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First 100 miles on my E-Bike

yilunzh.com

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Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#31

Post by cesis »

waytogo wrote: post #27

I don't grok e-bikes. I like them and I'd like to get one but I just don't know how I will manage the charging. I am livinig in a big city and have no garage and no wall socket in front of my street door. And 100% of all destinations I ride to don't have wall sockets for charging neither. So, I would need to carry every time the heavy battery upstairs (3 floors)? I am anyway always full-loaded with bags or whatever a…

You can use bike's motor when pushing it up the stairs so you don't have to carry it.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#32

Post by fjsolwmv »

Brakenshire wrote: post #12
WA wrote: post #6

I have put about 3,000km on my E-bike in the last 1.5 years. It's limited to 25km/h, because then I don't need a license, it's fast enough for city traffic (mostly in bike lanes anyways) and I get to tow a trailer for my kid. Biggest advantage: Hills don't exist for me. We live in a city with quite a few hills and day care is about 70-100m below our appartment. Doing this trip twice a day with its 15% slope would tak…

I've read about motorized doping in bike races, with motors hidden inside the gearing, I wonder whether anyone's thought about this sort of thing for consumer bikes, and what sort of benefit you could get for, say, 1kg or half a kg of extra weight. E-bikes at the moment seem to have reconciled themselves to being twice the weight of ordinary bikes.

Just strap a power drill and a caster between back seat and wheel.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#33

Post by fjsolwmv »

yilunzh wrote: post #20
CydeWeys wrote: post #10

I'm surprised the author spent so much money building on top of a base bike of such low quality. That department store bike is what bike snobs would call a "bicycle-shaped object". You certainly shouldn't not be cheaping out on the actual bicycle for an e-bike, as you're putting the bike (and particularly the brakes) through forces they were not properly designed for. The author even admits such: > The brakes are oft…

Yup, the brakes is definitely the limiting factor currently, but other parts of the bike have held up surprisingly well. I didn't really know anything about bikes before starting this, so it was a cheap way to learn. I figured I can always upgrade the parts over time if needed. I had set a max budget of $1500 for the initial purchase and had to make tradeoff somewhere.

It's a cool project but it's not about "(riding) e-bikes", it's about "learning e-bike design by experiment"

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#34

Post by seniorsassycat »

I also completed my first 100 miles on an ebike this past week, on a bike I bought two weeks ago. I splurged and bought a top of the line pre-built[0]. Call it a mid life crisis.

It is a class three bike. The electric motor will only activate under 28mph. There is no throttle, the motor multiplies your pedal force by 55-200% depending on the setting (eco-turbo).

I can beat the bus on a few bus routes. I use to take the bus if the route had too many hills but now I maintain 17mph without getting winded on steep hills. An electric shortens and flattens any bike trip, I'm never sloughing up a hill, and I'm never asking myself if it's worth riding the bike. Even if bus or uber is faster it wont be twice as fast. Biking is still fun and still a workout, I'm a out of breath with sore legs after a ride.

I'm sometimes self-conscious about 'cheating'. I'm not sure how fast I should be going on a mixed use bike path. I'm afraid this bike will get stolen one day, even with a ulock and cable. If not stolen, vandalized.

I think that electric bikes could be the future of city transit if the price comes down. Secondary problems include theft and weather.

[0] https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/hybrid-bikes/electr...

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#35

Post by lumberjack »

rorykoehler wrote: post #30
WA wrote: post #6

I have put about 3,000km on my E-bike in the last 1.5 years. It's limited to 25km/h, because then I don't need a license, it's fast enough for city traffic (mostly in bike lanes anyways) and I get to tow a trailer for my kid. Biggest advantage: Hills don't exist for me. We live in a city with quite a few hills and day care is about 70-100m below our appartment. Doing this trip twice a day with its 15% slope would tak…

The 25km/h limit is why I won't buy one. Pointless for normal use.

A fast e-bike would be dangerous, anyway. At that point, you should just get a small capacity motorcycle or a scooter.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#36

Post by username223 »

jordache wrote: post #24
username223 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. For the $1500 the author spent, he could have bought a decent bike instead of strapping a motor on a $200 piece of cast-iron junk. Plus, a 1000-watt motor is ridiculous: that's the kind of power generated by a pro sprinter, and over twice what a pro climber generates on average. A 100-watt boost would be enough of an advantage to make most hills easy, and would probably weigh and cost far less.

> $200 piece of cast-iron junk. He used an alu bike... mechanical disc brakes worked for a decade before hydraulics.

> He used an alu bike...

My bad -- the name "IRON HORSE" threw me off. Still, the thing supposedly weighs 37.75 lbs., which is terrible for a bike. For $1500, he could get something with much better parts weighing 20-25 lbs.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#37

Post by noonespecial »

jmull wrote: post #19

The laws around e-bikes in the US can be a deterrent. E.g.: [The Murky Legality of E-Bikes]( https://www.citylab.com/equity/2016/02/the-murky-legality-of... ) The second paragraph gives you the flavor of it: > Under federal law, an electric bike with a maximum assisted speed under 20 miles per hour can be sold as a bicycle, not a motor vehicle. Under New York state law, riders would need to register these as they wou…

I actually worry about the "something must be done" crowd cajoling lawmakers into lazily shoehorning electric bikes into the "motorcycle" category and erasing much of their advantages to own as a bicycle.

This happened with boats here as my little plastic kayak with a tiny electric assist has to be registered and taxed as if it was a full sized bass fishing boat with a v8.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#38

Post by jakobegger »

mindB wrote: post #9

Author seems to think an internal drivetrain for a bike would be more reliable. Maybe somebody more mechanical can chime in, but my understanding was that the opposite was true: only reason cars have to use an internal drivetrain is for cooling and external ones are generally more reliable?

Internal gears in bicycles need no service at all for typical use. External gears on the other hand require you to swap chain and cogset regularly. (But if well serviced, they are more efficient)

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#40

Post by matt-attack »

Brakenshire wrote: post #12
WA wrote: post #6

I have put about 3,000km on my E-bike in the last 1.5 years. It's limited to 25km/h, because then I don't need a license, it's fast enough for city traffic (mostly in bike lanes anyways) and I get to tow a trailer for my kid. Biggest advantage: Hills don't exist for me. We live in a city with quite a few hills and day care is about 70-100m below our appartment. Doing this trip twice a day with its 15% slope would tak…

I've read about motorized doping in bike races, with motors hidden inside the gearing, I wonder whether anyone's thought about this sort of thing for consumer bikes, and what sort of benefit you could get for, say, 1kg or half a kg of extra weight. E-bikes at the moment seem to have reconciled themselves to being twice the weight of ordinary bikes.

Have you seen this:

https://budnitzbicycles.com/bicycles/view/titanium-ebike

I think it’s the closest you’ll find to a bike the looks and operates almost identically to a traditional bike. No wires, no display, excellent weight, etc. Obviously the price is out of control, but still the right idea I think.

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