Mike leroy
Active Member
Are you interested in 35mph uphill speeds? How about the downhill trip? Coasting speeds on my hill easily exceed 50 to 60 mph. What do you need to know to make braking at high-speeds as safe as braking at low speeds? How much reaction time and distance actually exists when a car turns into your lane? What Anti-lock Braking Systems (ABS) equivalent is available for bikes?
The punishment downhill racers exert on their brakes inspires confidence.
This is my neighborhood -- only 14 miles of one road. How do accidents in your area compare?
http://almanacnews.com/news/2013/11/22/the-troubled-beauty-of-skyline-boulevard
"According to California Highway Patrol accident records, between 2003 and 2012, there have been 205 accidents on Skyline Boulevard between Page Mill Road in Palo Alto and the northern edge of Woodside (roughly mileposts 3 and 17). About half those accidents have involved two-wheeled vehicles: bicycles in 18 of them and motorcycles in 92, with fatal injuries killing two bicyclists and eight motorcyclists.
With the odds permanently stacked against the bicycle in a collision, the best course is not to have one. Flashing daytime lights are a must, she says, a small investment with big safety returns in that the lights give motorists a clue."
I feel certain that eBikes will be banned from my neighborhood bike lanes. The only viable option is an electric bike over 750 watts that must be registered as "motorized cycle" with CA DMV and requires a CA M1 motorcycle license. Every local I have spoken with immediately concedes that fact due to the popularity, road conditions and exhausted road capacity. My local roads simply cannot accomodate electric bikes in the bike lane, because riders will be constantly passing conventional bikes on single lane roads. Some bike groups of one hundred or more conventional bicycles are a moving road block for electric bikes incapable of the 35mph speed limit.
I am convinced registering a 45mph electric bike with CA DMV as a motorcycle is my only viable, long-term option.
The punishment downhill racers exert on their brakes inspires confidence.
This is my neighborhood -- only 14 miles of one road. How do accidents in your area compare?
http://almanacnews.com/news/2013/11/22/the-troubled-beauty-of-skyline-boulevard
"According to California Highway Patrol accident records, between 2003 and 2012, there have been 205 accidents on Skyline Boulevard between Page Mill Road in Palo Alto and the northern edge of Woodside (roughly mileposts 3 and 17). About half those accidents have involved two-wheeled vehicles: bicycles in 18 of them and motorcycles in 92, with fatal injuries killing two bicyclists and eight motorcyclists.
With the odds permanently stacked against the bicycle in a collision, the best course is not to have one. Flashing daytime lights are a must, she says, a small investment with big safety returns in that the lights give motorists a clue."
I feel certain that eBikes will be banned from my neighborhood bike lanes. The only viable option is an electric bike over 750 watts that must be registered as "motorized cycle" with CA DMV and requires a CA M1 motorcycle license. Every local I have spoken with immediately concedes that fact due to the popularity, road conditions and exhausted road capacity. My local roads simply cannot accomodate electric bikes in the bike lane, because riders will be constantly passing conventional bikes on single lane roads. Some bike groups of one hundred or more conventional bicycles are a moving road block for electric bikes incapable of the 35mph speed limit.
I am convinced registering a 45mph electric bike with CA DMV as a motorcycle is my only viable, long-term option.
Last edited:
