Unpopular opinion: Why we need more ‘motorcycles for children’, not fewer
A recent string of anti-ebike articles in the New York Times has attempted to spread fear around the increasingly popular transportation method of electric bicycles. But it’s not just the typical e-bikes you see students riding to class or adults cruising to work on. One of the main e-bike targets of late has become electric balance bikes, or what the NYT referred to as “motorcycles for children.”
However, instead of fearing these rider training tools, we’d be better advised to embrace them and encourage more parents to put their kids on one.
The main bike at issue in the recent NYT hit-piece was a model named the “K1D”, or kid. It’s produced by California-based electric bike manufacturer SUPER73 and is the company’s first two-wheeler specifically designed for children.
It’s not a new concept though. Let’s be honest: SUPER73 basically looked at the massive amount of money another company known as StaCyc was making selling electric balance bikes and said “We can do that too, only cooler”. And they did.
For those unfamiliar, balance bikes are essentially tiny bikes for small children. There are no pedals, so kids push off against the ground and then rest their feet on the platforms. The aptly-named balance bikes teach kids how to balance a bike by developing the intuition to slightly steer to the side they are leaning towards. Until they get it and balance on their own, they can just put their feet back down.
It’s the modern day alternative to how your dad used to push you on your bike in a grassy field while yelling “Now pedal! And turn! TURN!” before running after you as you fall, then watched as you get back up to try again. Except instead of falling, kids now just put their feet down and push off again. In fact, children are learning to control a bike without even realizing they’re learning. To them, it’s just fun to push and glide.
Balance bikes are replacing training wheels as the go-to method for learning to ride a bike. Unlike training wheels, which don’t teach how to balance and only make kids reliant on something else to balance for them, these types of balance bikes teach kids to be reliant on themselves to stay up. Balance bikes are not only safer (fewer falls), but kids actually learn on their own by discovering what works. They feel what steering inputs make the bike more stable, then learn to repeat it, all by themselves.
Balance bikes have been around for a while, but electric balance bikes are fairly new. They’re basically the same thing, except they have a tiny electric motor and battery added on to the frame. Kids still have to push off to get going, but instead of slowing down and stopping after a few seconds, they can push a button or twist a throttle to engage the motor and keep going. It’s more fun for the kid (obviously, “vroom vroom”) and it actually helps them learn to ride a bike faster because they spend more time upright and balancing, developing the muscle memory and neural pathways needed to steer and balance a bicycle.
My wife and I are enjoying playing life on easy mode without kids, so from time to time we borrow our nieces and nephews whenever we feel like experimenting. I recently got a hold of an electric balance bike from Hiboy and put my 4 year old niece on it. Time to experiment.
She already has a small pedal bike with training wheels, but my brother hasn’t been able to remove them yet because she doesn’t know how to balance the bike without the training wheels. They try, but it just proves frustrating and she gives up. Each time I saw those damn training wheels, I wanted to take them off, but I couldn’t since she’d just fall over.
To my niece, the electric balance bike was immediately “cool”. She’s seen her older brothers ride electric scooters and so she naturally wanted to try her own electric ridable thing.
We left the power off at first and she practiced rolling downhill on her driveway, learning to balance on the way down.
After a few tries, she was getting the hang of it. Then we turned the power on. And something amazing happened. She reached the bottom of the driveway, pushed the throttle and just kept going.
She was a bit wobbly, like a small drunk person struggling to ride home from an Amsterdam bar, but she was rolling on two wheels. After a few more minutes, she was doing it! She was actually riding and balancing all on her own.
But that’s not the end of the story. Because to continue the experiment, we next took the training wheels back off her pedal bike to see what would happen.
And she immediately succeeded to ride her pedal bicycle, something she had never been able to do before. Literally just a few minutes on an electric balance bike did what months of training wheels couldn’t: it taught her to ride a bike.
Of course anecdotal evidence is merely evidence of an anecdote, but I don’t think my niece is anything special. She’s rather ordinary (and also loud… oh so loud! Hanging out with small children is the best birth control in the world). But it still goes to show just how powerful of a learning tool electric balance bikes can be.
They’re essentially a way to Trojan horse bike-riding skills into kids. It’s the same idea of hiding math problems in educational video games. You take something inherently fun for kids, and you sneak important skills and lessons into it. It’s a win-win.
With these new-fangled contraptions of electric balance bikes, the kids still get exercise (you have to push off to get going before the motor will activate) and they get more fresh air from outdoor time.
