On the cusp of cycling's greatest revolution

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Biospace
Posts: 1990
Joined: 24 Jun 2019, 12:23pm

Re: On the cusp of cycling's greatest revolution

Post by Biospace »

jimlews wrote: 29 Nov 2022, 4:12pm I'm aware of the common ancestry - pedal cycle // motor cycle // e bike etc.

It's all part of a misguided notion that everything has to be made easier.
So fast (easier) "food" has led to an epidemic of obesity, ably assisted by car culture
and now e bikes (which discourage active travel).

The only difference that I can see between the "stink wheel" devices of former times
and todays electric bicycles is that the pollution they cause has been deferred to the
end of the battery life. And then there is the slave labour mining the rare elements required
to produce them...

I've a habit of raising points others overlook, including the social and environmental cost of lithium technology battery production which every TD&H is expecting to power their car. However, in the case of bikes assisted by electrical power, I say "Bring it on!"

It might seem dim to sit at a laptop consuming a battery when there is gas, wind, nuclear and solar (46, 36, 13 & 4% presently) produced electricity coming out of the wall, but it's the mass adoption of battery-powered electronics which has led to the amazing efficiencies of todays computers.

Apple's M-series chip inside their newest desktops and laptops seems miraculous for its speed and reduction in physical size of computer internals, it also uses a remarkably small amount of power. It's nothing more than a development of the 2010-onwards chips used in its phones (ARM of Cambridge, England) and a perfect example of the limitations of battery power advancing technology for all computers.

The energy limits of the human body have formed bicycles into the amazingly efficient machines they are, but batteries are making them even more efficient in that they're capable of replacing more car trips for more people.

Contrary to them discouraging 'active travel', my experience is that you'll use one when an un-assisted bike would remain in the shed - the tempation is to pedal just as hard as ever. They reduce the amount of time spent pedalling up gradients and enhance human energy, rather than dispensing with it.
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Cowsham
Posts: 4951
Joined: 4 Nov 2019, 1:33pm

Re: On the cusp of cycling's greatest revolution

Post by Cowsham »

Exactly --- and did you ever look under the bonnet of your diesel car and wonder how much energy it took to produce that massive lump of mechanical mayhem or where the oil it needs changed every year goes?

All that stuff to get one person to work 100 miles away ( if you live in England )

Which shows it's more about the way we are used to doing things now than what is sensible to do.

Your work and schools should be local to where you live or at least within cycling distance electric or analog.
I am here. Where are you?
Carlton green
Posts: 3628
Joined: 22 Jun 2019, 12:27pm

Re: On the cusp of cycling's greatest revolution

Post by Carlton green »

Cowsham wrote: 4 Dec 2022, 8:11pm Exactly --- and did you ever look under the bonnet of your diesel car and wonder how much energy it took to produce that massive lump of mechanical mayhem or where the oil it needs changed every year goes?

All that stuff to get one person to work 100 miles away ( if you live in England )

Which shows it's more about the way we are used to doing things now than what is sensible to do.

Your work and schools should be local to where you live or at least within cycling distance electric or analog.
Virtually everybody these days has zero idea about what’s under the bonnet of their car - and likewise most other machines too - and no concept of how fuel, in any of its various forms, manages to arrive at them.

As for travel the world’s simply crazy. I’ve long believed that folk should live and work in pretty much the same place and that planning permission shouldn’t be given for homes occupied by people who work more than say five miles away ie. only build homes near to employment and make sensible commuting distances a condition of employment.
horizon wrote: 19 Aug 2017, 12:06pm Imagine a friend says to you that since he saw that two leaves had turned gold today, at that rate it will take another million years to see Autumn in all its glory. You wisely point out to him that they will all start turning gold and that Autumn will take just three or four weeks to manifest itself.

So it is with electric bikes. I speak to no-one about cycling who doesn't mention them. It is the greatest change in cycling since the invention of the safety bicycle. My prediction is that within five years, a non-powered bicycle will be as quaint as someone using a candle to light their way.

Something will be lost in this Gadarene rush to battery power but it won't be noticed.
The original post was over five years ago. Thankfully the prediction failed, I’m very happy with peddle only power but I would agree that battery assisted cycling is socially beneficial.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
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