An occasional update on items from the Velo-city.
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THE E-BIKE MARKET
In Germany, bike sales were down 5.5 percent last year, but sales of more expensive e-bikes were up almost 8 percent and now command about 11 percent of the market. In the Netherlands, which has Europe’s highest per capita bicycle usage, the overall bike market fell slightly last year, but e-bike sales rose more than 9 percent.
So far, the appeal seems largely limited to countries with a strong bike culture. In China, consumers often use cheap e-bikes with lead-acid batteries, a bane of environmentalists, instead of scooters, and they have also made headlines for leading to more accidents in a country known for its dangerous roads. In Europe, e-bikes are more expensive and evolving out of the traditional bike market.
Why haven’t they taken off in North America?
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CLEVER DANES
Following more than two years of research and development, the Danish art collective N55 has presented its modular cargo cycles: the two-wheeled XYZ Cargo Bike (90 kg loading capacity) and the three-wheeled XYZ Cargo Trike:
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THE BIKE THAT CAN’T BE STOLEN
From Popular Mechanics:
Today in ingenious humans around the world, three engineering students at Chile’s University of Adolfo Ibáñez have designed a bicycle that cannot be stolen. More than novel for mere wow’s sake – this is no two-way toothpaste tube or scooter stroller – Project Yerka solves a very common problem. This innovative cycle will be a game changer.
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Story here.
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A bicycle without wheels is not a game changer.
As a rider of an e-bike, I can say that I have been seeing more and more of them every year. I have been riding mine for almost three years, a bike that I custom built just for myself using a Surly Troll cro-moly steel frame as the basic Chassis. Before the Steel frame, I had been using aluminum frames, and found they didn’t stand up to the abuse of daily commuting (I ride my bike 35-40 km per day commuting from East Van to UBC and back, 5 days a week). With that kind of mileage, I soon found that the bike and all the components on it, must be of the best quality. The brakes, for example, are hydraulic disk, the sort of thing you might find on a downhill MTB rather than a road bike. I bought a conversion kit from a local company (Grin Technologies) for the electrical running gear, choosing a system that was waterproof, with a decent capacity LiFePO4 battery. The bike also still had to be ridable when the battery was dead, which was why I chose to go with a gear drive motor with an internal freewheel, instead of the direct drive types which are a pin to ride when the battery dies. The reason why I am boring you with all this technical minutiae, is that getting a good-ebike is not a trivial task, and not a cheap one either. I reckon I’ve spent somewhere between 3 and 4k on mine, and it was a bit of an evolutionary process to get to the bike I have today. Part of the problem with e-bikes in Vancouver,is that most of the units for sale now are not much more than toys, or those nasty electric scooters that take up far more room than a bike, with their joke pedals that no one would ever use. There are good e-bikes for sale, but I suspect that the price is putting people off, which contributes to their slow adoption.
As for riding an e-bike in general, I would never go back to the way I used to get to work (Driving or Transit). The bike is just too much fun, and getting to work is literally no sweat. I do not view the electric motor as a replacement for pedaling, only as an augmentation. Pedaling the bike is way more comfortable anyway, and the exercise you get is a perfect way to start or end the day, you also have energy left over to do other things (I run marathons). I suspect that as the technology gets better, you will see more of them on the road. For now however, if you see one, chances are a geek will be riding it!
I have been riding an electric bike since 2005. My first bike I had around 15,000 kms on it when it was stolen. When I got my kit Grin Technology was the UBC Electric Bike Club. I got a Devinci Liverpool bike and a kit from Grin in Vancouver in 2011. I now have 20,000 km. The ebike kit has been quite robust with little problems and I still am using my original LiFePO3 battery and still getting 7/9th of my original capacity. I agree at getting good bike components. When parts have worn out I have replaced them with higher end parts and usually haven’t had to replace them again.
I strongly encourage people to give E bike riding a chance to be your regular way of commuting, it is a lot of fun.
I’ve been to that park many times, it is part of a rapid transformation of a city that just a decade ago had no bicyles, no major parks, and no integrated transit. Chile has come a long way, and Santiago has jumped ahead of Vancouver – their transit has a smart system that works and they have an intelligent bike share program.
http://www.tarjetabip.cl/
http://www.bikesantiago.cl/
The main reason why e-bikes haven’t taken off here are:
a) gasoline is so cheap
b) parking is fairly cheap
c) bike lanes are not so common yet
d) bikes traditionally have been used for exercise, not transportation
e) motorcycles aren’t so common either
f) weather
When I was in Tel Aviv, Israel this February over 2/3 (!!) of the bikes along the main beach avenue / promenade were e-bikes or e-scooters, but the main reason is that gasoline is $2.50/liter !
So, in time, Vancouver will get more e-bikes, and colder parts of Canada, or more humid or hot places in the US (like TX or AZ or CA or FL) too … in time .. every year a few % more .. maybe Leo DiCaprio should promote that, and higher US gasoline taxes, rather than complaining about Canada’s oilsands .. but I digress ..