Thoughts on Bikes & Gear

I attended a test ride event last week in Palo Alto, at the ALSO HQ. Visit my blog post for my thoughts on it.

Spotted: The new ALSO TM-B e-bike. Sadly, it was going the opposite direction I was, so I didn’t get a picture of it. It was also sad because I saw it on a local trail at Waterdog in Belmont, CA. That’s notable because Belmont doesn’t allow Class III e-bikes like the TM-B on trails. 😞

The idea that the very expensive e-bike I bought would require an ongoing subscription, in addition to the potential premature obsolescence that could be brought on by the collapse—or just change of plans—of the company, are serious concerns I’d have when considering one.

This article thoughtfully articulates the current backlash against e-motos, the conflation with legal e-bikes, and the danger to the latter. We need to be able to embrace e-bikes as true micro-mobility vehicles while getting control of kids riding e-motos dangerously.

An electric T-Line sounds almost perfect. 24.6 pounds without the battery sounds amazing, and the 32.4 with it is about the weight of my non-electric G Line. The two big cons: the almost $8,000 price tag and the 15 MPH limit.

Fun! I’ve watched videos of the BWC in the past, and the Sea Otter seems like a great venue to do it in the US. (I’m not sure there should be multiple races called the “World Championship”, but whatever.)

Protected bike lanes on a major artery like El Camino would really open up riding over longer distances on the Peninsula.

The laws are coming for “e-bikes”, but it’s not vanilla e-bikes that are even the thing that strike me as the most dangerous: it’s the e-motos (very fast electric dirt bikes) and e-scooters that have really made me take notice. And there are so many form factors that regulating what can use the bike lanes is going to be difficult.

I agree with this article, which basically says that CA Assembly Bill 1557, which tries to limit the legal amount of power an e-bike can be rated for to a certain wattage number, is well meaning, but misguided. I’m all for clear classification and regulation of e-bikes, but this isn’t it.

There really does need to be a more clear separation between true e-bikes and e-motos. E-bikes get enough controversy on their own; they don’t need the extra ire that e-motos draw.