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I agree with the derailleur and tire puncture comment but I think 25kph is too slow for ebikes to become legit urban transportation solutions. I think an assist limit that slow actually puts riders at more risk when riding on road side bike lanes where other vehicles are going much faster and...

Given that most electric cars only have one gear (direct drive) the gearing on a powerful ebike become more about allowing reasonable cadence for the rider over the entire use speed range in my opinion. Optimize cadence for efficiency is way less important but keeping the rider able to input...

I understand. If the priority is rider power input the gear spacing is very important. But lets say you have a 160nm Bafang Ultra mid-drive ebike with a throttle. I would say that gear spacing at 100% (ie 1;1 to 1:2 to 1:4 3 speed) would be fine. You could cadence to 80rpm then shift to...

If you have enough motor power the ideal cadence becomes a much wider range.

Half the range is under-drive so that means to have reasonable cadence above 20mph the belt drive sprockets will have to be sized to gear up the ratio which reduces the transmitted torque to thepi rear wheel. When you have a powerful mid-drive motor like the Bafang Ultra it's hard to image ever...

According to federal law HR727 the defined "low speed electric bicycle" is supposed to be the equivalent of a bike. Not just for safety regulations but for "use" regulation by the states - review of the records does indicate that was the intent of that bill that passed one vote short of full...

You motor has a 250W "rating" but the drive system most likely peaks much higher. Probably 90% of ebikers think the motor ratings are peak power but that is very rarely the case. Sadly the lawmakers fall into the 90% that do not understand a motor rating vs peak power so they do not under the...

Is there any data that supports you rider weight + bike weight claims? Probably not.

I would think that for last mile solutions most people don't need an ebike and something like a light Brompton makes great sense.

My predictions (I'm only interested in urban mobility to keep that in mind when reading my predictions) ... - We'll see higher torque rated IGHs with fewer gears than what Rohloff and Kindernay are promoting. Ebikes (especially powerful ebikes) do not need 14 speeds. What is important is...

Derailleurs and cassettes not going away in the off-road market because they are light, fast shifting and large range. For urban mobility ebikes an IGH with a belt is simply a much better configuration.

Maybe RAD benefits from the fact that the most first time ebike buyers don't understand the merits of a bit more power and battery range. We have debated this before but I think most commuters would benefit from having the power to sustain upwards of 28mph on flats and 20mph going up say a 6%...

The problem is you can't even have a sports game without rules / regulations. I'm certainly with you on the crazy amount of regulations we have but we must remember that people do get hurt / killed occasionally so it makes sense to have regulations. The 3-class regulation was drafted by the...

I certainly did not suggest that. I just voice my support for HR727 that a compliant LSEB is just the equivalent of a bike for use regulations by the states. No product sold or used in the US (or anywhere else for that matter) is without some regulations. I have no idea if you were just...

Let me point out some things that may convince you. All ebike / LSEB riders would benefit from just dumping 3-class legislation and accepting HR727 LSEB as a bike which is what was intended. Something everyone must keep in mind is that the feds control what is compliant for 1st sale and this...

I had a conference call with the CPSC on the federal definition of a "low speed electric bicycle" (LSEB) and the state 3-class "ebike" legislation. In my opinion it was crystal clear that the 3-class legislation was an interstate commerce violation, especially given the Preemptive Clause in...

Just so you know HR727 passed one vote short of full congressional (house and senate) consensus. There is one risk of not riding a non-compliant ebike on public infrastructure and that is if you hit and hurt someone you could be sued and loose a lot as it would be the equivalent of driving a...

I think interest is increasing given that the LEVA is pushing to go away from their 2-class system and add allowance for throttles. They want one legal ebike to 50kph that allows them to be effective transportation. We are also seeing how it's not going to be possible to enforce the 3-classes...

I believe the "machinations of it's creation" do matter because People for Bikes claimed the reasons they promoted the 3-class system was for safety and clarity and neither were true. I just want riders to know that the 3-class state legislation pushed by People for Bikes was a lobby money...

People for Bikes should have known that pushing their multi-class system would just open the door to multi-mode programming such that it would be impossible to enforce the poorly conceived system (not that they cared because they just wanted the lobby money). Sadly many on this forum support the...