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Asus Bike Booster

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Re: Asus Bike Booster

#211

Post by Toutouxc »

molsongolden wrote: post #101
bri3d wrote: post #12

Friction drive e-bike conversions were popular years ago. They generally: * Wear tires surprisingly quickly * Absolutely suck in any form of weather or terrain condition (dirt, rain, etc.) * Have ~20% less efficiency than any other drive form. But, they are easy, and they do work.

This bike booster will probably come in at less than half the cost but the Bimotal kit is another option that doesn't have the tire wear issue, offers better performance, and the form factor is much nicer. https://bimotal.com/products/elevate

As a mountain biker I don’t see the appeal of this. Yes, this rather expensive solution could transform my nice bike into a shitty e-bike, but the point of having a nice bike is to avoid a shitty experience.

A proper e-bike needs to be designed as an e-bike from the beginning.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#214

Post by BloondAndDoom »

bri3d wrote: post #12

Friction drive e-bike conversions were popular years ago. They generally: * Wear tires surprisingly quickly * Absolutely suck in any form of weather or terrain condition (dirt, rain, etc.) * Have ~20% less efficiency than any other drive form. But, they are easy, and they do work.

Do they work with mountain bikes? As stupid as this sounds I like mountain biking but I don’t have stamina to climb up hills and then keep doing for a long time. I have an electric bike but designed for road

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#215

Post by selfhoster1312 »

DonHopkins wrote: post #186
selfhoster1312 wrote: post #179

A smartphone app to change motor speed, really? Not even talking about your motor getting hacked (with the S in IOT standing for security and all), getting out a fragile device that captures all your attention while biking is really dangerous for you and the device. So they say there's a button on the thing itself which is not so much more practical. If they insist on wireless controls, the cost of a waterproof batte…

Throttled motors on ebikes are terribly unsafe, compared to pedal assist central motors. I just got rear-ended by an illegally hot-rodded fat bike with a throttle, when the asshole lost control of his bike after hitting my rear wheel trying to pass at illegally high speed without bothering to ring his bell, and he flipped over and spilled onto the bike path. I was fine, but surprised he so carelessly and thoughtlessl…

To be clear, when i said we need controls on the handlebars, i was talking about an "assist level setting" like you have on the app, not a throttle. I had this on all my electric bikes: a button and a small LCD to indicate assist level 0-3.

Although in my experience when your bike/cargo is heavily loaded, a throttle is nice to get running, especially when stopped at a red light going uphill. Borrowed one like this and it was really useful. But i agree with your sentiment i see many people with throttled bikes going really fast and careless.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#216

Post by Toutouxc »

blfr wrote: post #120
defrost wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it though? Does prison work as a deterrence to others?

There's usually a fairly small number of criminals in the population and they have short careers. Otherwise, the whole enterprise of society wouldn't be viable. So once you take them off the streets for a couple of years, or decades for the more hardened ones, it's fine. It has an added benefit of breaking criminal networks so the future adepts have no place to fence the stolen goods.

Do you have any kind of education in this area? Because that doesn’t sound like the little that I’ve read about sociology and psychology.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#217

Post by Toutouxc »

pjmlp wrote: post #197
silversmith wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you looking at performance road bikes? Fenders and lights are removed for weight savings, and for pedals there are multiple clip-in systems, you are supposed to install the pedals that match your chosen system. If, however, they are doing that for commuter bikes...

Regular city bikes. This is the approach if you go offers on regular supermarkets that also sell bicycles. Personally I am never going to give more than 400 euros tops, for a new bicycle, it is either that or not much beyond 100 euros at a flea market. Getting the bicycle stolen or worse, revenge damage when they fail to steal it, is not worth more than that.

I guess that’s the reason you don’t understand why bikes are sold without these things. €400 gets you a very, very, very low-end new bike, like just one step above “unsafe to ride”.

You often don’t get pedals on new bikes because you have your favorite pedals that work for you and anything that’s included with the bike goes straight to the bin, because it’s useless trash. You don’t get fenders, because you don’t usually use those on any kind of sporty bike. They’re heavy, they don’t usually work that well, they are often hard to use in bikes with suspension with longer travel or and they can rattle or simply break and fall off if you ride hard. You don’t get lights and reflective elements, because they’re heavy plastic crap that breaks and falls off. If you often ride at night, you probably own some kind of night gear, high powered LEDs, reflective stickers or spokes…

And obviously once that is the norm for “bikes” in general, then why not save a few cents on supermarket bikes.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#219

Post by mcv »

giardini wrote: post #133
neves wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't use with mud guards

And WTF is it about mud guards now? When i was young all bicycles came with mud guard (then called "fenders") front and rear. Now they seem to be anathema. Every bike I rode w/o fenders put a stripe of mud up my back!

I just got a new bike for my son (he's going to secondary school and needs a better bike), and was surprised to see how many kids' bikes came without fenders. What's up with that? Who wants a serious bike without fenders?

Of course most bikes still come with fenders, but that's also a major limitation for this device: you've got to remove your rear fender. Maybe this device acts somewhat as a fender, but the site says you can't use it in heavy rain, exactly when you need that fender the most.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#220

Post by veunes »

I kind of like this. Not because it's necessarily the best way to electrify a bike, but because it's removable enough that your bike can still just be... a bike
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