this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!

"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.

micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I have an e-bike I use for commuting and groceries.

It’s very very heavy when not powered and it has a ton of drag (because of the regenerative braking). It’s brutal to pedal without assist even though I’m an avid cyclist who spends most of my time on non-e-bikes.

Depending on the kind of bike it was - and her level of fitness - there could be multiple problems or issues that resulted in her being stranded.

There’s an easy answer here, that e-bikes used in the outback/wilderness should have adequate bail-out gearing.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Regen braking shouldn't be on all the time though, that sounds odd.

Definitely heavy enough that even with gears it can be a lot to pedal without assist, I can say from personal experience with a ~70 lb first-gen RadCity

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Regen isn’t on all the time, but the regen gearing causes very high drag. It’s a side effect of how the motor is designed. In order to cruise as if it could freewheel with no drag, the motor controller has to feed it a low amount of power when not pedalling. About 20W-30W depending on the speed.

But the motor is also much larger than most e-bike motors (1200W continuous with a much higher peak) - additionally the battery is double the size of most e-bike batteries (also ~1200W/hr).

So in addition to the drag - lots of extra weight.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Oh I see, is that a permanent magnet motor that's ultimately responsible for the drag?