Ukrainian Fighters Take to Electric Bikes in War Against Russia (msn.com) 89
"Ukrainian fighters are using electric bikes in the battle against Russia," reports the Washington Post, "mostly in support of reconnaissance missions, demining operations and medical deliveries, according to one of the Ukrainian e-bike makers involved."
"They've reportedly also been used for carrying out sniper attacks." The bikes have a top speed of 55 miles per hour and are relatively silent — helping their riders evade Russian fire.
Ukrainian e-bike firm Eleek initially gave a few bikes to the military when the war began, according to manager Roman Kulchytskyi. Soon after, they began to mass-produce bikes — kitted out in military green, with a small Ukrainian flag on the rear wheel — for Ukraine's fighters.... Working from a bomb shelter, Eleek began making a power bank based on lithium-ion battery cells it had left in stock. After struggling for parts, it turned to electronic cigarettes — launching a social media campaign to get people to send in their devices....
The company added footrests for passengers, improved the charging time, installed a battery control system and included a 220V output that allows soldiers to charge gadgets and can help power Starlink satellite Internet terminals, Kulchytskyi said.... Another advantage of the bikes is that they may not be visible on thermal imaging systems, which are used to detect differences in temperature and help militaries pinpoint potential targets. That's because the electric motor doesn't heat up like an internal combustion engine, Kulchytskyi said.
Daniel Tonkopi, founder of e-bike company Delfast, wrote on Facebook this month that his California-based firm has been donating electric bikes to the Ukrainian army since the war broke out. He included pictures of the bikes carrying antitank weapons and said he had received feedback from the military that they planned to use the bikes to target Russian armored vehicles. During one recent mission, they recounted to him that several vehicles came back with holes but that the riders were intact.... The company is donating 5 percent of all sales to fund humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
The article notes electric bikes are also being tested by Asutralia's military and New Zealand's Air Force.
"They've reportedly also been used for carrying out sniper attacks." The bikes have a top speed of 55 miles per hour and are relatively silent — helping their riders evade Russian fire.
Ukrainian e-bike firm Eleek initially gave a few bikes to the military when the war began, according to manager Roman Kulchytskyi. Soon after, they began to mass-produce bikes — kitted out in military green, with a small Ukrainian flag on the rear wheel — for Ukraine's fighters.... Working from a bomb shelter, Eleek began making a power bank based on lithium-ion battery cells it had left in stock. After struggling for parts, it turned to electronic cigarettes — launching a social media campaign to get people to send in their devices....
The company added footrests for passengers, improved the charging time, installed a battery control system and included a 220V output that allows soldiers to charge gadgets and can help power Starlink satellite Internet terminals, Kulchytskyi said.... Another advantage of the bikes is that they may not be visible on thermal imaging systems, which are used to detect differences in temperature and help militaries pinpoint potential targets. That's because the electric motor doesn't heat up like an internal combustion engine, Kulchytskyi said.
Daniel Tonkopi, founder of e-bike company Delfast, wrote on Facebook this month that his California-based firm has been donating electric bikes to the Ukrainian army since the war broke out. He included pictures of the bikes carrying antitank weapons and said he had received feedback from the military that they planned to use the bikes to target Russian armored vehicles. During one recent mission, they recounted to him that several vehicles came back with holes but that the riders were intact.... The company is donating 5 percent of all sales to fund humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
The article notes electric bikes are also being tested by Asutralia's military and New Zealand's Air Force.
55 kmh (Score:1)
not mph
No you're unknitz!
Re: (Score:2)
Know your cunt-trees!
Re: (Score:2)
And New Zealand has not had an Air Force since 2001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Kiwi here,
While I don't personally agree with the decision to ditch the combat jets, our air force is still reasonably suited to our countries needs. NZ is a couple of small islands well away from anyone likely to invade us, and anyone trying to invade us would pretty much have to go through Australia first, who are our longtime ally and have a proper air force. If someone did want to invade us and for whatever reason Australia was out of the picture, I think we'd be pretty fucked anyway even if we still ha
Re: (Score:2)
At one point of time I'd have said "Ehhh.. the Americans would turn up and mop up the invaders before breakfast".
