Author: Mitch

What is up with motorists hating on bikers? Anyone who rides in Bloomington knows that unkind/unsafe motorists will met on every journey around town.

On those long journeys in the county I’ve been openly threatened a few times (a litre of Coke thrown at me while being passed, rolling coal while climbing a hill, and of course high speed passing within a foot of me). However, those incidents were rare, spaced out over 20 years, while the mini-aggressions of city riding occur every day. It seems that the evidence shows that separated bike paths are the only way to make our cities safe for bikers and pedestrians.

Check out this Guardian article, apparently drivers in England have the same opinion of bikers as here, that we are in their way, and should be relegated to painted bike lanes. They do not see us as an integral part of the transportation system, but rather an impediment.

This has been proven an incorrect assumption by the success of the 7-Line from Walnut to Dunn, IMHO. I can now bike and motor on 7th St more quickly (not faster) than before the protected bike lane was installed.

Cars travel more slowly due to the narrowed lanes, but with no stop signs, the trip to Dunn St. takes less time, with the added benefit of less stress on the brakes and engine of car. On the bike side, it is faster with no stops, but more importantly, it feels much safer! Bikes have been given priority on this street, and it benefited motorists as well, it is a win/win.

Well, people often want advice, and of course I give it, but my hands on experience is limited to a dozon or so brands. The article below reviews a full spectrum of trials and evaluations by the Electric Bike Report, with most brands represented. Of course the big players like RadPower, Aventon, and Blix all show up in multiple catagories.

Others have show up in a specific catagory (i.e. Lectric as the best inexpensive fat tire folder). Additionally, there is a section on batteries and their life cycles, all in all, this is an accurate introduction to ebikes in 2022, give it a look!

Ryan Van Duzer loves his ebike, and can tell you why in this well crafted video (well, he is a tv star). Of course, he has an extra fancy mid drive model ($3000), but he hits all the major points to be made for riding an ebike. He explains why ebikes are great for exercise as well as for day to day errands.

This RadMini had a electrical problem, a bad connection led to a fire, no one hurt. But that spark that ignited the problem fried not only the wiriong harness, but the alao controller. Once those were replaced, it was possible to ride, but rode intermittantly wacky. So I replaced the LCD, and voila, it worked! All three parts were damaged by the voltage surge caused by the faulty connection.

But wait, there is more! For some strange reason, the wired-in headlight stays on unless the battery is turned off, not just the display! This seems to be a well known glitch with the upgraded RadRunner/Mini controllers. Fortunately, my well informed client understands the conundrum (she pointed it out), and is happy that her flaming RadMini is back on the road!

This is a great ebike, unfortunately, it was discontinued by RadPower in favor of the RadExpand, and/or the RadRunner, (which is not foldable), but I think this one at least will live on for a number of years.

Our way of life (where cars have primacy in city planning) makes biking dangerous. As pointed out in the video, biking is not dangerous, being hit by cars is dangerous. Separated biking infrastructure makes cities better for everyone, motorists included.

Here in Bloomington we have the new 7-Line separated bike lane along Seventh St, and certainly there have been complaints from some motorists, but I don’t get it!

I’ve traveled Seventh Street between Walnut and Dunn Sts. several times in my truck, and it is now a faster trip, as there are no stop signs. The lanes are narrow, so you don’t speed even going downhill, but with an even pace, it is quicker than stopping at every cross street as in the past. By prioritizing bike traffic, traffic flow was improved!

We need to reclaim our streets from the car/oil industrial complex that has almost taken over our public spaces. Our streets need people, bikes, buses, skateboards, scooters, onewheels, or any appropriately sized method of transportion. Two tons of steel, glass, plastic, gas, and oil is not needed to pick up groceries!

So while I am on this Holland theme, here is another great video from Holland. I’ve found that many of the ebike curious who come into the shop want most of the features mentioned in the video. Why? Because so many folks want to use ebikes for more than recreation, they want it as main form of transporation, to work, to school, to the store, to church, to the park…it is amazing how many activities require short trips that can be done on a bike/ebike.

Omafiets for everyone!

So this is the second Ecotric that came in the shop because the front tire came of on an early ride. In this case, I was able to replace the bent brake rotor and get it running (the rider ended with a broken wrist).

I consider Ecotric to be a value brand, that is, they are less expensive than more famous brands like RadPower and Aventon. And so it is with parts, in this case the spindle ends on axle appear to be knurled in such a way that you could adequately tighten with your fingers, but no!

On one side there is a 5mm hex hole that must be used to get adequate torque on the wheel. So you can certainly finger tighten the wheel when putting it in the fork, but you must then use your hex and in this case, you should use a wrench at least 6 inches long, and apply pressure at the end of the hex key till it feels good and tight. If you choke up as in the second picture, you may not be able to apply enough torque to keep this wheel on, which seems to me to be a problem with this design.

I was impressed with this Aventon Aventure, a 26″ fat tire mountain bike style that checks all the boxes for sturdy, well designed and good looking. It has an SUV vibe for sure, you feel really secure when riding. Unfortunately, none of that helps if the a fall happens, which was the case for this beast.

After the fall, it just would not shift worth a darn, and it was easy to see on quick inspection that while the derailleur itself was just scratched, the hanger was bent several degrees out of true.

So I removed the derailleur, took a ride to the hardware shop and got a long fine thread bolt of the correct diameter, and screwed it into the bent hanger. I applied some weight and leverage to the bolt, eyeballed it once, applied some more pressure, and voila, as close to perfect as I could get.

I reattached the derailleur, tightened the cable, set the high and low limit screws, and then (to my surprise) indexed the gears so that there was smooth shifting from top to bottom. I felt good that I was able to repair with having to replace anything.

But, if this were to happen again, I would want to replace the hanger, as it is softer metal, and will break with sufficient stress. But getting the right replacement is often a hassle, as each manufacturer has their own design, and with the supply chain issues we have, it can be a long wait for parts. So I think I did the right thing for now!

Last week the City hosted the Ebike Curious Event on Kirkwood in front of People’s Park and the Bike Garage, and we had nearly a dozen different brands (and one home-crafted) ebikes on display. There were two recumbents, two folding fat tires, three cargo,  and three commuter style ebikes. Quite a wide range, showing the various uses there are for ebikes in our city!

 

I never expected this from Bloomberg, but here it is, How to Make Cities Safer for E-Bikes by Ira Boudway really makes the case for the use of ebikes (my preferred spelling) in the city:

“With battery-powered motors that assist riders as they pedal, e-bikes enable a broader range of people to make more and longer trips than traditional bikes. And they are cheaper, more efficient, and less resource-intensive to manufacture than electric cars.”

So there are real economic and environmental benefits to ebike travel, as cited in the article, like ~60% of car rides in US are less than 6 miles/round trip (2017), meaning that a majority of our trips could be done easily by ebike.

But most importantly, Boudway emphasizes that safety is the main concern blocking wider adoption, and that this is best addressed through infrastructure choices that allow mixed use of our public spaces.

A 2018 poll from People for Bikes found that people “said that roads are not safe enough for families to bike and, of those, 63% said they would ride if they felt safer. The best way to make riders safer is to protect them from cars.”

So count me in, paint is not enough to stop aggressive drivers from making the streets feel unsafe!