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It's well-documented and understood that straight, wide residential streets are much more dangerous than narrower, curvier (within limits) streets because they encourage high-speed driving. Sadly, Americans have been sold the vision of 4- or 6-lane residential streets with no sidewalks and surrounded by groundwater-irrigated golf-courses in the middle of the desert as the epitome of the American dream/success. Couple that with the belief that cars should have primacy on those streets and bikes are toys and you end up w/ the often-lethal, always-opposed "bike infrastructure" here. (And when there inevitably is a crash and some poor biker gets smeared across...

from Hans Rey about ebike development Link: https://hansrey.com/blog/ An Open Letter to the Bicycle Industry By Hans Rey To the leaders, builders, advocates, and riders who shape our industry, I’m writing because I care deeply about where bicycles—and electric bicycles—are headed. We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make about language, power limits, and definitions will determine whether Class 1 e-bikes remain accepted as bicycles—or get grouped with much more powerful machines that don’t belong in the same category. It’s time to define our language and it’s time to draw a line in the sand of when e-bikes become...

Speaking for the US only, cycling infrastructure is terrible across the country with only a few bright spots. I have commuted by bike for twenty years and have had so many near death experiences. Public transit in the US is also woefully underfunded and underdeveloped. That’s by design since the US political system has been corrupted by petroleum/auto money for nearly a century. (also add in distance and weather realities) And I could go on…

Correct. The USA tariff situation is interesting, in a bad way. Currently you have 15% global tariffs, section 232 tariffs which impose 50% tariffs on steel that comes from outside the USA, and a range of tariffs on Chinese goods, from bicycles to lithium batteries. Non-chinese Ebikes are duty free but analog bikes get 11% duty applied to them. It is looking prohibitively expensive to get bikes into the USA.

So something to note on pricing that is coming through. and this is not meant to be a political post. but the new steel tariffs HIGHLY affect bike prices. ESPECIALLY e-bikes. basically all the bike companies have to figure out the percentage of steel in a bike (HS, bearings, cassette, motors) and then that times the pricing of the bike etc. And these are not cheap... like some bikes increasing close to $1k just on tariff prices.... (cross posted in tech rumors)

POTUS has multiple other ways to impose tariffs, so barring a full-scale revolt from Congress (unlikely) I'm betting it won't get better until after the mid-term elections (and it's not a sure bet then either...)

That's exactly why I made a slightly-above-my-comfortable-price-point (even though I they gave me a good deal on it) bike purchase on Nov 1st, 2024. I knew the economic policies of both POTUS candidates and had a very clear understanding of where each policy was going. AND I knew what I was seeing as I was looking out into the electorate. I wasn't sure how quickly things would end up...here. Overall it was a good move because it gave me time to adjust had I made a bad bike decision. I didn't, so everything's all good.

but Dow is at 50k!

Someone just posted in the RAAW thread on PB. I'm guessing this is just going to be a US issue due to a certain level of... uncertainty... these days? They got this email last night. " Hi xxxxx, First of all, we would like to thank you for your order and we're happy you've chosen to ride a RAAW in the future. Unfortunately, we need to inform you about a short-notice change in the shipping process that affects your DHL shipment, which has already been dispatched. DHL has recently changed its customs clearance procedure for shipments to the USA. However...

I don't really understand the arms race in wattage. Current battery energy density limits me to riding in trail mode in order to obtain any reasonable range on my rides. It doesn't do me any good to have 1000w available if I'm only ever riding in the 500w mode to conserve battery life. To me, this just increases the threat of ebike bans where relationships are already strained on many trail networks. It's somewhat expected to see DJI not giving a fuck about US regulations when there are surrons flying all over city streets illegally, but I would have thought...

I almost completely agree with this review of the Narco Sight TQ. I was lucky to get an early sample of this bike and I’ve been riding it for several weeks in all different types of terrain. It has been more fun than any other eBike I’ve ridden. The reason I love this eBike is that it’s fun on any trail and not just the biggest and baddest trails. I’ve been equally impressed by the TQ motor/battery system. It doesn’t try to be a full power system but it’s great at everything full power bikes are bad at. For me...

vital's sight vlt tq review - https://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/e-bikes/norco/sight-vlt-73251#co…

vital's norco sight vlt tq review with @Blake_Motley - https://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/e-bikes/norco/sight-vlt-73251#co…