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What I find very troubling is that People for Bikes along with Larry PIzzi and Claudia Wasko seemingly have set their goal to have the poorly conceived 3-class system adopted at the federal level. It's a poorly thought out system that threw in a class for throttles because the EU didn't allow...

Ebikes are the most efficient means for a human to go from point A to B ever - more efficient than walking or riding a non-ebike when food is considered, more efficient than a fully loaded passenger train, If allowing the assist to help riders maintain a reasonably safe effective transportation...

Isn't Europe reviewing this "illegal" status on ebike assist systems? Technology provides a lot of ways to grey the line between what is a throttle-assist and a Pedal-assist solution. The problem really is the lack of brain grey matter of EU legislators to understand technology.

So long as some want to cling to the concept that an compliant "low speed electric bicycle" (as defined by HR727 which passed one vote short of congressional consensus in 2002 defining that they are bicycles and not motorized vehicles) is a motorized vehicle this brain-dead debate will continue...

In my opinion torque sensors are not a good value add on ebikes, expecially DIY kits. The programming can never really provide the level of assist any rider wants at all times while the simple throttle does. In fact I think the best kits come with a moped-like controller that doesn't have sensor...

There is lies the issue. The gear ratio to optimize for the rider and the motor are never the same. The motor would perform best with a small front cog and large diamter rear chain ring so the motor can spin fast and the output torque is magnified. Becasue the drive trail components tend to not...

Some roadies like the ride fast but they know when / where that it's safe to do that. Bikers know that if they have an accident they are likely going to suffer the consequences of poor judgement or excessive speed. All those risk examples are astute. Sadly there are those that support the...

Yes. Speed limits on MUPs makes far better sense than legislating assist cut-offs on the product itself but you have to remember the auto industry didn't want ebikes to get too many people out of cars, so neutering them to 15mph was put in place in Europe. That is exactly what People for Bikes...

I had a documented call with the CPSC on the "low speed electric bicycle" (LSEB) defined by federal bill HR727 (passed 1 vote short of congressional consensus which are ALL state representatives). During that call they made it crystal clear that they view LSEBs and the ebikes defined by 3-class...

The federal definition was fine and was in place in 2002. When ebikes began to get popular in 2012-2014 People for Bikes accepted lobby money (mostly about protecting auto and oil) to push the non-sensical 3-class system. It's funny they claim it's "the best they could find" but they never even...

I deleted because I was wrong. Both a PAS torque and cadence hybrid system would be considered Class 1 or 3. But if a throttle is added the model would not be compliant to the 3-class legislation which is still not good for the industry in my opinion (seems to me there is no reason why an ebike...

No real beef, I just think it's very difficult to have a program determine the assist level that a rider wants with accuracy so I tend to tend to think it's best to just provide the rider direct/immediate control via a throttle. The rider can still pedal with as much exertion as wanted.

I think what ebike manufacturers should do is have a base model with a throttle and allow the buyers to pay for extra costs of cadence- and/or throttle-assist. The buyers that only want a simple throttle assist benefit because they are not forced to buy what they don't want and those that want...

I agree and disagree at the same time. I do agree that preferred cadence typically falls within a smaller range but there are great riders that truly love their single speed bikes where the cadence range is huge and they obviously get effective exercise. That said "ghost pedaling" is entirely...

You don't need a lot of gears to get that exercise. If you are comfortable say with a cadence range of 40-100rpm an ebike is probably OK with just 3 gears. If a human/rider was capable of say a 1000rpm then we'd have bikes with small front chain rings and large rear cogs to always magnify the...

The motors can be optimized for how an ebike is primarily used - mainly about slow speed climbing or faster speed urban mobility. With parallel winding some of that trade-off can be eliminated as the "trick" is to make sure the Kv and battery voltage provides efficient performance at the...

Yea...agreed. The gearing on an ebike with a powerful motor like the Bafang Ultra is not about enabling the human power to be effective but more about regulating cadence in a range that is comfortable for the rider. Motors are simply more efficient and effective at higher RPMs so their internal...

If you ride a Bafang Ultra ebike with a 14 speed Rohloff you would find that you rarely need to be below like 7th of 8th gear and if you start t in 1st gear you will be shifting thru the gears so fast given the acceleration it makes no sense. Obviously I'm only talking about riding the ebike...

I understand. I rode my ebike over 6,000 miles one year and put another 6,000+ on my car. I thought it was strange I was putting more money/mile for bike tires than I was car tires. I do tend to believe ebike can be a viable transportation solution for many people so the old mindset that bikes...

I agree with your assessment but the weight paradigm that drove the bike industry for 50 years is far far less important with ebikes (especially urban mobility ebikes that do not need hyper handling like a great mountain ebike). Cost wise I think longevity isn't always more expensive - a cheaper...