I’m interested in buying one but have been a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of brands that have seemingly appeared overnight. Can you recommend any specific companies?
I would only buy an e-bike with a premium brand name motor and battery. Bosch, Panasonic, Yamaha, Shimano, Giant. The next thing I would look for is 2 or 4 piston hydraulic disc brakes from SRAM, Shimano, Hope, Magura, Tektro.
As long as the bike has those three things sorted it's probably safe. Note that these things don't come cheap, so any e-bike with these parts is likely to start at $3000.
For specific bikes I like Priority Current. They're a little vague on the exact parts used because they may swap them out based on availability, but they usually pick real parts instead of cheap replacements.
I have bikes with mechanical disk brakes and one with Magura hydraulics. I actually like the mechanicals a bit better. Although the Magura brakes have slightly more stopping power, they're also more finicky and require a trip to the bike shop if they leak or develop an air bubble. The mechanicals I can adjust myself.
For me the real key is disc brakes (whether mechanical or hydraulic). Rim brakes don't have enough stopping power for an e-bike.
I have a $3k+ eBike and lock it in San Francisco. Not all places but many. I lock it with three locks. Main lock is a D/U lock Abus. Second lock is a "LITELOCK" for front wheel. Third one is the builtin cafe Lock. It is actually pretty quick to put them all on/off. Or at least I don't find it a burden compared to parking a car. All hex things have these security by obscurity hex locks in them. I also have a child seat on the back. Perhaps I've been lucky or perhaps the optics of three locks, and a child seat and often a helmet for a 4 year old dangling down turn off thieves.
Yeah I'm at Tokyo Disneyland right now, and I've seen unattended handbags left on tables in the outdoor restaurant seating area. I can't imagine people doing that at a large attraction in any big city where I've lived (London, Beijing, Shanghai), or where I live now (San Francisco).
Japan is like a different world. At least to me as a tourist, it feels so organized, safe, culturally rich and stress-free.
I wonder what Japanese people think and feel when they visit San Francisco.
> Paris syndrome (French: syndrome de Paris; Japanese: パリ症候群, romanized: Pari shōkōgun) is a sense of extreme disappointment exhibited by some individuals when visiting Paris, who feel that the city was not what they had expected. The condition is commonly viewed as a severe form of culture shock.
> The syndrome is characterized by a number of psychiatric symptoms such as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution (perceptions of being a victim of prejudice, aggression, hostility from others),[1] derealization, depersonalization, anxiety, as well as psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating most notably, but also others, such as vomiting.[2]
> While the syndrome has been particularly noted among Japanese tourists, it has also affected other travelers or temporary residents from East and Southeast Asia, such as those from China, South Korea, and Singapore.
I’m sure SF is all that and worse, although expectations might not be as high.
Similar thing noticed when visiting Korea as US natives. My wife was in a group that all headed off to the restroom at a restaurant just after getting a table, with a couple of in-laws who live there leaving their purses on the table. My wife exclaimed that they were forgetting their purses, to which they replied that it was on purpose and how else would they make sure somebody doesn't get their table!?
inside my office bike storage room, and inside my apartment building basement. the even more expensive carbon road bike goes inside my apartment. the city bike can be locked up for short grocery runs and things like that, but it doesn't stay locked outside for very long.
Even though bosch engines are amazing their support service is execrable. I had an issue where there was a weird noise after 25km/h and even if there was an warranty they are taking months to fix it. First they said it's normal then send a recording of the sound etc.. Bought a 5k bike with a good engine to not have these kind of issues or if you have them then the repair should be in point.
I don't like riding heavy bikes with mechanical brakes because they never stop as reliably as good hydraulics. The ultimate limit is always the tire grip on the road, but it's easier to control properly set up hydraulic disc brakes to hit grip limits and get shorter stopping distances. Particularly down a steep hill.
IMO this is the reason e-bike subsidies would be a gamechanger. Because everyone else replying on this thread is correct: when you know you want to get into the e-bike lifestyle you want great quality components and the start price for those is $3k and up. $4.5k for cargo bikes.
If you don’t know it’s going to fit your life that’s a lot of money to throw on a bet. I wasn’t sure so I bought a budget bike, a RadPowerBikes Radwagon. And it’s… fine. The components aren’t great. The gears are janky. The brakes are insufficient given the weight and speed the bike is capable of. But it’s $2k and if it didn’t exist I don’t think I would ever have dropped $4.5k on one of the better specced alternatives.
