Interesting eBike conversation with a coworker today

[MikeDuf]

Wow!
I was on the riverbed last week, midweek and midday! The ride was very Zen!

I saw this guy riding a trail 90! I wanted to turn around and ask him if you wanted to sell it. But then I thought and pondered quickly in my head, what am I going to do with a gas motor moped, it will just sit in the garage has another bill against my retirement checks. More oil, more gas, so I can concluded I just don't really need it and keep my life on complicated. But it was a looking vintage Trail 90.

What's my point? Well he was riding a gasoline-powered 90cc bike on the riverbed bike trail. Pretty sure it's not legal to ride any gas powered vehicle on the trail. But he was rolling along at about 15 miles an hour, there is no one around, he was driving safely in a zen-like way like I was.
I truly believe laws are made for all the jack asses that abuse them. It's like the beautiful parks that you could easily walk your dog and let them run free in but some jack ass has let their dog crap too many times or they are too aggressive and now it is a dog-free Zone.

 

[Smaug]

I see more and more e-mowers and e-snow blowers, no gas/oil or starting. I have not made the switch yet, I have a pretty good size lot and I would probably need several batteries. I do leaves with my mower in the fall, and a lot of times it's cold, I don't think the e-mower would be up to the task. Slowly e-stuff is replacing things in my life, drills, battery hedge trimmer, inflator, blower. I don't think I will ever give up my pedal bikes and trikes, the health benefits are too great, I've lost weight, lower blood pressure , better heart function etc. I like the e-bikes but try not to spend too much time on them.

FWIW, I went the battery mower route twice. First was a 58 V mower (orange brand from Home Depot several years ago). It worked well enough, but needed 2.5 batteries to mow my 1/2 acre lot at the time. The plastic deck finally cracked from the stress of my lumpy lawn.

I moved into a smaller house 5 years ago, bought a Ryobi 40 V mower. It worked fine, and two batteries were more than enough to mow my 1/4 acre lot, but one battery died after a year, and a replacement was $180. I figured soon after I replaced that, the other original battery would die and it would be VERY expensive NOT to have a gas mower. So I sold it to a man whose elderly mom would still mow, but couldn't handle the gas hassles. Bought myself a Toro recycler; it's great.

Snow blowers need a ton of power to be effective, especially at the base of the driveway when plowed in. Word was that even a high voltage snow blower is wimpy. I wound up going with a plug-in electric one, which works great. Got to deal with the cord instead of the gas hassles, but it's a fair trade-off, what with getting less snow all the time.

I also sold my eMoped and bought a combustion scooter for the higher speed stuff. Until battery costs come WAY down, it's just not feasible in the long run.

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OP, I was just thinking that the person riding the Trail 90 would likely have been just as well served with a fat tire eBike... (unless he's going dozens and dozens of miles at a stretch...) 15 mph on a relatively smooth trail is no sweat. That would get probably a 40+ mile range on mine. I would probably go Turbo Zen and turn the motor off for long stretches, too!

 

[MikeDuf]

If I had a trail 90 I would just take it out once every couple of weeks to keep the oil circulating. Not even sure I would even use it in the Flatlands where I live. And I don't do much camping any longer. If it doesn't have a soft bed I think twice

I basically simplified my life and got it down to his low maintenance as possible.

Perhaps one day if I ever move out of this car Centric area I will do things differently.
I would probably buy an old Volkswagen and turn it into a dune buggy!

 

[Lovetoride]

I love to ride my eBike which for me is recrational. My Bike is 750W and I know I am not suposed to drive it on Bikepaths but I allways do and always with respect and curtesy for others. Never seen Police on Bikepaths untill a few Days ago. I was parked near a Bike Path with my Car when I saw this Copper riding by with a Police Motocycle on the Bikepath WTF. Meanwhile the Hoodlooms robbing us blind and when you call the Police they tell you the are too bussy but they are not to bussy boosting the Statistics which they use then to argue a bigger Police Budget each year.

 

[Dirthog]

I love to ride my eBike which for me is recrational. My Bike is 750W and I know I am not suposed to drive it on Bikepaths but I allways do and always with respect and curtesy for others. Never seen Police on Bikepaths untill a few Days ago. I was parked near a Bike Path with my Car when I saw this Copper riding by with a Police Motocycle on the Bikepath WTF. Meanwhile the Hoodlooms robbing us blind and when you call the Police they tell you the are too bussy but they are not to bussy boosting the Statistics which they use then to argue a bigger Police Budget each year.

