It’s marginal gains all the way here but genuinely if you’re an omnivore the E-Bike might work out more enviromentally conscious

  • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    12·
    12 days ago

    i’m genuinely blown away by how much range they can get with a small battery pack

    you could strap a few spares onto the bike and fill your backpack up and go like 1000 miles. even easier if you stay on power assist level 1 or 2.

    this must be some breakthrough level where the energy density of li-ion batteries being so much less then gasoline is canceled out by the human muscle power combined with how light a bike + motor is.

    i mean no old school moped is going to take you 1000 miles with a gallon of gas in a backpack. or maybe? either way i would rather deal with a simple electric motor then an annoying 2 stroke

    but yeah rented some with my partner in the spring and rode a rail trail and it was the most fun we’ve had in years. it’s the closest to a powered exoskeleton i’ve ever experienced. a family member is about to get rid of their cargo e bike and i may be able to get it for free soon.

        • Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided]@hexbear.netEnglish
          5·
          12 days ago

          it’s weight at low speeds and then not having the high speeds’ drag when you never go all that fast. people generally don’t want the e-moto for a 100 mile trip because they’re trying to do it in less than four hours and none of the constraints really work out for that.

        • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
          2·
          11 days ago

          as well as the low(er) speeds bicycles in general are just really good at weight vs. transportable weight. I mean you can fit like 5 people and luggage in a car, for example, say what, 800kg of load? Even if you do this in a like a Gen 1 Twingo, miserable as that might be, you’d be looking at about 1:1 car weight vs. transported weight.

          a 30kg E-bike has little problem transporting a 100kg perso, so more like 3:1 on that front.