Just joined the cult of the ebike. Get in here and brag about how much you love the micro mobility revolution! (hexbear.net)

submitted 12 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) by MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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sicko-jammin sicko-biker sicko-pig

I'm cycle pilled and fully electric. I've got wind in my hair and bugs in my teeth. I've got places to be and sweat stains in my pits. I'm moisturized, unbothered, in my (protected!) bike lane, and flourishing. I can't fully ditch my car yet for intermittent long distance commute reasons, BUT, I think I will be able to when I switch projects next year. Capitalism is a fuck, death to AmeriKKKa, may crude oil go to $1000 a gallon!

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[-] Kereru@hexbear.net 3 points 1 hour ago

Hell yea

[-] oliveoil@hexbear.net 1 points 1 hour ago

I live in a treacherous place, so the ebike has been absolutely amazing for mobility. Slightly faster than driving.

[-] Chana@hexbear.net 5 points 3 hours ago

Hell yeah ding ding

[-] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 5 points 3 hours ago

I fucking hate micro mobility (short term rented ebikes/bikes and electric scooters.)
I love bikes, i love ebikes, i hate micro mobility. Wrote my thesis about why it sucks ass. Bullshit capitalist bullshit that leeches off infrastructure, provides nothing and might even just be the new car in microcosm. Micromobility i hate i hate hate hate.

Anyone arguing against this needs to read this three times, because Im not going to take you seriously if you think i hate bikes.

[-] stink@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 37 minutes ago

Can you explain more?

In my city, a yearly bike rental membership is $25, allowing for free rentals of manual bicycles, and 15 cents per minute for an e-bike rental (35 cents/min without a membership).

At least for my use-case, it's more economically feasible. I rarely rent an e-bike, only if I have to get across town in hot weather and I don't want to get there all sweaty (in the past year I've only rented an e-bike twice, while a regular bike is rented 3x/week for free with membership).

I have a love-hate relationship with it right now, mainly love though.

Pros:

I don't have to worry about maintenance, if the bike is broken or breaks down, I can just put it in any dock and find a new one.

I can pick a bike up from anywhere, if I want to bike somewhere and walk around, I don't have to go back and pick it up later.

If I want to bike somewhere and metro back home I don't have to worry about bringing my bike.

No worries about bringing a bike lock with me / fears of my bike getting stolen.

Cons:

Sometimes the docks are full, this isn't an issue most of the time, but when going to busy areas of the city or to festivals it can become a huge pain. (One time I biked a mile to a soccer game and had to bike half a mile away from the fields to find an empty dock)

The bikes are hit or miss when it comes to maintenance. Some are mint, others have creaky brakes, one time I almost took off before realizing both of the brakes were broken. People don't know how to change gears and it fricks up the bike (the newer ones use stepless CVTs that I've fallen in love with)

I know I'm lucky in my city to have this as an option, and I'm sure you are talking about things like Lime and things of that nature, which I'd have to agree with, they seem to be scams and tourist traps if anything.

[-] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 1 points 44 minutes ago

What's bad about it?

[-] Ildsaye@hexbear.net 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I'm doing a reversible conversion on my old steel touring bike, and I've been encountering a lot of friction in getting everything ready.

First, I got a Gouach battery, which is cool in theory because the 18650 cells are socketed and can be swapped out, but in practice the firmware can't be configured if you don't have a very mainstream device with bluetooth (my old phone and linux laptop wouldn't cut it [I had to visit a more square friend, and their windows-chrome setup worked instantly]), and the company seems to consist of a small team of engineers with no dedicated support. The BMS chip does have a data cable socket (though it resembles a display bus more than USB), so maybe the thing can be made to behave more sensibly, like being able to plug it into a computer and have local software for it, in future. I'd advise most readers to skip Gouach until the company gets its shit together.

So I got the battery looking the way it's supposed to more or less, identified as XT90 the cable needed to connect it to the mid-drive motor system I got, then found that my handlebars are too fat to mount the system's throttle and display. All sorts of legacy options for bottom bracket widths, but no allowance made for thick handlebars? It took me some time to learn that handlebar risers, which mount to the handlebars and float a thinner bar above them expressly for accessory mounting, exist. I guess it makes sense, since there is so much more to mount than just a bell and a headlight nowadays.

I anticipate further trouble when I install the motor and it's time to calibrate it. The motor also expects me to get the app and to manage it with bluetooth. Fucking hate how smartphones have become a pretext to ship incomplete products. I hope in the end I can configure everything to my liking and then disable the antennae on both the motor and battery.

