First 100 miles on my E-Bike • Hacker News Board

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#81

Post by Too » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 4:58 PM UTC

chx wrote: post #60

I swear the best commuter ebike is the Revelo Flex ( https://www.revelo.ca/pages/flex-electric-folding-bike ). It's like someone shrank a penny farthing and put a motor in the back wheel: the front wheel is 20" and has pedals attached to it (so you can help the motor when uphill), the back is 16" and has the motor inside (torque!). You can order it with bike ABS as well ( https://www.bikerumor.com/2012/11/27/hands-on…

With such a small front wheel and your feet on the front wheel, how do you climb a curb? That just looks like designed for a OTB. That funny one foot down maneuver kickbike-riders do to jump might work but doesn't look easy.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#82

Post by yilunzh » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 4:58 PM UTC

quickben wrote: post #49

yilunzh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I've been getting interested in e-bikes recently. Work is 15km away, but I do weight near 0.1 [t] :) Hows the battery holding if you carry extra weight? How much does the total setup, you included, weights?

My bike is around 50 lbs. I weight about 150 lbs. I often carry a bag about 20 lbs. So all in, it's about 200 lbs or ~90KG. I think my battery pack can go about 50 miles per charge, but I never went that far on a single charge. I usually charge after 30 miles to ease strain on battery, but that should still be plenty for you to get to work and back.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#83

Post by u801e » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 4:59 PM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #62

noonespecial wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Many e-bikes are perilously close to motorcycles, with similar power and top speed to a 50cc motor scooter. Brushless motors and lithium batteries can put out a phenomenal amount of power and torque. There's a line between "bicycle with electric assist" and "electric motorcycle with vestigial pedals" - I see an awful lot of the latter these days.

I would hope that they're equipped with disc brakes at a minimum. Wheel rim brakes on a conventional bicycle will slowly wear down the rim, but even when riding regularly, should last for quite a few years. On an e-bike with the faster speeds and greater braking needs, it may shorten the life of the wheels significantly.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#84

Post by hocuspocus » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 5:00 PM UTC

gkya wrote: post #47

lumberjack wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I wonder if sth. like an electric Vespa would be feasible. You would be able to pack in more battery than an e-bike, but the last mile would be a problem because you can't just pedal the rest of the way.

Not only it's feasible, it's done. Cf. Gogoro for the most iconic ones (but there are plenty of other brands too).

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#85

Post by mantas » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 5:01 PM UTC

dmurray wrote: post #43

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.

100 watts would turn it back into a manual bike with some electrical assist. There's a place for that, but it's clear the author was looking for something more.

E-bikes are bicycles with electrical assist. Fully motorised bikes are mopeds or, well, motor bikes.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#86

Post by celim307 » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 5:02 PM UTC

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.

Checkout bikesdirect. Same price as Walmart, much better quality. I can personally attest to their road and track bikes

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#87

Post by jdietrich » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 5:02 PM UTC

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 gearhubs are drastically more reliable than derailleur gears and require almost no maintenance. They use an epicyclic gear train in a sealed oil bath, so most of the mechanical parts are protected from moisture and foreign objects. The use of a gearhub also facilitates the use of an enclosed chaincase, or a belt or shaft drive.

The Sturmey Archer 3-speed gearhub has existed largely unchanged since 1938 and is faultlessly reliable, even when horribly neglected. As long as they're rebuilt every 10,000 miles or so, they'll last a lifetime. They're the standard gearing option on Dutch utility bikes and were once the most popular of all bicycle gearing systems. The only real downside of the Sturmey Archer gearhub is that it offers a narrower range of ratios than a derailleur system, although it's more than adequate for utility cycling in moderately hilly areas.

Newer gearhubs offer eight, eleven or fourteen ratios, matching the gear range of a mountain bike derailleur system. They're less popular than derailleur gears because of the higher cost and marginally higher weight, but I think that they're a vastly superior choice for utility cycling. One great advantage for casual cyclists is that gearhubs change smoothly and instantly, even under heavy pedal load or at a complete stop. Changing gears on a derailleur system requires a degree of finesse to avoid jerky changes and dropped chains.

Rohloff manufacture the most sophisticated of all gearhubs, which have been successfully used on several round-the-world tours.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#88

Post by avel » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 5:02 PM UTC

freefal67 wrote: post #25

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…

This isn't enforced in New York. Every delivery guy in the city is now riding an e-bike. They're a menace. Their bikes weigh a ton and they occasionally utilize the sidewalks. I had a friend who was knocked to the ground by one.

It _is_ enforced. Many delivery riders have already had their e-bikes confiscated. And a bigger crackdown is coming up in January: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2017/12/18/hundreds-of-delivery-...

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#89

Post by jdietrich » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 5:03 PM UTC

mindB wrote: post #63

jakobegger wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Ah. I think I was getting robustness and efficiency mixed up. I suppose if you have sufficient electric assist, efficiency becomes less of a concern.

Internal gearhubs are marginally less efficient than a clean and well-maintained derailleur system, but they're considerably more efficient than a dirty and neglected derailleur system.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#90

Post by monkmartinez » Sat, Dec 30, 2017, 5:05 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #66

yilunzh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can't easily replace the frame though. You're right that the other parts can be replaced, but you should have at least used a good frame to start with. For only a few hundred bucks more you could have gotten a substantially better bike to work with. The bike you have has a cheap aluminum frame, which will accumulate stress fractures over time from the high speed electric bicycle use exceed its design specs that i…

> You can't easily replace the frame though.

You can. You just move the motor, battery/controller to another bike.

What the author did is a great way to check the feasibility of the idea for himself without breaking the bank.