I bought an e-bike last year and I’m 2000% bikepilled now. My family thinks I’m crazy for going get groceries by bike. Bike shit.
this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2024
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chapotraphouse
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you get into carry shit olympics yet?
I wanna ride my bike, but i keep being consumed by something making me stop. Dumb shit like “where am i gonna go?” and “do i really want to get sweaty”
Make it stop.
I feel this. What helped me was making it an errand, even if the car was nominally faster. But time spent biking is exercise, which is good, time sitting in a car just burns money.
Or you could go for the coffee-ride. Ride somewhere, get a treat, ride back. Just to have a goal.
Alternatively you could just go for something like wandrer - there's similar services. Some gamification here helps.
You can just ride it to get to places, like to your friends house or the bar or work or w/e. I ride a ton but basically never just "go for a bike ride"
this always seems kind of dumb until you realize every road was cobblestone and the metallurgy to produce chains wasn't quite mass market ready and then it makes perfect sense. The big wheel both serves as gears and also makes you just roll over most gaps in cobblestone
they master boardwalk and quagmire with aplomb
500 miles in on my ebike since early Summer. I have a 10 year old truck and I'm convinced between both vehicles I will never buy a new automobile again.
Now obviously I hate cars but gotta say bicycle / truck is a working combination. Run something similar myself, basically just for things that are actually unrealistically far to go by bicycle or if I need to haul more shit than a bicycle can feasibly carry. Allthough I gotta get a bike trailer honestly, there's this missing middle where I feel dumb using a car but it also doesn't really carry well on my bike and I say that as someone who regularly rides short distances one handed carrying shit like a rain barrel in one hand
Conditions as they are, I own a house. I need a truck. I hate cars but this is reality and it's not changing any time soon.
That being said, my ebike baskets are big enough for a small haul from a grocery store. If my wife and I both go, we fill up for 2 or more weeks with room to spare.
my child learned to ride late this season after a few years of late blooming. I'm so proud.
I was harassing a driver stopped at a stop sign for honking and screaming past me and my partner on a bike route the other day. Dude was apoplectic that I had the nerve to knock on his window and turned into pure white rage. Tried to use his car to hit me when I tried to ride away.
All this was like whatever because I was going to beat the tar out of him but then he turned right in and hit my partner's bike when he sped off.
As much as it's deep in my constitution to use my strong and powerful male body and voice to bully back drivers who try to bully me on the road, I never really considered that I might be putting my partner in danger and I felt absolutely sick that I let my anger put her at risk 
Replaced my old car with an ebike back in June and I just passed 1.2k km on the odometer, fuckin love this thing. Had a weird catastrophic failure recently where the screws popped off the motor faceplate, thankfully I had one left to size check some replacements when support got me nowhere, but after finding the right machine screws I'm back in business.
I got a back rack with a wire basket so I can get groceries, it's so keener. I've been racking the web for a front basket/rack seeing as my frame has some pre-set screws for one, but the company I bought it off doesn't seem to have one available, maybe not in Canada. I found a few that may but it's a pretty expensive risk for a basket that may not fit, those things can cost a pretty penny.
I just ordered a studded tire now that it's getting colder, I intend to try and bike to and fro as much as possible.
I got a back rack with a wire basket so I can get groceries, it's so keener. I've been racking the web for a front basket/rack seeing as my frame has some pre-set screws for one, but the company I bought it off doesn't seem to have one available, maybe not in Canada. I found a few that may but it's a pretty expensive risk for a basket that may not fit, those things can cost a pretty penny.
Just jury rig that shit with some zip ties honestly. Maybe some metal affixings with old tube on the hang points to not scratch your shit. I got a collapsible wire basket on one side of my rack and it is so, so, fucking good man.
I just ordered a studded tire now that it's getting colder, I intend to try and bike to and fro as much as possible.
Studded bicycle tyres are fucking hilarious to see other people witness because no one knows they exist. Car drivers look at me in awe as I pull a 15° corner lean at 30kph on my bicycle, wondering how I'm not eating shit. It takes like 5 minutes of not trusting them before you're ready to huck yourself down a bobsled track. So much fucking grip.
I love studded tires!!!!!!
I was thinking lately about how people who bike for fitness and those that bike as a form of transit have very different bodies and vibes. I was the latter, with that sandy hair and wiry, dusty body. I miss having that vibe, but now that I drive I get regular sleep and can ferry my roommates around.
I need to find a good saddle. The one I've got makes me sad and not want to ride.
Measure your sit-bones by putting some thicker cardboard on a hard surface and sitting on it. Measure distance between both central points of distention and shop for something that advertises this as it's seat width or similar (not the technical outside spec)
Also remember, saddle comfort has like 0 bearing to price. Two of my most comfy saddles are unbranded and I have 0 idea who even made them, but they came with cheap bikes. Another one is like a 10 eurodollars Decathlon one.
