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Asus Bike Booster

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Re: Asus Bike Booster

#251

Post by andrewshadura »

ryukoposting wrote: post #96
tadfisher wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could have made basically the same thing except with a sprocket to help drive the chain.

Chain moves side to side with gear changes, and adding extra chain tension with an extra drive sprocket could make the deraileur angry. Also, chain-tube geometry varies a lot. Not impossible, just more complicated than it might seem. I ride an all-original 1970s steel-frame road bike, which seems like a prime candidate for this sort of product. I'm certain no sprocket-based design would fit it. I'd buy one of these i…

It does not if you use hub gears.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#252

Post by blitzar »

veunes wrote: post #223
fwipsy wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, $2k? You could get a decent ebike for that money. And the installation doesn't look any easier than a hub motor... Only seems worth it if you already have an extremely nice bike. I think of friction drives as being aimed at budget-conscious commuters, not serious mountain bikers.

$2k makes sense only if the bike underneath it is valuable enough that you specifically want to keep riding that bike

If the bike underneath is valuable enough you dont want to strap a motor and battery to it.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#253

Post by Arainach »

flexagoon wrote: post #175
fwipsy wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, $2k? You could get a decent ebike for that money. And the installation doesn't look any easier than a hub motor... Only seems worth it if you already have an extremely nice bike. I think of friction drives as being aimed at budget-conscious commuters, not serious mountain bikers.

> Only seems worth it if you already have an extremely nice bike How nice should one's bike be that you'd rather turn it into a mediocre ebike for the price of buying a good ebike?

Your existing bike hopefully fits you great rather than having to modify a low-mid grade ebike. Perhaps you don't have space for more bikes. Perhaps you want a bike made of good components that are easy to repair. It's a significant amount of money but there are absolutely reasons.

I have a ebike that cost ~1500 in 2018 and is probably comparable to what $2k would buy you these days. It's very heavy and while the drivetrain is repairable, there are important pieces of it that I would struggle to repair/replace if they died today.

I have a steel touring bike that's significantly lighter, has standard sized parts that can be repaired, replaced and upgraded (many of which I have already upgraded in the last 15 years) and fits me like a glove. If I didn't own an ebike and you asked me whether I'd rather spend $2k buying something like my ebike or adding a 750W motor to my Surly, I'd upgrade my touring bike.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#254

Post by adwn »

AngryData wrote: post #206
adwn wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Theft is solved by making society better, not worse. Phew, good to hear. Here I thought it would be a hard and complex problem, with lots of unknown unknowns, difficult political compromises, a generation-spanning efforts and many potential solutions with uncertain outcomes, partially contradicting each other. Instead, we just have to make society better. So, what's step 1?

Step 1 could be not turning the world into a an Orwellian nightmare and outlawing mass surveillance, from both government and private corporations. And if you are still worried about theft in the mean time, you could try looking at wage thefts which has a value greater than all other forms of theft combined.

> Step 1 could be not turning the world into a an Orwellian nightmare and outlawing mass surveillance, from both government and private corporations.

That would make society better, I agree, but I don't see how that would lead to a reduction in theft, or crime in general.

> And if you are still worried about theft in the mean time, you could try looking at wage thefts […]

I'm not worried about wage theft, no. I am worried about theft of my personal property, though. And I notice that you haven't proposed any credible path to reducing it, beyond an incredibly generic "make society better", whatever that means and however you want to achieve that.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#255

Post by xearl »

BloondAndDoom wrote: post #214
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

Maybe get an E-MTB instead?

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#257

Post by gabriel666smith »

reorder9695 wrote: post #225
BloondAndDoom wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'd be quite worried about breaking it in the not unlikely event of a crash, additionally it looks like it could quite significantly limit how low you could put your seat down on a mountain bike, so that would get in the way. Even if you got your seat down, it would add a significant amount of height above the tyre so you mighn't be able to move your arse far enough back to shift your weight property. It's also addin…

When going downhill, any bumps which result in severe movement in the frame that bring the rear wheel closer to the saddle might be problematic, even without full suspension. Hard to say. I’m a road bike guy but I’ve definitely seen some forms of non-full suspension when working on mtbs which would result in that kind of movement.

I think the tyres would limit the power output most. Probably quite annoying to have no rear mudguard in anything but the driest conditions. You’d be spraying a lot of crap up at the motor (and probably your back).

Attaching and detaching it looks relatively simple, though - removing it for downhills doesn’t look arduous. You could probably 3d print a clip for the frame.

Given the likely reduced power, and that the spec seems to be saying ‘500w peak, but 250w is sensible’ - probably up to the user’s needs whether the hassle is worth the extra watts per kilo. For those without mobility issues or longterm injuries, it’s usually best to optimise the rider rather than the bike for that.

I feel like off-road climbing would necessitate really wide, sensitive speed variance that this motor is likely not great at supporting. It strikes me that you’d want more direct pedal feedback.

Really fun bike design problem.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#259

Post by pjmlp »

Toutouxc wrote: post #217
pjmlp wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 usua…

I don't need to be educated on the increasing lack of customer service for anything below 2000 euros, having got my first bicycle in 1984, upgraded to a cycling one in 1986, had plenty of others since then.

And from all places I lived in Europe, only around here this upselling seems to be a thing.

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