Bikers Youtube thread

I'm looking forward to fully electric bikes. I'd want it driven from both wheels though.

I'll miss the sound and gears though, but judging by everyone wanting fully automatic up and down shifting I might be the only one who misses the latter.
 
Still not sure on electric bikes yet. They sound like ridiculous fun, but...the noise..

Kreeeee said:
I'm looking forward to fully electric bikes. I'd want it driven from both wheels though.

I'll miss the sound and gears though, but judging by everyone wanting fully automatic up and down shifting I might be the only one who misses the latter.
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Both wheels? Sounds like unnecessary weight to me and would look a bit silly.
 
How would it look silly? You just have a small electric motor built into the hub. There would be no chains or anything and the benefits would be enormous.

I think having zero maintenance is well worth losing the noise. My biggest concern is how the Swiss winters would trash the batteries.
 
I notice how much less fun I have when I ride listening to music in terms of actually being involved as you lose the exhaust/engine sounds and for me at least that makes my gear shifting much more lazy and not as optimal so I can't think of anything worse than a quiet twist and go never mind how much poke it's got.

I want to hear it squeal and get that sense of achievement when I nail a perfectly smooth shift.
 
My biggest issue with both electric bikes and cars is the charging. At least you can fill a tank of good old fossil fuel in a minute or two. Charging is going to feel like a life time.
 
JunglistE said:
Charging is going to feel like a life time.
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That's the biggest disadvantage, but I'd be fine with that. It's only 30 minutes to get an 80% charge with current batteries, and future technology should decrease that even further.

Electric also means you can charge it at home rather than always at a fuel station too, and for a fraction of the cost.
 
New phone batteries have been around for a year now (in dev) that charge in seconds. It's only a matter of time before this is taken up by car/bike companies as well
 
Kreeeee said:
That's the biggest disadvantage, but I'd be fine with that. It's only 30 minutes to get an 80% charge with current batteries, and future technology should decrease that even further.

Electric also means you can charge it at home rather than always at a fuel station too, and for a fraction of the cost.
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It's still an issue though. Do I really want to hang around a petrol station for (currently) 30 mins while it charges? Realistically it'll be a long time before charging is quick enough not to be a pain (compared to petrol). Maybe they'll figure out a way to charge almost instantly, but I doubt that sort of tech is even close to production use.

For day to day commuting, it'd be fine as you could charge at home overnight (assuming you don't have a massive commute). Absolute horrible nightmare for a longer ride or touring though. You'd have to start planning your next station while waiting for the bike to charge at the current station.

I would miss the smell of petrol.
 
The 30 minute stops aren't an issue for me at all, and I never commute. I do very little motorway miles though so stops are always appreciated.

I don't see any issues for me with touring or mountain riding.
 
Craig321 said:
Are charge points more common over there than here?
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There seems to be a decent amount of them already : https://www.zap-map.com/live/
Admittedly there needs to be more rapid chargers out there - there's around 650 (43Kw / 50Kw) at the moment out of 4,750 locations locations in the UK it would appear.

Something like a Zero SR would peek my interest more : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov7uqnMSDPg

Running costs, maintenance costs, government subsidies, year on year range improvements. I'm impressed with the rate these things are moving forward.
 
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Didn't realise there are so many here. Not quite at a point where you can thoughtlessly stop at any station and charge, like you can getting petrol, so a tour or long ride would still need some planning, but that isn't as bad as I thought.
 
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