Nowdays, I'm not so convinced. Like I'm sure they'd want to , but then be stopped by that one guy in congress who nobody likes because he keeps ranting about the federal reserve but seems to keep getting voted back in.
But hey, the swedes would probably send you some nifty missiles.
Re: (Score:3)
Kiwis can't fly, we know that already.
Re:55 kmh (Score:5, Informative)
According to other articles the bikes are doing 80km an hour which translates as 50mph [electrek.co]. 50km/h wouldn't be fast enough to outrun a tank. I've also seen numbers close to 100km/h elsewhere. I don't think the article is wrong about this.
They don't need to outrun a tank (Score:2)
The advantage of bikes is they can go where tanks cannot for example operating in dense woodland.
Re: (Score:2)
You just have to move faster than its turret.
I thought about it for a sec, and realized you meant turret *rotation*, and not *ejection*.
Discarded electronic cigarettes (Score:5, Interesting)
It's quite staggering - and actually really shocking - how vapers buy "disposable" electronic cigarettes with a pre-loaded Li-ion cell that are good for 500 charges or whatever, use the damn things, then throw em away. Disposable ecigs are the epitome of the mindless consumer society gone totally crazy - not to mention, a true environmental disaster. If you thought discarded cigarette butts were bad, it was nothing like this.
Here's a guy who made it a hobby to collect those damn things in and around his city of Glasgow, to reuse the cells for their intended purposes (you know, recharge them...): More Free Street-Lithion Reclamation [youtube.com].
If them Ukrainians can use the same idea to fight their war AND clean up the environment in those places that - thankfully - haven't been invaded by the fucking Ruskies yet, I'm 200% for it. Yea Ukraine!
Re:Discarded electronic cigarettes (Score:5, Insightful)
Disposable ecigs are the epitome of the mindless consumer society gone totally crazy
In their defence I've never attributed a single braincell to anyone who has taken up smoking (or vaping) in the past 30 years. It's not mindless consumerism, it's outright brain damage, a public advertisement that someone makes bad life choices.
Re:Discarded electronic cigarettes (Score:4, Interesting)
Give it a rest already. If you think it's easy to kick a lifelong addiction, you've probably never had an addiction.
I smoked for 25 years, vaped for 10 years, and I managed to quit both 2 years ago.
Yeah I smoked. Fuck you very much.
But there's one thing I never did: discard my cigarette butts or my ecig batteries everywhere (my mods were not disposable in any case). Being a smoker / vaper doesn't mean you don't give a shit about your environment.
The one thing I did (because I didn't realize) was annoy everybody with my stench. Now I'm on the other side of the fence and I know, so I keep my trap shut. I regret imposing that to others in the past. I fully recognize that THAT was selfish of me. But I didn't realize.
Re: (Score:3)
Give it a rest already. If you think it's easy to kick a lifelong addiction, you've probably never had an addiction.
I smoked for 25 years, vaped for 10 years, and I managed to quit both 2 years ago.
Yeah I smoked. Fuck you very much.
But there's one thing I never did: discard my cigarette butts or my ecig batteries everywhere (my mods were not disposable in any case). Being a smoker / vaper doesn't mean you don't give a shit about your environment.
The one thing I did (because I didn't realize) was annoy everybody with my stench. Now I'm on the other side of the fence and I know, so I keep my trap shut. I regret imposing that to others in the past. I fully recognize that THAT was selfish of me. But I didn't realize.
I quit in 1976, and it was an interesting experience. Hard as hell to do. Nicotine has that nasty quality of almost simultaneously relaxing and stimulating a person.
I have no overt desire to smoke again, but occasionally have dreams where I am smoking. Only 40 plus years later!
But that is amazing is how people react. After quitting smoking, weight control became an issue. Your appetite increases, your metabolism slows down a bit, and it's a fight.
So I doubled down on the sports. (yes, I played sport
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
it's tricky to understand why someone voluntarily takes up the act
People know stuff is bad for them yet they do it anyway all the time. Especially teenagers. Why do you think I started? Even in the 80's, everybody was fully aware that smoking was bad for you. Yet I started smoking. And after that I regretted it all my life, and I've struggled with it ever since.
Show me someone who doesn't do something stupid in their life.
And once they do, then what? They get to be called idiots with one brain cell? How constructive is that? I contend that most people with an addiction pa
Re: (Score:2)
The ignorance is on both sides, it is ignorance of the pleasure that smoking can bring and on the other side it is ignorance of how crazy addictive something can be, I gave up smoking and it was nightmarishly hard, it took several attempts. I asked someone which was harder to give up, heroine or cigarettes and they said cigarettes were far harde
Re: (Score:2)
#notallsmokers
Most smokers litter in the process of smoking. If you didn't, thank you for not. But generalizations can often be generally correct even when you know you're an exception.
Re: (Score:2)
I used to be in the military. Gah, the number of butts we'd have to clean up from the side of the road.
As a positive, if you were caught tossing a butt out of your car, you'd be joining us for cleanup for a while. You got to join ALL the cleanups for a while.
Math on insult (Score:2)
25+10+2=37
Given that you apparently started smoking roughly 37 years ago, that puts you 7 years past his deadline for attributing no braincells to anybody who starts. So it doesn't apply to you.
Obviously, by the time the dangers of smoking were sufficiently widely known that *nobody* should start, you were already addicted, and, well, cigarettes beat like 80% of illegal drugs for addictiveness...
Me, I'm mildly allergic to cigarette smoke. As in, I have to take drugs in reaction to being around a smoker, b
Re: (Score:2)
I smoked for 25 years, vaped for 10 years, and I managed to quit both 2 years ago.
Yeah I smoked. Fuck you very much.
If I'm adding this up right, you started smoking about 37 years ago. The poster you're replying to was saying that they have "... never attributed a single braincell to anyone who has taken up smoking (or vaping) in the past 30 years." So what are you so angry about?
Re: (Score:2)
Give it a rest already. If you think it's easy to kick a lifelong addiction, you've probably never had an addiction.
Jesus you really can't read can you. Let me bold it for the retarded: "In their defence I've never attributed a single braincell to anyone who has TAKEN UP smoking (or vaping) in the past 30 years."
Your talk about addiction is irrelevant. The discussion is about people dumb enough to START smoking in a time when it is well and truly known to do nothing but shorten your life and drain your wallet.
Yeah I smoked. Fuck you very much.
Look learn to read, stop coming across as an aggressive moron, and realise my post praised you. You managed to gi
Re: (Score:2)
Read a study a while back that those who choose to participate in the after-work bar scene, make 10% more than their anti-social counterparts.
I can't imagine the kind of money made on golf courses.
Some activities, are not quite as mindless as you assume.
Re: (Score:2)
Read a study a while back that those who choose to participate in the after-work bar scene, make 10% more than their anti-social counterparts.
I can't imagine the kind of money made on golf courses.
Some activities, are not quite as mindless as you assume.
