Stan is BikeRadar’s content editor. Stan works on everything from content strategy and breaking news to evergreen updates and long-form features. Stan started working in the bike industry in 2018, writing content for some of the sport’s biggest brands, before moving to BikeRadar in 2020. With a degree in design history and a master’s in writing, he has worked as a freelance writer and journalist for the past nine years, writing reviews, essays and interviews for many art, design and literature publications, as well as appearing on radio. A road cyclist at heart, Stan has undertaken foolhardy pursuits such as 300km overnight audaxes, and you’ll likely find him cycling through Essex from his home in East London.
"In April, Zweirad Industrie Verband (ZIV), the German cycling industry association, published a paper with these recommendations:
- A support ratio of 1:4, where a rider’s 100W power output is matched by 400W from an electric motor
- A maximum assistance power of 750W <…> Although Bosch is just one of 140 members in the association, some have said that Bosch is exerting influence over the position to protect its place in the market. <…>
ZIV’s position has been interpreted as potentially blocking the development of heavier e-cargo bikes. Disabled people or those who cannot generate sufficient power could also struggle to use ebikes if ZIV’s recommendations are implemented."
If the ultimate goal is to regulate speed and size, power output as a multiple of rider input is an interesting wag to measure that for “normal” ebikes. Not necessarily good, but interesting. Specialized advertises their bikes like this: “2x You” or “4x You”. Part of what makes it interesting is that I don’t know how manufacturers could figure out your power output on a bike that doesn’t have a torque sensor. My Specialized has a power/torque sensor, but many of the bikes I test rode only had cadence sensors.
I know Ride1up uses some sort of voltage trickery to simulate it. It’s not perfect, but it’s surprisingly good IMO.
Huh, I wouldn’t have thought of that. Mildly brilliant on their part.
I’ve only had my Portola for a little while, but so far I am impressed especially for a budget bike.
The Cycling Menace
A renagade. A rule breaker. Fearless. I stare ahead down the multi use path, my tunnel vision so narrow I don’t even see the small dog I crush as I narrowly whisk by a startled senior citizen out for a Sunday stroll. My lifted dually, electric cargo truck bike 2500 uber-maxxx-ultra hums menacingly beneath me occasionally popping loudly and emitting a lightning bolt from a special antenna in the rear bumper. I plow forward with intention as I flip open the top of my unused bell to reveal a red button with the label x10 written in sharpie…obviously aftermarket. Heck, this whole bike is aftermarket. I feel the frame of the bike flex as the dual motors crank out the kind of torque that can roll up freshly laid asphalt trails like fruit-by-the-foot. I see a babe minding her own business, jogging on the trail ahead and after a second of checking her out and thinking about how awesome I am, I get on the brakes just in time to leave an absurdly long and cool skid mark and roll up alongside her. “Hey beautiful, where are you off to? Let me give you a ride.” Chicks love my bike. Having been annoyingly jolted from her podcast, her mouth fell open in awe at the raw awesomeness of my sweet electric ride. “0-60 in 2.5 seconds” I quip assuredly. The woman, having her jog so rudely interrupted, gives me a despairing look which I immediately misinterpret as concern over sAfEtY. I point generally in the area of the motor. “It’s a class 1 babe, it says so right on this sticker.” She scowls, hops on, but doesn’t even have time to answer, because at that exact moment the solo from Freebird kicked in on the earbuds I was wearing. I hit that red button on my handlebars the static electricity intensifying to the point where her hair is levitating all on its own. I crank back the throttle, coil whine deafening the both of us and lightning bolts nearly setting the trailside underbrush alight, disappearing into the distance as quickly as I almost ran her over only moment before. They just don’t get it. This trail isn’t going to ride itself. If Jesus had intended for ebikes to be weak, why did he create America and FREEDOM.
Tallyho lads!
