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Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#331

Post by samstave »

buran77 wrote: post #323
spamizbad wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but even a The only difference is the experienced, lycra-clad cyclists with expensive bikes just get up to speed faster, maybe with less of a tailwind or downward grade. However, unlike their speedy novice kin, they (should, in theory) have better bike handling skills. Overall, I think a strategy of banning with people the highest cycling skills from bike paths seems like a bad ide…

> a A novice rider will have a very hard time hitting 65km/h without going downhill or a strong back wind, even on a light bike. It's a challenge even for trained cyclists. So you won't see this on a city's streets but rather on open road. But stopping fast and safe at those speeds is even harder than reaching them because you can't take your time to do it. A bike that can make it easy to reach them shouldn't share a…

As someone who has biked for decades and puts on nearly ~1,000 miles per month - August I did ~850 - Sept/oct was less due to some rainy days... (All on a 29" x2.1" hard tail mtn bike)

But I used to bike from Alameda into SF for nearly a decade. I even biked occasionally from Alameda to Menlo Park...

That being said, while I really want an E-bike, I am also cautious: I have fallen a lot, and I used to get my bikes up to 44 was the fastest I ever went, down the long bike path along Lexington Reserviour which we used to bike up every morning...

Going ~40 on ANY terrain on a mike is dangerous/scary as heck.

I've had bikes just literally vanish from beneath me and I went sailing through the air.

Never would I want to do that on something that weighs more than me....

PLUS - how do you carry Jacques bike up/down stairs to transition between trains/levels/whatever...

That wonderful hack looks heavy as heck, but lovely.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#332

Post by analog31 »

twodave wrote: post #38

Awesome project Jacques! I saw a comment of yours on an article a day or two ago and was hoping to see this pop up soon. I've found the most difficult thing about riding an e-bike is the other motorists have no idea how to react to you. You're not really a regular bicycle anymore due to your speed, but you're also not a motorcycle that deserves its own lane. I have at least one car turn in front of me almost every tr…

You deserve your own lane, although the rules vary from state to state. Some states have FRAP (as far right as practicable), others (such as mine) say that a cyclist should take the lane. As a motorist, and cyclist, I cringe when I see a cyclist half-in and half-out of traffic. As a cyclist, I avoid streets with fast, congested car traffic altogether. Fortunately, my locale has a lot of alternatives for bikes, including some bike paths plus neighborhood streets.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#333

Post by tshaddox »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #27

We really need a terminology to differentiate better between pedal-assist only e-bikes ("pedelec") and electric motorbikes. A "bicycle" that can accelerate without the need to pedal at all is an electric motorcycle, no matter if you put pedal on it or not. I see the two as totally different things: I've tried pedal-assist e-bike and they're great. But... Although I have nothing against motorbikes I'm not cool at all…

Why not just have reasonable rules for bike lanes, like a speed limit and perhaps size/weight limits? Cars with a top speed of 85mph and a 0-60 of 10 seconds are treated with precisely the same rules as cars with a top speed of 170mph and a 0-60 of 3 seconds. We don't really need separate terminology or separate lanes for them.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#334

Post by smashah »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #27

We really need a terminology to differentiate better between pedal-assist only e-bikes ("pedelec") and electric motorbikes. A "bicycle" that can accelerate without the need to pedal at all is an electric motorcycle, no matter if you put pedal on it or not. I see the two as totally different things: I've tried pedal-assist e-bike and they're great. But... Although I have nothing against motorbikes I'm not cool at all…

Differentiating between pedal assist & throttled e-bike serves no great purpose.

There should be no distinction, legally, between a normal bicycle and an electric bike of any kind (throttle or otherwise).

Personal Electric (micro) Mobility is the answer to many problems, let's not add any roadblocks to adoption. Other than keeping powers-that-be comfortable and sparing the feelings of cycling puritans, the distinction is useless, bordering on harmful to the environment.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#335

Post by tshaddox »

fragmede wrote: post #179
TacticalCoder wrote: post #27

We really need a terminology to differentiate better between pedal-assist only e-bikes ("pedelec") and electric motorbikes. A "bicycle" that can accelerate without the need to pedal at all is an electric motorcycle, no matter if you put pedal on it or not. I see the two as totally different things: I've tried pedal-assist e-bike and they're great. But... Although I have nothing against motorbikes I'm not cool at all…

And scooters, electric-scooters, and sit-down electric scooters. And electric wheelchairs, and non-electric wheelchairs and mobility assist carts with handlebars. We also have to delineate between a daydreaming cyclist who's top speed is slow, and a hard-core cyclist with a $3000+ bike that can hit 40 mph in the right conditions. Those cyclists should be banned from using the same paths as the first kind of bicyclist…

> We also have to delineate between a daydreaming cyclist who's top speed is slow, and a hard-core cyclist with a $3000+ bike that can hit 40 mph in the right conditions.