I have no doubt of that. That after work gathering at the water hole cemented relationships, allowed for networking, and created a sort of synergy. A beer or two could unlock the creative process when coupled with a more relaxed environment. I had one director who would buy me my rounds every time. Called it my overtime pay. Good bonding exercise. I'll note that when #metoo came along, it was kind of sad, as men started to not invite lady co workers to the watering holes, as the now required walking on egg
Re:Discarded electronic cigarettes (Score:5, Insightful)
They are selfish enough that they smoke/vape, stinking up everything around them, affecting others, it's no surprise that they have a braindead, anti-social consumerist habit.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
As a 50 year old smoker, this is exactly how I feel about people who drive internal combustion engine vehicles. Have you tried walking outdoors in an urban environment lately? And yet, somehow smokers are supposed to be the problem? The mass insanity of automobiles is remarkable once you can see it. Step out of your car and take a l
Re:Discarded electronic cigarettes (Score:5, Insightful)
I think exactly the same about ICE's, but unlike smoking/vaping, there's something beneficial to outweigh a small portion of the negatives, if nothing else than for ambulances, fire&rescue vehicles etc.
Smoking is purely egotistical pleasure seeking, pollute the interior spaces they walk into/reside in/work in, to the point that many landlords/rental companies charge smokers and vapers extra hazard fees for renovations due to soot/residue in wallpapers, ventilation system etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Whataboutism. There is a big difference though. Smoking is a luxury addiction. Gasoline is an economic one. Many of us can't afford an EV, and many of those who can't afford one have nowhere to plug it in anyway. By any reasonable measure the people who are poisoning others simply because they like getting high and not because they are trying to get to work are more willful fuckers.
Re: (Score:2)
Your gaslighting is disgusting.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
I suggest not using an obvious sock account to mod every one of your own comments up.
Look, more gaslighting delivered directly from a sock puppet account. Goebbels, is that you?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Tell us you don't know what a sock puppet is without telling us you don't know what a sock puppet is
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
I am using only one account.
I doubt it.
You are using two.
Prove it.
You are so tense and angry.
You are a troll and a liar.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Dude. so much hate for smokers.
I don't even hate you, I just wish you'd go away.
So I called you out on your mod sock account.
So you proved you're a big idiot, so what? Provide some evidence or fuck right off with your slanderous lies.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't understand. When making accusations of slander, it is up to the accuser to prove it is not true. So prove it.
As anyone knows I can't prove a negative, and you have no evidence nor have you presented any. I obviously wouldn't give you access to my equipment because that would be stupid. I suppose Slashdot has records which could back me up, if they gave two fucks; I'd be happy for them to release them. But since I could just be using a VPN that wouldn't really prove anything, would it?
I will not go away, and every time you shit on smokers and deny that cars are far worse, I will call you out on it.
Cite the place where I said cars weren't worse.
Re: (Score:1)
It is truth. Your car is billions of times more toxic than my cigarettes. It is not gaslighting. It is fucking fact.
Re: (Score:2)
I suggest not using an obvious sock account to mod every one of your own comments up.
Look, more gaslighting delivered directly from a sock puppet account. Goebbels, is that you?
I said you were gaslighting about sock puppets.
The record is right there, so it's not like you can twist this to make it seem like I was talking about something else.
Except you're trying to anyway, which is more gaslighting.
Before I was only 50% convinced that you were a sock puppet. Now it's 100%, since now you're accusing me of doing several other things that you're doing.
Re: (Score:2)
You're a smoker coming up with lame excuses to try and feel better about it.
Cars keep people alive. Cigarettes do the opposite. Without cars (and other IC combustion engines), people would be out of work by the tens of millions. That pollution that comes out of the tailpipe? It's worth it. Every ounce. Sure we can get away from ICE vehicles eventually, but for now, they're highly necessary for the survival of everyday people.
Re:Discarded electronic cigarettes (Score:4, Interesting)
As an asthmatic that takes transit. I can put things that cause an attack in this order:
The last one is far down the list. You can try to use whataboutism all you like, but cigarettes are still a larger problem. The worst part is that since smokers are used to the smell, they have no idea how nasty it is for everyone else.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
You realize that your argument is completely irrelevant to people who are against both smoking and ICE vehicles? Plenty of people don't want to be exposed to either cigarette smoke or automobile exhaust.
