On Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 4:54:52 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/13/2019 6:27 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
On Thursday, June 13, 2019 at 4:15:13 PM UTC-4, Zen Cycle wrote:
On Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at 9:13:46 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:

I
think it was John Allen (author of the excellent Street Smarts booklet)
who pointed out that until now, there's been at least a rough
correlation between a rider's average speed and his skill on the bike..
E-bikes destroy that correlation. "Chipped" ones will be worse.

I'd suggest these are Darwin Awards candidates, except that such people careening on a e-bike could kill innocent bystanders as well.

Or cause innocent bicyclists to crash trying to avoid those darn e-bikes. I've seen that happen a number of times on rail-trails around here which is another reason I avoid those rail-trails a lot of times. Some e-bike users seem to think that any off road path or trail is there for them to speed along at the top speed of their e-bike. They seem to EVER consider that maybe someone else is using the trail from the opposite direction.

Speed is weirdly addictive when you've got a motor.

I remember an incident back in the 1970s. I had been riding my
motorcycle and lost something I had strapped to the bike. (I can't now
recall what it was.)

Anyway, I took the motorcycle back out and rode the same streets and
country roads at low speed, maybe 29 - 25 mph, to look for the lost
item. And I remember thinking "This is really pleasant." At low speed,
there was very little noise from wind or from the engine. I had much
more time to look all around and appreciate my surroundings. It felt
like there was less risk of crashing. It was quite relaxing.

But ever since, with rare exceptions, when riding a motorcycle I've
chosen the highest speeds the law would allow.

--
- Frank Krygowski

Because I raced motorcycles I always had had more speed than I ever wanted on the tracks. Riding on the streets I would go slow or at most keep level with traffic.