Huh, I've never seen a moped that you could pedal like a bike even in a photo. Apparently the "ped" is from "pedal," not "pedestrian." I wonder if eBikes will follow the same path? I don't think they will, a gas motor is already disruptive enough that you may as well become a motorcycle.
I wonder if electric starters killed the pedals. I grew up in an area that was pretty heavily car-centric, so we didn't see a lot of alternatives. The Schwinn store got the Solex Horse, which had pedals, but they were really only useful for starting as there was one gear with a low ratio.
The only next thing we saw was the Honda Spree, which as I recall had an electric starter and whatever qualified as an "automatic transmission," and I think that class of scooter is still more or less the standard today. It seemed like a big step forward in terms of ease of use.
Re:A DIY E-bike Conversion on the Cheap
by throwaway_se099 on Monday August 23, 2021 @02:21PM
(#28279900)
I've never seen a moped that you could pedal like a bike even in a photo.
As an example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puch_Maxi
The US "class" system seems useful, inasmuch as it more or less specifies the capability of the bike with and without pedaling. I'm all for adding a new transportation / recreation option, and have adopted a wait-and-see attitude for how the technology and its use will evolve. So far, e-bikes have not affected my use of a conventional bike, except for people asking me when I'm going to get an e-bike.