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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

#121

Post by dsr_ »

CydeWeys wrote: post #101
monkmartinez wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It took him ten hours of work the first time. Yes, it'll take him less the second time because he's gotten better at it, but it's still by no means easy or trivial. And we haven't gotten to how much he values his time yet.

People love to go on about the value of their time, but most people cannot arbitrarily decide to work another hour and get paid for it. Most people either have their schedules set by their employers or are on a salary that doesn't change if they add an additional hour.

Don't weight ten hours of learning about bicycle assembly as though it were ten billable hours if it isn't. Compare it against the ten hours you were going to do other things in: reading, watching TV, going out for a walk, whatever.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#122

Post by u801e »

patcheudor wrote: post #116
u801e wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't imagine anything past 15 MPH for the general public is a safe thing based solely on the bike handling skills of the majority of the general public. It's pretty easy for most riders to get to 25 MPH or above when going downhill. That's why I take the lane in those situations and keep an eye out at every single intersection. I think a lot of the situations that you describe could be prevented by taking the la…

That's pretty much where I road most of the time when I was racing but never underestimate how much road rage that causes. It was fine when I was training in Bend, OR. Those drivers were very polite and in fact would always move into the other lane to pass. I honestly can't say enough good things about the people of Bend back in the early 90's. Beyond polite. Boise, ID on the other hand is a completely different worl…

You're right in terms of one's experience being highly dependent on where they ride.

> Oh, how they love to lecture about how you MUST ride as far to the right as safe

Fortunately, my state (Virginia) has an exception (based on the Uniform Vehicle Code wording) to the keep as far right as practical rule that states that it doesn't apply if the lane is too narrow for a bicycle and other vehicle to safely travel side by side within the lane. If you take the width of a cyclist (2 ft), the distance between the end of the handlebar and edge of the road (minimum 2 ft), and the distance between the edge of the handlebar and the passing vehicle (at least 3 ft in most states), then you can argue that the cyclist needs a minimum of 7 feet. A typical passenger vehicle is about 6 ft wide. At typical lane is anywhere from 10 ft to 12 ft wide.

So for most lanes, you don't have to keep right at all. I haven't checked to see whether that's the case in Oregon or Idaho though.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#123

Post by yilunzh »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #69

I worry about the safety of 20-30MPH and trying to stay with car traffic. e-bikes make more sense to me as an assist for riding at normal bike-like speeds than as a way to ride at moped speeds.

I should clarify that on the bike path, I generally do stay in the 15-20 MPH range, as there are many pedestrians traveling at low speed. On the road however, staying at typical bike like speed actually feel more dangerous to me. It kind of feels like driving on the highway at 45MPH when everyone is going 75MPH and a bit nerve wracking.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#124

Post by eesmith »

weddpros wrote: post #114
amiga-workbench wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a DC rear hub motor, I can throttle it fully up and still hold my bike in place. It accelerates poorly and has relatively little torque. I can get my bike up to the same speed manually with the benefit of the gearing all bikes have. On even terrain I don't have any reason to be driving around at over 15mph (and I don't), but we do have morons who will, and that's why the law is so restrictive in the EU.

Sure, morons always go by the law... They don't bother with ebikes anyway, so they're reckless with a moped, which is way more dangerous. The 250W limit in Europe is stupid (plus it shouldn't be a European law, it's not the correct scope). Finally, you can be reckless with rollerblades or a bike, you don't need a motor. I guess it's more a problem of "250W is more than enough for people" just like 640kb was, for poli…

Lots of things have a boundary, even if the boundary is somewhat arbitrary. In most places there is a voting age, there is an age of consent, and there is a drinking age. These ages differ, because there is no clear-cut boundary.

Do you think there should be no power limit, or that it should be a different power limit?

I don't see why the regulations for electric bikes should be much different from gasoline bikes (aka, mopeds). If your e-bike is powerful enough, then it's comparable to a more powerful moped.

Do you think we prevent people from drive on the sidewalk because they will be reckless? I think the greater the momentum disparity, the more likely it is that an error, like loss of control, results in injury or death. This is a wider brush than "reckless".

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#125

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

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.

V-brakes would have been more than suitable without the pointless disc brake faddishness.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#126

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

jordache wrote: post #53
username223 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

In an e-bike assisted context, the extra 10-15 lb, most of which is non-rotational weight is negligible. A 20-25 lb steel bike with sufficient robustness does not really exist for $1500. Something like a surly ogre is about 30lbs. To shave off that extra 5-10 lbs you're looking at some very performance oriented parts and/or construction with extremely elevated prices.

It wasn't that hard to find 20 pound aluminum road bikes before CF took over.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#127

Post by eesmith »

username223 wrote: post #36
jordache wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $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.

Ahem. Speaking with mock outrage, as someone who goes bike camping with front and back panniers and a tent, I'll point out that my bike is about 40 lbs, unloaded. Eg, https://www.koga.com/en/bikes/trekking/collection/worldtrave... . ;)

'Course, my average speed is about 8mph. I like to stop, look at things, and read the signs, and sometimes travel along hard-pack dirt roads.

Their e-trekking bike is about 54 lbs. I know what I'm going to get for myself when I get older.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#128

Post by moron4hire »

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 don't understand. If there is no clear way to register the vehicle, then how do moped and motorcycle owners figure out how to register their vehicles?

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#129

Post by dsego »

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…

I would expect a cheaper alu frame to be "overbuilt" and heavier, probably not butted, so it doesn't seem that bad for the conversion.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#130

Post by chrisseaton »

waytogo wrote: post #111
chrisseaton wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: Why the downvote? Maybe it's because you've said you don't understand e-bikes for the ridiculous reason that they don't fit your very specific living situation like what kind of housing you have, which floor you live on and how many bags you're prepared to carry. Other people have different living situations, and e-bikes suit them. It's not a mystery.

Then again what is the living situation ('use case') where an e-bike works? I also made the example with a house and garage. I don't see any killer use case but are happy to learn relevant use cases.

I mean just to look at one part of the world, but which many of us will understand, look at somewhere like San Mateo, the sub-urban area halfway between San Francisco and San Jose in Silicon Valley. Imagine living in a house with a garage somewhere like Foster City.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@37.5466469,-122.2920167,13z?h...

A family could get all around this area very nicely on an electric bike. Maybe you bike to an office in Redwood Shores, your wife teaches the College of San Mateo campus up the hill and she can get there on an electric bike there as well. She basically recharges it on the way back on the down hill. Your daughter goes to Hillsdale High School where she can electric bike to and works a part time job at the Whole Foods Market there which can bike to as well.

Your suburb example was flawed because not everyone is trying to get into a big city centre.

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