ebikes on the Shore

Posted by: Hepcat

Posted by: tashi

When it comes down to it I don’t think that the throttle or max assist “mods” cause safety issues to be concerned about, but that’s based on my experiences and the people I see using them.

I need to move to your neighborhood.

My sample is made up of mostly middle class parents in the center of town and on Rad bikes specifically, we have plenty of heavily modified and unsafely operated e-bikes flying around here too  

Plenty of modified e-bikes around, my impression is that Rads (particularly family friend ones) aren’t the ones getting hacked much and the ways that they don’t comply with the regulation aren’t important safety-wise. It seems like it’s usually the TOTAL shit pieces or VERY VERY nice bikes hat are getting the high-speed mods.

I have no data other than my observations so who knows if I’m correct.

The thing is, as a mode of transportation, they're great, and strictly for on road use and following the rules of the road, I don't care about throttle use. If enforcement and regulatory compliance weren't issues, I'd even go so far as to say that a 45 km/hr limit would be great on road only options, particularly in places without bike lanes. But as other users have mentioned, this blurs the line with e-motorcycle rather than an eeb, and sadly for a number of reasons we just aren't set up to deal with a proliferation of alternative people movers.

Posted by: earleb

Posted by: tashi

Running on the throttle only is very very (VERY) slow with a Rad. Anyone who wants to cook without pedaling is going to be on something else or hacking the shit out of their rad, adding a throttle to a bike is easy peasy for anyone like that.

This. We have a Radwagon and ain't nobody blowing by anyone with that beast on throttle only like it's a moto.

Hating on RAD is bike snobbery at it's finest.

I dont 'hate' on RAD bikes specifically. I know there are other bikes out there with dead stop throttles, that are much faster and are also bending/breaking the MVA. There are more RAD bikes out there than the others (likely because of their lower price point) so there is more exposure to them. Just because you are only 'slowly' breaking the laws on your RAD bike does that make it acceptable? We cant control people hacking e-bikes to make them faster etc, but in my opinion they shouldn't be sold from a retailer with a throttle that breaks the rules and have a user accesible software upgrade built in that ups their speed limit to 40km/h. Is that fair?

^^  IG ads target me  with these all the time.  Claimed 60-100kph conversion kits.

https://rigebikes.myshopify.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZVhE2Kqa6LsZ93Q0eUnRmMRY7frU_fAiGvrVOMpK_iYbqELNuO8jqR-7U_aem_pHGue4pwi32BsWj5vjMNCw

Posted by: shoreboy

Posted by: earleb

Posted by: tashi

Running on the throttle only is very very (VERY) slow with a Rad. Anyone who wants to cook without pedaling is going to be on something else or hacking the shit out of their rad, adding a throttle to a bike is easy peasy for anyone like that.

This. We have a Radwagon and ain't nobody blowing by anyone with that beast on throttle only like it's a moto.

Hating on RAD is bike snobbery at it's finest.

I dont 'hate' on RAD bikes specifically. I know there are other bikes out there with dead stop throttles, that are much faster and are also bending/breaking the MVA. There are more RAD bikes out there than the others (likely because of their lower price point) so there is more exposure to them. Just because you are only 'slowly' breaking the laws on your RAD bike does that make it acceptable? We cant control people hacking e-bikes to make them faster etc, but in my opinion they shouldn't be sold from a retailer with a throttle that breaks the rules and have a user accesible software upgrade built in that ups their speed limit to 40km/h. Is that fair?

How do you up the assist to 40km/hr on a Rad?

Posted by: tashi

Posted by: shoreboy

Posted by: earleb

Posted by: tashi

Running on the throttle only is very very (VERY) slow with a Rad. Anyone who wants to cook without pedaling is going to be on something else or hacking the shit out of their rad, adding a throttle to a bike is easy peasy for anyone like that.

This. We have a Radwagon and ain't nobody blowing by anyone with that beast on throttle only like it's a moto.

Hating on RAD is bike snobbery at it's finest.

I dont 'hate' on RAD bikes specifically. I know there are other bikes out there with dead stop throttles, that are much faster and are also bending/breaking the MVA. There are more RAD bikes out there than the others (likely because of their lower price point) so there is more exposure to them. Just because you are only 'slowly' breaking the laws on your RAD bike does that make it acceptable? We cant control people hacking e-bikes to make them faster etc, but in my opinion they shouldn't be sold from a retailer with a throttle that breaks the rules and have a user accesible software upgrade built in that ups their speed limit to 40km/h. Is that fair?

How do you up the assist to 40km/hr on a Rad?

It takes less than a minute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQyRqTosP84

Oh that’s cool, I don’t think you can do that with the controller that on mine, which tops out at 35

^^ I've read it depends on the hub wattage of whatever model you have.  Might be 750+ to be able to achieve the 40kph ungoverned.  Have also read that newest models may no longer have that software unlock, but all that's just reddit chatter

Posted by: earleb

Hating on RAD is bike snobbery at it's finest.

then don't start crying when shit burns. there is a reason why those are cheaper. didn't they just starting to offer ul certified batteries? oh geez, i wonder why

So if one increases the top speed, what affects will that have on battery capacity? Is there an exponential decrease in capacity for a given ride? Does drawing power more quickly cause overheating of a battery? Or since you can increase the max speed does that mean the system is designed for higher speeds so that all jurisdictions can have a legal max speed?

It’s a built in setting and designed to be used, why would the bike not handle it?

And yes, going faster with an electric motor uses more power, a significant amount. The loss is exponential I believe. This applies to pretty much all motors and anything electric as well.

https://m.pinkbike.com/news/canyon-issue-a-stop-use-notice-for-the-spectralon-cf-and-cfr-and-torqueon-cf-emtbs.html

I’m confident that the Chinese unclassified emtbs proliferating on our PNW trails will have a robust manufacturer recall program like Canyon when needed.

/s