Fucking big tech is helping to destroy legitimate e-bikes by flooding the market with this illegal trash.
Currently, there is a Facebook Marketplace listing for the same bike as Nacato’s, for $200. The city official acknowledged that resale platforms like Facebook Marketplace are harder to rein in. But it’s not impossible.
“If you’re able to cut off the source, if you can successfully get these products off the street or are doing more to regulate then you are going to see less of them sold on places like Facebook. That’s going to take a while though,” said Lohr. “In the meantime Facebook should be doing as much as they can to regulate what is being sold on their marketplaces.”
It’s real simple: NYC should force all ISPs in the city to stop resolving facebook.com until it complies. That’ll get some fucking attention to the problem right quick!
👏👏👏
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Forgive me for not really giving a fuck about emotos. This is always an unpopular opinion, but I fail to be moved by the panic surrounding them every time they come up in discussion, and there are already laws in place to address the scofflaw behavior people claim they encourage. They’re better than cars and the cars are still around. I’m going to stay focused on the cars.
If you act like a carbrain, you are a carbrain, even if you’re not in a 4 wheeled motorized vehicle.
The main problem is that a lot of people who do give a fuck about them are ignorant of the difference between them and e-bikes and so e-bikes are in danger of getting banned in a lot of places, too.
Absolutely; everyone I know who is anti-e-bike, cites these things!
As long as it’s about differentiating the two for people, and supporting infrastructure and licensure (If relevant) for both, then I’m all for it. Carving out a supportive role for them. Too often I see otherwise transit-friendly people who’s experiences with emotos san infrastructure and legal framework mirrors the revulsion expressed by people toward lawless cyclists back when bicycles didn’t have infrastructure or legal recognition on the road.
This isn’t a real problem. Boomer ass merikkka and its f4000 baby crusher grocery getter empty beds like Haliburton humpity dumpity tonka toy can’t work on it chat gipity spyware throw away pickup trucks and breeder SUVs are the problem. This is just anti chynah nonsense. I love CHINA deal with it boomers. I could be in a sea of you over socialised conformist dildos and I would still tell you to fuck off and that you are 100% wrong. Guided like a horse you are. Mandani is a fucking mayor big whoop… he already sniffin the ass of power and ready to piviot. The DSA is nothing but stank arse wankers.
It’s a problem far outside of the US, because carbrains are using these e-motos to ban actual e-bikes everywhere. Not just NYC, California has a similar tech backed lobby that is trying to outlaw E-bikes, as does London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Singapore. Also a fair number of the illegal e-motos are manufactured in the US, UK, EU and SK, so China or any other country doesn’t come into this argument.
The fact that people are conflating two different products worldwide because of big business interests is a problem.
NYC is so damn flat, tho.
Are you saying that these e-motos aren’t necessary in NYC? What does the elevation change have to do with these illegal devices that are giving legitimate e-bikes a bad name?
Those are called fatbikes, no?
No. Fatbikes can be legitimate e-bikes, if they comply with the classification rules (e.g. maximum assisted speed of 20 mph for Class 1 or 2). Being a fatbike just means it has really wide tires; they aren’t necessarily even electric at all.
These things NYC is trying to stop are not bicycles at all, fat or otherwise. They are unlicensed motorcycles, sometimes with vestigial useless pedals for the sole purpose of tricking people into thinking they’re something they’re not.
Fatbike:
The shit we’re talking about here:
That’s a sports/off-road motorcycle…
Which is what the pictured vehicle either is or is designed to look like.
The shit I don’t agree with that NYC is doing is eliminating Class 3 e-bikes. Cutting off pedal assist at 25mph vs. 28mph is such a negligible 3mph difference. This criminalizes a huge amount of bikes that are perfectly legal in the rest of the United States. E-motos like the Surron were already illegal, unregistered motorcycles before Class 3 arbitrarily got axed in NYC.
That negligible difference is actually a fairly large one once the physics of inertia and impacts gets into play. The energy, and therefore the damage, is exponential based on velocity. That ≈6.6km/hr difference increases damage by a lot more than you may suspect, and pedestrians don’t generally wear helmets and pads to protect themselves from impacts.
If I’m not mistaken, class 3 also has a throttle vs just pedal assist. I think the throttle is great personally. Sometimes it’s hard to get started to cross an intersection or something, and the throttle is a huge help. Feels like this kinda kills some stuff for old + disabled.
Class 2 has a throttle. Class 3 can have a throttle, but it has to cut off at 20 mph (same speed as class 2) and use pedal-assist only from there to 28 mph.
The shit we’re talking about here:
I’ve recently been overtaken by someone riding such a bike (of course without a licence or insurance plate). I was driving 50 km/h (~30 mph) in town while he was going like 70 km/h (~44 mph) on the right hand sidewalk (no there’s no bike lane on that sidewalk).
Huh. That would be called a dirtbike where I’m from (the “e-moto”).