I just had the recalled tires replaced on mine a couple of months back. I was going to do the repair myself, but they were paying for the repair. The local repair contractor in my area makes house calls, so I decided why take money out of their hands and had them come out for the service. They told me about the upgrade. It’s the next thing I’m doing. Also, the upgraded light is worth it. It makes the one it comes with look like a match in the desert
They're a bit expensive, but from personal experience and recommendations from friends: Riese & Müller, Stromer, Koga and Flyer. Be aware of trendy brands like VanMoof or Cowboy. An electric bike is not really high tech, no need for brands that act like they're a tech company or the Tesla of electric bikes.
But first of all, look for local dealerships and find out which brands they're selling. You need regular maintenance for your electric bike and many bike shops refuse to work on bikes bought elsewhere, especially cheap bikes bought online, and I can't really blame them.
A good electric bike ain't cheap, but lasts a lot longer than a no name/cheap one. A cheap bike with one problem after the other sucks all the joy out of owning one and is the surest way to a dust collecting piece of metal in the back of your garage, nevermind the extra costs.
And get electric bike insurance. Budget for it in advance. Getting your brand new expensive ebike stolen is quite traumatic.
If you like to tinker, buy a frame from Decathlon. Install a Bafang motor. Get Onirii MT4 brakes. Both are available on AliExpress. Use a 200mm front disc and 180 rear disc. Get a wheelset with a Sturmey-Archer hub, or normal wheels with a robust Shimano 9-speed transmission. And you have a very decent e-bike for around 1600€
I bought an REI brand one, just for the peace of mind of knowing REI will work on it and support it. And the guaranteed return policy. YMMV, there are other good options. But the number of options is a bit overwhelming.
I bought the base model Radrunner (used from Craiglist) and it's been great.
If you're a cyclist, you may balk at the goofy design. But it's great for getting around town. You can zip-tie a milk crate on the back to hold your stuff.
I can recommend Decathlon. My wife has this and uses it for hercommute (10 miles and 200m of ascent each way). Works very well and is reasonably priced at £1300. Wish it had USB charging though - instead you have a large charging brick.
If you have Decathlon in your country then you might have it available too - Riverside 500E
A friend of mine has two e-bikes, one with torque sensor and the other with cadence sensor. The torque sensor definitely gives a more bike-like ride, with better control over speed.
This feels a bit like watching chess engines play against each other. An interesting novelty that gets boring rather quickly due to the lack of a human element to empathize with.
Disagree. “Hack” typically implies malicious intent so it kind of does matter. “Leak” probably would have been more appropriate since this appears to have been the result of negligence rather than malice.
I have never in my life heard that hack comes with malicious intent. To me hacking is a generalized term for successful unauthorized computer system access.
Can you expand on this a bit? A search on the internet provides plenty of examples of this, even a search in the dictionary[1]. Along with movies[2], books[3], and typical news reporting hack/hacking/hackers has been used to indicate malicious intent.
You can debate crackers vs. hackers and that its the intent that differentiates them but its a moot point based on that very thin veil of separation. Similar to the title security researcher or pentester you only can believe whats presented publicly by that person, group or organization and you can never validate that they haven't sold access or exploits to anyone else.
I would say your generalized term would be better understood as a security audit, pentest or bug bounty which would appear to represent a non-malicious intent to gain "successful unauthorized computer system access" as defined by the contract.
"Reflecting the two types of hackers, there are two definitions of the word "hacker":
1. Originally, hacker simply meant advanced computer technology enthusiast (both hardware and software) and adherent of programming subculture; see hacker culture.[3]
2. Someone who is able to subvert computer security. If doing so for malicious purposes, the person can also be called a cracker.[4]
Today, mainstream usage of "hacker" mostly refers to computer criminals, due to the mass media usage of the word since the 1990s."
Fortunetly there is a trend to revert back to the non malicous meaning of the word. See you are commenting on a "Hacker" news site. See https://hackaday.com/
See even "DailyHacks" or "LifeHacks" in a social non technical setting, etc.
Hacking is simply fiddling with a system and making it do something that it was not designed to do.
Yeah I understand the difference between the two which is why I mentioned them. Moving back to the non-malicious meaning seems like a moot point. The layperson doesn't care about the difference only the outcome. Which in most cases is they don't know you or have a business relationship with you and you are now accessing their system. If I was working within the pentester / security researcher space I would not be doing any work outside the bounds of an explicit contract/bug bounty program, etc as any access gained would be illegal access regardless of your "supposed" intentions.
In my original comment I was looking for the OP to expand upon:
"I have never in my life heard that hack comes with malicious intent"
as that seemed odd given the books, movies and legal cases.
After giving this some more thought I think you’re right. I would even broaden your definition to include using authorized access in ways that weren’t originally intended by the computer system’s designers.
