Simon Cowell crashed on a......

[ultraman6970]

To ride w/o a lincense at least here you have a top speed of like 25 mph, since when 60mph is street legal?

As for his accident, well... you have to know what are you doing even to go over 25mph IMO.

Locally im just waiting for accidents to happen in the trail involving regular bikes and electric bikes.

[Velocipede]

Jay Kay was faster

[benb]

Meh.. when you have any real power you need to know what you're doing even to go pedal bike speeds... cause serious motorcycles have a ton more power & brakes and such and weigh a lot more than a bicycle. This thing is a serious motorcycle. Maybe it's got the power of a CR250... but it probably has the torque of a liter bike too. And it's that ultra low end torque an electric motor has that's the hardest thing to control. Though if it's got bicycle brakes it's probably staggeringly short on brakes compared to a CR.

The majority of cyclists the majority of the time get away with behavior that will dump you on the ground really fast on a motorcycle.

I'm 99% sure my handling/cornering/emergency braking skills have deteriorated a lot since I stopped riding a motorcycle.

You have to be consciously aware of the correct way to ride a 2-wheeled vehicle constantly and do the correct things when riding a big powerful motorcycle. On a bicycle you're constantly doing silly stuff and get away with it cause the bike weighs nothing and has a ton of grip and no power. Bad turn in behavior, dangerous use of the brakes, etc..

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by benb

You have to be consciously aware of the correct way to ride a 2-wheeled vehicle constantly and do the correct things when riding a big powerful motorcycle. On a bicycle you're constantly doing silly stuff and get away with it cause the bike weighs nothing and has a ton of grip and no power. Bad turn in behavior, dangerous use of the brakes, etc..

Can you expand on this? I assume bicycles, with less mass, are more forgiving when you enter a turn too hot compared to motorcycles. What else would one need to be more conscientious about?

[KJMUNC]

I see this all the time in our beach town and have been thinking about this issue for a while: I see kids ripping around town on "e-bikes" that are really bikes with batteries (not like this, an electric motorcycle), but they still easily hit 25-30mph immediately, and kids are riding on sidewalks, through parks, etc.....areas they'd never be allowed with a motorcycle, nor even a pedal bike at that speed.

I suspect it's going to come to a head when one of them gets seriously injured or runs into someone else and causes a major injury.

I love seeing more people on bikes (e-bike or otherwise), but the e-bike industry/OEM should really find a way to take a leadership role in shaping the direction of municipal codes or they're going to get a reputation not unlike the dreaded "bird/lime scooters"

[54ny77]

Was on popular path in my area last weekend and some moron on an e-bike with a trailer with kid in back ripped past me, no horn or anything, doing at least mid-high 25s mph. Came close at the pass, but a decent distance (a few feet). A reasonable pace on the path is mid teens. He was pretty much double that. Farther up trail he was weaving around people at speed. Just stupid.

Frankly, that's a moped, not a bike. I don't know what the answer is on allowing them on paths, because I have a pal who rides one but needs the assist for medical reasons. He also doesn't go screaming along on trails.

I guess put an idiot behind the wheel of anything fast (car) and they'll behave accordingly. Let Darwin sort that out for them and hopefully not involve me!

[benb]

Originally Posted by slowpoke

Can you expand on this? I assume bicycles, with less mass, are more forgiving when you enter a turn too hot compared to motorcycles. What else would one need to be more conscientious about?

Being aware of counter steering & consciously doing it is the big one.

[Mr. Pink]

https://www.treehugger.com/simon-cow...e-bike-5074440

[marciero]

Originally Posted by cmg

from the manufacturer's site. "Delivering a staggering 15kW of electric power, this is the most technically advanced and powerful electric bicycle on the market." this is a bicycle?

Gotta love the marketing "staggering", "brutally fast", "insane", etc. At 15kW it 's more horsepower than the dirt bikes I rode as a kid.

Originally Posted by benb

...
Maybe it's got the power of a CR250... but it probably has the torque of a liter bike too. And it's that ultra low end torque an electric motor has that's the hardest thing to control. Though if it's got bicycle brakes it's probably staggeringly short on brakes compared to a CR.

A bit less at ~20hp but yeah, this.

Does it have twist grip throttle too?

[colker]

I see guys zooming their ebikes on MUT paths everyday. It´s indeed the wild west.

[peanutgallery]

E bikes will be the next Boomer Remover. It is known that the Velcro straps from podiatrist sourced, New Balance shoes raise havoc with electronics They are all kinds of chaos on the rail trail at the moment

With e bikes, there are going to be some growing pains. No...it isn't going to save the industry

[unterhausen]

Originally Posted by marciero

Does it have twist grip throttle too?

It has to, it's not meant to pass any sort of regulatory scrutiny.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by merlinmurph

The initial stories I read described it as an "electric bicycle" and "e-bike" - their words.

Is that really an e-bike? 15kW?


OTOH, I met an older couple (70s) in a campground near Acadia NP and after seeing their e-bikes, I asked them how they liked them. They told me that a ranger saw their e-bikes and told them they could not ride the bike trails because their bikes had throttles. Just an example of the mess this is. There is no easy answer.

BIG difference between an 'E' assist bike and a 'E' powered bike. Throttle?? An electric scooter with rotating pedals. No different really than the pile Cowell fell off of.

[AngryScientist]

as i opined in another thread, only rich idiots would buy this kind of bike.

it's a non street legal twenty one thousand, five hundred dollar monstrosity.

for that huge amount of money, you can pretty much have any motorcycle you want, and have it street legal.


that said, the outcome is really not at all surprising. tourists wind up in the hospital ALL the time after crashing scooters rented without having any idea how to ride a 2-wheeled vehicle with even a little power.

[ultraman6970]

Is cowell able to walk or not?? havent seen anything besides he broke his back.