Do "Outlaw Bikers" Help The Ebike Cause?

I'm actually not interested in becoming a racer... I'm too old for that.

What got me started into this hobby is that I've always had a love for small lightweight road racers (remember the MB5 ?) and I have a long history of doing this sort of thing (dating back to the 1980's) so what I'd like to do is to create the "break through product" that will launch a new sport.

So from my perspective I'm (at my age) more of a promoter and builder / businessman trying to see a way to legitimize this whole concept for mass consumption.

From the businessmans perspective the "Outlaw" interest that is developing is a negative because you can't sell that stuff legally for long before you are going to get busted. (it's a dead end economically)

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My belief is that the products need to lead the way first and then the racing will follow... without mass produced electric bicycle road racers in existence the chances of serious racing are pretty slim.

So the first priority is the creation of the "concept bike"... then mass produce it... then get racing going... in that order. (I have not yet completed step one)
 
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we've never interacted before...my gawd did you have to ramble on so much to get to such a simple point? :giggle:

look, safe...altho i'm a fellow crackpot who p*** into the wind too often, i still believe in what i'm doing, too...the USFRA was initially estatic at the idea of a safer & "greener" foundation for small-engine competition, i attained "vehicle" status for motorized bicycles within an established racing environment. i don't CARE how slow i went, i care that i opened the door. i know all they'd need is a look at a reasonably-stable electric bike to go absolutely nuts...

from my racer's standpoint, i'd think that laying out a prospective set of rules & standards (and keeping them open to future consensus) would motivate more participation, and growth would be exponential.

but, from my businessman's standpoint, it seems your "plan" is more one of "cornering a market" than nurturing a motorsport. i could be wrong, but that's how you're coming across...and anyone who knows me here will tell you i have no taste for the commercial aspect of MB'ing.

you can't "set standards" all alone in your shop, that's not how standards work. standards evolve thru consensus. consensus requires rules. you have your steps mixed up.

tell you what...you put your best version-to-date together for next year's WOS and i'll enter and ride it. i'm only half-kidding.
 
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Limmits, standards, maximums and blocks. Show a Mexican a fence, what will they do???

It's only natural!!! No offense to Mexicans, the ones that make it get too breed, maybe w/free healthcare?

Who is to blame crybabies!
 
Regulations were meant to break. Not on the track, The Street, absolutely! Government control of anything, your not FREE!
 
...from my businessman's standpoint, it seems your "plan" is more one of "cornering a market" than nurturing a motorsport. i could be wrong, but that's how you're coming across...and anyone who knows me here will tell you i have no taste for the commercial aspect of MB'ing.

I'm a realist...

The fact of the matter is that the custom builder is a rare individual who is more inventor than racer. Racers tend to be more conformist than revolutionary... from the racers perspective "fair racing" means that no one has a machine that is better than theirs and that means you gradually equalize the machines potentials.

"Outlaw" ebikers are the anarchists of ebiking and just make it harder to make the whole sport legitimate.

Without a market base of machines that are mass produced you aren't going to get more than about a dozen people in the world interested in custom built bike racing. The idea would be to establish a good entry level "baseline product" that would stimulate interest in the sport and get it started. Once it gathered interest you will see other companies popping up in order to compete on the track. Eventually the "baseline product" starts looking obsolete and unless the first company adapts to the changes it loses it's status and fades away.

Over time you would end up with maybe three or four major brands that are evenly matched and people would race on those machines.

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Think back to the history of:

BMX

Downhill Mountain Biking

...as examples of how industry changed and grew the sport.

(without all those great products you could buy the sports never would have happened)

Business means "freedom" in the sense that it allows things to happen.

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In America now the biggest problem is unemployment and the only remedy for that which is sustainable is to encourage small business to grow. Ultimately something like 80% - 90% of business is small business (like a little ebike maker) and so if there ever is going to be a good future for anyone we need to help and encourage small business.

(we already ran up a huge debt with the government, so they are broke now and can't do anything... small business is the only path left)
 
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Business Serves The General Public

Business is always in a position to serve the needs of the general public.

"Outlaws" don't like the general public because the look at them with disdain as being meek sheep-like followers. From the "Outlaw" perspective the more chaos that they can create the better.

"Racers" are well adjusted to the general public and also are comfortable with a close relationship with business. To the "Racer" the goal is to get everything working in harmony so that they can pursue their competitive urges. Competition means that people want a level playing field and those are the same values that the general public shares and that business shares. There is a sort of overall unity that occurs when:

The Laws

The General Public

The Business Interests

The "Racers" Interests


...all start to align into one unified voice.

As I see it that needs to be the goal over the long run.

Like with BMX it eventually starts to become mainstream.

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What would be ideal would be to have ebiking forums that encouraged business to build the products that make sense from a legal standpoint and to try to make the path to unity happen.
 
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Going The Way Of Jimmy Carter?

When most people (who have been alive for more than 20 years) are asked:

"Who is the biggest loser of a president?"

...anyone who was old enough to have gone through the era would immediately say:

"Jimmy Carter"

This is because he tried to change so many things back then and had such completely miserable results that "Jimmy Carter" just sort of gets equated with failure. It was as though everything he was involved in ended up being a mistake.

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What I wonder about is whether ebiking might end up being a historical fluke that never really amounts to anything. From a performance standpoint all the most silly "Outlaw" ebikes are still more costly and less powerful than most of the gasoline offerings. I was reading about the "Isle of Mann" race this year and how the electric motorcycle turned in a final lap time that was equal to something back from 100 years ago. (somewhere)

From the "objective" perspective the electric vehicle is not even close to being able to compete directly with gasoline and in the case of "motored bikes" with 50cc gasoline motors those have been done better by things like the MB5 motorcycle or the old 50cc Road Racer Formula class bikes.

As a need to have an "identity" and "purpose" this whole ebiking thing needs to discover it's place in the world.

Maybe the destiny is that ebiking becomes the "Jimmy Carter" sport?

In 2006 (when I started this hobby) I thought that "Going Green" looked very promising, but now I'm not so sure. It's hard to see the rational argument sometimes for all of this. (are we just kidding ourselves that electric vehicles are the future?)

Of course, if oil prices suddenly shoot up again then it all starts to look like a good idea again and that can happen overnight... so while things are looking weak right now that can reverse quickly.
 
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electric tech is no where good enough yet. petrol performs, performance pulls veiwers. moto GP! enough said!

governments wont endorse these forms of personal transport, EVER, unless they have too, environmental disaster?...lack of fossil fuel?...who knows? the form they would endorse wont be some do it your self hoby kit thats for sure, dont kid your selves!

TAX, TAX, TAX.

Just do what you do, dont hurt others and stay under the radar!
 
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