• Etterra@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Yeah but they’re useless in the dead of winter in Northern latitudes. Or in the rain.

      • Gebruikersnaam
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        8 months ago

        That’s because bicycles dissolve in water. It is a fundamental limitation of bicycle physics that cannot be solved.

      • JDubbleu@programming.dev
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        8 months ago

        Mine personally combusts into a giant ball of flames if I hit a small puddle. It’s really annoying going through so many fire extinguishers.

        In actuality I’ve driven my jank as fuck ebike in torrential rain without a problem. This is with an external battery I slapped on and wired in parallel with the integrated battery. The connectors are sealed by electrical tape alone and it’s been perfectly fine for two years. Water is a non-issue of all the important stuff is integrated and sealed correctly.

    • AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      You should tell that to everyone using electric bikes during the winter due to it easing biking a ton during winter.

      • Pickle_Jr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        Personal experience so this is confirmation bias. I love my eBike. I drive it nearly all year. Winter is the exception. It’s not the cold weather either, I ride it sometimes as low as 10°F (≈-12°C).

        Where I am, road conditions are the problem. Snow plows push snow into the shitty bike gutter lanes, taking away that option. You could take your chances on the sidewalk, but the city doesn’t put ice melt down, so then you’d need to be weary of other pedestrians, slick spots, and other hazards that come with sidewalks. You could take your chances going further into the road, but now You’re dealing with potholes, drivers who want to get by you, and still potential for more slick spots. Not safe at all. Lastly, the bit of biking infrastructure which isn’t a gutter but a proper bike trail just isn’t tended to at all.

        Cities say they care, throw down money to at least build something they call infrastructure, but actually maintaining it is something that normally doesn’t happen.

    • Bimbleby@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Extremely popular in urban areas in Denmark.

      An electric cargo bike has replaced our car in our family of 2 adults and 2 small kids.

      But it’s a good idea to bring the battery inside with you in the winter.

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      As an inhabitant of one of the most bike-friendly countries in the world, Denmark (which happens to very much be in northern latitudes and get a lot of rain) since birth, I can categorically and without a doubt declare your claims to be absolute horseshit.

      • teejay@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Honest question: How do you deal with extreme cold and/ or rain when biking to and from work? I’m interested to learn more.

        • labsin@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          For the cold I often leave with light gloves and a jacket but often take off the jacket halfway when you get warm of the exercise

          For the rain you have plastic pants and poncho to put over your clothes.

          A lot of companies also have showers so you can just wear sports clothes that dry fast and take a shower and put on decent clothes. Combining fitness and your commute.

          • psud@aussie.zone
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            8 months ago

            For cold I want gloves, long trousers, and closed shoes, the rest of me is hot from pedaling so I wear the same as in summer. On an e-bike I reckon someone would need to be properly dressed for the weather

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Basically just dress for the weather. Also helps that it’s a small country so our commutes tend to be short 🤷

          That said, when I was young and in shape, I used to ride my bicycle 15 kilometers (a little over 9 miles) up and down hills each way 5 days a week no matter the weather and I fucking loved it!

      • Etterra@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I live in Chicago and the number of people riding bikes, powered or not, including motorcycles for good measure, plummets in the winter. It’s not zero, but anyone using them is either desperate or (in the case of not doing or out of sheer necessity) completely nuts. I’ve lived it, don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Just because you live in a place where not a lot of people use bikes in the winter and the rain doesn’t mean that bikes are useless in those cases, which is what you said.

          So yeah, I WILL tell you that you don’t know what you’re talking about when you make such preposterous statements.

    • Grass@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      This is patently false. There is an honest shocking amount of people who go out of their way to bike in snow. I do it too but not for enjoyment. And what is rain going to do, infuse the bike and rider with more microplastics?

    • Sverik@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      What makes you say that? People of Oslo seem to differ. People of Tallinn complain about road maintenance and still ride their (e)bikes in the winter.