It weighs half that, including me, and the average speed over a longer trip is about 33 to 35 Kph. In cities you ride just as fast as the rest of the bike traffic, there isn't any point in trying to go faster, and top speed is rarely achieved, you'd need a 100% full battery and a rider in very good condition. More usual you'll be around 35 to 38 kph in open country where there is very little other traffic.
My 'commute' is 64 km, it takes me two hours on the dot door-to-door.
I recently sold my ST2. I could get only 30-60km on a full (1kwh) battery at max speed (46 kmh). But then why would you go below max speed om a 7k bicycle? I got rid of it because it was also very expensive in maintenance, and because cycling on the road slightly slower than cars really sucks (a few too many encounters with aggressive cars). The stromers are near impossible to ride without assist, think because of the regenerative engine. When the battery was empty or I had one of those weird error 18 things I could go abou 17kmh with a lot of effort. I got a vanmoof bike instead niwy, so much nicer. 30kmh, easy to pedal past assist speed cause of light front wheel motor. Lightweight, 500wh battery is pretty ok (also same 30-60km range). Lots of repairs (under warranty) though, build quality is subpar. My 30km commute is 65 minutes now on my vanmoof, where it was 50 minutes on a stromer.
That was worst case, I ride in all weather conditions. 7 Bft headwind in winter would deplete the battery from full to 0 on my way home. Also it was difficult to get to max speed witb strong headwind, but 40kmh was always achievable
I had my share of controller issues, where the bike would give an error. Removing the battery a few times usually solved it, but somehow the magnetic connector is too sensitive. Worse is that it is really easy to improperly connect the charger, so sometimes it would not charge at work
Depending on wind and temperature that would give me a ton of range anxiety. Especially as cycling on a stromer without assist is very very hard. So all in all it was ok, I rode 13k km and it mostly worked. But when it didn't I really hated it.
The €250 travel charger is only 80W, so a full charge takes 12 hours. I ended up writing a script to poll the api to make sure the bike was actually charging when at work.
That is why being able to use the bike as normal when off/dead battery was a primary criterium for me. The bike I have now has a cheap little hub motor on the front wheel, and it lets the wheel spin freely when the bike is off.
A final remark, I used my Stromer ST2 exclusively for commuting. Just not practical in the city, only in between cities. I use my regular ebike for almost all trips, so I get a lot more value from it.
Thank you. I know two people with Stromers and their stories are quite comparable. The gear looks awesome and when it works it works fantastic but it seems a bit fickle and I'd really hate to be stuck halfway on a 65 km ride on a bike that heavy. Which is why I ended up building what I did, the Bosch system is reliable, a bit slower and DRM'd to the hilt but I figured I'd find a way to make that work. Fortunately the BMS is not smart enough to recognize the much larger battery to the point that it will brick itself, it ends up a bit confused about range, as the battery depletes the kilometers get longer and longer :)
It is not the weight that is the problem (though the bike is heavy), it is that the fancy hub drive will not let the rear wheel spin freely when powered off. I have had to cycle home up to 20km with at about 18kmh, so slower than a lot of normal cyclists, while sweating, wearing my ugly helmet and illegally riding on the cycle path. The last time that happened I decided to sell the bike.
Probably electromagnetic drag. I can totally see how you decided to sell it, transportation should first of all be reliable. Funny bit: the bike may be slower than the car but with the car the variance is a lot larger due to traffic variability. I've taken three hours to do a 45 minute trip and with the bike it is the exact same time every time.
Yeah, same for me. I know my commute by bike will be 60-70 minutes, regardless of conditions. By car it is 25-90 minutes, depending on predictable and very unpredictable circumstances. If speed pedelecs work depends hugely on where you live, if there are proper "bromfietspaden" or if you have to go through an inner city. Also in some cities (e.g. Rotterdam) you can take the bicycle path and local law enforcement doesn't care. In others the police is much more vigilant. Being the slowest vehicle on the road is not fun. That's why for my situation a normal 25kmh e-bike works best, especially because mine is accidentally set to the US speed limit of 20mph/32kmh, oops
I cycle Baarn->Arnhem and back twice weekly, that's 65 km one way. A bit much to do on a regular bike. The hard part of that trip is passing through Amersfoort, there is no really good way to bypass it so I just have to deal with it. It is a much more dangerous part than the rest of the trip and I always time it so that I'm never out there during rush hour.
Hehe, what a funny coincidence that your bike has that glitch :)
I go at that speed on my road bike under my own power with teeny tiny tyres to reduce drag. By comparison this thing is safer since it has disk brakes and larger tires.
Yeah road bike riding is absolutely what I want to avoid though. Suppose it’s personal preference but I hate those tiny tires. I’ve hit a curve + gravel/loose asphalt and had my front wheel slide sideways causing me to lay the bike down at full speed. Back in my BMX days I had a friend lose his top lip like this and I was riding right next to him (it got sewn back on). And I’m just a casual rider now a days. I’m not a commuter or sport rider, just gets me outside on a nice day. So I am taking in my surroundings and not necessarily 100% focused on the road.
2 1/4" tires on it, traction is pretty good. Haven't fallen yet, had to brake hard for animals (cats, dogs, deer, a rabbit or two, and once a boar). So far so good, but having already had a pretty bad bike accident I'm pretty careful now.
All the speed of motorcycles without the sound awareness, what could possibly go wrong? My overall experience is that E-bike riders generally have decent cycling manners, it's the scooter and unicycle riders that seem to think they can just crank their walking speed up to 30mph and go everywhere a pedestrian would. I usually just give them a firm "heads up next time" when I get buzzed by an electric motor whine at 20mph.
