I own two eBikes, and I've posted endless pictures of them, so I will refrain from doing so again. One is a $2,500 ($2,000 stock) slightly modified 47 lb Motobecane e-Adventure FS eMTB with a Shimano Steps E5000 250W 40nm motor delivering about 42 miles of range and over 4,000 feet of elevation with a new battery. The other is a $3,000 custom built 42 lb Marin Team 1 with a TSDZ2B 500W (?) motor that seems to deliver 50 to 90nm of power depending on what gear I'm using, how fast and hard I'm pedaling and what mood it is in, and has a range of just over 35 miles with about 3,000 feet of elevation (estimated).
The Moto is great for intermediate-advanced trails, though I have to stop a lot due to the low-powered motor and the limits of my own body, and the Marin is great for the mean streets of Hollywood, bad roads in the hills, and intermediate trails.
He does not build anything, neither the bikes nor the e-bike kits he's buying. He is like buying acoustic guitars, slapping pickups and some wiring on them and calling himself "an electric guitar manufacturer". I was only willing to say the quantity of e-bikes does not make the quality of the cyclist.
That is ridiculous. It is like saying a luthier does not build anything because when they modify, restore, or rebuild a guitar, they buy the frets from one company, the pickups from another, they order a heavy duty input jack from a third company, uses a graphite nut made by a fourth company, and tuners made by a fifth company, and then file, shave, glue, screw, and bolt them into place. No one tells a luthier, "You didn't manufacture the frets yourself." Both craftsmen build to an owner's specifications, advising them what choices are impractical, unwise, or will require workaround or refits later down the road on a custom job.
If you choose, or help the owner select, parts and design custom fittings for them, and modify them for the owner's specific use-case scenario-- advise them on whether to fill the motor with grease, go with different bearings, or use special ventilation or sensors, you are a bike builder and mechanic. My Marin ("Mercury") was built, or 'designed by,' Pedaluma.
Stefan has also previously accused Pedal of building overpowered monsters. Mercury maybe an outlaw by specs, but cannot exceed 28 MPH on level ground, really more like 26 MPH, because physics and biology do not allow a human body to pedal any faster than that given the gear ratios.
More guitars does not make you a better guitarist.
I agree with Stefan there. I think traveling with that many guitars is excessive, particularly for the kind of music U2 plays. The Edge could probably get by with three, or six if he wanted a backup for each. It's a waste of energy and inefficient. I play much smaller shows, but I can do four dates and fit my clothes, pedal board, and guitar in the overhead bin and under the seat in front of me, and use whatever amp is in the back line, or that the other band members bring.
I do not think Edge plays Chinese crap guitars or applies a throttle (so the guitar plays itself)
Edge does use delay. Listen to "Streets with No Name." It is the delay unit that gives the hook its distinctive sound-- e.g., the guitar playing itself. Many guitarists had been doing the same thing for years (including myself) before he 'invented' that sound. It's not a big deal.
The brand Carlo Robelli is a good case in point r.e. Chinese guitars, though they've been made in Korea or Japan at various times. I have a Carlo Robelli dreadnaught that is probably Japanese; the action is insanely low, the intonation is so perfect it sounds like it's in tune even when it's not, and the neck has not moved a millimeter in a quarter century-- it still plays the same way it did since I saw it hanging, by itself, over the door in a hallway at Sam Ash, and asked, "What about that one?" I think it sounds better than some Martins and cost me $189. I got another Carlo Robelli travel guitar, probably Korean, with a built in speaker and full scale next that I played for 15 years before the neck began to move, and it became difficult to intonate-- I could probably adjust the truss rod and get it to work just fine.
Three years ago, I saw a Carlo 3/4 all-mahogany guitar on sale at Sam Ash, walked into the store, played it for two minutes, and then stole it for $140. It is almost certainly Chinese. The intonation and action are way better than they have any tight to be, and so is the sound. Recorded with a large diaphragm condenser microphone-- I've used two, an old Oktava and a more recent Turnstile (also Chinese)-- no one can believe all the sound that comes out of that little thing with minimal processing, just EQ and some reverb. And all this considering that 3/4 guitars do not even have all the harmonics that large-bodied guitars do.
You could say that the two Carlo acoustics make me sound like a far better musician than I actually am. My buddy has a Gibson and a Martin, and both sound better than any of my guitars-- but their action is high, and my arthritis is bad.
