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Comment by BobbyJo | Hacker News Reader

How much time do you think someone peddling under their own power could maintain 20mph? Unless they have a lot experience biking, not much, so their exposure to high risk speeds is far less than a bike they can hop on and hold that speed the whole time.

20mph is fast as hell when you fall off or hit something.

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They were going down a hill. It's trivial for anyone, even an inexperienced rider, to exceed 20mph on a downhill slope on a regular (non electric) bike. They also claim that the combination of disc brakes and a quick release axle is dangerous and can lead to the wheel coming off while at speed..............except the wheel didn't actually come off in this case. I feel bad for these people and their loss, but it's unlikely the fact that this was an electric bike, it had low trail, or a combination of disc brakes and a QR axle had anything to do with this. It's likely it was just the combination of an inexperienced rider, two people on one bike, and a steep hill leading to excess speeds, and would have happened on any other non-electric bike as well.

> How much time do you think someone peddling under their own power could maintain 20mph?

For as long as the hill lasts. I had a simple bike computer on my (not electric) mountain bike growing up, and once hit 33mph going as fast as possible down a hill in my neighborhood. Bombing down that hill I'd probably be at speeds over 20mph for a solid minute. A lot can go wrong in a minute.

Especially since teenage me enjoyed going fast, and would sometimes bike down the hill as fast as possible, then immediately turn around, pedal back up it, and do it again.

But we don't have many instances of flat ground accidents, all the serious injuries in the article involved going downhill, from what I could tell. And that's what I'd expect, as you can decelerate fairly quickly even if your breaks stop working, unless you're headed downhill.

Going down a hill? They could do it until they get to the bottom of the hill...

What's this got to do with the price of tea in China? Not once anywhere have I seen someone claiming 20mph speeds powered by meat motor. Where are you coming up with that?

That's the speed most ebikes go to. My claim is that the risk for ebikes is higher than regular bikes because the average speed of ebike riders is higher.

Also, completely aside, 20mph on a regular bike is totally doable, just exhausting. Like running 10mph, most active people can do it pretty easily, but only in short spurts.

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