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- novenator, on 06/15/2009, -1/+12One of my friends who lived over there spoke of the exact same thing. Sounds crazy packed.
- fragMasterFlash, on 06/15/2009, -1/+12Rechargeable batteries don't last forever. I hope that they have put infrastructure in place to recondition/recycle them.
- yuanzhoulu, on 06/15/2009, -0/+9Chinese bicycle lanes are amazing, safe, extremely well-paved, and broad on major arteries. here's a sidewalk in Chengdu
http://dheera.net/photos/view.php?q=china/chengdu/ ...
note how pedestrians, bicycles and cars are all fully separated from each other.
on smaller roads in China, there aren't separate bicycle lanes, but the sheer number of bicyclists and driver awareness makes it extremely safe, compared to riding to the side of an 18-wheeler or SUV in the USA. - JCEEZ, on 06/15/2009, -0/+7well... lack of demand FTL
- slyzxx, on 06/15/2009, -0/+6$300 i`m sure there will be a storm to own one, i know i would dish out 300 smackers to have one to ride around.
- Pinkertinkle, on 06/15/2009, -1/+6yeah right
- gz2nyc, on 06/15/2009, -0/+5I just came back last week from a month-long trip in China, having visited Shanghai/Hangzhou/Guangzhou and several lesser known cities. What I can say about recycling in China is that on every few city blocks there is a double sided receptacle bin, one side for recyclable trash and the other for all other kinds of trash. China has come a long way since the poor, backwards country some of you might have imagined.
- digger9, on 06/15/2009, -1/+6Being a motorcycle rider myself and having visited China alot....an electric bike sounds very appealing to me!
- JackOpfor, on 06/15/2009, -0/+4This or a very similar article was dug just last week here
http://digg.com/environment/In_China_Bicycles_Are_ ...
yep its the same article.... - JCEEZ, on 06/15/2009, -1/+5Prior to the electric bike, there have been 18932182378917 people riding normal bikes on the streets in China anyways....
It's pretty gnarly actually if you ever get to go. - greenvortex, on 06/15/2009, -1/+5If you could buy an electric bike for $300 here like you can there, we might see more sales. As it is, try to find one in the U.S. for under $1000.
- Photokon, on 06/15/2009, -0/+4going to straight to landfills right on the coast.
- PandaBearShenyu, on 06/15/2009, -1/+4There'd be more demand if people won't be run over by drunken swerving incompetently driven SUVs.
In China there are lanes on the side of the road that are fenced off to cars that are there exclusively for Bicyclists, so it's safer from the crazy taxi drivers. - screensnot, on 06/15/2009, -0/+3Here is a $260 kit that adds electric power to your front wheel. It replaces your front rim.
http://us.itselectric.ca/Wilderness_Energy_BL_36_F ... - yuanzhoulu, on 06/15/2009, -0/+3it's changing quite fast. China's recycling rates are improving much more rapidly of late. Chengdu, Chongqing, Beijing and Shanghai city receptacles already have recycle bins paired up, and single-stream recycling. Boston and New York have nothing.
as for chemical disposal, that too is changing extremely fast. China made its mistakes a decade ago, but it's catching up. - JCEEZ, on 06/15/2009, -0/+3dude, driving in China is the craziest ***** ever.
4 lane road = 6 and random government cars driving on the wrong side / sidewalk / bike lane - linagee, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2In China they should ban gas bikes on streets. We have our priorities backwards in America.
- JCEEZ, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2When I was in China, I had a bike that would recharge itself as you peddled.
- yuanzhoulu, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2they actually are safer if you think about it. you're cycling amongst a sea of bicycles and it's pretty hard for a car to not be aware of you. if you crash into another bicycle, you might get pretty badly scratched up, but you almost certainly will not die.
over here in the USA, comparatively, i'm cycling down on a super-narrow 1-metre-wide bicycle lane alongside some giant bus, SUV or 18-wheeler that would kill me in an instant. US drivers also don't know well how to drive, turn and shift lanes with bicycles also on the road. there's a reason why wearing helmets is so advertised in the USA. - JCEEZ, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2I counted them all by hand, and did some deep excavation into the history of China, and bike use. China has a long history and people have been riding bikes there for generations. I counted people riding on the handlebars as .5, whereas I counted people on pegs as .6. If you take into account, previous generations of bike riders, this number is pretty accurate.
This number doesn't include unicycle unicycles or tricycles.
It's science. Thank You. - sndream, on 06/15/2009, -4/+6The electric bike is a thousand times better than the $1000 car from India.
And I suspect it's safer too. - orville1151, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2I think JCEEZ was making a joke based on exaggeration.