[-] fox@hexbear.net 5 points 6 hours ago

I want an ebike but $$ and also I'm big and tall which limits me to more expensive ones with better frames and larger batteries to make up for the range loss of my size, at least as far as those calculators indicate :///

[-] Athena5898@hexbear.net 3 points 6 hours ago

I haven't been able to ride in a while because of my surgery. Hoping to get back on it soon.

[-] FloridaBoi@hexbear.net 3 points 7 hours ago

Escooter purchased 18 months ago. Replaces 50% of car trips

[-] regul@hexbear.net 25 points 11 hours ago

E-bikes are great.

I think the way the average non-cyclist engages with them is problematic, though. First question I always get asked by "normies" (non-cyclists) is "how fast does it go?". The second question is always "how far can it go on a single charge?" These two questions indicate how utterly missing the point of ebikes most people are. Which, I think, is why you see so many of those e-motos around with 1000W motors and huge double batteries. I think those things are annoying and unsafe.

But I have to bite my tongue about it, because:

They're still better than cars for everyone involved, and the people riding them would almost certainly otherwise be driving.
Boomer state legislatures are frothing at the mouth to ban e-motos without understanding anything about ebikes and almost always inadvertently nuking regular ebikes (or enacting significant barriers to them) with collateral damage

[-] Dessa@hexbear.net 3 points 6 hours ago

Why are these bad questions? I just wanna know if I can physically.handle a commute to work on one. I realize that it depends somewhat in how much I pedal, but I'm not an athlete, and I know I won't commit if I'm completely exhausted and sweaty every day at work. Whatever these other higher purposes all the snobs in the replies are about, I'm trying to find something that works for my life. Is it car brained to try and work out the practical considerations of daily travel?

[-] regul@hexbear.net 3 points 5 hours ago

The top speed of an ebike usually has nothing to do with how much effort you yourself put in. This is especially true above 20mph.

[-] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 23 points 11 hours ago

"how fast does it go?". The second question is always "how far can it go on a single charge?"

this is car brain in two types in the sense that most drivers have an entirely fucked up view of trip time with a strenous relationship to reality at best and also that one vehicle needs to do everything. Sure I've never needed to do a cannonball run, but what if i did?

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 12 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

These freaks are so alienated from nature they think they get in the car and the world moves the 'destination' to them. They resent non-hermetically sealed and non air conditioned spaces as an affront to man's place at the center of the universe. I beg of them to touch grass.

[-] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 5 points 8 hours ago

Yeah, I get the how fast does it go or how fast does it accelerate first-thing too. The distance thing is hard to answer because it's more about speed and how much physical effort put into it for me. If I keep it 18-22 Km/h I can e-bike all day.

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 12 points 11 hours ago

God that's the pits. I'll add it to my list of grievances against car brained society. I got myself a nice class 2-3 fat tire because I really wanted something that could handle snow and ice. I'm serious about using this in all 4 seasons. But the motor is just 750 watts and maxes out at 28 mph with pedal assist, and honestly? That sounds too fast to me anyway. I'd only really want to do that on a long distance paved trail or something where I have exceptional vision conditions.

Everything in the city I'm in is less than 5 miles away from where I live, and MOST of the streets have decent bike lanes, some are even protected. I just want to get around town and get my body moving more regularly. No need for one of those teenager death machines that are basically just electric motorcycles.

[-] stink@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 34 minutes ago

E-bikes in my city cap out at ~20mph and I feel like I'm going way too fast riding at that speed. Many such cases of schoolkids renting an e-bike without a helmet and zooming through the city hitting pedestrians.

[-] spectre@hexbear.net 7 points 8 hours ago

The 28mph is handy when I need to hop on a 25mph street with no bike accommodations to make a connection.

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 8 points 8 hours ago

Oh that totally makes sense. Less time spent in a car lane the better. Glad I have the option then!

[-] Busgirl@hexbear.net 5 points 8 hours ago

I have probably the same bike and need it to do 40 miles every day to get to work so I don't think the range question is really all that bad

[-] pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 17 points 11 hours ago

fuck "master race" anything

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 21 points 11 hours ago

tricked-out-ride ring ring passing on your left

[-] gayspacemarxist@hexbear.net 9 points 11 hours ago

hitler-detector my my my

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 16 points 10 hours ago

stalin-nyet

Please. I'm a 6 year member. Do I need to write it in Maoist standard English to get the parody across? I said passing on your 'left' as an intentional pun too. This is a shit post, don't be shitty.

[-] gayspacemarxist@hexbear.net 3 points 8 hours ago

I mean yeah, that might make it a little funny. Ig I should have checked your papers.

