All about bicycles

dmatthews said:
My son biked to work this morning. I threw the rack on my car and I'm going to go pick him up.
No point in taking chances on the roads with unskilled drivers...
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Yep, I remarked to my son and daughter the number of people that don’t know how to drive in these conditions.

They don’t plan for their journey and poor road craft becomes evident very quickly.
 
Alnus Rubra said:
Yep, I remarked to my son and daughter the number of people that don’t know how to drive in these conditions.

They don’t plan for their journey and poor road craft becomes evident very quickly.
Click to expand...
3 weeks ago it snowed, and not a whole lot by Canadian standards. Bridges were shutdown, roads were closed and drivers were stuck in their cars for 8 hours in some cases.
Vancouver is the most mild area in the country, and the genpop are unfortunately ignorant and/or unprepared.:rolleyes:
 
It's gonna get so cold here, we may actually have to turn on the heat! I may have to wear a jacket and knee warmers when I ride after Christmas! It's truly horrible.

Planning on sending 2022 out in style. A few others and I are going to ride around Lake Okeechobee on 12/31. It's Florida's largest lake and the 10th largest in the country. There's a 115-ish mile trail that circumnavigates the lake called the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST), so I've dubbed the ride "Get LOST 2022" :p
 
garrett said:
It's gonna get so cold here, we may actually have to turn on the heat! I may have to wear a jacket and knee warmers when I ride after Christmas! It's truly horrible.

Planning on sending 2022 out in style. A few others and I are going to ride around Lake Okeechobee on 12/31. It's Florida's largest lake and the 10th largest in the country. There's a 115-ish mile trail that circumnavigates the lake called the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST), so I've dubbed the ride "Get LOST 2022" :p
Click to expand...
As much as I'd love to ride all the way around that trail, I'd be too distracted by an abundance of 10lb+ bass swimming around a few feet away from me.
 
Well, this ebike thing has come to a head and this time there's no getting around it. I may need to start a separate thread, but I need some advice from you guys. My wife has decided that this year we're only getting a couple small items for each other for Christmas, because our "real" Christmas presents to each other will be that by spring, we're going to buy each other new ebikes.

Now, I know she'll want a "cruiser" style bike. Something I don't want. And she's already wearing me out with some friends of ours from church who told her they got ebikes in Amish country and they were cheaper there and they are very happy with them. Hey, the Amish should know bikes, right? I mean, that or horses is their means of transportation. I don't want a hard core racer or a hard core offroad bike. I'd prefer something in between, while recognizing that we have a great bike trail that is hundreds of miles long only 10 minutes from our house, it's all blacktop, and that is where we'd do much of our riding together. Still, all these ebike brands I know nothing about... one of them even has their own store, meaning it's not a bike shop that carries multiple brands, like the place I've always gotten my bikes. It's a brand store, and they carry only their brand.

I need some "this brand is good, durable, dependable, etc." vs. "avoid that brand, it's overpriced, underperforming" etc. I'm trying to prepare her that we may not get the same kind of bikes. I've been looking mostly at Giant, Specialized, Trek and a couple others, thanks to you guys. She's looking at a wave of bikes I've never heard of. And, she has issued a "$2K/bike limit." While I didn't want to go much over that, the ones I really like (like Dave's) are over that. And with that, are these bikes typically discounted? Or is it "here's the retail price and that's what you pay?" Just asking so that if I say want to spend no more than around $2500, I need to know if I should be looking a bikes listed for that, or maybe a $3K or a little over bike is typically discounted to that, or whatever...

Oh, and yes, I have already (again this week while discussing it) floated the idea that she get an ebike and I don't. She didn't like that idea, but I'm not spending $2K on a bike I don't want. HELP! LOL
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Well, this ebike thing has come to a head and this time there's no getting around it. I may need to start a separate thread, but I need some advice from you guys. My wife has decided that this year we're only getting a couple small items for each other for Christmas, because our "real" Christmas presents to each other will be that by spring, we're going to buy each other new ebikes.

Now, I know she'll want a "cruiser" style bike. Something I don't want. And she's already wearing me out with some friends of ours from church who told her they got ebikes in Amish country and they were cheaper there and they are very happy with them. Hey, the Amish should know bikes, right? I mean, that or horses is their means of transportation. I don't want a hard core racer or a hard core offroad bike. I'd prefer something in between, while recognizing that we have a great bike trail that is hundreds of miles long only 10 minutes from our house, it's all blacktop, and that is where we'd do much of our riding together. Still, all these ebike brands I know nothing about... one of them even has their own store, meaning it's not a bike shop that carries multiple brands, like the place I've always gotten my bikes. It's a brand store, and they carry only their brand.

