Ebikes!

[dasgeh]

@komorebi 183153 wrote:

I rode a CaBi Plus for the first time today, and I actually didn’t like it very much. The Plusses are heavier and more unwieldy than the regular CaBis, which are already tanks. And the e-assist kicked in and cut out unpredictably, which made for a jerky ride. Possibly it was a problem with that particular bike, or possibly I would have gotten more used to the e-assist over a longer ride. But that’s now the third model of e-bike that I’ve tried, and I haven’t liked any of them. Maybe I’m just not meant to ride e-bikes.

I’ve ridden 2 Plusses and never experienced this. I thought they were really great ebikes.

I’ve ridden a bunch ebikes, generally, and most newer models ride like regular bikes, just stronger.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@komorebi 183153 wrote:

I rode a CaBi Plus for the first time today, and I actually didn’t like it very much. The Plusses are heavier and more unwieldy than the regular CaBis, which are already tanks. And the e-assist kicked in and cut out unpredictably, which made for a jerky ride. Possibly it was a problem with that particular bike, or possibly I would have gotten more used to the e-assist over a longer ride. But that’s now the third model of e-bike that I’ve tried, and I haven’t liked any of them. Maybe I’m just not meant to ride e-bikes.

Yeah, I’m not a fan of their assist. The only way I could get it smoothed out was to ride at a higher cadence/effort, which almost defeats the purpose. I find the Jumps to be much better and they feel very similar to my Radwagon, which is rear drive.

[DCAKen]

@komorebi 183153 wrote:

I rode a CaBi Plus for the first time today, and I actually didn’t like it very much. The Plusses are heavier and more unwieldy than the regular CaBis, which are already tanks. And the e-assist kicked in and cut out unpredictably, which made for a jerky ride. Possibly it was a problem with that particular bike, or possibly I would have gotten more used to the e-assist over a longer ride. But that’s now the third model of e-bike that I’ve tried, and I haven’t liked any of them. Maybe I’m just not meant to ride e-bikes.

I haven’t experience that jerkiness on the CaBi Plus I’ve ridden. I ridden one here and the same model out in San Francisco a few times. The assist was predictable as you start pedaling, but for a first-time rider, getting used to that may take a little time.

[buschwacker]

@komorebi 183153 wrote:

I rode a CaBi Plus for the first time today, and I actually didn’t like it very much. The Plusses are heavier and more unwieldy than the regular CaBis, which are already tanks. And the e-assist kicked in and cut out unpredictably, which made for a jerky ride. Possibly it was a problem with that particular bike, or possibly I would have gotten more used to the e-assist over a longer ride. But that’s now the third model of e-bike that I’ve tried, and I haven’t liked any of them. Maybe I’m just not meant to ride e-bikes.

I haven’t ridden a CaBi Plus yet, but your experience may be the result of a defective cadence sensor on that bike. The cadence sensor is a series of magnets around the crank area – as you pedal, each magnet is activated and the ebike computer activates the motor to boost you. If some of those magnets aren’t giving good feedback to the computer, slow pedaling results in the boost not kicking in, but fast pedaling would. It sounds like a defective bike to me.

[Judd]

@dasgeh 183157 wrote:

I’ve ridden 2 Plusses and never experienced this. I thought they were really great ebikes.

I’ve ridden a bunch ebikes, generally, and most newer models ride like regular bikes, just stronger.

I’ve ridden a Plus about 25 times now and I have experienced some that were jerky and felt like the assist was cutting in and out. I’ve also had experiences where the battery was about done where the assist was weak.

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[TwoWheelsDC]

@buschwacker 183169 wrote:

I haven’t ridden a CaBi Plus yet, but your experience may be the result of a defective cadence sensor on that bike.

This is a really good point. I suspect that either the cadence sensors are a point of failure for the Cabi+, or they’re using sensors with an insufficient number of magnets to get smooth power delivery. I know that Radpower Bikes used to have something like a 7 point cadence sensor (so 7 magnets) and people found the power delivery jerky, but the newer models have a 12 point sensor and it’s pretty seamless.