Are there not speed limits for bike lanes? Most cars have a top speed well above the freeway speed limit too.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#336

Post by Dylan16807 »

aeharding wrote: post #46
stevesearer wrote: post #10

We have a pretty good network of fire roads in the southern Los Padres National Forest. Several times recently I have seen hunters and campers using E-Bikes to extend their range into the forest. From what I can tell they use a cargo trailer for gear as well as extra batteries. It will be interesting to see what other uses being find for E-Bikes as ranges increase.

> From what I can tell they use a cargo trailer for gear as well as extra batteries. This is the main reason if you might ever buy multiple ebikes in your household, buy a drivetrain brand that has generic, swappable batteries that can work on all your ebikes. Buying batteries is expensive (~$1,000 for Bosch). For example, some ebikes don't have swappable batteries (either they're integrated or are a no-name brand).…

Oof, $1500 per kWh.

I keep hearing about lithium ion batteries getting so cheap per kWh; when is that going to make it into reasonable-quality products?

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#337

Post by bob29 »

jacquesm wrote: post #70
0des wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't. These bikes are DRM'd to the hilt and any attempt at hacking them will cause the bike to brick itself This does not match reality at all. E-bikes are some of the most modify-able and hackable devices out there. Most of the parts are interchangeable, and a decent portion of these bikes are assembled piece by piece. I can change the acceleration profile of mine at will, via bluetooth. Amperage limits, batt…

Oh, sure, I'm making it all up. I just spent two months picking apart the Bosch e-bike system, I think by now I know what I'm talking about but feel free to prove me wrong and show me how you're able to get your battery to talk to a Bosch controller without using a Bosch BMS. Hint: you won't be able to, the key is embedded in an NXP processor that has it's fuses blown (both sides, controller and battery) and any kind…

You're in the realm of replacing original parts with the new battery mod. Why not replace the Bosch motor controller with any available motor controller that lets you configure your throttle inputs however you want?

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#338

Post by tshaddox »

jacquesm wrote: post #28
TacticalCoder wrote: post #27

We really need a terminology to differentiate better between pedal-assist only e-bikes ("pedelec") and electric motorbikes. A "bicycle" that can accelerate without the need to pedal at all is an electric motorcycle, no matter if you put pedal on it or not. I see the two as totally different things: I've tried pedal-assist e-bike and they're great. But... Although I have nothing against motorbikes I'm not cool at all…

This is a pedal assist e-bike. There are people that cheat and that install throttles so they can move without pedaling but that's a great way to get your vehicle confiscated. A typical ride has me providing 40 to 60% of the Joules and the remainder comes out of the battery. If there is a very heavy wind up (not rare here) that might drop to 30/70 and if I have a tailwind it is the reverse. The bike has a nice stats…

But why does anyone actually care if you technically need to be pedaling in order for the electric motor to engage? Surely an electric bicycle could still go arbitrarily fast while arbitrarily requiring the pedals to turn. Isn't this whole thing just a silly loophole in what is considered a "bicycle"? What if instead, bicycle lanes just had rules regarding top speed, weight, form factor, etc.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#339

Post by JKCalhoun »

Tostino wrote: post #50
ralusek wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not cool at all with basically motorbikes getting a free pass because they're disguised as bicycles Why? Seems like a pointless distinction in regards to any sort of rules. Surely where they're allowed to operate, for example, should be based on things like speed and weight, rather than "whether or not the operator is moving their legs in a circular motion."

Yeah that argument for forcing pedaling to me seems like a way of gatekeeping to keep something a little more "pure" without any actual reason.

Speaking of gatekeeping...

A lot of people, adults in particular, appear to have an aversion to riding bicycles due to their inability to place both feet on the ground while seated (and I'm speaking here about the standard bicycle geometry, not recumbents, etc.).

It's too bad too because you would love to get more people out of large steel cars and into efficient e-bikes/scooters.

I wish we could lighten up a bit with regard to requiring pedals/pedalling and try saving the planet a little.

Re: Show HN: Long Range E-Bike

#340

Post by megablast »

jacquesm wrote: post #33
dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the speed of motorcycles without the sound awareness, what could possibly go wrong? My overall experience is that E-bike riders generally have decent cycling manners, it's the scooter and unicycle riders that seem to think they can just crank their walking speed up to 30mph and go everywhere a pedestrian would. I usually just give them a firm "heads up next time" when I get buzzed by an electric motor whine at 20…

Scooters are a plague (and this bike is classed as a scooter, unfortunately, so I'm lumped in with the worst), but a bigger danger is mobile phone use by cyclists. That's roughly 1/3rd of all the adults and 2/3rds of the teenagers here.

The biggest danger is cars that kill 2 million people every year around the world.

Everything else is so tiny as to not count.

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