<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>NikolaNovak</author><text>If something has that average speed capability, why is not licensed, registered, insured and held accountable as any vehicle would be? My 50cc scooter appears to have comparable speeds (maybe 10kph higher), and I wear proper armour &amp;amp; helmet, took the classes passed the test, am registered, licenses &amp;amp; insured.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s my massive pet peeve &amp;amp; safety concern: I WANT to love e-Bikes, and all those sorts of things; and like a fellow poster, I&amp;#x27;ve been riding both 500-650cc motorcycles and 50-125cc scooters for more than a decade so 2-wheelers are part of my life; but basically all the ads, shops, and salespeople over here are focusing on &amp;quot;You don&amp;#x27;t need license, you don&amp;#x27;t need insurance, you don&amp;#x27;t need to behave like a vehicle and obey the rules&amp;quot; as their main and primary sales point; and therefore the behaviour of riders is equally nonchalant. In the Toronto area (and it&amp;#x27;s important to be explicit because this is definitely different in different geographies), the relationship between cars and non-gas two-wheelers is charitably described as &amp;quot;strained&amp;quot; (&amp;quot;murderous&amp;#x2F;self-righteous hate&amp;quot; may be more accurate), and we all need to get better and understanding how we can co-exist and behave &lt;i&gt;responsibly&lt;/i&gt; on the road.</text><parent_chain><item><author>rjbwork</author><text>I have an e-bike and I disagree with your assertions.  I&amp;#x27;m a fat asthmatic and I have absolutely no problem maintaining 40kph for long stretches of time on my bike.  The fastest I&amp;#x27;ve done on it (on a large hill but still) is 42.7MPH (~68Kph).  Average cruising speed on flat land can easily be 30-33mph(48-53kph).  Not all e-bikes are capable of this, but they are certainly not some kind of rare expensive impossibility - mine was less than 3000 USD.&lt;p&gt;My point is that you should be more ingenuous with your assertions of what the capabilities of these bikes are when communicating with people about it.  Nothing makes people more skeptical than reading things that are just plain false from an advocate.</text></item><item><author>jacquesm</author><text>In the USA the situation is much more risky than here.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like riding in traffic mostly because drivers tend to have a short fuse for anything that isn&amp;#x27;t exactly at the limit, but on bike paths everything works just fine. The problem is that s-pedelecs are technically lumped in with the scooters, even though there is no throttle and there is absolutely no way you are going to sustain 40 Kph+ for anything but a very short period. But they&amp;#x27;re still pretty new and little by little municipalities are adapting and allowing s-pedelecs to use the bike lanes. What helps is that s-pedelec riders are extremely defensive. In town I simply reduce the assist to &amp;#x27;eco&amp;#x27; and cycle with the rest of the bikes, and on the intercity bike paths I go as fast I conditions allow, typically 35 to 38 or so. On a longer trip that averages out to 33 to 35 Kph, which means a 1 hour car trip turns into a 2 hour bike trip, which is acceptable (and never traffic jams, which can turn that 1 hour car trip into a three hour car trip!).</text></item><item><author>twodave</author><text>Awesome project Jacques! I saw a comment of yours on an article a day or two ago and was hoping to see this pop up soon.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve found the most difficult thing about riding an e-bike is the other motorists have no idea how to react to you. You&amp;#x27;re not really a regular bicycle anymore due to your speed, but you&amp;#x27;re also not a motorcycle that deserves its own lane. I have at least one car turn in front of me almost every trip out just because they&amp;#x27;re misjudging my speed. I get honked and yelled at when on the road because folks get frustrated when I&amp;#x27;m using the left-hand side of the right-turn lane as a bike path.&lt;p&gt;Sidewalks&amp;#x2F;bike paths tend to be a lot less safe in residential areas as well, since cars coming out of their driveways really don&amp;#x27;t expect an e-bike to come rolling through. I&amp;#x27;ve learned to dramatically reduce speed in areas like this.