Posted on 05/18/2023 4:33:11 AM PDT by FarCenter
Visit Asia's emerging megacities and you’ll quickly notice that scooters and motorbikes vastly outnumber cars. Before long these fleets of two-wheelers will become battery-powered, always-connected, semi-autonomous machines that offer an even more potent alternative to their four-wheeled rivals.
The reasons powered two-wheelers dominate nations such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam – with a combined population over 1.75 billion – are simple: cars are unaffordable on local wages, few urban homes have space to store them, and warm climates make two-wheelers viable year-round. Plus, many of them sell for less than the equivalent of $1,000 apiece.
The industry has decided many will soon be electric and it looks like drivers will buy them.
"Electrification of micromobility can be adopted at a faster pace than cars, mainly because the motor and batteries are much smaller," Fook Fah Yap, a director at Singapore's Nanyang Technical University's Transport Research Centre told The Register.
Evidence of the shift is not hard to find. Earlier this year Honda announced it will start to sell by ten battery powered bikes in 2025. Yamaha expects 90 percent of its sales will be electrified by 2050 and Toyota is expected to announce an electric two-wheeler this year.
What’s the safety record for accidents?
It’s on the head stones
Exactly
WHAT NEXT?... Possibly, "The EASE with which an Electric Scooter can be STOLEN"( in an always predictable America )
Yep,for quality ones. Last month I purchased a 750w fully suspended e-MTB for just under $2,000 out the door. Love it. Have already replaced the rear shock and various bits because I like to mod and tinker. I also geared it down and it will easily wheelie sky high when starting in 1st or 2nd gear on a steep slope with full throttle. I’m almost 70 and got yelled at for riding too fast on a deserted bike trail lol. I could have paid about $7,000 for a comparable big name bike but failed to see the advantage.
There are some videos of these things exploding on subways and elevators. No thanks.
“Oil the chain.”
Or get one with a Gates carbon belt drive and an internally geared transmission, and forget maintenance almost entirely.
“carbon belt”
Go for the KEVLAR
Garbage bikes, don't buy them. Underpowered and flimsy, prone to catching on fire when recharging. Good e-bikes run $2000 to $6000 and up. The garbage bikes are limited to very low speeds and duration, and offer few features. Can consider them to be toys that won't last long.
Dang, you're tough! 1200 miles, off-road, and going strong. I'm in my 70's with an e-bike, but I don't use it often, certainly not 60 miles at a time. I can get up to 28mph via pedal-assist, but usually don't. Can't get my wife on a bike to join me, she remembers the time she got catapulted off my motorcycle when we were young, on mountain trails when I hit a rut on the trail. She called them coffins on wheels and stopped riding on them.
I’ll stick with the pedal power of my Trek......I need the exercise.
Dont have any use for anything bigger than my battery powered drill......and THAT aggravates me most of the time. 😏
Good batteries have electronics and sensors that turn off the charging before 100%. Part of that is a heat sensor that detects overheating of the battery and will shut off charging. However, some (if not many) Chinese producers eliminate those expensive sensors with resistors to mimic heat sensors, in order to sell the batteries cheaply. The device containing the battery (as in an e-bike, scooter, or tool) relies on feedback from the sensors in order to turn on the device. Test the third prong on a battery pack for voltage and see if it changes as temperature is raised on the battery pack, if not, then you have a defective Chinese battery.
Depends on local laws. E-bikes with a button to engage the motor are limited to lower speeds (such as 15mph). E-bikes that require the operator to pedal to engage the motor can operate at higher speeds (almost double). There are several classes of e-bikes allowed in local laws for use on the road.
Drill aggravation happens to all of us! I have 4 types of hand drills. Smallest for simple tasks. Last week trying to drill some holes in beams and 6x6 posts for bolts - the 18v hand-drill had trouble doing it. Switched to a corded heavy-duty drill, it still had trouble. Then used my demolition drill hammer with a chuck, and easily drilled the large 7-inch depth holes. Battery-power is not always the best option.
Show me one.
https://www.valuepenguin.com/florida-moped-scooter-insurance-laws
My sister was riding a bike in front of her 300 pound husband who was riding an e-bike, and going downhill. She ended up in the hospital after he ran over her. OOPS! Her head bounced off the pavement.
My wife is still a tad intimidated by it, which I get. I think the fact that it is so much heavier than a bike, and the slow speed handling characteristics are quite different from a standard bicycle. I give her points, but she let me know definitively she didn’t want to do more than a 20 mile ride after that long ride!
She didn’t complain, and I give her props for that, because she knew I was having fun...:)
I like driving on the trails, but I am too hyperaware on the roads to enjoy it nearly as much. But I do it when I want to link two or more bike trails up to cover ground.
I have gone out in cold weather too, but...not my thing. They aren’t safe enough to drive on snow, although if I had to do it, I think I could do it if it were an emergency.
We both agree 100% on the value of the bluetooth helmets where we can easily converse with each other. It makes it safer, you don’t have to ride side by side, and don’t need to shout. I think it was $120 for each helmet, but well worth it.
It is nice to have something we can do together. When we used to ride standard bikes, so often I would have to drive back to the car alone, and come back and get her. I understood. I just have more history riding bikes than she does is all. But these bikes, I can see she enjoys it.
I sure do. I love being able to concentrate on the surroundings rather than retreating inside myself to get up a hill, more interested in my tired legs than the scenery. Now, I just give it a little juice, and cruise right up, still enjoying the sun and scenery.
The other thing I REALLY like is how much easier it is crossing a busy road. On a standard bike, you have one foot on the ground, the other on the pedal, and when a car slows to let you go or you have an opening, you have to stand on the pedal to get going, sometimes wobbling a bit, and it just feels...hazardous. Especially if your foot slips off the pedal in the middle of trying to get up to speed!
With the E-Bike, when ready, you just goose the throttle and...it feels so much more controlled, so much safer crossing a road.
I hear you, loud and clear. I enjoy it so much, having a paved bike trail 10 miles long just a few streets over. It goes into an old shut-down Army base that has been purchased by the state as a park, it has mostly unpaved roads.
I never would take a bike out for a lunchtime ride, but...when I work from home, I sometimes do take it out for a spin, do about eight miles to the old Army base. (It was a lot more fun when it was just an abandoned Army base)
I sure do enjoy it...
Yes! I did that last late October, dressed warm and drove the bike up to Hampton beach, then took the bike North!
What did suck was, my battery got low, didn’t have my spares, and had to pedal some distance. Weighing sixty pounds, they really aren’t made to pedal long distances.
Thing was, the trip North was wonderful. I just didn’t realize I had the wind at my back. On the return trip, it was directly into a stiff wind, and it ran the battery down really fast.
I sure do like having that spare battery, but I didn’t have it that day.
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