Re: (Score:2)
Totally agree. Central London is supposed to be an 'ultra low emissions zone' which is farcical given the crap you see coming out of the back of the diesel vehicles that pay the charge which allows them to carry on polluting.
Re: (Score:1)
They are selfish enough that they smoke/vape, stinking up everything around them, affecting others, it's no surprise that they have a braindead, anti-social consumerist habit.
Don't forget that others have to put up with self important sanctimonious assholes such as yourself who have a weird inflated sense of your own value.
Speaking of assholes, I'll bet you think your's doesn't stink, or perhaps you just like the smell of your own crap.
I've been around smokers, and I've been around people like you. You are far worse.
Re: (Score:2)
There is a simple and profitable answer for that problem. Start charging deposits on every e-cig device. And I mean considerable ones.
The recycling lobby needs to pull their head out of their compost pile and understand these impacts before products hit the market. And "green" consumers need to do the same. Don't pretend you care about the environment blowing vape clouds instead of smoke, and then shit Li-ion turds all over the planet.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Lets start charging considerable deposits on every automobile. They cause far more environmental damage and expose people to far greater concentrations of carcinogens on a continual basis. Surely if you object to the tiny amount of air pollution caused by smoking you will also object to the many times greater problem that automobiles cause. If you don't, then it is not about health, but something else, right?
Yes, vehicular transport IS about something else. The fact that you're not sitting in the woods right now hunting for your next meal, tends to validate that fact, along with the dozen reasons you want or need to be more mobile than pedal-power damn near every day. We should be bitching at the Greed N. Corruption manipulating the masses into validating their (now-worthless) commercial real estate, forcing millions to pollute commuting back to a building they haven't worked in since COVID hit. Hell of a l
Re: (Score:1)
I live and work just fine without a car. I can walk 30 miles a day, no problem. I just don't believe individual car ownership is a necessary thing. It is not. You have just been convinced it is through a lifetime of advertising and propaganda.
Think about it. Car advertisements are targeted at young and vulnerable demographics, just like tobacco. Driving a car everywhere is really bad for your health, just like tobacco.
Do you think that America's obesity problem might have something to do with this? Where do
Re: (Score:2)
I live and work just fine without a car. I can walk 30 miles a day, no problem.
Walking 30 miles a day, isn't your problem. Trying to fathom how a society will actually function when everyone's "job" for 10 hours a day is walking, is.
And if car advertisements were targeted towards the "young and vulnerable", then no car would cost over $50K. America's obesity problem hardly requires a car, as every person too large to fit in one can attest. And owning a car, doesn't make you obese. It doesn't even make you unhealthy. An ignorant mentality towards human maintenance does. Period.
Re: (Score:1)
If it takes you ten hours to walk 30 miles then you are out of shape, and you can die easily from innumerable hazards.
Human society functioned perfectly well while we held our place as exhaustion hunters, and still does in cultures that still live that way. Yes, walking 30 miles a day was our job. It is exactly what we have evolved to do.
However, the point here is that cars are billions of times more toxic than tobacco, and you drivers will say anything to deny that fact. It is fact. Your car is extremely t
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If it takes you ten hours to walk 30 miles then you are out of shape, and you can die easily from innumerable hazards.
You can die anywhere along the way exposing yourself to the harsh elements of summer and winter on this planet, walking for 30 miles a day too. Imagine the amount of sunscreen or clothing that will be required by every worker going to work. And I've done plenty of walking and running in my lifetime. I know what average speeds are, and how fast even 4MPH is when walking, so try not to sell me on the idea that the average person would be walking any faster than 3-4MPH over a period of 30 miles a day. We b
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, no worries. Believe what you want. I know history will prove me correct. The automobile insanity will be a subject of much study in the future.
Prove you right about what? That walking is healthier that driving? That 30 miles of walking a day, isn't a cure for smoking? Not exactly a debate on those, and the "insanity" of the automobile will be lumped in with the Industrial Age, which will eventually fall into the give-a-shit realm. Like the Roman Empire. Or 20th Century Communist Socialism. Merely a page in the history of Ignorant Humans.
