Originally Posted by
Golectric
Some people veiw the scooter style as a threat to the traditional image of a bike, do some searches and you find some pretty interesting bike designs. The key to the definition is limited power, limited Speed, not what it looks like. Weight has been sited as a safty factor. Do the calculations. A 170 lbs rider pedaling a 30lbs non assist bike at 40km or a 165lbs, soft panaled scooter with a 170 lbs rider traveling at 32km. I suspect that the kinetic energy created at the high velocity of the lighter bike will be very close if not higher then the heavier soft paneled scooter.
Pete
Hi Golectric. You have to take the same speeds into consideration if you're going to be performing kinetic potential comparisons. Another thing to note, is that when looking at the mainstream population, their maintained speeds are actually 20-25kph, considerably *lower* than that which a scooter bike would produce on average. 40kph is an example of an athletic road biker, a "non common" example that can *easily* be counterbalanced with examples of e-bikers overvolting their systems.
If you're going to be doing calculations, it has to be without a spin. On average, I think you'll find the moving speed of a bicycle to be lower than that of an assisted variant, making your comparison highly skewed.
Thus, when you're looking at things from an even perspective, without spin, thats an entirely false notion.
The issue really, is that there *arent* any "bikes" out there that come anywhere near 170lbs. The average "bicycle" e-bike measures between 45-70lbs. My system can actually probably be considered one of the heavier ones out there (a steel MTB, Crystalyte, and Xtracycle), and together they all come in at 54lbs pre-battery. I've not got a battery at the moment, but even if I decided to go for the absolute heaviest commercial product out there, the bike would come in at 80lbs.
The only way that I could get this system *anywhere* near the comparative weight of a scooter bike would be by packing things into the Xtracycle. In this case, I could easily push vehicle weight to 250lbs, but that would be a skewed comparison, as a 170lb scooter bike carrying the same gear would push 340. At that point in time, the handling on my X' would be close to that of a vespa style scooter, and the scooter bike would be moving like it was a motorcycle.
There isn't any sort of threat between the two, as the design of the former is built around offering people a scooter style riding position and a more "vehicular" aesthetic.
On the subject of bike paths, I honestly must disagree with you. Safety has precedence over a notion to take e-bikes of any sort onto a bike path which is often occupied with children, joggers, and recreational cyclists. The odds of a 170lb bicycle moving considerably faster than the local traffic, and being safe, are exceptionally slim. Its not a question of aesthetics, its a question of turning yourself into a fast moving brick in a crowd of comparatively slow, unwary targets.