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Asus Bike Booster

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281–290 of 476 posts

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#281
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.

Absolutely.

A Skarper system [0] that drives through an adapted brake rotor sounds [1] like it is the way to go if really want [2] a well thought close to non-permanent conversion solution.

[0] https://skarper.com/

[1] https://road.cc/ebiketips/review_v2/skarper-ebike-drive-syst... .

[2] Compared to other conversion options they are currently expensive https://road.cc/ebiketips/content/advice/buyers-guide/best-e...

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbh solving this is one of the actual use cases for things like flock cameras. Simply bolting things down harder is still defeated by a battery powered grinder.

Theft is solved by making society better, not worse. Make people not want or reliant upon crime to survive.

Repeat after me "Criminals are not Alladin"

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#284
post #14

All these sites have hype about AI features like AI Chat. however I use the chat, and it wastes about 3-10 seconds just to load, then I ask for the price, and it fails to understand even the page we were on (edit: "I don't understand what product you're referring to, please tell me the product"). Then I literally paste the page's product from the page into the chat, and it finally wastes my time more and sends a whol…

I asked for the price too, it told me "you seem to be asking about repair prices, you should go to instead".

I gave the answer a thumbs up, of course.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#285

It seems to me this is a product for almost no one. Inefficient delivery of power, bulky, "smart" detection in stead of reliable operation and most importantly, the only target market I could imagine cannot use it. Not sure about other places and climates, but over here, most bicycles have fenders. Bicycles without fenders are typically used for specific recreational activities and those sure as heck do not want this…

> Bicycles without fenders are typically used for specific recreational activities

I'm guessing you are European? Bicycles in the US almost never have fenders except for old timey / retro style models. Fenders fell out of style in the 1980s and never really returned. People who do have them usually install them themselves as an upgrade.

Speaking as an American who owns a basic beach cruiser bicycle and

- puts less than 50 miles on it per year

- has zero desire nor space for a full electric bike

- would never use their bike in any kind of inclement weather

- would never use their bike for anything other than leisure

I think it might be aimed towards my demographic specifically?

Like this thing seems pretty neat, just strap it to my bike and go? Sign me up.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#286
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.

I was shocked by the price, too. I mean a motor and a battery can't be so expensive, especially such a "small" battery (300Wh). That being said, having driven electric bikes for a while, here in France they're ridiculously limited in speed and power. 25km/h limit on flat land usually makes sense (except on long straight lines), but when you get climbing even slightly you get down to ~10km/h and have to provide more e…

> a motor and a battery can't be so expensive

In my experience with electric motors, yeah I can absolutely believe it. Electric motors aren't cheap!

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one relies on bike theft to "survive".

No one goes around stealing bikes just because they want to do bad things.

"Let's go get sushi and not pay." -- Repo Man, 1984.

That's into the absurdist territory, but it reflects the real pattern of behavior. People do go around committing petty crimes for various reasons.

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#289
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like you can't have a passenger anymore either. I like to have my kid on the backseat of my e-bike. I'm not in the market for this, but I am in the market for making my cargo bike electric. Having to slow down at a traffic light and then start from zero absolutely sucks. It goes very slow, it is rough, and you won't have time. I'd use it just for that specific use-case.

Conversion kits that add a front hub motor are relatively affordable and easy to install. Should work with most cargo bikes if you can find one that's compatible with your wheel size. Something like: https://swytchbike.com/

Here's my cargo bike: (non-e variant): [1]. The company got bankrupt a couple of days ago.

It has three wheels. Two smaller ones at front, one back. As such, I'd prefer to install the motor on the back. We do have that speed limit of 26 km/hour (my current e-bike has it as well), but since more force is required, the kit would need to know this as well.

I got it second hand, same as my e-bike. Otherwise, these aren't affordable for me. 6k EUR for a cargo e-bike is just insane IMO.

[1] https://www.babboe.nl/media/akeneo_connector/media_files/b/a...

Re: Asus Bike Booster

#290
post #280
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you try a (good!) electric bike, you don't really want to go back. Life is just so much better. For urban commuting, you no longer think about heat (getting sweaty), distance, inclines, wind, etc. Obviously I'm talking about good electric bikes, with mid-mounted engines that detect pedaling strength. These feel great, unlike electric motors strapped to bikes, which feel like, well, electric motors strapped to bi…

How do you get exercise without sweating. Or asked another way, of you don’t get your heart rate up while riding, what’s the point. Or put a different way: I use electric Lime rental bikes all the time, it’s super fast and convenient. But I’m keenly aware they don’t give me any exercise, so I do want to go back to unpowered bikes as much as possible.

> How do you get exercise without sweating.

Do you sweat a ton when you walk? Yet walking is exercise. The point being, of course, there’s a correlation between how hard the exercise is (plus other factors like clothing and weather) and the amount of sweating, but to claim that not sweating equals no exercise is incorrect.

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