“That’s cheating.” “It’s not a bicycle if it’s got a motor.” “Why not buy a real motorcycle – or (giggle) a Vespa?
Sigh. Electric cyclists seem to need the same pep talk as a lot of other misunderstood minorities. Yes, our bikes are different. (Some of us are, too.) But different doesn’t mean bad, and it doesn’t mean “not real”. It just means different.
“Real” cyclists have always distrusted newfangled technologies – pneumatic tires, shift levers on handlebars instead of on the frame, indexed shifting, disc brakes, or (Lord help us) recumbent bikes.
Cycling fashion has long been dominated by what works in the racing world, not what works for real people using bikes for transportation. (When I came of age in the 70s everyone had 10-speed bikes with road handlebars and hard, skinny seats. Everyone. My butt hurt while I was still sitting on my new bike in the store.)
Bicycle marketing focuses on things that are easy to spot, like weight. How many not-so-athletic folks on trendy bikes today are grinding up hills on single-speed bikes because those bikes are elegant, light and trendy – when they and their knees would be so much happier with the addition of a cheap and highly functional rear cassette, derailleur, and shifter? Time and again the experts have shown us that lighter bikes accelerate quicker (good for racers) but don’t really go much faster on the average at all.
Motors and batteries surely make electric bikes heavier, but we needn’t obsess about it. As the good folks at Rivendell Bicycle Works put it, “frame weight is 1/4 as important as bike weight, and bike weight is 1/10 as important as body weight.” By the time a typical cycling commuter rolls onto the street, they’re pushing a good couple of hundred pounds (body weight, bike weight, clothes, bags/racks, water, and stuff.) The twenty or so pounds that a light-weight electric system adds is typically less than a ten percent increase in overall rolling weight. Even the bigger systems don’t change that equation much. Unless you’re climbing a lot of hills with dead batteries, the weight difference of an electric bike just isn’t going to amount to much.
Until you turn on the juice. For some of us, electric cycling brings work and home within two-wheeled range of one another. For others, it shortens the time enough to make a cycling commute practical or gets us where we’re going a bit more presentably. Some among us couldn’t enjoy cycling without a bit of an electric assist. And still others just love the whole idea of electricy cycling because it’s just so much fun.
Most of us love our electric bikes, but the electric cycling community as a whole does a terrible job of raising its voice and demanding to be recognized as a legitimate part of the cycling world. . We are not (typically) riding kids toys. We are not (typically) menaces to be kept off the roads. We need the recognition and the support of our peers to ensure that our needs are respected and our rights protected.
Let’s start now.
Register on our forums at http://ElectricCyclist.com/forum, join in the conversation, and we’ll be happy to send you the bumper sticker you ought to be sporting on your 4-wheeled ride. For free. Just send me a private message via our forums with your name and address after you’ve become part of the ElectricCyclist community by participating on our forums.
This isn’t a cheesy print-on-demand sticker, it’s a good-quality silk-screened product that says Electric Cyclists should get noticed. We’re giving a limited number away over the next couple of months or so to help build awareness of this site. In the future we’ll likely be seeking modest donations for them to help cover the costs of running the place. Mostly, we’re trying to build a community to include the full range of electric cyclists.
Let’s carry on the conversation at http://ElectricCyclist.com/forum. Hope to see you there.
Charlie
Tags: Advocacy, Bumper Stickers, My Other Car Is