this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025

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micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!

"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.

micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"

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The Idiocy Of US E-Bike Regulations, Proven By One Brown Wire - CleanTechnica (cleantechnica.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/micromobility

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago

That's not proven, that's committing crime then being upset you're treated like a criminal.

But to be fair, those e-bicycles with motorbike engines should be illegal too. Cuz they're basically just "buy me to commit crime" vehicles.

There are bicycles with too big engines where I live too. They're illegal, but law enforcement is struggling to figure out how to stop them

[–] Hawke 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Dumb article. The author wants electric motorcycles without the hassle of licensing, registration, and insurance. She does not want an e-bike.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

Eh, I think she has a point about the wattage limitation. I can see an acceleration and speed based restriction as being safe, but limiting wattage seems like an arbitrary standard.

[–] markstos 4 points 8 hours ago

Eh, 750 watts is like having 1.5 Tour de France elite cyclists pedal for you. It’s plenty to get up the hill.

[–] Hawke 3 points 13 hours ago

That’s true to some extent. Those wattage numbers are pretty fuzzy depending on how it’s measured (continuous vs instantaneous power and such).

However the actual article is almost exclusively focused on being able to go 40mph+, and the hassle of making the motorbike street-legal and getting licensed.

[–] RedWeasel 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Regarding ebicycles, which those regulations are for, I would prefer a acceleration based limit over a wattage based one. I am over 200lbs and my adult niece is probably 110/120lbs. That is a big difference for a small electric motor not even getting into cargo. Add in limits for battery size and bike weight for safety.

Regarding the brown wire issue. Couldn't they have just made it with 2 keys? A black for on public areas and a red one for private property?

Not sure the devices that are being describe in the article should be under class 1/2/3, but rather under a titled scooter category. Don't know if one exists though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Why not just leave it at speed limits and use the power whatever the motor has until the speed limit is reached?
We already do this for cars - and we don't differ between an athlete and ..well, me, when it comes to acceleration on regular bikes, where the power limit is the human.

I really don't get such low power limits on E-Bikes

[–] RedWeasel 4 points 1 day ago

Difference of needing a license to operate.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (5 children)

While I really like my e-bikes, they have one big problem: steep inclines. With my asthma and not great shape I’m in, I can’t always make it up the steepest hills. And 500-750 watts of assist? That’s not going to help much on steep inclines.

Hold my 250 W European e-bike.
How steep is the "steep"?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago

It varies wildly by locale, this person may live somewhere extremely hilly like San Francisco, or they may live in Kansas (scientifically proven to be literally flatter than a pancake). I can't be bothered to check.

I'll say I'm confident this person is just being a big baby about having to pedal, and basically just wants an electric motorcycle.

[–] AnUnusualRelic 3 points 14 hours ago

It's the US, everything has to be bigger for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Touche

That's world tour level power output. No one need more than that to get up the hills

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

We have 20-21% grade hills in our city, which is pretty damn steep, especially with cargo. Definitely not the sort of thing you wanna be clipped in for if a light turns red, lol.

My ebike can do the steepest streets, but it maxes out at 1,300w at 14km/h while pedaling (unloaded, no cargo).

[–] friend_of_satan 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There are hills in SF my gas powered 125 cvt could not start on. Some had a stop sign right at the top. I would have to turn sideways across the lane, throttle and turn to start up the hill.

But that was starting from a stand still. I'm not sure how a 750w bike would handle it without having to stop. I could see them struggling though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Well a motor can provide instant torque at stand still, but an engine would have way lower power at low RPM and the transmission is inefficient when starting

[–] friend_of_satan 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

True, but a hub drive motor doesn't have a transmission and may be geared for fast speeds vs low speed climbing. Also without a transmission there's no clutch friction zone which could help an engine start up the hill. I'd be really interest to see a comparison video about this.

Edit: on second thought, my cvt didn't even have a clutch. Now I'm even more interested to see a video comparing electric motor, cvt, and manual clutch transmission.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago

Your CVT most like had an automatic, centrifugal clutch.