I was trying to distinguish between breaches that result from intentional exploitation (malicious or otherwise) and breaches that result from negligence. Having thought about it a bit more, these things are not actually mutually exclusive. Many intentional exploitations take advantage of dumb mistakes (e.g. posting credentials in a public repo).
As such, I take back my earlier disagreement: this is a valid use of the word “hack”.
Myself, I would agree with your earlier definition of this being a leak[1] simply using the definition. There wasn't a program created or exploit discovered that exposed previously private information, an authorized user posted to the incorrect privilege level location.
A leak by definition is something from inside. This was not. This was an exploit from outside actors that made this data available to the public.
Note the difference:
> accidentally posting credentials for Atlassian's Envoy setup in a public repository
this was a leak.
Using those credentials to then obtain other data and post them publicly-> this is the hack. A hack does not need to be complicated, just to accomplish something that was not intended.
I disagree that finding mistakingly posted credentials, logging in and performing an export task is a hack, hacking, or exploitation. All the functionality was already available as it would be for any authorized user. This is the equivalent of reading the user guide.
> Using leaked credentials to access a system that would not otherwise be accessible is >absolutely an exploit.
Can you go into this a bit more as I'm not seeing anything being exploited? Were the credentials not valid? Was exporting data not available to that authentication user? Did they elevate their permissions beyond what the original credentials provided?
If I find $20 on the street and buy a lotto ticket and win, what was exploited? I used the money to buy an item that can be purchased with money. In this example would you be saying that finding the money was the exploit or using the discovered money to buy something?
> Similarly, convincing a security guard to let you in to an area of a building that you >aren’t allowed into is also an exploit.
I agree this is an exploit, aptly named social engineering. However in this example you started with nothing and "convinced" the guard to do something.
This is different than already having the credentials. The equivalent for this example, to me, would be finding a persons office/building card and walking past the guard but I wouldn't see that as an exploit. Both the access control and guard are reacting accordingly to the expected inputs.
I would view an exploit as going beyond the intent of the built-in/existing controls.
There is an active searching for these credential leaks in the various repositoriues to then be used so this is an exploit. It shows intent, an organised way of searching for vulenrabilities and accomplishment of the task.
It's the equivalent of stalking the security guard and evasdroping on his public communications in the hope that he slips us and when drunken enough will reveal the passcode to the entrance door. Public repositories make it more easy to "stalk" in that sense, but yet it's a active search for a vulnerability, that of not not following security recomandations.
If someone intends to rob a bank doens't matter how they have obtained the vault key, when the bank was robbed.
The employee leaked the credentials, but I'd argue that finding the leaked credentials, logging in, dumping the data into a file and publishing it with a note how you pwned the company is still a hack. Not a highly skilled hack, but still a hack.
This is yet another symptom of shareholders becoming the primary customer. The strong incentive for short-term profit results in strategic decision-making that is both financially riskier and more ethically dubious in the long term.
Ok. Do you realize that most of us are the shareholders? This is a Fortune 500 company. Most of our 401ks include blended Fortune 500 holdings.
I keep hearing this rhetoric around social media… Do people not realize that there is a cost to our retirement funds always having to increase in value?
I think this outcome was unintentional, but in hindsight this feels like the greatest trick megacapitalism ever pulled.
A disproportionate amount of equity growth goes to the wealthy but the middle class has also hitched their futures to the stock market through 401ks. This means that "well, grandma's retirement also depends on record corporate profits" is a nearly invincible tactic against anything that diminishes corporate profits. The folks that own a disproportionate amount of equities get to untouchably balloon their wealth and there is nothing to stop them because stopping them would mean blowing up a generation's retirement plan.
The outcome was not unintentional. The current moves overtures to privatize Social Security will seal the complete subservience of labor to capital. "If our share price drops, retirees will freeze to death on empty stomachs - not even the government can help"
I'm not sure. 401ks were not an accident when they were introduced, but it doesn't appear that any of their architects intended for them to completely revolutionize and take over the retirement system in the US.
I do agree that now it is an organized effort by capital and that efforts to move social security to a system similar to private 401k accounts (which has been pushed by the right since before W Bush) would absolutely do what you say - seal the complete subservience of labor to capital. I just think that this was an opportunity seized by capital rather than a change planned from the beginning.
> Do you realize that most of us are the shareholders? [...] Most of our 401ks
Only 60 million Americans have a 401k.
Also, the idea that an American owning a portfolio of stocks in a 401k means that they are responsible for all the immoral actions taken by each company is absolutely and totally ridiculous.