At a time when childhood obesity rates are at depressingly high levels, we should be doing everything we can to get kids away from screens and onto bike saddles. If an electric balance bike, something that critics like to refer to as “motorcycles for children”, are cool enough to get kids interested in going outside and learning to ride, then we need more of them. Hell, include little leather vests that say “Heck’s Angels” to go with them, I don’t care. If a few Pulitzer Prize-winning NYT journalists need to get their feathers ruffled in order for scores of young kids to more quickly learn to ride bikes, that’s a price I’m willing to pay.
Just make more of these fun tools and get more kids on them. We need more kids learning to ride, more quickly and in larger numbers.
The obvious counterargument here is “But they aren’t pedaling so they’re just being lazy”. But stick with me here. Again, you’ve got to push off before you can engage the motor, so there’s some physical activity required. And balancing engages your core and other muscles too. But also, keep in mind that exercise isn’t the point at this stage. We’re talking about toddlers. If they aren’t sleeping, they’re either running or being annoying (both of which burn calories). And they’re going to outgrow these tiny electric balance bikes quickly anyway. If they can fit on it for a year, you’ll be lucky. By the time they’ve outgrown it, put them on a pedal bike. They’ll enjoy the new larger bike with a fun new propulsion method and will feel like a “big kid” on their new pedal bike, which they are instantly good at riding thanks to honing their balance skills from an earlier age on an electric balance bike.
Luddites that fear electric motors can and likely will continue to hold these things up as two-wheeled boogeymen that are coming for your kids, but I say let them come for your kids. Because if electric balance bikes are this quick as a learning tool to teach kids an important life skill of riding a bike and in a way that is more effective and more fun for the kids, then they’re obviously doing something very right.
Anything that encourages kids to get outside, get on a bike or just go be kids away from screens is a good thing.
Of course that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be adult supervision. Electric balance bikes are effective tools for teaching kids bike balance skills but adults should still be watching those kids to make sure they’re safe during that learning process. An orange flag wouldn’t be a bad idea either. But I’d argue that the process is even safer since kids can more quickly learn the balance part and then move on to more critical safety lessons like learning to check for cars before entering the street, etc.
The NYT can try to scare parents away from electric balance bikes for kids, but perhaps fear mongering news isn’t where we should be getting our cycling advice. The NYT makes money when people click on their articles, and a headline “Nothing wrong with effective cycling learning tool” doesn’t carry the same clickability. As a journalist who also only makes money when you read my articles, I’m going to take that risk. I probably won’t earn very much today, so I’ll just skip my millennial avocado toast until tomorrow. But that’s a small sacrifice to pay for helping a few more kids learn to ride a bike.
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Capable of delivering up to 1,200 kW of power to get electric commercial trucks back on the road in minutes, the new ABB MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System is part of an ecosystem of electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) that ABB’s bringing to this year’s ACT Expo.
ABB E-mobility is using the annual clean trucking conference to showcase the expansion of its EVSE portfolio with three all-new charger families: the field-upgradable A200/300 All-in-One chargers, the MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System for heavy-duty vehicles shown (above), and the ChargeDock Dispenser for flexible depot charging.
The company said its new product platform was built by applying a computer system-style domain separation to charger design, fundamentally improving subsystem development and creating a clear path forward for site and system expansion. In other words, ABB is selling a system with both future-proofing and enhanced dependability baked in.
“We have built a system by logically separating a charger into four distinct subsystems … each functioning as an independent subsystem,” explains Michael Halbherr, CEO of ABB E-mobility. “Unlike conventional chargers, where a user interface failure can disable the entire system, our architecture ensures charging continues even if the screen or payment system encounters issues. Moreover, we can improve each subsystem at its own pace without having to change the entire system.”
The parts of ABB’s new EVSE portfolio that have been made public so far have already been recognized for design excellence, with the A400 winning the iF Gold Award and both the A400 and C50 receiving Red Dot Design Awards.
New ABB chargers seem pretty, good
ABB says the systemic separation of its EVSE enhances both reliability and quality, while making deployed chargers easier to diagnose and repair, in less time. Each of the chargers’ subsystems can be tested, diagnosed, and replaced independently, allowing for quick on-site repairs and update cycles tailored to the speed of each systems’ innovation. The result is 99% uptime and a more future-proof product.