[Judd]

From an interview with William Shatner, 87 years old, in the LA Times:

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[Sunyata]

@Judd 183239 wrote:

From an interview with William Shatner, 87 years old, in the LA Times:

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My problem with this quote is the last half sentence… “I go back to my car when the bike ride’s over”…

[Judd]

@Sunyata 183281 wrote:

My problem with this quote is the last half sentence… “I go back to my car when the bike ride’s over”…

True. But even Captain Kirk can not fix California Car Culture on his own.

[cvcalhoun]

I finally managed to capture a CaBi Plus in the wild! (Previous attempts had ended with everything from five different ones disappearing while I was racing from dock to dock, to the time someone had spread dog poop all over one.)

The good news: I was able to ride it all the way to Bethesda (although unfortunately, the nearest dock is still over a mile from my house). Having had to stop all my Jump bike rides at the DC border, this was a big improvement.

The bad news: What is with those saddles? I was biking in a dress, and the saddle chafed the inside of my thighs so badly that I was having to hobble into the house and apply diaper rash ointment when I got home. This has never happened with a Jump bike.

If CaBi ever gets enough Plus bikes so I have a reasonable chance of getting one on any given night, I will definitely get an annual membership. However, I’d better keep some bike tights at the office, because that chafing was a major pain!

[DrP]

I found a CaBi plus on Friday night, mostly because the rack I wanted to get a bike from was blocked as they were changing traffic lights at Quincy and Wilson (in prep for the bridge move?). Along Fairfax it was great – a bit of a shock to get power as I was trying to just get off the sidewalk (which was also under construction, so off the curb I went), but otherwise, nice getting decent speed along the road. When I started uphill on the Ballston Connector to the Custis, the power cut out a few times and similarly on the other hills as I rode it back along the Custis and to the docking station on Washington Blvd. Nice when it was working, but annoying that it kept cutting out when I needed it more. I did like the fact that there are baskets on the front that one could place larger items on than on the regular CaBi. I would use again if I found one, but the regular CaBis are just fine for me.

[Dewey]

Jeff Marootian, DDOT Director addressed the DC Council Committee on Transportation and the Environment on 2/25 and among other items reported “We also introduced an electric bike pilot deploying 80 e-bikes across the system this year. We have had positive feedback on this pilot and are preparing to announce a significant expansion in the coming months.” Source: https://ddot.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ddot/release_content/attachments/DDOT%20Oversight%20Hearing%202019%20Testimony_2_22_FINAL.pdf

[peterw_diy]

Next week CaBi begins increasing the number of electric bikes to about 12% of its fleet and using one will cost an extra $1 per ride.

https://www.capitalbikeshare.com/blog/500-plus-ebikes

I do hope they will waive the surcharge not just for those receiving financial assistance but also anyone who takes an electric bike if there are no red bikes available. Paul, are you listening?

[Dewey]

Fire breaks out at NY Citi Bike hub after e-bike battery charger bursts into flames.

Whoops, shades of the fire in 2015 that gutted Hybrid Pedals in Arlington. More seriously given the NY Citi Bike fire involves the same operator as CaBi, Motivate, I hope they consider installing a battery bunker or other storage room with a lithium extinguishing system at Capital Bikeshare warehouse/maintenance facilities and carry Class D dry powder extinguishers and battery storage ammo cans in the rebalancing trucks.

[Dewey]

Regarding the decision to temporarily withdraw CaBi+ ebikes this article in the Post makes depressing reading: that there isn’t safety oversight or a channel for communicating safety data between electric bikeshare operating companies. Uber/Jump reportedly fixed the problem in their bikes, the Shimano manual says the hub of their front Inter-M roller brake needs the wheel hub to incorporate braking power modulators so Uber must have found a way to retrofit the power modulators into the motor hub – that they failed to share with Lyft/Motivate either the existence of the problem or their technical solution demonstrates a need for better regulatory oversight. Hope they do the right thing by anyone injured, and they fix the problem toot sweet so they can get CaBi+ back on the streets.

[Author]

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