358 horsepower vs watts


 

There are a few screencraps on my phone, all related to reopening. Purple tier, orange tier, Joe says we could all be vaccinated by July 4th, and the new tier, the highly anticipated green tier, which means anything goes.

But when I woke up, there was one bit of information that I found myself wanting to talk about. And that's how I've learned to judge watt power from reading ebike reviews.


In Europe, street legal ebikes are limited to 250 watts of pedal assist. Here in the USA, I'm not sure what the limit is. I think some places have limits around 750 watts, and some don't. I think most places you can have a throttle in addition to pedal assist, which I believe makes the bike a "type 2" ebike. 


There is a "type 3" and those are the serious, more power than you know what to do with, non-street legal bikes, that generally seem legal-enough if the manufacturer writes a few lines of code into the controls that limit the performance in "street legal mode" or whatever.


It seems like in hub motors, about 750 watts is the sweet spot here. That's what Rad Power Bikes has on pretty much all of it's motors. For drive train motors, it seems like 250 watts or 500 watts is more common. These provide a more seemless bike-like performance, and they're what you find on high end road bikes and mountain bikes.


So how much power is a watt? I haven't actually looked it up, and I suppose right now would be the time, but based on what I've been reading, I think about 750 watts is one horsepower. 


So, your average ebike in the US has about the same pedal power as a horse. That seems to be plenty to get your average person up and rolling at about 20 miles per hour.


Ok, now I've gotten that very important information off my chest, you can go back to thinking about colors of the rainbow.

Get ready to make a reservation to drink.

But only at a brewery, winery, or distillery. Plain old bars without food will be waiting a while.

Until we're orange. Which Mayor Breed says could be in a couple weeks. Will they require reservations? Does signing up on a list or waiting in line qualify for a reservation?

Speaking of lines, I was happy to see one outside Zeitgeist last week. 

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