Jan 7th, 2019
Go Figure, Riding an eBike is Good for You
A fairly extensive study was conducted in the UK at the University of Bristol (Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences) where lead author Jessica Bourne and all other authors work.
Broken out, the study on the health benefits of riding an eBIke was published November 2018 in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition & Physical Activity.
The key highlights from the indepth review are:
1. eBiking provides more exercise than walking
2. eBikes are ridden more often and further distances than conventional bikes
3. eBikes are used to carry more cargo
Studies like these will start to take hold in our Canadian culture as more and more people in all areas of society become increasingly accepting of eBIkes and any smaller vehicle that helps to remove a car from the road.
E-bike Monthly Rental Program to Start in Paris
Veligo is the name of a new monthly rental program launching in Paris September 2019 by Ile-de-France Mobilites, a transport agency.
Starting with 10,000 ebikes, Veligo could become the largest eBIke rental program in the world with their plans to add another 10,000 if the original launch goes well.
Most eBike rental programs rent by the hour, ½ day or day, while the Veligo program will rent their eBikes by the month for 40 Euros, or just $60 CAD. Furthermore, it may be possible to have an employer cover 50% of the cost leaving the rider only a very modest 20 Euros a month for hassle-free personal transportation.
Clearly, Paris is serious in their approach to moving people, the program will be operated by their transit operator and the postal service with a $111 million budget.
eBikes Can Make Cities Safer
Research suggests that eBikes are one of the keys to getting people on a bike, even if they have safety concerns along with their desire to cycle. Recently in Curbed magazine, an article shows more than 50% of those questioned would cycle if they could feel safe.
eBikes allow riders to tackle hills, feel safe in traffic and carry plenty of gear around. While E-bikes are not a stand-in for safer infrastructure, they could move more people toward enthusiasm for getting one. When considering new infrastructure, cities should be catering to the substantial part of the population who might decide to ride. | Curbed mag
Superpedestrian eKickscooter
Superpedestrian, the designer of the Copenhagen Wheel are now turning their attention to eKickscooters and are planning a model this year which they believe will be a big improvement on what is out there in eKickscooter-share programs.
The Rise of the eKickscooters
Further on eKickscooter-share, dockless eKickscooters programs are attracting lots of press as they grow like mushrooms – appearing overnight in many US cities – and are also starting to be seen on the city streets of Europe.
In this way, it seems that eKickscooters are acting in reverse of the way eBikes have emerged; with a popular North American-driven mobility solution now heading overseas to the continent.
The reasons for their rapid rise is simple; there is huge and growing demand for cheap, quick door-to-door personal transport that uses shared vehicles; enter eKickscooters.
The downside is that eKickscooters are not covered in law mostly because they have been around forever as toys (eg Razor scooters). Their popularity evolved because of technological progress and the ubiquity of smartphones which, combined with need, has brought about the dockless model, and presto, affordable, quick electric transportation.
As a result, many companies have taken the ‘better-to-ask-forgiveness-than-permission’ approach to launching their programs, and that has produced the current glut of eKickscooters piling up in the public spaces of major cities. Before these programs make a serious impact in Canada, our cities should decide on and create the legislation as to where scooters belong and the speeds they can go.
Photo c/o indystar.com
With this growing problem it seems that cities are now feeling mounting pressure to consider light electric vehicle infrastructure when adapting to the mobility needs of the never ending growth of cities and traffic congestion.
Moreover, city planners need to accelerate their infrastructure because eKickscooters are not going away. LED lighting, cruise control, LCD display all point the way to future ‘super scooters’ which could give eBikes serious competition in terms of comfort and technical sophistication. This could lead to the legal acceptance of electric longboards, skateboards and electric monowheels in our cities.
Giant – e-bikes are serious business, seriously.
Giant initially took a cautious approach to eBikes, but now they are increasingly placing their focus on eBikes. In 2016, 7% of their revenue was from e-bike sales. In the 1st quarter of 2018, their eBike revenue became 30%. To deal with this growth, their production facility in the Netherlands now produces electric bikes exclusively.
Motors
The big trend for moving forward with mid-motors is lighter and quieter.
As an example, and rarely seen in North America, Bafang developed a mid-drive motor at 2.2kg, and a total system weight of 4.4kg with a 200Wh battery. This will motivate the competition to develop lighter and lighter components that go into their systems.
Maserati will feature the Bafang motor in it’s eRoad bike when it debuts later in 2019.
Fazua also established itself last year with its lightweight and removable system. It appears on a range of high-end name brands of eRoad bikes.
With all this happening in eRoad, the mass market brands were also knocking pounds off from their popular mid-drive systems. Shimano’s newer E6100 city motor lost half a pound as it succeeded the E6000. Also their E5000 came in at 2.5kg lighter.
From Bosch, the Active Line Plus has been designed into an growing number of e-bike brands, but they also produced a newer, smaller and quieter line called the Drive C.
Connected eBIkes
The Cybic E Legend is a futuristic looking eBike and it has Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant built in! Alexa provides voice activated navigation, bikes lights, audio player, and more. The bike has GPS tracking to locate the bike if it is stolen.
It has a built in touch screen display and cell connectivity with its own SIM card. There will probably be more details coming from CES 2019 next week.
Empowered by Gears 