E-bikes are very cool and I'm glad they are getting popular.
However.
There is a big difference between a crash at 12mph and one at 20mph.
Your ebike can give you injuries normally only found in motorcycle accidents. And there isn't enough advice on what constitutes sufficient maintenance for ebikes.
If you don't get balding tires fixed on a regular bike you could fall off and bruise or break a leg.
At ebike speeds that same fall will shatter your leg in dozens of pieces.
Keep your tires and breaks in top condition.
The breaks on ebikes wear out very fast since they have to grip tires moving much faster and I don't think they have the ideal material selected for that task as of yet. Do not balk when you find out you need to get new pads every single year if you ride daily.
The same is true of the tires. They wear out fast, and can get smooth and dangerous.
Since you can ride an ebike at 20mph without being an athlete, it's just more dangerous.
Another issue is they are much heavier! Yes when I was a bike messenger I probably broke 20mph on the regular. I was also very fit and when I'd crash (which I did often) I'd just tumble around and grab the bike and get back up.
An ebike can weigh five times as much as a fixie. Even if you use pedal assist, you are still going very fast.
The bike is another object in the crash that can hurt you.
Of course if a car is involved forget it. But I'm talking about solo crashes.
I know this because I shattered my leg into dozens of pieces. (27 to be exact) that was three years ago. I rode my old fixie around the block for the first time two days ago. Will I ride an e-bike again? maybe?? not being sweaty at work is so worth it. (do NOT talk to me about “wipes”)
But if i get one it will have fancy breaks, frequent maintenance and I’m never going over 15mph again. Too scared.
The Cobb County Courier's Cat of the Day, selected from the Cobb Animal Shelter website, is a sweet-tempered medium-sized male gray tabby domestic short hair who came to the shelter as a stray #CobbCounty#Cats
Imagine architecture for creatures who easily climb vertical surfaces: a main entrance for a building could be in the center of the 2nd or 3rd floor— heck, you might not have floors, rather a system of depth: the number of major chambers from the main entrance— Theater ‘in the round?’ Try theatre in the sphere! Meeting rooms would have ceiling seats for the interns…
(If creatures are climbers & have fair sight the tension between natural light & space-efficiency produces incredible spaces)
Imagine public spaces like stadiums: a stadium could still have a bowl shape— but why not put an inverted bowl with even more seats on the ceiling?
Same for subway cars: seats right up the walls! Of course, accessibility would be an issue too (one of my queens has five legs and can’t climb in the ceiling anymore— Her daughters help her to move)
Maybe ceiling seats would be seen as something for the young and reckless a natural upside down peanut gallery. Nosebleed seats? Try headrush.
My other colonies are thriving. I have the Camponotus nicobarensis colony fully moved into their new nests. The Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony has produced an alarming cache of eggs. The Formica subsericea colony is growing every day — and the Camponotus discolor colony is eating me out of house and home gobbling an extra large dubia and flask of sunburst nectar every three days! The Peronopsis imperis queen I found has eggs — but they seem stalled. But, overall good anting all round.
I estimate there are at least 100 eggs in that pile. I will try to see how long it is until the queen makes another— It’s interesting to me that they move the eggs to their second nest— you’d think they would keep the eggs near the queen but they don’t— the second nest is heated— they keep eggs there— but then move the pupae back to the main nest—
which is odd normally pupae are heated and eggs are not. But I assume the girls know best!
I’ve been putting off making this post because it’s not what I wanted to report and I’m disappointed. A few weeks back my Dorymyrmex bureni colony showed tantalizing signs of a miraculous recovery from the loss of their queen. I love this colony, I wanted it to be true— (Antdrew on formiculture.com tried to warn me not to be too optimistic: Just because female workers continued to emerge weeks after the queen died did not guarantee the new queen were fertile.) He was right.
For the past two weeks all the new workers have been tiny males. It’s exciting to see & record the male form of this species: I will have a set of all casts in my pinning box… but these winged boys mean it is likely the end of the line for this colony. If only I could take them down to Florida so they could fly!
I’m going to update my old posts about the matter; see if I can find another queen, keeping these ants has been a wonderful adventure and they have and continue to teach me so much. 2/2
The bald eagle could have easily gone extinct. But we did all sorts of "woke" things protecting it legally, ran conservation and study programs, banned DDT (that was good for other reasons too) and in 2007 they were removed from the endangered species list.
Likewise pine forests could be dead from acid rain.
The ozone could have a huge hole.
We CAN take care of nature when we want to. And the successes have been worth it.