebike packs. .

cat0020

Another article about battery potting:

New trend making electric bike batteries safer

https://electrek.co/2024/05/02/there...tteries-safer/

2old

I really like the adventure bike in that article even though it's $4K; fortunately my better half is friends with the owner's wife, so who knows?

cat0020

China’s sweeping new e-bike battery rules could have a major impact in US

https://electrek.co/2024/05/13/china...-impact-in-us/

Link in article states:

Currently, the number of electric bicycles in China has exceeded 350 million. In 2023, enterprises above designated size nationwide will produce a total of 42.28 million electric bicycles. Among the new electric bicycle models released by major domestic electric bicycle brands, more than 20% are equipped with lithium-ion batteries.

cat0020

New ebikes (from China) are going to be more expensive.. may impact some name brand models, too.

https://www.bicycleretailer.com/indu...expire-june-14

The grey area will be whether the tariff will be applied to bikes which are ORDERED prior to the 14 June deadline, or to eBikes arriving at US ports after the 14 June deadline. If it is the latter, then it is already pretty much in place due to shipping times from China.

The change in tariffs would mean a $2000 eBike will become a $2500 eBike.
Expect a cascade increase in eBike prices within the next two weeks.
For those sitting on the fence, try to find stock already shipped to the USA and close the deal quickly.

The Sun may be setting on getting inexpensive feature-rich eBikes produced in China.
This will be potentially affected by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) which has defined as eBikes as "consumer products" as versus "transportation".
If the CPSC is able to keep this definition in place, then it may get some breathing room for those seeking to buy an eBike at a value price (but don't hold your breath on this).
The CPSC defined category is only supposed to apply to eBikes of 750 Watts or less.

cat0020

Footloose, for e-bikes? The US town that banned all electric bicycles

https://electrek.co/2024/06/21/footloose-for-e-bikes-the-us-town-that-banned-all-electric-bicycles/

2old

Thanks; draconian, but with 40 - 50 mph "bikes" readily available and individuals riding rampantly on sidewalks out here, who knows what's next.

Mashantyf

Yeah, at these speeds, they'll eventually need to be required to have a driver's license

Dockhead

That's the European approach. It works pretty well.

When I bought my first ebike I was all ready to "chip" it to remove the speed limitation. Then after riding it I understood that 25kmh (about 15 mph) is a hard limit for reasonably safe use on multiuse paths. Speed is really important for how bike traffic mixes with pedestrian.

znomit

Mine is limited to 32kph. I don't hit that much but speed is usually 25-28. No desire to chip either, apart from the odd morning I'm late for work.

cat0020

Arizona just accidentally banned kids from riding electric bikes off-road

https://electrek.co/2024/06/24/arizo...ikes-off-road/

cat0020

Legal speed limits for ebikes are coming:

https://electrek.co/2024/07/10/the-c...lectric-bikes/

2old

It was 5 mph at Burning Man last year. That's like Trials speeds.

cat0020

"State Senator Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, worry that it will be hard to enforce the new law, considering electric bicycles are already usually capable of 20 mph speeds. Many electric bicycles don’t even come with speedometers, making it hard for the rider to know if they are traveling above or below 10-15 mph."

Not only difficult to enforce, how do you go about keeping record of who's been speeding?

Smaug1

Newer eBikes will be required to have speedos for this.
Existing eBikes will probably just be enforced with the tried & true "was he riding like a jerk?" method. ;-)