&lt;p&gt;Aside from those things, I love it! I ride the e-bike whenever I&amp;#x27;m going somewhere in range (I live in Florida so things tend to be spread out) and the weather permits. My bike gets about 80km which is more than enough for anyplace I want to go on a bicycle anyway.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Show HN: Long Range E-Bike</title><url>https://jacquesmattheij.com/long-range-ebike/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>m4x</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m curious - what ebike do you have that can easily cruise at 48-53 kph for extended periods?&lt;p&gt;In most countries that would be far above the legal limits imposed on ebikes. As a result, the ebikes available for purchase are all limited to 25-32 kph max and typically have power limits of 250-300 W. Since ebikes are a lot heavier, exceeding 32 kph for more than a few seconds is generally very difficult.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t think GP is being disingenuous with any of his assertions. In the US there might be ebikes with much higher top speeds, but jacquesm doesn&amp;#x27;t live in the US and neither do most of the other people on this planet. Most ebikes sold do exactly what he&amp;#x27;s describing.</text><parent_chain><item><author>rjbwork</author><text>I have an e-bike and I disagree with your assertions.  I&amp;#x27;m a fat asthmatic and I have absolutely no problem maintaining 40kph for long stretches of time on my bike.  The fastest I&amp;#x27;ve done on it (on a large hill but still) is 42.7MPH (~68Kph).  Average cruising speed on flat land can easily be 30-33mph(48-53kph).  Not all e-bikes are capable of this, but they are certainly not some kind of rare expensive impossibility - mine was less than 3000 USD.&lt;p&gt;My point is that you should be more ingenuous with your assertions of what the capabilities of these bikes are when communicating with people about it.  Nothing makes people more skeptical than reading things that are just plain false from an advocate.</text></item><item><author>jacquesm</author><text>In the USA the situation is much more risky than here.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t like riding in traffic mostly because drivers tend to have a short fuse for anything that isn&amp;#x27;t exactly at the limit, but on bike paths everything works just fine. The problem is that s-pedelecs are technically lumped in with the scooters, even though there is no throttle and there is absolutely no way you are going to sustain 40 Kph+ for anything but a very short period. But they&amp;#x27;re still pretty new and little by little municipalities are adapting and allowing s-pedelecs to use the bike lanes. What helps is that s-pedelec riders are extremely defensive. In town I simply reduce the assist to &amp;#x27;eco&amp;#x27; and cycle with the rest of the bikes, and on the intercity bike paths I go as fast I conditions allow, typically 35 to 38 or so. On a longer trip that averages out to 33 to 35 Kph, which means a 1 hour car trip turns into a 2 hour bike trip, which is acceptable (and never traffic jams, which can turn that 1 hour car trip into a three hour car trip!).</text></item><item><author>twodave</author><text>Awesome project Jacques! I saw a comment of yours on an article a day or two ago and was hoping to see this pop up soon.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve found the most difficult thing about riding an e-bike is the other motorists have no idea how to react to you. You&amp;#x27;re not really a regular bicycle anymore due to your speed, but you&amp;#x27;re also not a motorcycle that deserves its own lane. I have at least one car turn in front of me almost every trip out just because they&amp;#x27;re misjudging my speed. I get honked and yelled at when on the road because folks get frustrated when I&amp;#x27;m using the left-hand side of the right-turn lane as a bike path.&lt;p&gt;Sidewalks&amp;#x2F;bike paths tend to be a lot less safe in residential areas as well, since cars coming out of their driveways really don&amp;#x27;t expect an e-bike to come rolling through. I&amp;#x27;ve learned to dramatically reduce speed in areas like this.&lt;p&gt;Aside from those things, I love it! I ride the e-bike whenever I&amp;#x27;m going somewhere in range (I live in Florida so things tend to be spread out) and the weather permits. My bike gets about 80km which is more than enough for anyplace I want to go on a bicycle anyway.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Show HN: Long Range E-Bike</title><url>https://jacquesmattheij.com/long-range-ebike/</url></story>