ramchip

Now that road bikes with "hidden" motors are going to be available to the masses, how would you feel if someone on your club ride had such a bike? In my opinion I feel that anything that keeps people out and about riding is a good thing. What do you think?

Mechanical Doping ? Road Bikes That Pedal Themselves

RonH

E-bikes are for people with health problems or those who are really old. Me, I'm 71 and my road bikes are fine the way they are.

Roytoy

I agree that anything that gets a person out and about is good. I have joint issues (genetic) and I'm in the process of adding a hub motor for commuting. Thanks for the link.

GravelMN

As an adaptive device to keep people with health issues active no problem. Likewise for the use of eBikes as assistance for commuters, delivery riders, or even personal recreation. But why would anyone who is fully able-bodied want to show up for a club ride on a moped. Oh yeah . . . sorry . . . the eBike industry doesn't like the word "moped".

It's like showing up for your running club's weekly 5K on a Segway.

corrado33

Who cares. If someone feels the need the spend a crap ton of money on a motor for their bike, so be it. Honestly I would have loved a pedal assist when I used to ride with my ex. She would go SO slow. If she had a pedal assist that made her go just as fast as me but at her current effort level, that would have made the rides a lot more fun.

For some people I could see how a motor could keep them interested. Half the fun with biking is going fast. When you start out you don't go fast. You could start with a motor then wean yourself off when you get strong enough to go that fast by yourself.

caloso

Making a bike go fast under your own power is hard work. Most people don't like hard work. I doubt many people who start with mechanical assistance would wean themselves off.

fietsbob

UCI wont allow it, but you can Spend Up and try it on your own ..

Often, Pedal-electrics , stop boosting when you stop turning the pedals ..

Drew Eckhardt 

While not for me, I think that's great as long as it's not a race.

The last time I went for a group ride I had to wait 12.5 minutes for the stragglers after the first 30 minute climb in spite of only giving it a 90% effort and totaled 50 minutes stopped in just over 3 hours. That ride would have been more enjoyable if those people had assistance. A little help will keep things copacetic for heavier people on climbs, smaller people on flats, females whose genetic power limit is about 10% lower than mens' at a given weight, and older people whose output tends to decline 0.5% per year past age 35.

People are already saving tens of Watts through better tires, aero components, aero clothing, and lighter bikes. While the upper bound is higher for an electric motor (the Gruber is good for another 100W) it's just another form of help from the equipment.

caloso

OP should note that recently there was a long (too long) thread on this subject in Commuting.

himespau 

If it got my wife riding with me more often (and that led to her being more accepting of the time I spend riding), I'd be all for it.

chasm54

No. I feel the same about this as Henri Desgrange felt about derailleurs, it's the work of Satan.

canklecat

I don't do club rides anymore and wouldn't care anyway what the other folks ride. How they ride matters more than what they ride. (I wouldn't consider any sanctioned or regulated type of event, like our local cyclocross events, a club ride, so those are entirely different scenarios.)

I'd gladly consider one for myself as a commuter and errand bike. Asthma limits my conditioning and there are a few dangerous areas where a little more speed and less rubbery legs would make a ride safer. I figure once you get above 30 lbs the extra weight doesn't matter as much, especially if it gives a boost uphill when loaded down with groceries.

But for a purely exercise bike in areas where I don't need to contend with much traffic, I'd probably prefer a lighter, faster purely mechanical bike. Not a purist, just don't want the extra weight and stuff for a recreational bike.

indyfabz

You forgot Chinese food delivery guys. They deliver much faster using e-bikes. I like my General Tso's Chicken to be piping hot when it arrives.

riva

Yes, who cares. Why worry about the guy next to you, just worry about yourself.

I used one to tow my kids in a trailer.. was able to ride with my buddy without going sooper slow. Always pedaled the crap out of it just like I would a regular bike. Nothing about them keeps you from getting a good workout. Fabulous equalizer for family rides where your wife/husband/kids/whatever have weaker legs too...

You can get just as good a workout on a 15 pound carbon bike as you can on a 30 pound vintage bike. Same thing applies.

mconlonx

"Riding a bicycle" to me means getting around under my own steam. Part of the charm, a lot of the reason I do it. I learned bicycle mechanics because bikes are fantastic examples of mechanical devices.

