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First 100 miles on my E-Bike

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Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#141

Post by prophetjohn »

brianpgordon wrote: post #137
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…

I bought a pretty basic no-frills bike ( https://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2016/Bikes/lifestyle/Urban/... ) and used the same conversion kit that the author of this post uses (Bafang BBS02 from LunaCycle - less than $100 for a local bike shop to install). I've been riding my e-bike to work for several months and the caliper brakes that came with the bike have held up fine. They have enough braking power that it feels…

Felt is a legitimate, reputable bicycle manufacturer, though. It is much higher quality than a department store bike.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#142

Post by CydeWeys »

gknapp wrote: post #136
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Disc brakes are catching on, but for good reason: they increase the stopping power in rain substantially. Though, it doesn't matter if you don't ride in the rain, and many people don't.

They also don't bleed as much braking power when they heat up from repeated or long braking, which is more common at the high speeds seen in an electric bike.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#143

Post by CydeWeys »

prophetjohn wrote: post #141
brianpgordon wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a pretty basic no-frills bike ( https://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2016/Bikes/lifestyle/Urban/... ) and used the same conversion kit that the author of this post uses (Bafang BBS02 from LunaCycle - less than $100 for a local bike shop to install). I've been riding my e-bike to work for several months and the caliper brakes that came with the bike have held up fine. They have enough braking power that it feels…

Felt is a legitimate, reputable bicycle manufacturer, though. It is much higher quality than a department store bike.

It's also steel, which is probably better in an electric bike where you don't care about weight as much but you do care about durability.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#144

Post by CydeWeys »

brianpgordon wrote: post #137
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…

I bought a pretty basic no-frills bike ( https://www.feltbicycles.com/USA/2016/Bikes/lifestyle/Urban/... ) and used the same conversion kit that the author of this post uses (Bafang BBS02 from LunaCycle - less than $100 for a local bike shop to install). I've been riding my e-bike to work for several months and the caliper brakes that came with the bike have held up fine. They have enough braking power that it feels…

You have a single-speed electric bike with a mid-drive motor? How does that work out for you?

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#145

Post by waytogo »

chrisseaton wrote: post #130
waytogo wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

(1) Having a town house with some wall socket at the entry or a garage and (2) not trying to get into a big city centre might be a use case, yes. Thanks for elaborating your example but I don't think that this use case is strong or ubiquitous enough (maybe in SF) to lead e-bikes to mass adoption. I still think the concept of an e-bike, in particular the charging, is super flawed. If the battery is removable you can charge this thing but you have to carry a fat battery pack back and forth and your bike looks super clumsy (and yes, all bikes with removable batteries look clumsy) or if it's integrated it looks nice but it's hard to charge that thing.

I mean, I see that all bike manufacturer start to produce e-bikes and they form a large part of their revenues because they are much more expensive than normal bikes but if I'd make a mini poll here, how many of you guys have an e-bike, how many a normal bike? I bet the rate is 1:10 (e-bike:bike) or even lower.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#146

Post by CydeWeys »

Fricken wrote: post #134
mantas wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If you can pedal it, it's a bicycle.

I see a lot of deliverymen around here with beefy e-bikes who never pedal. The question of whether you can pedal seems academic if you never do. These e-bikes I'm talking about are functionally identical to electric mopeds (same power and speed capabilities); they just have pedals that go unused instead of a footrest.

The law recognizes this too, which is why e-bikes are primarily regulated by power output or top speed.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#147

Post by drb91 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #99
analog31 wrote: post #59

>>> If the ride is so great and economics so favorable, why haven’t I seen more adoption here in US and Canada? The author's answers to this question focus solely on the bike technology itself. This is a common thread in a lot of discussions about cycling: If we only built the right bike, more people would ride. This is usually followed by a CAD rendering of the perfect bike, that looks like nobody would want to ride…

> including the fact that driving a car is fun for a lot of people Hmmm... Communting to work is fun for people? I want to live where they live. Keep the car for weekend cruising, the bike probably makes the boring commutes more fun than a car would. I built an bike 6 or 7 years ago but only took it once to work (a 20 mile commute). It was underpowered and under-batteried but it was an interesting starting point. I m…

Urban biking is certainly much much scarier and stressful for me than driving is. While I have to vie with cars, I’d rather be a car.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#148

Post by CydeWeys »

eesmith wrote: post #127
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.

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 k…

Can I just say, it seems weird to me that that bike doesn't have disc brakes given its intended uses for bike camping? How does it handle long descents and/or rain? The serious bike camping bikes that I've seen have both disc brakes and caliper brakes, for redundancy and ability to handle long declines under heavy load that might burn out just a single set of calipers.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#149

Post by Decade »

u801e wrote: post #78
microtonal wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under good circumstances, yes. When you are cycling recreationally, you get to pick a nice day. But if you are cycling to work every day and deal with strong wind, elevation differences, maintaining 20-25 km/h is going to be tough. Sustaining 20-25 is easy for me on a calm day. But on steep roads or windy days it's definitely more in the 10-15 or 15-20 ballpark. (This is from experience. I am fit, cycle 22km every wo…

> But if you are cycling to work every day and deal with strong wind, elevation differences, maintaining 20-25 km/h is going to be tough. That is true when you're riding uphill and/or into a headwind, but that should also be made up by the fact that the headwind/ascent becomes a tailwind/descent when you ride in the other direction. The speeds I attain on my conventional bike range from 25 to 30 km/h on flat ground,…

> > But if you are cycling to work every day and deal with strong wind, elevation differences, maintaining 20-25 km/h is going to be tough.

> That is true when you're riding uphill and/or into a headwind, but that should also be made up by the fact that the headwind/ascent becomes a tailwind/descent when you ride in the other direction.

Not a great comfort when you are trying to get to work.

And in my experience, after several hours at work, the wind dies down or changes direction by the time I want to go home.

> side wind gusts

I would expect the greater mass of the motorized bicycle to help the rider stay grounded.

Re: First 100 miles on my E-Bike

#150

Post by CydeWeys »

jordache wrote: post #139
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

uhhh you don't want to electrify a 20lbs alum road bike. when electrifying you value robustness over light weight. The energy from the motor more than makes up for the few extra lbs it has to haul.

Yeah, some people don't realize that what you want to electrify is more akin to a hardtail mountain bike. You want big sturdy tires that can handle hitting an imperfection in the road at high speed, and front suspension helps for the same reason. Bigger tires allow for better braking, too.

Riding an electrified road bike at 30 mph all the time sounds terrifying and potentially dangerous.

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