“The EV charging landscape is evolving beyond point products for specific use cases,” continued Halbherr. “By implementing this modular approach with the majority of our R&D focused on modular platforms rather than one-off products … it reduces supply chain risks, while accelerating development cycles and enabling deeper collaboration with critical suppliers.”
Key markets ABB is chasing
- PUBLIC CHARGING – with the award winning A400 being the optimal fit for high power charging from highway corridors to urban locations, the latest additions to the A-Series All-in-One chargers offer a field-upgradable architecture allowing operators to start with the A200 (200kW) with the option to upgrade to 300kW or 400kW as demand grows. This approach offers scalability and protects customer investment, leading to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings over 10 years.
- PUBLIC TRANSIT AND FLEET – the new Charge Dock Dispenser – in combination with the already in market available HVC 360 – simplifies depot charging with a versatile solution that supports pantograph-, roof-, and pedestal charging options with up to 360kW of shared power and 150m/490 ft installation flexibility between cabinet and dispensers. The dispenser maintains up to 500A output.
- HEAVY TRUCKS – building the matching charging infrastructure for commercial vehicles and fleets represents a critical innovation frontier on our journey to electrify transportation. Following extensive collaboration with industry-leading truck OEMs, the MCS1200 Megawatt Charging System delivers up to 1,200kW of continuous power — 20% more energy transfer than 1MW systems — providing heavy-duty vehicles with purpose-built single-outlet design for the energy they need during mandatory driver breaks. To support other use cases, such as CCS truck charging, a dual CCS and MCS option will also be available.
- RETAIL – the award winning C50 Compact Charger complements the family as the slimmest charger in its category at just 9.3 inches depth, optimized for convenient charging during typical one-hour retail experiences. With its large touch display, the C50 takes the award-winning A400 experience even further — setting a new standard for consumer experience and very neatly echoing our own take on that “Goldilocks” timing zone for commercial charging.
ABB says that the result of its new approach are chargers that offer 99% plus uptime — a crucial statistic for commercial charging operations and a key factor to ensuring customer satisfaction. The new ABB E-mobility EVSE product family will be on display for the first time at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo (ACT Expo) in Anaheim, California next week, then again at Power2Drive in Munich, Germany, from May 7-9.
Electrek’s Take
The ACT Expo is one of – if not the most important sustainable trucking event in North America, featuring all the big names in heavy trucks, construction equipment, material handling, infrastructure – even Tier 1 suppliers. Mostly, though, it’s many fleet buyers’ only chance to test drive these zero emission trucks before writing a big PO (which just makes it even more important).
Electrek will be there again this year, and we’ll be bringing you all the latest news from press events and product reveals as it happens.
SOURCE | IMAGES: ABB E-mobility.
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Along with Tennessee Tech, Tennessee-based ultralight aircraft company Whisper Aero has secured a $500,000 grant to help advance the company’s innovative electric jet motor concept off the drawing board and onto the testing phase.
Earlier this month, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced plans to award $500,000 to Tennessee Tech and Whisper Aero through the Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative.
“We look forward to using these award dollars to place students in internships working directly with Whisper Aero leaders,” said Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham. “By learning from an electric propulsion innovator like Whisper Aero, our students will gain invaluable perspective and can take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it right here in Tennessee.”
The grant will see a Whisper Aero glider fitted with a pair of the company’s eQ250 electric-powered jet “propulsors” for UltraQuiet flight. Tennessee Tech faculty and students will carry out copper-bird ground testing to ensure the safe integration of engines, batteries, and controllers, and kickstart Tennessee Tech’s new Crossville Mobility Incubator.
Those propulsors, by the way, are super cool.
Whisper Aero’s main claim to fame is its innovative UltraQuiet WhisperDrive (above). It’s effectively an electrically spun ducted fan jet engine that uses a large number of stiff composite fan blades inside a lightweight, acoustically treated duct. With so many blades, the Whisper Aero propulsor can push more air than a conventional prop while spinning much more slowly. As such, the “blade passage frequency” moves up to more than 16,000 Hz – outside the range of most human hearing but not, supposedly, high enough to freak out the beagles.
The Whisper Aero ultralight is effectively an Aériane Swift3 glider fitted with a pair of Whisper’s eQ250 propulsors, each capable of up to 80 lbs. of thrust. The Ultralight has a wingspan of over 40 ft with a maximum L/D of 35:1 and can be stressed to a design loading of +6/-4g, making it capable of some pretty impressive acrobatic feats.