I see law enforcement on the local bike path almost every time I ride. I have never seen them pull over an ebike. I am happy to see them since vehicles in the parking lots are broken into on a regular basis.

 

[Smaug]

I love to ride my eBike which for me is recrational. My Bike is 750W and I know I am not suposed to drive it on Bikepaths but I allways do and always with respect and curtesy for others. Never seen Police on Bikepaths untill a few Days ago. I was parked near a Bike Path with my Car when I saw this Copper riding by with a Police Motocycle on the Bikepath WTF.

Why do you assume you knew what he was doing?

He could've been patrolling to enforce existing eBike laws. Many of us agree that enforcing existing laws should come before putting ever more restrictive laws on the books.

He could've been in pursuit. You have no right to be upset by this, unless he was endangering other users of the path. Heck, if he's going to catch someone being reckless on an electric motorcycle, he'll need a fast vehicle himself.

Meanwhile the Hoodlooms robbing us blind and when you call the Police they tell you the are too bussy but they are not to bussy boosting the Statistics which they use then to argue a bigger Police Budget each year.

I'm not sure what you meant that they're too busy to respond when called because they're boosting statistics. Maybe he was RESPONDING to a call of a law-breaking eBiker endangering people? Or someone selling drugs. You don't know, and you shouldn't presume to know and get all indignant about it. ESPECIALLY since they don't even seem to bother with you on YOUR illegal eBike.

 

[Hakaman99]

"Yes sir", "no sir", "thank you sir". These are three short statements I use when I talk to police officers, showing respect for the job they have to do. They are not perfect, and sometimes their actions may not line up with protocol the way you see it, but they have potentially hazardous job situations that I respect. The engineer in the opening post seems to have ambivalent intentions, where he does a fantastic job at work, the other which is like a spoiled 10 year old boy. Life has a way of straightening people out most of the time, the other times you end up in jail!

 

[popekr]

I have a colleague, we are both engineers. He's a 30 year old mechanical engineer who is always trying to get away with things. I'm a 47 year old regulatory (electrical background) who is trying to comply with things but still do what I want. His mentality is: "It may be illegal, but can I get away with it?"

I told him i just ordered the eMoped. (more on that in the eMopeds subforum) Here's how it went from there:

Him: I just ride my 80 around town. (80 cc dirtbike, not licensed, loud exhaust, no lighting or license.)
Me: ...but that's illegal. I'll be "riding the loophole" It's like a moped, but no need to license or insure it.
H: Doesn't matter. Cops don't do their job any more. They don't care.
M: They DO care, they just have to pick their battles more nowadays.
M: Eventually, you're gonna get nicked.
H: I'd run. How's he gonna catch me? I can go places he can't. (he brings up Google Maps and shows me all the foot bridges in the area)

At this point, I was like this:
This guy is very smart; one of our best design engineers. Financially smart too. He stayed home after finishing college, paid off his loans, saved up and put 40% down on his house. But he has that mentality that the law doesn't matter, only what he can get away with. One day, I think he will not show up for work and it will be just a question of whether he hurt himself doing something stupid or got arrested and is spending some time in jail.

Continuing.

M: They're gonna get you, and it's not going to be pretty when they do.
H: At night? I don't think so.
M: Wouldn't you rather do the right thing and have fun legally?
H: Nah.
M: I can ride this eBike on the road, and also sidewalks and bike trails, as long as I'm reasonable. No need to run from the police.

I think we get the impression from YouTubers that the people who are causing more laws to me made are young punks, but they come from all walks of life.

On the bright side, this colleague of mine is not making it worse for eBikers. Thank goodness he hasn't gotten into eBikes, or he'd be giving us a bad name. I shouldn't encourage him. (the mechanical engineers here are sticking with gas as if it's a religion!)

Just thought I'd share. It's an interesting time. I'm going to be telling my grandkids about it some day.

As a retired teacher I am pretty sure he's of the generation where the parents when he was a kid bailed him out of problems and said "oh he didn't mean to do that." One of our students got a wrong answer on a test and his mom said he didn't mean to get that answer. In the last years of my teaching career parents have gone from siding with teachers and letting their children learn consequences to bailing them out of every sticky situation. My daughter who was taught the old fashioned way, was training a co-worker newly hired and he asked her if they had to stay the whole 8 hours. I've only been retired 3 years and I teach college now and there's also a lot of students who when I tell them how it should be don't want to take that advice. They think I am wrong. Always with that attitude they don't manage to complete the program.