High Gas Prices got you down?

[Famine]

@Famine: Bio-ethanol costs a lot to make the western way, but there are cheaper ways to farm... while Brazil has shown that it can be done, admittedly, it's not enough to do everything, and such bio-ethanol dependence can't be sustained if we are to meet current commercial and industrial demand.

"Cheaper"? Maybe - but bioethanol requires more thermal energy to make than the thermal energy of the oil it replaces, and for enough crop to supply the whole world's cars, nearly a half of all the land area of the planet needs to be devoted to growing it.

 

[Freddie]

@FreddieA bicycle will not understeer greatly with a powered front. At 15 lbs, the engine still isn't heavy enough to counterbalance the rider, but gives some extra grip to the front end. Considering you have a 150-200 lb rider centered over the bike, who can shift his weight forward or backward and side to side to aid cornering, a heavy front doesn't entail any difficulty at all... and it's not strong enough to power understeer the bike, if that's what you were getting at.

Plus, like live4speed says, thin wheels don't hydroplane. Sure, they don't have much lateral grip, but when was the last time you saw a bicycle rider cornering at over 0.6gs?

Well, would you know. I've learned something new today!

 

[niky]

"Cheaper"? Maybe - but bioethanol requires more thermal energy to make than the thermal energy of the oil it replaces, and for enough crop to supply the whole world's cars, nearly a half of all the land area of the planet needs to be devoted to growing it.

👍 true enough. It is doable, though... but I agree, it will never replace gasoline.

Here's to the bikes we'll all be riding next decade...

 

[Rogue Ssv]

Straight out of PopSci. Guess what. Screw that. Pedal power suckaz! All thatll do is add an extra 5 pounds of weight to my 20 pound aluminum composite Schwinn. I can go 20-25 flat and 35-40 downhill, beat cars on Norhtern Blvd! And without any of this bio-etheanol crap.

 

[Onikaze]

You see "it's added weight and only 20-25 mph"

I see "with some gear tinkering, that could probably help me hit 40 mph with ease"

Different strokes?

 

[Rogue Ssv]

Hmm, I prefer pedal power. Anyway what about races? Ill be evenly matched! Right now my Schwinn 40mph road bike and prodigious pedaling power gives me an unfair advantage, but with this I might actually get beaten! My 3 year street racing career, straight wins, tarnished!
Nooooooo...
Well as I have nothing else worth saying, Im out.

 

[Onikaze]

I prefer pedal power myself, I used to ride with 35-40 mph traffic on a regular basis.

This however, is great for people like my girlfriend, who didn't grow up on a bicycle, and would help her keep up with me, and other such things.