Comments on: E-Bikes Land on Mars… Hill

By: Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:23:43 +0000

…. Also Lowell does not win every year. Lets hear it for USGS building 6!!

By: Brian Taylor

Brian Taylor — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:05:34 +0000

As someone who regularly rides “the hill”, I usually start thinking about an e-bike just before the hairpin!

A very nice read, glad you satisfied your pride

By: JaimeRoberto

JaimeRoberto — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:05:22 +0000

Let me share some of my father’s wisdom. “Everyone likes a little ass. Nobody likes a little smartass.”

By: Ted Johnson

Ted Johnson — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:36:04 +0000

Bill: The bikes that Josh and I used were both powered by the BionX system -- which adds proportionally to your pedal power; there is no throttle, per se. The range of the 350HT Kit is supposed to be 56 miles, based on some fairly ideal conditions. (I've never ridden one until the battery was completely dead.) I would only worry about that hill if it were the last 3/4 mile of a long commute where you were using a lot of pedal assist before you got to the base of the hill. The nice thing about e-bikes is that you can budget for when you use the power, and save it for the places you know you don't want to be going unassisted. I find that when I'm on flat, the law of conservation of linear momentum means that I don't need to use any electric power to sustain my speed. I imagine that a frugal daily user of an e-bike could get really good at regulating their power use to stretch out their range -- even beyond the product's stated range. Whereas a profligate user of the electric power could end up with a dead battery a fraction of the stated range.

By: Bill DeGroff

Bill DeGroff — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:42:29 +0000

Ted, I’d like to hear how the e-bikes performed — enough power to get all the way up the hill? I’ve considered buying an electric bike but have been concerned that the batteries would die half-way up the hill. Then I would be left having to pedal up the hill with another 15 to 30 lb of “dead” weight. I assume you were pedaling along with the motors — how would you describe the performance?

By: Ted Johnson

Ted Johnson — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:11:53 +0000

Jon: I figured that people who consider Michael Moore a hero would consider James O’Keefe a jerk, and vice versa. I felt like a jerk, so I made it a multiple choice comparison.

By: Jon McDuffie

Jon McDuffie — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:54:27 +0000

Here’s another bit of relativity for you, Mr. Johnson: I live and bike in Detroit and have for all of my 65. My folks are or were nearly all autoworkers – black ones to boot, thus the most deeply affected by its current circumstances. I consider Michael Moore anything but a jerk, principally because I have been here to watch it all unfold and collapse, viewed from the inside. I consider Moore’s view on Detroit visionary. Perhaps it looks different from where you are Sir, but that’s only one view as well.

I feel that Mr. Moore – along with Philip Levine and Thomas Sugrue, for other examples – among writers about my town and its people with deeply-examined views worth consideration.

By: bergerandfries

bergerandfries — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:25:05 +0000

Smartassery: the curse of a clever mind…