- JitMaster, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2I got mine for 700
- yuanzhoulu, on 06/15/2009, -0/+2they're very useful in cities; the big downside to electric bicycles still though is it's a somewhat not viable option for trips, because there are no charging stations where there isn't an electric power point, and you have to wait to charge it up.
what would be nice, imho, is if they can create a safe, replaceable "fuel" that is actually a chemical sort of electrolyte that can be changed out at stations; i.e. you change out your battery fluid and instantly have a "new" battery; then the old fluid should be recycled. - yuanzhoulu, on 06/15/2009, -1/+3so china is at least 3000 times the population of the Earth. nice.
- yuanzhoulu, on 06/15/2009, -1/+3that $200 walmart model would be a kiddie 8mph scooter, not an electric bicycle viable for transporting groceries and crap.
- tonychenyj, on 06/15/2009, -3/+5True in some cities, also some cities ban these electric bikes on street.
- diggduggDOOM, on 06/15/2009, -1/+2A quick search gave me this at under $500:
http://www.amazon.com/Trailz-Electric-Mountain-26- ... - inactive, on 06/15/2009, -1/+2Hmm... The Japanese got their foot into American markets with their awesome motorcycles, maybe the Chines will do the same with electric vehicles.
- MeLikeyTacos, on 06/15/2009, -1/+2I lived in Beijing for a year back in 2005, and there were electric bikes everywhere. They were pretty cheap, too...I was tempted to buy one myself. Wish I could find a way to import one cheaply.
- inactive, on 06/15/2009, -0/+1I wonder if they could combine this with a wheel generator for downhill and braking. That would be bad ass for adding distance, and around hilly places like my house the charge on the down hill would be great.
What would be even cooler is if they put a generator in the back tire with a special gear on the back sprocket you can switch to, so that you could charge even more when coasting. Add to that a variable output that would take over on hills and you can stay at a optimal pedaling speed even though the terrain shifts. - Loki101, on 06/16/2009, -0/+1Would be incredibly ironic that the nation with some of the most polluted cities in the world would also become a world leadr in "green" vehicles...
- Mike17102, on 06/16/2009, -0/+1Uh no, its a full sized pedal assisted bike. Try again diggiots.
At least take 5 seconds to look something up before you prove you have no ***** idea what you are talking about: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_ ... - Hymnosi, on 06/15/2009, -2/+3Buried for duplicate, seriously it hasn't even been 2 days!
- linagee, on 06/15/2009, -1/+2Unemployed UAW workers should build e-bikes for China. Obviously the stupid people don't want them here, but over there it's a huge market!
If GM only had the smarts of "go to where the money is". - rmxz, on 06/15/2009, -1/+2Sure makes more sense than an electric car from an energy efficiency point of view too - what do you think wastes more energy - pushing around a 20lb bike or a 3669lb Ford Escape hybrid.
- smartnose, on 06/15/2009, -0/+0driver awareness ......yes.
extremely safe .........not really. But it should be much safer if everybody stick to their lanes. - PandaBearShenyu, on 06/15/2009, -0/+1The taxi drivers are like all michael Schumachers or something... they drive sooo fast. XD
- leadfoot, on 06/16/2009, -1/+1Until you have batteries that have a 3 year warranty and last more than 5 years at 80% of new capacity with a top speed of over 25-30mph with a 45-50 mile range, everything else is only a toy. The stuff you all linked to here has if you don't pedal, a 5 mile range at 8mph with a 200# rider. They are all useless POS that does no one any good. All the electric bikes sold Amazon and in Walmart are in this category and are useless crap and does no one a bit of good.
They do however make a bike that meets my minimum criteria! If I could afford one I would buy it. It is the Optima bike and has models that range from $4000+ to just under $10,000. It can also have a second battery pack that would make the range 100 miles on a single charge. It costs less than 5 cents to charge it too! It made it up Pikes Peak on a single charge with liberal pedal assistance though. This Optima bike is like the Tesla of the electric bike industry. I sure do want one though! - Amazetbm, on 06/15/2009, -2/+2One glaring downside is they create a larger load on their coal fired powerplants.
- JCEEZ, on 06/16/2009, -1/+1and it's also built in China
- yuanzhoulu, on 06/15/2009, -0/+1@JCEEZ
that's kind of useless, because you would be putting enormous effort to pedal - you have to pedal the bicycle as well as pedal for recharging. given the <100% efficiency and the battery weight, you'll necessarily waste *more* body energy than if you got a light-weight, non-electric bicycle and just pedaled the whole way. - taibo, on 06/15/2009, -1/+1This exact same article has been on the frontpage twice in 3 days. Diggers really love their e-bikes I guess.
- PandaBearShenyu, on 06/15/2009, -4/+2Capitalism ftw. lol
- Mike17102, on 06/15/2009, -4/+2Of course they do, its China.
They just toss them in the nearest hole in the ground. - inactive, on 06/15/2009, -8/+5But Obumma says $40,000 Chevy Taserr.. Volt is the way to go, and understandably so. Imagine how many $300 electric bikes would have to be manufactured to feed the voracious UAW.
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