Araqiels
Well-known member
I know a guy that went downhill into a puddle with one of those things, and had to peddle it home. Needless to say he didn't have a license, was in his late thirties, and that was likely the most expensive asset he owned.
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return on the E bikes...
- Thread starter suzuki2000
- Start date
You just summed up the e-bike target demographic right there.
rodmacpherson
New member
Actually I'd say the target demographic is mid 50's to late 60's and from my Youtube stats generally male (female viewers tend to be 18-34 or over 65.
My experience has been that they usually have a knee injury that prevents them from using a traditional pedal bike, but want to still enjoy the outdoors as a cyclist.
Sure, there are always idiots, we've all seen them (but they come in cager flavours too).
outkastland
Well-known member
To each their own for what two wheeled form of travel is chosen. There's no sense in bashing people that are rats int he cage just like the rest of us. I'm an ex scooter style e-biker (modified to go much faster than the legal limit). Rode one for two years, both good riding seasons. I transitioned to a gas scooter and am now on an SV650. The problem e-bikes are the scooter style ones. The bikes just make it easy for the poor to get the benefits of a motor vehicle without the responsibilities of one. What we need is a form of licensing and insurance for them. But that won't happen.
suzuki2000
Well-known member
my wife just had a run in with a future statistic. Kid has been driving all over town for the past few weeks, shorts, tee shirt, no helmet at all and ussually his girl friend on back. After she called him out for passing her on the right, when she was making a right hand turn, running a stop sign, he tells her he has as much right to the road and she's a f'n b'tch...
hope he makes it through the summer
hope he makes it through the summer
I believe I've seen this guy around, near the harbour front.
A week ago, I saw a father tagging onto his eBike a bicycle trailer with 2 kids in it, flying down Yonge street. I couldn't believe it.
The law was written with real e-bikes in mind, you know the ones you ride like a bicycle and the electric motor just gives you a bit of extra speed or some help on the uphills. What you guys are riding are electric scooters with non-functioning pedals attached to them, so the entire industry is built on thumbing the nose at the poorly written law. However, even while thumbing your nose at it by operating a motor vehicle and treating it as a motor vehicle (minus the need for plates, insurance or any demonstrated knowledge of operating a motor vehicle), it still has to have those joke-pedals attached to fall within the definition of the law.
If you were trying to present some sort of a responsible image of e-bikers, you failed epically. First you have the lawmakers giving you guys blowjobs and you are complaining that they didn't put whipped cream and strawberries on your penises
If you were trying to present some sort of a responsible image of e-bikers, you failed epically. First you have the lawmakers giving you guys blowjobs and you are complaining that they didn't put whipped cream and strawberries on your penises
peterventure
Well-known member
I often cycle to work and have no problem passing the ebikes. Cyclist can exceed the ebike top speed going 30km (faster going down hill) and not need to worry about battery dying. Unless a person has health issues or physical limitations - I really don't see the point of having a e bike. It might be a passing fad, just like the moped was 30 years ago.
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It's a scooter without the expenses of having to have a licence or plates or proper gear, that can be had for cheap. As long as it's treated as a bicycle, there will be a huge market for it.
peterventure
Well-known member
Agreed, not requiring a license and insurance is a big plus. With goverment looking for more revenue that can all change.Only time will tell!
They might even tax cyclists.
The Moped wasn't just a passing fad here, they were simply legislated out of road-legal economic existance.
As first created for Post-WW2 Europe, they made perfect sense in countries rebuilding with scarce resources and disposable income. When they really became popular here in the early 70's, it was the gas crisis that made them popular here, for the same economic reasons.
Then people started crashing with them, causing damage, disregarding basic rules of the road, and some mopeds came in country, that could truly be considered unsafe to uncrate, much less put on the road... sort of sounds like the current e-bike climate, right?
The government stepped in, mandated mandatory insurance, plate fees/road taxes, and age restricting use through a basic operators license requirement. Pretty much concurrent to that, gas cost dropped/supply stabilized for the next 2 decades, and even poor people could afford cars again. People walked away in droves, as a result. As a means of transportation, and a lack of manufacturer's willing to take a risk on a hostile regulatory market, and the supply pretty much dried up. They no longer made much "economic sense".
The only thing preventing e-bikes from the same fate really, is the current sustained poor economic climate that we are in. Politicians just don't like empty beer bottles being winged at their heads, by irate ex-e-bikers unable to return their empties.
Edit: I love my "china girl" motorised mountain-bike, which is closer to the true classic moped design as any other, and i've got several small capacity Honda minibikes that could be road legal at one time.. but modern motorists, they be crazy! Times have moved on, from when i'd consider a 60 year old design with limited power, is safe in a modern day road environment, when they have to directly compete (follow rules of road, lack of safe defensive driving potential in power and braking) with the crazy. I consider it the same, with e-bikes.
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It's a non issue.. By the time they ride over from the beer store to downtown, creating those empties along the way, their aim will be WAY off the mark
no need to buff so much and exaggerate. Do 50kph for a good length of time, I'll see how far you can travel. You won't ride a full carbon race road bike to work anyway, so stop buffing. It's no easy to do 50kph on a road bike on flat for a good amount of time. you will crash faster doing 50kph on slopes
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There doesn't need to be new legislation, just a more appropriate definition of a bicycle.
A bicycle must be motivated primarly by leg power at any given time, with the option of electric power assist not to exceed the power generated by the rider. Anything else is a motorcycle or scooter.
This could make for some real kick-*** ebikes that wouldn't appeal to lazy, ignorant road users and that wouldn't require any more government involvement than we have now.
A bicycle must be motivated primarly by leg power at any given time, with the option of electric power assist not to exceed the power generated by the rider. Anything else is a motorcycle or scooter.
This could make for some real kick-*** ebikes that wouldn't appeal to lazy, ignorant road users and that wouldn't require any more government involvement than we have now.
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