We'll likely extinct ourselves here on this dying rock anyway, due to the Disease of Greed we've been infe
Re: (Score:2)
30 miles a day? Most people don't walk faster than 3-4 mph. That's completely unworkable. Especially in the United States.
Cost/benefit tradeoff (Score:3)
Russian T-72: 50 million rubles
Some spare parts, recycled vape batteries, two bottles of horilka and a donated Javelin: $7.50.
Look on the invaders' faces when their T-72 jack-in-the-boxes: Priceless
Re:Cost/benefit tradeoff (Score:5, Funny)
Jokes on the Ukrainians, in 3 weeks when Russia defaults on it's $500m of Eurobonds the 50million rubbles will only be worth $7.50 :-)
Re: (Score:3)
50 million rubles is about 7,5 bucks.
Oh, wait, I'm a month ahead again. Never mind.
cost / benefit important (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
If I was a medic or sniper or fired Stingers I'd much rather have these than an automobile on the front-line. (With spare battery cartridges) With night vision they'll move effectively through forests and fields of high grass.
Re: (Score:2)
They are not only faster than normal bikes, they also don't fatigue the rider. You can get ambushed after a brisk cycling and be fresh instead of exhausted, which makes a huge difference.
Re: (Score:2)
At 55kmh they are very liable to sniping themselves. A little more speed would be nice - this is not much faster than a regular bike which is even quieter
If you can hear the motor, you can hear the tires.
Loose lips nullify tactics (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
During one recent mission, they recounted to him that several vehicles came back with holes but that the riders were intact
It's a war. The people on the front lines know about the stuff happening faster than we do. The Russians shot at Ukrainian soldiers on these bikes.
To think that the Russians won't know what's happening to them until they read Western news is like thinking that the Afghans and Iraqis didn't know about the atrocities committed on them until Chelsea Manning and Wikileaks.
Re: (Score:2)
Tactics? Yes, yes, that's exactly our tactics. We discuss them here, in public, this is exactly what we have in mind...
Sickening (Score:2, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)
Never let a good crisis go to waste. What are you, a commie?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ironic, considering that said quotation is attributable to a "commie" [quotefancy.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, heaven forbid someone make money by making a valuable tool for the Ukrainian war effort.
No one is forcing the Ukrainians to buy these things, they're buying them because they feel they're useful. There's nothing wrong with being the seller in that scenario, particularly since there's enough competition in this industry that if the Ukrainians were getting priced gouged they could just buy from someone else.
Re: (Score:2)
Kissinger would be pleased. It's his kind of war, don't you think?
Those were the days (Score:3)
When you first read the nerds-news on /.
Nowadays you read it half a dozen times elsewhere before it pops up here.
Re: (Score:1)
not possible. Slashdot doesn't have its own reporters and research team for original content. it only posts stories found elsewhere.
things appearing in many other places before here has always been a thing... along with dupes of those stories. it's not a new thing. there's just more sites doing that same reposting of content than ever before now.
Re: (Score:2)
So slashdot isn't slow, it's just that the rest of the world got faster. Figures..
Small, fast, light vs. big and heavy (Score:2)
I think this is just another example of the latest trend in warfare where large, heavy armaments (tanks, battleships, bombers, etc.) are being replaced by small, light alternatives. Big, heavy military equipment has proven to be vulnerable to small and light smart munitions on the ground, air, and sea.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree that is the trend. OTOH, if UA had thousands of tanks and planes, they'd be using them. And the stories would be about the tanks and planes.
Wait, wait - don't tell me... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The "Ghost of Kyiv" [snicker] is leading the charge of the electric bike brigade!
I picture the Ghost as a pale Peewee Herman speeding along with his aerodynamic bow tie, tassels a-flying and bells a-ringing!