I might have sobbed a bit the first time I realized I was installing a wiring harness on a bike we were rigging up with Di2, or maybe it was the time I plugged in an ebike to the PC for a software update...

Don't get me wrong, ebikes have their place, and pedelec is a good option for those who either can't ride under their own power alone, or prefer not to, just not my cuppa tea at the moment.

In the back of my mind there are a couple scenarios -- one, where someone doing the pedelec ebike thing is encouraged enough by the electric assist that they try riding without the assist and find that they can ride just fine without it; another where the tech leaves a rider stranded, so they have to pedal the rest of the way and find out that they can do it and it's not that bad.

NormanF

I would say get a moped or a motorcycle if you're too lazy to make the effort to pedal.

A bicycle is meant to be pedaled, stupid.

corrado33

While I, personally, would never use an e-bike. If my girlfriend said she'd ride with me if she could keep up then I'd buy her one in a heartbeat.

I'm not talking about a moped. I'm talking about e-assist which would bring her power up to the same range as mine. She still has to pedal (hard) and will get tired, but because of the extra hundred watts or so, she'll be able to go the same speed as me. That would make for fun rides with the significant other.

canklecat

First time I tried that stuff 20+ years ago was at a little diner owned by an Asian family in a rural Texas town. The buffet wasn't labeled and I asked the lady who managed the place what the stuff was that resembled sweet and sour chicken. She said, very loudly, something that sounded like "It genital chicken!" I said, okay, I'll try anything once.

Later I wondered how big those roosters must have been.

tcarl

An older (in his 80's) rider in our group had an electric drive added to his rather fancy touring bike "because the Alps are getting too steep." Probably a good idea for him for his annual tours in Europe. But when he rode with us on a really flat, rural bike path he'd either drop way behind (deliberately) and then race back up to us, or he'd race on ahead and then wait for us to catch up. He was showing off how much faster he could go than we could. I found him quite annoying and have tried to stay away from him since then.

HBxRider

Good for peeps who ride around gnarly hills like San Francisco. Good for people wanting to smash strava records.

loky1179

This cracks me up more than anything.

Actually, that is exactly what you are talking about:
Why so much self-hatred and denial amongst the moped lovers?! Take mtb_addict's advice:

exmechanic89

I agree, I'll keep my bikes human powered. E-bikes are just another way for people to be lazy asses. What makes bicycles awesome is their simplicity - they take you places and give you a great workout as well. Powering them ruins the entire concept, imo.

And as far as people saying things like 'at least e-bikes bring more people into cycling' I agree, the same way you can justify people at gyms that do virtually nothing 'but at least they're at the gym'..

corrado33

While I'm often on your side of the argument, I'll play the devil's advocate for this time, only because you're being an ass.

Why are you ignoring the class of vehicle where you do, in fact pedal, and you do, in fact, get exercise, you just get a power boost from a motor? A moped is a motorized bike that doesn't have pedals. It may not be expressively stated in the definition, but that's the common vernacular. Would it be fun if my GF was riding a moped beside me while I rode a bike? No. Would it be fun if she was riding her pedal bike and keeping up with me while I'm riding my bike? Yes. This argument is NOT black and white. There's a middleground that you're ignoring because you feel like being childish. Do you know how a pedal assist bike works? It doesn't work unless you pedal. The harder you pedal, the more power boost you get, therefore effectively making someone that doesn't have great power equal to someone who is in much better shape than them (my GF and me.)

Now, you can continue with your ignorant bull**** if you please, but at least stop being a child and ignoring facts that don't agree with what you're saying.

ph0rk

That's your wrong vernacular.

Motorcycle, Scooter, and Moped all mean different things.

Among the first images to pop up with a google search on the term "moped" is this:



And growing up it always meant something with a motor and with pedals.

corrado33

You can define it however you want. 95% of the pictures on google image search are of non-pedaled "mopeds." I believe that's enough to be considered "common." In the US, I don't even think we have the pedaled versions. I think in my lifetime I've seen one of them (now that I try to remember), where as I've seen thousands of non-pedaled versions.