Cybird Mar 11

A lot of the advocates that I follow suggest that we should ban throttles on ebikes in the US. I see their points, and I guess ultimately it's a skill issue on my part, but I rely on the throttle on my bike far too much to get behind banning it. Especially for taking off or going uphill.


#cycling
Show threadfamousringoMar 12

@cybird rarely use my throttle except to compensate for an unreliable torque sensor or when something went wrong with the chain drive.

Can’t think of any reason to ban them. If the vehicle is bike-weight and bike-speed, why should it matter how it achieves that speed?

I think the argument is a combination of cyclist elitism and bad-faith auto industry lobbying.

#cycling #biketooter #ebike

Show threadSteveMar 12
@famousringo @cybird the only argument I could think of here is that if there’s a throttle it can get stuck through malfunction or in an accident so there should also be an emergency shutoff like on any other modern motorbike or moped
Show thread😀🚲Mar 12
@flying_saucers @famousringo @cybird brake lever switches override the throttle on most ebikes. That's a pretty intuitive "oh no, stop!" switch.
Show threadSteveMar 12
@enobacon @famousringo @cybird interesting! I’ve never noticed any cables coming from the brakes other than the brake cables. Might be different designs this side of the pond. In fairness I’ve also only owned a VanMoof and a Cowboy which are kind of far from standard
Show thread😀🚲Mar 12
@flying_saucers @famousringo @cybird many ebikes with torque sensors and hydraulic brakes have skipped the brake lever switches, but those don't have throttles. Switched hydraulic levers are becoming more common now but all cadence sensor bikes I've seen have had brake switches.
Show threadLovesTha🥧Mar 12

@enobacon @flying_saucers @famousringo @cybird honestly regardless of the sensor type I'd want brakes to cut the power, all sensors/code can fail.

Yes, I know sensing the brakes will be code.

Show threadSteveMar 12
@LovesTha I mean it doesn’t necessarily have to be. I’m sure you can figure that out with a circuit
Show threadLovesTha🥧
@flying_saucers yes, I've worked on some pretty high safety devices. But I think that is overkill for a bike. The bad scenarios with a ebike have a moderate chance of killing up to three people.
Mar 13 at 4:54amWeb
Show threadSteveMar 13
@LovesTha born to godlike, forced to hat trick 🙈