I think trying to claim back the e-bike name for pedal assist electric bikes is a lost cause. Electric motorbikes are becoming more numerous, increasing referred to as 'e-bikes' in the media and often associated with antisocial or criminal behaviour.
What alternative names are there? Pedelec? EPAC?
Serious question... Do we need to?
Is it the bike industry's fault that the general public choose to be wilfully ignorant about the differences? Should we also call Football "soccer" just because the Americans decided it needed a different name because they decided to confuse the issue by calling their own distinctly different game Football too...?
The media have some explaining to do for sure, but that's literally always the case...
I don’t know how to tell you this, but soccer is an English term. It was coined to distinguish association football from rugby football. You can’t blame everything on the Americans!
Wheres the fun in that LAT?
How about "legal e-bike"? Might help clarify that what the scrotes are up to is already illegal so we don't need new laws
How about
Laz-e-bike for anyone over 25
And
Scroterocket for anyone under 25
Semi-acoustic bike?
It's an audience context thing isn't it? If you use 'e-bike' on here, everyone knows what you mean, in the wider world, language kind of roams free and non-specialist media, like it or not, are at least partly feral and beyond our control, particularly in what seems to be a post-subbing media ecosystem.
I guess it also depends a little on who you're referring to when you say 'we'. I also think the reputational 'damage' has already been done and undoing it would take a concerted effort, but it's hard to know who'd be able to do that.
Apologies for being a bit dull in my response, but I think the media are getting better at reporting on e-bikes vs. Surrons and the like.
My experience is that it takes a while for people in newsrooms to learn to question the terminology used on a police press release, but after a while they become aware of these pitfalls. Like using Hoover generically.
That's not to say it might not help for C-UK to ask ACPO or whoever to send a memo to all the press offices.
I'm getting adverts for illegal scrotemobiles in this thread.
Surely moped.
I don't think you can complain if someone calls an electric motorbike an e-bike. It's an obvious contraction of the name. Therefore clinging onto e-bike to only describe a pedal assist electric bike seems fruitless.
E-by-gum bike if it's being used in t'Yorkshire ?
How about Battery bikes or Batbikes.*
Housed in batcaves and used by people that wear capes and tights.
* this is a 'just back from the pub' answer,so please judge accordingly 🙃
Doesn't batman wear a hood ?
Just become a Surron rider you will fit right in.
If any term is settled on, I suspect that, over time, it'll just end up being applied to the whole gambit of e-bikes again, legal or otherwise.
I think that I'd rather try and claim back the term "Cyclist" to refer to people who actually cycle rather than those who zoom about on e-motorbikes. I think that a lot of the "killer/dangerous cyclists" panic that's going on at the moment is really about e-motorbike riders being referred to as cyclists.
If any term is settled on, I suspect that, over time, it'll just end up being applied to the whole gambit of e-bikes again, legal or otherwise.
I'm not sure how say, Pedelec could come to describe an electric motorbike. Also if something like a Surron was described as a Pedelec then it would be easy to point out it's not. However, saying it's not an e-bike seems a bit daft
(I'm not that keen on the Pedelec name myself, but it is a better description in my view)
Motorcycles are referred to 'bikes' pedal cycles are also referred to as 'bikes'
Therefore E-bikes can be either E-motorbikes, or E-pedalcycles
Its just a generic term.
Maybe it is only a minority, but it seems there are people who believe 'e-bike' should only apply to pedal assisted electric bikes. E.g. complaining that the news media have got it wrong when an electric motorbike involved in criminal activities/anti-social behaviour/an accident is referred to as an 'e-bike'. Both pedal assisted electric bikes and electric motorbikes are e-bikes.
I just wondered if we could help those people and those who use pedal assisted electric bikes in general by not referring to them as 'e-bikes'.
I think we need to rename cars.
They quite clearly aren't motor carriages but the media...
I just wondered if we could help those people and those who use pedal assisted electric bikes in general by not referring to them as 'e-bikes'.
Who is 'we' in this case? Do you mean the industry? The specialist mountain bike / cycling media? People on this forum? I think the 'problem' - if you perceive it as being one - is that the whole media eco-system these days is so vast and unregulated that even if you corrected the mainstream outlets - BBC, Grauniad, Sky or whatever - I think maybe that horse has bolted.
I think the reality is that while the terminology may be confusing, most reasonably sane people can tell, with their own eyes, the difference between a hooded, masked oik on a Sur Ron - or whatever they're called - and an overweight middle-aged man on a Levo, Rise or whatever. Yes, it's slightly irksome, but does it have a major negative impact on e-mtbers?
Maybe it does and I'm missing something, but it strikes me as being a bit like the thing where off-road motorcyclists get het up about the differences between trials bikes, trail bikes, moto-crossers, enduro bikes and weird super moto things. It's irritating if you're a specialist, but doesn't really make much difference beyond that.
Am I missing something?
E-by-gum bike if it's being used in t'Yorkshire ?
How do you know if a Yorkshireman is cheating on STRAVA?
You can hear the E-Bike Hum.
