E bikes ruining social rides

[ColinOldnCranky]

Can you get e-unicycles? Now that would be a hoot.....

Yes Gordon. The early ones came to market ten or fifteen years ago. No pedals, just a powerful motor and some pretty slick software that shares a lot with the algorithms of a segway.

The early ones were made in low volumes and were generically termed SBU's for Self balancing unicycles. Productions runs were small as were the companies that made them.

There is now a swathe of large mostly Chinese manufacturers mass producing on modern assembly lines devices but mostly without anything to sit on. You just stand on flat plates where pedals would otherwise be. They can be had for just a few hundred Australian dollars online.

However on electric (as for traditional) unicycles, a fair bit of torque is required in order to keep the wheel under the rider. e-Unicycles start at around a kW. As a result none are yet legal on Australian roads and paths though I have never heard of anyone being approached by police. Some day the regs will catch up.

[Gordonhooker]

Can you get e-unicycles? Now that would be a hoot.....

Yes Gordon. The early ones came to market ten or fifteen years ago. No pedals, just a powerful motor and some pretty slick software that shares a lot with the algorithms of a segway.

The early ones were made in low volumes and were generically termed SBU's for Self balancing unicycles. Productions runs were small as were the companies that made them.

There is now a swathe of large mostly Chinese manufacturers mass producing on modern assembly lines devices but mostly without anything to sit on. You just stand on flat plates where pedals would otherwise be. They can be had for just a few hundred Australian dollars online.

However on electric (as for traditional) unicycles, a fair bit of torque is required in order to keep the wheel under the rider. e-Unicycles start at around a kW. As a result none are yet legal on Australian roads and paths though I have never heard of anyone being approached by police. Some day the regs will catch up.

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Well there you go - whodafunkdat?

[Poider]

I bought my e bike due to asthma, cannot power up any hill without needing ventolin, I love getting out on a bike and my wife has bad knees and is overweight, she loves her new found freedom to get out and about, we are polite on the bike paths, we always ring the bell to warn others and do our best to stay out of the way of others, without e bikes we would never get out and about, we still need to pedal and always do.
Don't judge us by some e bike riders that are silly and we wont judge non e bikers by the few non e bikers that break the rules and are as silly

[Thoglette]

A chap at the office has the IPS (or similar). Seems to work nicely, even if it makes a lot of noise, for reasons that are not immediately clear.

Anything that gets people out of their cars is good.