We ended the last post with the line: “E-bikes are infrastructure-dependent. IoT is part of the infrastructure that lets e-bikes go further from town.” This concept is initially a hard sell, because the aspirational lifestyle marketing push on e-bikes is that they help couch potatoes “get out there.” The caveat is the post was geared to tour operators.
An e-bike carries its range limit with it. A pedal bike goes as far as the rider’s legs. An e-bike goes as far as the battery. Then it becomes a 20 kg+ problem. Mobility depends on things outside the bike: somewhere to charge, a spare battery, someone who might be able to fix electronics, a vehicle to fetch it. In town, or suburbia, all of that is reasonably close. The further out you go, the thinner that safety net gets.
What makes the difference?
IoT makes thin infrastructure good enough. With information (where each bike is, how much battery is left, whether something has gone wrong mechanically, etc.), backup can be sent where it’s needed. One van and a few spare batteries can cover a much wider route. This lets e-bikes go further from town. Not more infrastructure, but less of it used better.
One catch: IoT is infrastructure-dependent too. It needs coverage. Rural dead zones are exactly where you’d want it most. So the device has to store data and send it when coverage returns. Route planning has to know where the gaps are.
A pedal bike is a pack mule
The pedal bike is good as a pack mule because it barely depends on anything outside itself. It carries its own “infrastructure.” The engine is the rider. Fuel is food from any village shop. No charging, no range anxiety in the electrical sense ( a sore backside is a different metric). When the rider is tired, a bike is slow, but it rarely stops dead.
Pedal bikes are cheaper to lose in financial terms. Lower pricing per bike means less devastation from theft, or a damaged front fork on an offroad excursion. A dullish rental pedal bike is less attractive for the opportunist thief at a village watering hole. That’s not to say they’re less of a “shiny object,” just that the “juice may not be worth the squeeze.”
It fails visibly. A worn chain, a soft tire, a squeaking brake give warning. It’s light enough to rescue. At around 13 kg, a broken pedal bike can be lifted into a van, carried over a stretch of bad ground, or even ridden badly to the next stop. One box of common spares can cover a mixed pedal fleet. With e-bikes, each brand needs its own parts (if the issue is a roadside fix).
“Anyone” can fix it
On a stranded pedal bike (Maybe not some of the fancier frame routed cabling or hydraulic disc brakes), at least 70% of issues can be handled on the roadside. Chains, tubes, brake pads, cables and spokes are pretty standard across brands, so a village mechanic, a support crew (or the guest with a small tool kit) can handle most failures. On a well-chosen touring bike, there’s very little that needs a dealer support line.
The trade off
The trade-off is the audience. Pedal bikes demand fitter guests, very generally speaking Hills hurt, so daily distances are shorter for an average rider. That’s exactly the gap e-bikes can fill. There is plenty of torque in a decent ebike.
The two sit naturally side by side. A pedal bike is the reliable base that works almost anywhere. The e-bike widens who can come, as long as there’s enough backup on the route. That fits a rollout that starts with rugged pedal bikes, then adds e-bike flexibility once the routes and support are known.