[-] tombruzzo@hexbear.net 3 points 8 hours ago

Yep, I've got one and do about 30kms to and from work every time I ride it. Range is 60kms so I can get two days out of it before a charge. Plus there's a PowerPoint in the courtyard at work where I park it so I can fill it up on the boss's dollar too.

Cruising along, bone conduction headphones on, taking in the fresh air and the weather. Whilst everyone else is stuck in their car

[-] microfiche@hexbear.net 14 points 12 hours ago

master race

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 11 points 11 hours ago

You're right, sorry, how bourgeois of me: Proletariat race.

[-] yellowfattybean@hexbear.net 8 points 11 hours ago

I picked up 3 used ebikes in the last 6 months. One cheap hub drive class 3 (28mph with throttle, single speed belt drive) and two Bosch mid drive class 2 (20mph no throttle).

They're all amazing and totally revived my love of cycling. 20mph is a little too slow and torque sensing mid drive is far superior to cadence sensor rear hub drive

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 10 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Really? Maybe I'll want to use the full speed more often then. I used to have a single speed in a very flat city. It was one of the best times in my life as far as fitness goes. I can't wait to get back out there without fearing the ravages of time so much. I expect to be able to scale with the bike because it is a torque sensor. As I get stronger I can lower the PAS. I live somewhere a little hilly now, and I would really struggle to get back into it. I was the kind of person who needed to 'fool' my body into exercise with fun activities. Can't wait to finally pull off that trick again.

[-] yellowfattybean@hexbear.net 8 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

My absolute favorite thing is an ebike's ability to flatten hills. I hope you put many many miles on it

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 7 points 9 hours ago

warning: genuinely bad pun

"Flattened Hill" planet-hillary

[-] 9to5@hexbear.net 5 points 9 hours ago

I exhaled loudly. Never has 9to5 seen a pun crafted by such masterful wit

[-] gayspacemarxist@hexbear.net 7 points 11 hours ago

Burn down the masters qin-shi-huangdi-fireball

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 6 points 10 hours ago

Everything has to be serious at all times and we cannot find any humor in the absurdity of hell world.

The last time I smiled was on August 19th, 1991.

I wear a dirty ushanka at all times, do not shave, and only take cold sponge baths because hot running water is bourgeoisie decadence.

Every day at exactly noon I have the same meal of an expired Maoist MRE I store in a pit covered in old issues of a revolutionary newspaper.

I sleep in a bed made of flags from every failed revolution so that they are never forgotten.

In the evenings I stare at a picture of vodka by candlelight, but I do not allow myself to drink because there is nothing to celebrate.

Every local org has banned me after I attempted to split it by assassinating the leadership.

There is no plumbing in my house I shit in a brass bucket with a picture of Gonzalo and Deng french kissing in the bottom of it.

My house is actually an overturned T34 in an abandoned junkyard in Wisconsin.

I have a single friend in this world and it is a tapeworm named Bordiga that I met after ingesting spoiled borscht on 9/11 in the ruins of building 7 (I blew it up after finding that a nominally leftist NGO inside of it wasn’t sufficiently anti-imperialist, the attacks on the world trade center were a perfect revolutionary moment for me to enact direct praxis against liberalism).

My source of income is various MLM schemes in the former soviet bloc that have been running for so long no one remembers who I am, they just keep sending money.

I have not paid taxes since McGovern lost the Democratic nomination for president and my faith in electoralism died more brutally than my childhood dog after it got into an entire jar of tylenol.

I own 29 fully automatic rusted kalashnikovs and three crates of ammunition entirely incompatible with them or any other firearms I own.

My double PHD in marxist economics and 18th century Swiss philosophy (required to understand Engels) sits over the fireplace of my home, my fireplace is a salvaged drum from a 1950s washing machine that was recalled for locking children inside of it.

I chose that washing machine model on purpose because I am anti-natalist.

During the latest BLM protests I firebombed a Nikes outlet in the middle of a peaceful candlelit vigil.

William F Buckley and I wrote hatemail to one another for 47 years until my final letter gave him an aneurysm. The only water I drink is from puddles.

George Lucas and I dropped acid together during an MKULTRA southern baptist summer camp and he went on to write the movie Willow about our time together.

The best way to test whether an electrical wire is live is to drool on it and shrimp salad is racist. You can make an IED out of potassium and the instructions are online thanks to Timothy McVey, who was actually a committed antifascist communist slandered by the deep state as part of operation condor.

Every time a liberal files a restraining order against me, I carve a mark into the wall.

I am running out of walls.

When Amerika finally collapses I will be ready to lead the revolution.

I am very smart and people like being around me.