Easy as Pi

[quade]

Any way you slice it, it's one cool ride. The electric bike mixes pedal power with a battery pack. Hills? Easy as Pi.

Link (http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/la-hy-throttle26sep26,0,897243.story?coll=la-home-middleright)

Comparable range and price to Segway.

Would be "interesting" to see some sort of side-by-side.

[JohnM]

$7,500 for something that ugly and heavy (58lbs), when you can retro-fit a pedal assist motor with li-ion battery (http://www.greenspeed.us/bionx_350_lithium_battery.htm) to your existing bike (added weight 15.6lbs.) for a fraction of the cost.

DOA

[KSagal]

I am curious. What would you compare? They are two distinctly different items.

While many may see that they can be used in similar or comparable ways to get from here to there, that is all the comparison that I can see...

That device, while very nice, is clearly an electric bike, and acts like one. A segway is not in the same category.

It would be like comparing a skateboard to a mover's dolly. You can stand on either, you can move a couch with either, but one is being used as it should and the other not. Both have wheels and move a weight but they do it differently, and have different expectations from the user...

I suppose you could compare a segway with a seat, to the Pi with electric only (no pedals) but they still are very different. (And neither one is in the designer's original shape or form) The Pi does not balance itself and cannot move or stay upright at 0 mph, any more than a bike can. The segway cannot coast down a hill, or go 20 mph like a Pi can...

So I go back to my original question, what would you compare in the side by side comparison?

[KSagal]

$7,500 for something that ugly and heavy (58lbs), when you can retro-fit a pedal assist motor with li-ion battery (http://www.greenspeed.us/bionx_350_lithium_battery.htm) to your existing bike (added weight 15.6lbs.) for a fraction of the cost.

DOA


I would love to be a fly on the wall at the Pi website after JohnM gets thru giving them a 1000 or 1500 posts with his perspective...

[JohnM]

Yet its perfectly OK for Segway Inc to compare (http://www.segway.com/downloads/pdfs/energy_efficient_segway_whitepaper.pdf) the PT to the Toyota Prius, Cadillac Escalade, Volkswagen Golf TDI, motorcycles and scooters. Sort of a double standard, don't you think?

[quade]

I am curious. What would you compare? They are two distinctly different items.

While many may see that they can be used in similar or comparable ways to get from here to there, that is all the comparison that I can see...

That device, while very nice, is clearly an electric bike, and acts like one. A segway is not in the same category.

It would be like comparing a skateboard to a mover's dolly. You can stand on either, you can move a couch with either, but one is being used as it should and the other not. Both have wheels and move a weight but they do it differently, and have different expectations from the user...

I suppose you could compare a segway with a seat, to the Pi with electric only (no pedals) but they still are very different. (And neither one is in the designer's original shape or form) The Pi does not balance itself and cannot move or stay upright at 0 mph, any more than a bike can. The segway cannot coast down a hill, or go 20 mph like a Pi can...

So I go back to my original question, what would you compare in the side by side comparison?

Uh, I guess you're right; doing a side-by-side would be a pointless exercise. I certainly can not see any correlation between the two devices at all and certainly wouldn't waste my keystrokes on it.

Then again . . . you just did! In your denial that they can be compared, you just compared them to each other.

The comparison I was suggesting wouldn't be for US; it would be for THEM. That is to say, people other than Segway wonks and the rest of the L.A. Times readers of the original article.

[KSagal]

Yet its perfectly OK for Segway Inc to compare (http://www.segway.com/downloads/pdfs/energy_efficient_segway_whitepaper.pdf) the PT to the Toyota Prius, Cadillac Escalade, Volkswagen Golf TDI, motorcycles and scooters. Sort of a double standard, don't you think?

Actually, not for me. I am not particularly familiar with that comparison (Thank you for the link) and do not feel that it is any more germaine to compare your references than Quades...

As far as side-by-side comparisons, I do not feel that the three cars you mentioned above can be compared to the segway. You can compare one step off, however, like annualized energy consumption... I also like to note that rarely do people add in time to the comparison, where in most suburban environments, segway vs car would involve more time, and in many urban environments, segway vs car would save time.... Again, this is not a side-by-side issue, but a annualized type.

Uh, I guess you're right; doing a side-by-side would be a pointless exercise. I certainly can not see any correlation between the two devices at all and certainly wouldn't waste my keystrokes on it.

Then again . . . you just did! In your denial that they can be compared, you just compared them to each other.

The comparison I was suggesting wouldn't be for US; it would be for THEM. That is to say, people other than Segway wonks and the rest of the L.A. Times readers of the original article.

I did not deny that they can be compared, I did that. I stated that I could not see the value of a side-by-side comparison. I then went on to ask what exactly you would compare. I may have poorly expressed this, but I did say just that.

I did not get an answer to that which I asked twice, but I did get a clear indication of your attitude.

Have a nice day...

[pam]

Moving this since In the News is really archival, and this seems to be open for discussion....
Pam