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From: Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech
Subject: Re: E-Biikes are not bicycles
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:17:55 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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On 9/27/2024 12:22 PM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:
> Am Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:54:27 -0400 schrieb Frank Krygowski
> <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net>:
> 
>> Another guy on the ride is ~80, will always be somewhat overweight, but
>> wants to ride with the club for social reasons. When his ebike was
>> recently out of commission, he was desperately tired trying to keep up
>> on a very fancy, lightweight conventional bike. The motor and battery
>> allow him to socialize with his friends.
> 
> Perhaps.  But perhaps he got overweight and stayed overweight, because
> he was given a tool that enabled and rewarded this very behaviour.
> Including a narrative suitable as justification. A fancy, lightweight
> conventional bike might have been the the road not taken, twenty years
> ago, figuratively speaking.

Not true in his case. He and his (younger) wife moved here and joined 
our club maybe 10 years ago. Then, he rode a conventional bike, and they 
did lots and lots of mileage on club rides. He had a belly then, and 
it's never gone away. His wife recently did some senior races. His first 
ebike (maybe 4 years ago?) may have been motivated by a desire to ride 
at her speed - well, and the speed of other club members.

> It is worse now.  Nowadays, as both older and somewhat disabled people
> have long been captured by the marketing teams and many healthy middle
> aged people have already bought an E-Bike too, children have been in
> focus an the target for marketing for a few years now. Have a look at
> 
> <https://www.mystrobl.de/ws/vp/ebike/vsf_e-bikes_fuer_kinder.JPG>
> 
> That picture shows the cover of a magazine from VSF ("Verbund Service
> und Fahrrad", formerly and translated "association of self-managed
> bicycle companies", a nation wide marketing and lobby organization in
> Germany)
> 
> The title on the cover, in bold letters, says "E-bikes for children".
That's horrifying to me.

Last year, my friends and I were enjoying playing in an acoustic music 
session at a park pavilion. For a while we watched three or four kids 
zooming back and forth on an adjacent (very low traffic) road. They were 
being goofy kids, but at 20 mph at least, so crashes could have real 
consequences. I think their parents are nuts.

I occasionally see kids zooming around on electric scooters. Apparently 
it's no longer fashionable to use one's muscles. This is not a good trend.

-- 
- Frank Krygowski