Very good, Diggery. Ten points to Hufflepuff!
To answer your question the original question, time to reclaim/redefine the word “moped”, It’s got a MOtor and you PEDal it.
Do you mean the industry? The specialist mountain bike / cycling media? People on this forum?
Yes, yes and yes. Because as you rightly point out the horse has bolted for "correcting" the media.
Maybe it is only a minority, but it seems there are people who believe 'e-bike' should only apply to pedal assisted electric bikes. E.g. complaining that the news media have got it wrong when an electric motorbike involved in criminal activities/anti-social behaviour/an accident is referred to as an 'e-bike'.
These people have too much time on their hands (and I say that as a basement-dwelling pedant myself). They're exactly like the bores that complain about automatic rifles being described as assault rifles or whatever...
The amount of abuse us ebikers get is already pretty bad. People calling us "fat", "lazy" or "unfit". It's just ridiculous. I held the gate for someone the other day and he said "Thank you BATTERY BOY" and then laughed as he rode off, which is tanter-mount to bullying if you ask me. I think it should be classified as a hate crime.
I held the gate for someone the other day and he said "Thank you BATTERY BOY" and then laughed as he rode off, which is tanter-mount to bullying if you ask me
Just take consolation that you were probably having way more fun than he was and that his jibe just reflected his own fears and insecurities.
I am still not sure what the issue is?
I am still not sure what the issue is?
You need to stay in more.
Wider public perception and lumping together of illegal electric motorbikes and legal pedal assist electric bikes in the public populist mindset.
Is that a thing? Like an actual issue?
Most people seems to understand some wallopers in cars doesn't make everyone else in a car a walloper?
There is the odd miserable bastard who tars everyone with the wrong same brush but who give a shit about them?
Scroterocket for anyone under 25
I'm going to be using "Scroterocket" from now on.
I think we've covered this before and honestly, the argument was already lost long ago; the Sun, DM nor the Beeb care a jot about differentiation or detail on this topic. Most ordinary people who are not already interested in bicycles could barely give a toss...
What does it really matter anyway? Lots of people already hate "bike riders" they really don't care if they're propelled entirely or partially by leccy, if you're doing all the work yourself they're still not really interested...
Who precisely do you think is going to be won over by pedantry?
I am still not sure what the issue is?
One brings KFC to your door, the other one delivers Ketamine...
I think trying to claim back the e-bike name for pedal assist electric bikes is a lost cause.
Well, if calling it an electric bike is out, then the other descriptor you've highlighted is "assisted". Calling one an "a bike" would obviously be confusing, so perhaps an ass-bike?
Who precisely do you think is going to be won over by pedantry?
I'm advocating giving up on the pedantry from the pedal bike side. It does seem for every mainstream story or post that gets it "wrong" there are plenty of people saying "that's not an e-bike. E-bikes are limited to 15.5 mph blah, blah".
Calling one an "a bike" would obviously be confusing, so perhaps an ass-bike?
I think I prefer ass-bike to pedelec 😄
I held the gate for someone the other day and he said "Thank you BATTERY BOY" and then laughed
🤣🤣🤣
I think I prefer ass-bike to pedelec 😄
Now I'm really considering adopting it in response to people who insist on calling bikes "acoustic" or "analogue".
What about bicycle for human powered bikes and assisted bicycle for bicycles with electric assistance.
But with surrons dodgy conversions, wheels, powered skate boards and powered scooters, things are completely out of control and it's difficult to see how you put the genie back in the bottle.
'Ow can yer tell something about Yorkshire int writ by a Yorkshireman?
I'm advocating giving up on the pedantry from the pedal bike side.
Are you? From the OP onwards you seem determined to find new terminology to use
What alternative names are there? Pedelec? EPAC?
It's all just different flavours of pedantry to chuck at people who fundamentally do not care. A two wheeled thing with any sort of leccy motor attached is an 'E-Bike' now to 96.78% of Jumanity. Start talking about 'EPACs', 'Pedelecs' or 'ass bikes' and you'll still get blank looks back.
I know it's frustrating, but it really doesn't matter, the general public get lots of things wrong all the time and simply don't worry about it. You'll waste far too much of your own energy trying to correct this sort of irrelevance if you're not careful...
Now I'm really considering adopting it in response to people who insist on calling bikes "acoustic" or "analogue".
There are definitely words that describe those people but they won't get through the STW filters.
The word for a bike with pedals and a motor is a moped right?
I don't have a problem with e-bike per se, the ambiguity comes from the media's failure to differentiate between legal & illegal (and sometimes the difference between the two is just a software hack).
If a car is involved in an accident you assume that it was legally driven, licensed, insured etc. but would expect to be told otherwise if this was the case.
With "ebike" reports I think that the public perception is that it's a legal, cyclist ridden bike in the same way; most likely it's not.
For me the key is to get the media to report properly (responsibly). Legal-ebike & illegal-ebike (or simply legally/illegally ridden ridden) would probably work for me if it was applied consistently and properly and if the media took the time to clarify their facts before jumping in.