I used to ride a motorcycle, now I have an ebike. They seem equally safe to me, which is to say neither are safe at all if there are other people on the road. The only solution is extremely defensive driving/riding, assume no one (including pedestrians) can see you. This attitude has been embedded deeply in the motorcycle culture and is the best way to all-around responsible riders -- and it needs to be propagated to ebike riders. I don't think it's about having manners, really. Also, sound awareness is a myth propagated by Harley riders.
>Also, sound awareness is a myth propagated by Harley riders.
This pisses me off so much. I know harley riders that have straight pipes and ride around with ear plugs in to keep from going deaf. Anyone caught over the legal noise limit should have their ride confiscated. It's asshole behavior masquerading as 'safety'.
The only saving grace is at least they know the word 'safety'. I've ridden with such guys too and yes they are assholes, but notably they espouse the same defensive riding opinions of most riders, and they're still alive. That's the key in my opinion, being safe/responsible is not the same as being polite, and I think this gets lost when people focus only on (e)bikers needing to learn good manners and be nice to other road users. (One should do both of course.)
> assume no one (including pedestrians) can see you
Exactly. I'm in the same situation. I used to ride a motorcycle (that I still own but almost never use now) and am on an ebike every day.
It's not about "assuming" no on "can" see you: it's that nobody does see you, and nobody cares.
It's also the fact that people don't think about your speed or your ability to slow down fast -- they only care about your general volume. People will be more careful around a big parked truck than when faced with a small barrel rolling down a hill at full speed.
The way to stay alive is to be able to predict what everyone is about to do. I think I have become quite good at this, although one is always learning.
I find the e-bike that the article talks about (S-pedelec) to be the peak of unsafeness for two wheeled vehicles. A colleague had one and let me try it - I quickly noped out.
He's doing 40mph in traffic with his bike shorts and a flimsy helmet. The power to weight ratio also gives him enormous acceleration, so he can jump from the red lights in front of everyone. Other drivers often misjudge how quickly he can move and he had some close calls like this.
If I were the author I would reconsider using one of these, especially with his history of accidents...
Power two weight is very modest, it's only a 350 W motor in there for this one.
My history with accidents is simple: I was cycling on a low racer recumbent and hit a traffic obstacle at a very unfortunate angle. Shit happens. But this bike is about 100x times safer than that recumbent. And a lot slower too, in spite of being assisted, low racers are very fast for unpowered bikes.
Yes the problem with ebikes isn't other people being aware of the bike's sound, it's the rider being aware of the risk to themselves and others. Maybe this is ingrained in the motorcycle culture, but it seems like most buyers of ebikes I know have never ridden a motorcycle before and were not riding bicycles regularly either. They just go "oh this makes my commute like that time I biked when I was on vacation" and approach safety with a lackadaisical attitude. That makes them relatively irresponsible riders in my opinion. This problem hopefully fixes itself over time as they learn from accidents and an ebike safety culture emerges, but for now it's pretty sad.
The bigger danger here in NL are the elderly, who suddenly go zooming around at twice the speeds they had before they got their e-bikes. Accidents every day like that, nasty ones too.
You probably mean "one wheel" riders? (As in the electric, low profile, self balancing type, not the traditional large wheel, seated, fixed axle unicycle) Unless you live around an inordinate amount of rude unicyclists. In that case, I must see that as it sounds very humorous.
Scooters are a plague (and this bike is classed as a scooter, unfortunately, so I'm lumped in with the worst), but a bigger danger is mobile phone use by cyclists. That's roughly 1/3rd of all the adults and 2/3rds of the teenagers here.
Screen-zombie pedestrians annoy me as well. So do uneven pavements, trash, rocks and any other obstacles that appear on my way. If I'm on an electric scooter or a bike though it's my responsibility to ensure that I'm not riding a silent, heavy and fast vehicle into someone. Especially if they can't see me because I'm approaching from behind. And to emphasise - there is an entire range of pedestrians that might have a disability (mobility issues, seeing, hearing etc.) which makes them much more vulnerable to accidents.
Absolutely. But spending time on your mobile phone has no place in traffic and that has nothing to do with being disabled. It's just being grossly disrespectful towards others and endangering them and yourself.
Sure it does if you’re in a cross walk. As a driver of a vehicle, you should be yielding to those as per their right of way and paying attention to anyone who might or might not take their right of way.
In practice: cyclist head down looking at their mobile phone swerving all over the road, two hands holding the phone to be able to text using whatsapp or whatever other IM they are using entirely lost situational awareness. I've seen enough accidents from this by now to become an advocate for substantially increased fines for cell phone use in traffic.
I have a class 3 and I don't feel safe riding in bike lanes at full speed, zipping by slower bicycles. There's no place to go if someone swerves. I will usually ride in traffic instead.
Riding in traffic here is suicide. Drivers get very irritated when you are not exactly at the speed limit and I've had more than one instance where someone essentially overtook and then forced me into the bike lane. And that's just here in town, where there is absolutely nothing to gain.
hold up, forced your bike into the bike lane? Why were you not there in the first place? (Not meant accusatory, I must be misunderstanding or missing something; I don't even know where "here" is.)
Here is NL, legally in town I'm supposed to be driving in traffic with this bike, it's an s-pedelec, not a normal e-bike. It's insured and has a yellow license plate, and it is legally treated like a 45 kph scooter even though it clearly isn't a scooter visually and so drivers get irritated by the slowpoke in 'their' lane.
Np, it's a confusing subject in practice and to talk about. There are 6 different classes of vehicle here that you can find on a bike path and probably more when you start to factor in cargo bikes and such.
Yes. This is the way. Thank you, Dutch government.
If somebody feels like wheezing an almost completely silent 200kg projectile, godspeed. But please gtfo from the urban bike paths, if at all possible.