549 bike & battery

Here we are again, for another shallow and specious look at the world of embobility.

Wherein I still can't decide which ebike I would like. I guess there are several. Plus, I don't really need one. 

Although I am about to drive the car to the grocery store, so there is that weekly errand.

Would adding an external motor kit like the one above to my existing bike be enough? Maybe. I do like my bike.

On the other hand, there are several Tern-wannabes that have my attention. The Eunorau G20 was a mid-drive full size cargo bike for around $2200 that looked pretty good. But I don't think they're making it anymore. Instead, there's this cheaper rear hub motored smaller bike that's probably more convenient.

In it's "max" form it comes loaded with two beefy batteries and a higher-powered motor, still for less than the cheapest Tern. 

Then there's this KBO Ranger, which looks pretty good, and is again right around $2k. 

On the other hand, I've been thinking about another cross-country trip, and wondering about driving.

But, you know, I'd rather not drive. A car. Why? CO2. Plus, well, more cars. 

What if there was an ebike you could ride and camp with? This "Cercle" is that, with a cot/chair that folds out of the frame. It's a prototype, for now. And it's not cheap, either. And really, it's probably only good for camping. I'm not going to take that to the grocery store, would you?

This, maybe yes. It's another Eunorau, this time a full suspension mid drive mountain bike. It's about $4k, or about $2k less than the big brands. Worth a test drive.

How about this one? The Volcon Brat is the little brother to the other Volcon, the one with huge tires. This bike pretty much ticks all of my pre-adolescent dream bike boxes.

Except I'm now over 6' and like most of these moped style ebikes, it looks kinda small.

This trike is a big fat no, but I'm including it because it's pretty cool looking.

I mean, come on, right? There's a certain point in life where you just have to say, yes, "I am the captain of my e-trike."

Well, if that wasn't enough vaguery to get you disinterested, let's look at this new Yamaha mid-drive motor. This screenshot is a couple months old, and I don't remember why I need took it. I guess because this is a new motor, outside of the Bosch-Brose-Bafang triumvirate. And it's lighter and smaller.

While we're here, why don't we just go a little deeper into the weeds? Where suddenly we wake up and realize that all of the (very little) bike infrastructure we're building in the US is for regular pedal bikes, and now we have all these motorized bikes blowing past us in the bike lane, and it feels unsafe again, and what are we going to do?

Asking the ebikes to, you know, slow down isn't really an option. I mean, they should, but that's also kind of defeating the point.

Personally, I agree with this sentiment. We need to open up our existing streets to more types of vehicles. If you can get your ebike up to 45 or 50 mph, I think it should totally be allowed on the freeway during rush hour, or across a bridge.

Ok, maybe what we really want to do is create a streetscape where cars just aren't welcome, but micro mobility is. Which of those streets would you rather live on?

And then there are the electric cars. The age of the skateboard platform is quickly arriving.

As is the age of the solid state battery.

It's all going to revolutionize how we get around. Just be careful who you choose to invest in. There's plenty of vaporware out there.

Thank you, Phil Ting. We might not be able to get the Idaho Stop, but at least you can't get a ticket for stepping into the public space we have exclusively made the preserve of death machines for the past hundred years.