Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Ken Ho wrote:*rambling about motorbikes*
Overall, i see a nice execution of an evolving concept, the E-bike, not an ugly bicycle at all.

Yep so I've just highlighted what we're saying to you. Telling us we're wrong because of our opinion is just ludicrous. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... Stop telling me what I perceive as ugly is not, you're wrong.

il padrone wrote:

Ken Ho wrote: Multispoke wheels like that are typical of motorbike designs, as is the high rear seat/pannier design. This would be largely shielded from wind by thr riders body.

Just put some weight in that high position and see what happens. Hello speed wobble!! <scrape, thud>

Ken Ho wrote:A duel suspension like that will give a nicer and safer ride than a rigid frame too, soaking umps and improving braking and handling.

Completely unnecessary for regular road riding. Just soaks up your efforts if you get out of the saddle at all. Better braking.... dubious.

mate, ive had plenty of pillions on a high rear seat on motos, and yes, while at some point you might make the front go a bit light, you would have o load those panniers with lead to have any effect.
People thinking of it as an ugly bicycle are missing the point that its not a bicycle. It,s an e-bike. different beast. dfferent design brief.
As for thinking that good suspension does not improve braking, maybe you should recall what happens to the braking distances on your car when the shockies are rooted. After a lifetime of riding decent motorbikes, decents on my rigid roadie turn my hair white.
As for the relevance of suspension on the raod, mate, you need to leave the city and you nice hot-mix and get out onto some coarse chip-seal for 40 or 50 km and ou might change your mind. My hands were numb for 2 days after doing the Tour de Tableland last week.

Glad you lot were not around when they were designing the horse collar, or the Middle Ages would have nothing at all to show for itself.
As it is, looks like you all oversaw the other design projects of the time.

Ken Ho wrote:mate, ive had plenty of pillions on a high rear seat on motos, and yes, while at some point you might make the front go a bit light, you would have o load those panniers with lead to have any effect.

Bicycles are not the same as motorcycles, much lighter. Even an extra 10kg mass high and rearwards will make a far bigger impact on your steering control, when combined with (and accentuating) your pedalling input. Every sway is magnified. Motorbikes don't have this rider input of pedal sway. I've seen too many fellow riders take a dive with a heavy rear load and no front panniers - not pretty. Simply put, it matters.

Ken Ho wrote:As for thinking that good suspension does not improve braking, maybe you should recall what happens to the braking distances on your car when the shockies are rooted. After a lifetime of riding decent motorbikes, decents on my rigid roadie turn my hair white.

Practice mate, practice. Maybe get better tyres.

Suspension will make a significant difference on a rough gravel road, much more so on a MTB singletrack. On sealed roads the front suspension hardly moves while I stay seated, braking or powering.


BTW, go easy on the insults bud. You don't know me from jack, and have no idea of my cycling background.

Nothing wrong with my tyres or my mad skillz. Its the surfaces i ride on. NOT SMOOTH.
Hit a big bump at enough speed and the bars get yanked out of my hands. Plus, a whoopsie on lots of my hill rides will result in making love to a gum tree if I'm lucky, going over a cliff or smashing into a cutting if I'm not.
30km at 40kph from Atherton to Mareeba the orher day had me shattered. Road would be smmoth as glass in a car, on a carbon roadie, it was hell.

Your cycling background is not in question, and tthe horse collar quip was not really directed at you. it was provoked by someone suggesting they were going to "put me in my place"
Reduced unsprung weight makes suspension work better, hence "those wheels", and good supension keeps rubber on the road, which makes brakes and handling better. Ask anyone who works with vehicles running a suspension.
I'm thinking that the frame is probably full of batteries, which might just counter-balance the weight in the rear too.

I'm going to find another ugly bike.

I have a trek y-frame mtb from 1997. I reckon it looks great (for its vintage), but the e-bike above is just a hideous update. My initial impression of it was 'what the he'll did they do to that y frame?'

redrover3 wrote:WTS Bris Repco Austral Roadbike Approx 56cm
Price $150
Postage : Prefer to sell locally at this stage but may consider postage.
Repco Austral alum framed roadbike approx 56cm seat tube. Compact frame. 8sp Shimano Sora STI levers. High profile sun rims with DT Swiss rear hub. New Continental Ultra Race tyres, Look pedals, computer. VGC. Good for beginner to roadbiking. Selling for friend. Too big for me.



Reply or pm for more details, photos as needed

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find_bruce wrote:Or if you prefer more conventional ugly, how about the Ellsworth Commute

Apparently it is exclusive, so don't delay, buy now

It has nice nipples

Marto wrote:

find_bruce wrote:Or if you prefer more conventional ugly, how about the Ellsworth Commute

Apparently it is exclusive, so don't delay, buy now

It has nice nipples

you want to grease them?

Ken Ho wrote:No surprise it blew past someone on a hill. Electric motors have dead flat torque curves which will see them do the same speed on hills as the flats, to a point.

The reason an electric bike would blow past someone on a hill is it probably has 200W while the rider is producing another 200W+. Not many humans can produce 400W+ for very long. Humans have a flat torque curve too. The flatness of the electric motor's torque curve would have little difference in hill climbing than a person producing 400W+.

ohexploitable wrote:

redrover3 wrote:WTS Bris Repco Austral Roadbike Approx 56cm
Price $150.....

.

Strange OT post??? Not a beauty, but equally not an ugly bike, just a cheap one like many tens of thousands of others people are riding about on.

Nobody wrote:Not many humans can produce 400W+ for very long.

Not many E-bikes can produce 400W for very long either. After 3-4 hours of motor use, then the bike powered only by a 200W rider is a slug to ride.

Currently on exhibit at the 2013 NAHMBS.

Mad Max's bike ??

Dan wrote:

Some of that extreme ugliness has rubbed off onto the zipp wheels too. They are soiled by the matching green lettering.

It's a very aerodynamically clean frame though, it is probably pretty fast...

True, doesn't conform to uci rules though and a recumbent will be faster, probably less ugly too

Plus its ugly.

Pretty much anything built by this lot: http://www.facebook.com/justrideit?fref=ts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HLC wrote:Pretty much anything built by this lot: http://www.facebook.com/justrideit?fref=ts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I didn't know you could buy congealed vomit in a bicycle shape. Their "Teny" rims look like some Wheelchair Factory seconds.

"Were $599... Now only $150!!!" Yeah, right.