Also do note unless you do short-short trips, like a 1 mi / 2km too much cushioning just means you're gonna rest your stoff on your soft bits instead of your boney bits. Think maybe more fabric-covered public transport seat and not couch
The cornerbars look like they'd be rad for my commuter. I should see if I could find some.
I am discovering the joys of AliExpress this week. I now have an electronics case that holds my phone, wallet, earbuds, and bike lights instead of just letting everything fly around loose. I also got some shoe packing cubes for my change of clothes and running stuff so I can stop using plastic shopping bags. Total cost was a couple bucks, should've done this sooner.
Also this is my first year doing cyclocross and I am having a ball. Last race of the season is in a couple weeks and I am not keeping up with my workouts 
How much is a decent bike and does it need to be kept inside? My bike is rusting away and I kinda want to get a new one.
Replaced my car with a $1500 priority. You definitely have to keep it inside
What do you need it for?
I'm an internally-geared hub kind of guy because I hate doing maintenance and keeping shit clean. My most recent ride had a 5-speed Sturmey-Archer hub with a built-in drum brake, which was good. The drum brake was amazing, but the gears less so. They were always kinda finnicky, but they finally gave out a few months back and I lost everything but first. For a minute I was considering trying to rebuild the hub myself, but it seems like a lot of work, and I might not even be able to replace the parts anyway. Besides (I told myself) I bought this bike for $140 mostly as a "let's see how often bikes get stolen here" test, to which the answer has been "basically never if they're locked up".
So I went and spent $600 on one of these used from a guy who seemed to be transitioning to all e-bikes, which made sense considering his house was on a massive hill. This bike has a NuVinci/Enviolo continuously-variable transmission which is absolutely wild. Essentially endless gear ratios, and that plus the belt drive mean it's quiet as hell. The only issue is that it has kinda cheapo hydraulic disc brakes that don't let you adjust the bite point, but custom fenders, built-in dynamo lights, it's a pretty nice machine.
Also I had to get new tires for the e-bike I use when my wife and I are going places together (she rides on the back) and the tires I got are called "Carless Whisper" which I think is pretty funny.
I am so jealous, I always wanted to try a NuVinci/Enviolo, especially on an acoustic bicycle but I can only find them in expensive ass e-bikes here. How's the power loss?
A little noticeable. But I don't think it's egregious. Possibly balanced out by being able to maintain the perfect ratio and cadence.
my friend told me the last bike they purchased was from aliexpress and they rode that shit for years cross-country. link your favorite aliexpress bike so I can inexplicably keep a bike in my small apartment and use it twice a month thanks
I didn't ride as much this year because I've been skating instead but honestly almost everything good for bikes is also good for skating. So still yes bikes.
I really need to go fix my pedals so I can go bike again more.
Put my bike on the train from LA to Chicago then did a bikepacking trip from Chicago through Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Gravel paths were amazing. Also, the drivers were amazingly friendly, at least compared to LA. Thinking of trying the East Coast Greenway next summer.
If you’re on the fence about learning to ride a unicycle you should go for it. It’s more attainable than you may think.
I need to start riding my bike more because my car tyres have sidewall damage. I almost got hit by a car today though, so I need to wear hi-vis and go construction worker chic.
hi-vis isn't inadvisable but I want to point out that the issue most often isn't car drivers literally not being able to visually see you, it's that they either don't look at all or alternatively their brain scans for "cars" and seeing none assumes this means "clear". Some defensive, but confident riding can help with this, albeit you're still admittedly on the short end of the stick
Love going downhill cause I'm fast and I hate going uphill cause I'm slow, so it's a mixed experience living in one of the hilliest cities
The corner bars look like a great option. I have a set of drop bars on my gravel/everything bike and the brake levers I went with kinda suck (I have downtube friction shifters for sturdiness, reliability, and serviceability) so it'd be nice to use mtb levers with some more versatile bars.
Speaking of, I'm a little scared of riding since I haven't seriously ridden since gaining a lot of weight. I'm also tall so I'm well over the max rider weight for most bikes. I've already chewed up a square taper crank arm. But my parents might help me get a sturdy frame, like a Clydesdale.
what e bikes y'all got
I bought one but it's so fucking heavy (20-25kg) that it's sort of impractical
I bought a used Heybike Mars last year for $800. Use for Uber Eats on weekends. Has like a 35 mile range if you use pedal assist on the lowest level. It's also a fucking tank so taking it on public transport and going up and down stairs is a pain in the ass.
I'm at a weird in-between time of year for my setups.
My everyday and favorite bike isn't great at braking when it's wet (steel rims, rod brakes), but this is the time of year when it's always wet. I have a backup that I usually ride instead, but I put my studded tires on already in case things became icy this week (it snowed last week).
So now I don't want to ride either of my bikes, but I really want to ride a bike. It's times like these that I'm tempted to go by the bicycle junkyard and build a new bike and somehow end up with two extras.
It really just needs to snow.