The Swift3 glider is designed for a low speed, low power cruising speed of 45–55 knots with “just” 6.5 hp. Power-off glides from a few hundred feet showed a low sink rate, and a climb rate of 1,250 ft/min with full self-launching power (in other words: the Whisper glider doesn’t have to be towed by a launch vehicle, like a conventional ultralight glider).
Quiet cool
Range under full power is about 109 miles with current battery tech, but it’s expected that range under the latest EPiC 2.0 energy batteries would rise to nearly 170 miles.
Nathan Millecam, CEO of Electric Power System, said, “EPiC 2.0’s leap in energy density and thermal performance has enabled a significant increase in range, a clear validation of our next-gen cell technology. We are impressed by what the Whisper team continues to achieve in advancing electric aviation.”
The press release concludes explaining that flight tests are expected to show that the Whisper Aero glider can be flown, “a few hundred feet away from neighborhoods without any disturbances, while carrying a 220 lbs. payload with full range,” which is all kind of ominous in today’s political climate, but still pretty neat from a purely tech perspective.
The TNGO grant follows a separate grant from NASA awarded last year, though that grant aims to develop the eQ250s – not as a propulsion system, but as a key component in future spacecraft ventilation systems.
Tennessee Tech announces TNGO grant
With support from TNECD’s Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative, Tennessee Tech University and Whisper Aero are partnering to advance next-generation propulsion technology in the aerospace industry. This collaboration will enhance aerospace research and workforce development, ensuring Tennessee remains a leader in cutting-edge mobility solutions.
SOURCE | IMAGES: TNECD; via eVTOL Insights, New Atlas.
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A Tesla Cybertruck owner believed Elon Musk’s claims that the Cybertruck would be able to “act as a boat” and “cross rivers”, and he got his $100,000 stuck because of it.
Elon Musk has often made claims about how Tesla vehicles could float and briefly serve as a boat in the past.
We have never been taken too seriously because Tesla’s warranty states something different about taking the vehicle into water.
However, the CEO doubled down on the claim specifically for the Cybertruck.
Ahead of launching the production version of the Cybertruck, Musk claimed the vehicle would be “waterproof enough” to serve as a boat and cross rivers:
Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren’t too choppy.
The CEO added that the goal is for a Cybertruck to be able to cross the water between SpaceX’s Starbase and South Padre Island in Texas, which is about 360 meters (1,100 feet).
We have been taking the Cybertruck more seriously with water because we learned that Tesla built a ‘wade mode’ for the truck to be able to go into the water. Tesla says the mode increases the ride height to the max and temporarily “pressurizes the battery pack.”
The problem is that it is activated through the off-roading mode, which is not covered under Tesla’s warranty – so we are taking everything with a grain of salt.
Whenever Tesla’s warranty contradicts what Musk says, it is better to follow to the warranty.
A Tesla Cybertruck owner in Truckee, California, appears not to have received this sage advice since they activated the wade mode and attempted to get into the water.
The Cybertruck owner quickly got stuck. The local California Highway Patrol (CHP) shared some pictures of the aftermath (via Facebook):
CHP Truckee helped with the recovery and commented on the incident:
Cybertruck activated “Wade Mode”… and waded a bit too far… We’re all for testing boundaries… but maybe not the waterline. Remember folks, “Wade Mode” isn’t “Submarine Mode.” If your plans include exploring the great outdoors, make sure to know your limits and the terrain.
There’s no detail on the damage to the Cybertruck, if any.
As we recently reported, repair costs for the stainless steel electric pickup truck can increase rapidly.
This Cybertruck owner is also not the first one to get stuck in water. We previously reported on a Tesla Cybertruck sinking into the water when launching a jet ski.
Electrek’s Take
At the risk of stating the obvious, this is clearly more of a user error than a Cybertruck problem.
I think the verdict is clear: Cybertruck is far from the best electric pickup truck for off-roading.
However, in general, you shouldn’t expect a truck to get out of water on a muddy bank.
I think a lot of Cybertruck owners are new to trucking and off-roading, and they are making the truck look worse than it is at off-roading.
If you want to take your Cybertruck off-road, I recommend to first go with an off-roading guide that can help avoid some simple mistakes like this.
Also, in general, don’t take Elon Musk’s claims at face value when he says that Tesla vehicles can do something that sounds like an exaggeration. It probably is an exaggeration.
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