Comments from strangers about your bike

[Eclectic]

Last night I was getting ready to leave my friend's house when someone else showed up (my friend is very gregarious and there is always someone stopping by). He loves trotting me out in front of them so he can brag. Something like “You've met Uber-Geek haven't you; have you ever seen his Fantastic Electrical Bicycle. It's very cool and I got to ride it”. His response was “Oh yeah, I've heard of those” because he didn't want to seem not-smart. I give the new guy the standard demo and wait for the questions. How fast, how far...as would give him the answers, he would confirm that I had given the correct answer (25mph, Uhuh, that's right). Then he made THE STATEMENT, “I heard you can even charge the battery by pedaling while you are going.” I thought “Piece of Cake” my latest response has worked 100% of the time. “It can be a Motor OR a Generator but it can't do both at the same time.” For everybody else I've said that to, they say “Ohhh” and you can see the light-bulb go off in their head. His response was “No I mean you can pedal the bike and recharge the battery.” I knew physics was out but I thought I would give it one more shot. “I can make the bike go forward by using this as a motor OR I can use it as a brake by turning it into a generator, but if I use it as a generator to charge the battery, it will stop the bike instead of making it move.” “No I heard you could charge the battery by pedaling while you were riding the bike.” [Sigh] Oh well. I respond with, “It's a good work-out and it only costs pennies to charge”, smile politely, “Well I've got to get going now, a pleasure to see you again.”

 

[Alan B]

"you're cheating, I want one"
"you're cheating, I like it"
"that's cheating"
"can you tow me up this hill"
"how fast"
"how far"
"what's the range"
"how much"
"what did it cost"
"how heavy"
"where did you buy that"
"did you make that"
"what kind of battery"
"does it charge when you pedal" (of course it does)

One time I accelerated out in front of a battery researcher that I've talked to before, and he was so impressed he wanted to talk at the stop light, later he came to my office and talked about the ebike and batteries for the better part of an hour. Lithium batteries is his professional expertise, but he had not seen an ebike out-accelerate his car before and he didn't know much about BLDC motors etc.

I had one guy chase me for blocks, he wanted to talk, but really he wanted to tell me how much better his electric car was than my ebike.

At work they put an article about me and my bike in the online work news, and it was held up because I mentioned that my controller failed several times on the steep 15% hill on my commute and they were concerned that it was an electrical safety issue. That part was scrubbed from the article and it went to press.

A few weeks back I slowly passed a cyclist on a moderate climb and he started asking questions. His wife is a professional cyclist and he wants to build an ebike to train with her. He uses a gas scooter now and it is difficult to ride it at the right speed for that. He was very interested in something that would go up to 40 for an hour. I told him he'd have to build it. His wife must be quite a cyclist.

Mostly comments are positive. Lately I've been making a point of slowing down and talking to the bicyclists, they seem more friendly that way. It is important for us all to be positive.

 

[amberwolf]

I finally figured out how to show people why that "recharge while pedalling" thing isn't practical:

I went for a ride today after lunch with Bill, cuz i forgot to get something while out. A couple of people had questions; the second one (on hte wya home) I tried to explain that to, and since they didn't undertstand, I turned off the main power and had them pedal it (it's pretty hard even in low gear cuz it's not that low, 24F-16R I think), so they'd have an idea what it was like just as a pedal bike.

Then I shorted the ebrake wires (rather than just tying the handle down, cuz I don't know them and can't trust them not to just ride off with it), and turned on the power, and had them try to pedal it, and they couldn't keep it going for more than a few feet once they got going. :lol:

But they got the idea, unlike most people i try to explain it to.


Next time, instead of risking the bike being driven away, I could lock the front wheel, and block the cargo pods up so the rear wheel is off ground, and then have them do the same comparison.

 

[AussieRider]

Hi folks, I'd like to share this one with yous.
My niece's boyfriend "was" a full on petrol assist bike fan.
Until;
I let him try one of my Ebikes. A week later he called me to say he'd sold the stink machine & bought an Ebike. I could hear his EV grin over the phone.
Once he finished raving about the Ebike, I welcomed him to the dark green side.
It gets better.
I spoke to him a few days later. He'd let my niece have a try on his new Ebike. Half an hour later she hadn't come back & he was getting worried about the bike but she finally came back with the EV grin & TOLD him "This is mine now. it's great. I'm using it to go to work".
He's looking for another one now and is already asking about over volting & other hot rodding!

AussieRider.

 

[pdooley]

so i'm not the only one who has heard the pedal/recharging thing..
where do people get this crap from? if i could pedal hard enough to recharge batteries feeding a 1000w motor, why bother with the electric setup in the first place?

 

[motomech]

Hi folks, I'd like to share this one with yous.
My niece's boyfriend "was" a full on petrol assist bike fan.
Until;
I let him try one of my Ebikes. A week later he called me to say he'd sold the stink machine & bought an Ebike. I could hear his EV grin over the phone.
Once he finished raving about the Ebike, I welcomed him to the dark green side.
It gets better.
I spoke to him a few days later. He'd let my niece have a try on his new Ebike. Half an hour later she hadn't come back & he was getting worried about the bike but she finally came back with the EV grin & TOLD him "This is mine now. it's great. I'm using it to go to work".
He's looking for another one now and is already asking about over volting & other hot rodding!

AussieRider.

My bike is pretty stealthy and the only folks as a group that notice it as an Ebike are the "Gasers", mostly because we see each other going to and fro in the bike lanes. We talk at the convience stores and they are interested, as least until I tell them how much money I have into my bike. At the risk of generalizion, most og them appear to be one step above homelessness. As far as the Lycra guys, I might as well be invisible and that suits me fine.
I just got back from 5 months in Mexico and a surprising number of guys noticed something was different about my bike. What got their attention was the bike itself, a real pretty Rocky Mountain, way nicer than anything they would normaly see. When I showed them it's component parts and how it worked, they were fasinated, having never heard of an Ebike, let alone seen one.

 

[Eskimo]

so i'm not the only one who has heard the pedal/recharging thing..
where do people get this crap from?

Protestant work ethic. They try to be fair and give us a chance.
If you produce that electricity by pedaling, i can accept your riding as a sport
For them, that question makes perfect sense.
Cycling is only a sport, and if you have a motor, then you still have to pedal somehow or it is not a sport anymore and they don"t accept it.

 

[LSBW]

Comments from strangers never bother me.
I use my bike mostly for commuting, 9 months out of 12, beats car ownership hands down.

On my way to work this morning, guy in Altima pulls beside me, starts saying how cool my bike is,
and how he liked my speed, 58 km/h

Damn, gotta check settings on my CA, pretty sure I was going below 50

 

[amberwolf]

You probably were; many automotive speedos read higher than actual (some by a lot).

 

[bionicdan]

Whenever I get the "can you charge by pedalling" I just say well the motor makes 3bhp/2250w to go forwards so you would need to pedal 3bhp to recharge it at the same rate. Can you do that lol No. That seems the easiest analogy to stop that subject dead so far.