I need some "this brand is good, durable, dependable, etc." vs. "avoid that brand, it's overpriced, underperforming" etc. I'm trying to prepare her that we may not get the same kind of bikes. I've been looking mostly at Giant, Specialized, Trek and a couple others, thanks to you guys. She's looking at a wave of bikes I've never heard of. And, she has issued a "$2K/bike limit." While I didn't want to go much over that, the ones I really like (like Dave's) are over that. And with that, are these bikes typically discounted? Or is it "here's the retail price and that's what you pay?" Just asking so that if I say want to spend no more than around $2500, I need to know if I should be looking a bikes listed for that, or maybe a $3K or a little over bike is typically discounted to that, or whatever...

Oh, and yes, I have already (again this week while discussing it) floated the idea that she get an ebike and I don't. She didn't like that idea, but I'm not spending $2K on a bike I don't want. HELP! LOL
Click to expand...
You need to wait for the Tesla eBike! It will go 0-60 in 0.9 seconds and have an ejection button that will launch you to Mars if things go bad here and you lose control of that machine!! It also has built in satellite service for voice command navigation!!!

In all honesty, I have yet to ride one or shop for one so I can not help. I do have a friend who spent about $2500 on a Specialized and he raves about it every time we talk. Best of luck in that search and I hope you are able to find something that is both comfortable and reliable (and can keep up with whatever you wife chooses)!
 
Side note: I'm getting ads now for Yamaha ebikes. I think they're new, but wondered if anyone has any feedback on them, as Yamaha has a pretty good track record of doing most things they do pretty well!
 
Hmmm... Amish and ebike seems like a grey area, but what do I know...
I'll reiterate that I like a mid drive bike for a few reasons:
Drive system is standard bicycle fare, so derailleur/cassette/chain repair should be available at any shop.
Rear tire flats are easier to deal with on the road.
Power delivery is better for hills (in general).
Weight is better centered.

So... not sure what an Amish bike looks like but something tells me it'll be rear/hub drive. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, and for sure that's what most inexpensive ebikes come with. Just pointing it out. My choice of mid drive kicked me into a more expensive bracket.

To me the most important things to consider are (in no particular order):

Service access with a good shop/brand. Imagine yourself in a different city/state and needing assistance.
Good quality components (hydraulic brakes/drive components etc.) Even entry level mid drives come with decent components for the most part.
Parts easily available.
Battery range.

Pricing... not sure about all shops, but I bet a "Corporate store" like I went to would be less likely to wheel (sorry) and deal than a mom and pop independant. Could be wrong, and I got my dealer to do a deal on my son's ebike by throwing the tax in.
One thing I see is that in general prices for name brands are not going down. The bike I bought for $4200 CAD in Jan 2021 is now $4700 CAD.

One last critical thing (to me) is to be genuinely happy with whatever you purchase and not "settle" for something for the sake of $500 or so. I know... not my money, LOL.

Which way you leaning?
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Side note: I'm getting ads now for Yamaha ebikes. I think they're new, but wondered if anyone has any feedback on them, as Yamaha has a pretty good track record of doing most things they do pretty well!
Click to expand...
Yamaha has a good rep as we all know.
I think they just started in NA last year? The few that I know in ebike forum are very happy. My bike has a Yamaha drive and I love it. Powerful and quiet too. Giant uses them almost exclusively (as do others) and puts their own tweaks on it.
I'd call the Yammy bikes a solid choice myself.
 
I'm not up on ebikes, but a couple notes come to mind:

If you and the Mrs are riding together, there's nothing forcing you to use the assist. So she can can be on turbo mode while you have assist turned off on yours. That's one of the things I like best about ebikes; they can equalize riders of different abilities.

They're heavy. So if you're going to transport them, make sure you have a solid car rack or can heave them into a pickup truck bed or whatever.

This Bicycling article should be helpful: https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a22132137/best-electric-bikes/ I noticed all the other "best of" articles that came up are from non-cycling-specific sources. Their top recommendation even comes with a kickstand!
 
garrett said:
I'm not up on ebikes, but a couple notes come to mind:

If you and the Mrs are riding together, there's nothing forcing you to use the assist. So she can can be on turbo mode while you have assist turned off on yours. That's one of the things I like best about ebikes; they can equalize riders of different abilities.

They're heavy. So if you're going to transport them, make sure you have a solid car rack or can heave them into a pickup truck bed or whatever.

This Bicycling article should be helpful: https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a22132137/best-electric-bikes/ I noticed all the other "best of" articles that came up are from non-cycling-specific sources. Their top recommendation even comes with a kickstand!
Click to expand...
And ALWAYS transport an ebike with the battery removed. :)
 
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