Is an e-bike a monstrosity?

At the bicycle rack…

Simplicity itself

Matthew: Ian Bogost writing in The Atlantic calls an e-bike a monstrosity.

Joseph: And is it?

Matthew: Well, it is a hybrid machine. It is neither a bicycle, nor a motorcycle.

Joseph: But surely it sometimes achieves the best of both worlds?

Matthew: Yes, an e-bike can take you further, go faster, and carry more than a regular bicycle. But electric assistance moves one level of engagement between human and machine.

Saddled with clutter

Joseph: I see you like green bikes.

Mathew: Sure. It’s one of the ways to support Zelensky. And the planet.

_______

Voice-over

Sometimes an article is written to provoke, others are written tongue-in-cheek. But Ian’s piece seems serious. The automation of machines that move us is separating us from them. And it may be so. Perhaps that’s why I like to alternate between a bicycle and an e-bike. It’s the schizophrenia of my generation.

Graduating from motorcycle to electric bicycle

Marshall caves in…

Excessive

Craig: You gave in and bought an electric bicycle?

Marshall: My contribution to adjusting the world’s climate. 

Craig: Quite a downsizing from a Honda motorcycle (bought in 2006 when there was less urgency about carbon emissions and global warming) to a Panasonic electric bicycle.

Marshall: 1300 ccs capable of 180 kilometers per hour to a 250 watt motor capable of 25 kilometers per hour.

Craig: You don’t miss the thrill?

Minimalist

Marshall: At my age I now get as big a kick from accelerating from 0 to 15 km/hour with an electric pedal assist as I did 15 years ago accelerating from 0 to 60 km/hour with a gasoline throttle twist. 

_______

Voice-over

It may have been his aging playing out against against a backdrop of COP26 that Marshall was shamed into giving up moving around on fossil-fuelled two wheels and moving to an electric bicycle (電動). 

Kick starting a BSA 250

Rethinking two-wheel A to B

Marshall: It makes sense to travel on two wheels in times of global warming.

Craig: Saves some energy, yes. Cheaper, yes.

Marshall: And motorcycles are more docile now. My first motorcycle, a 1939 BSA 250 side valve, had a complicated starting procedure: pump the plunger on the carb, set ignition to retard, raise piston to TDC, pull the decompressor and kick, then release the decompressor. After half a dozen or ten kicks you might get lucky and it would chug into life. 

Craig: My student days were like that, too. Wherever possible park on a rise for a downhill start.

Marshall: And the prayers you sent up trying to coax the thing into life. Please, I beg you, I beseech you, fire up and keep running,

Craig: Finally I gave up on British and bought a Japanese Honda 50.

________

Voice-over

Now that fossil fuels are being legislated against, electric bicycles seem a logical progression. Once again, Japan may offer pedestrian products but they are robust and you meet the nicest people on them.