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Long Range E-Bike (2021)

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#281

Post by carlosjobim »

mc3301 wrote: post #180
carlosjobim wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> could/should replace car usage for many people Motorcycles already did that. E-bikes or E-motos do not bring any advantages compared to normal motorbikes, so you shouldn't expect many people to switch.

Cheaper, quieter, smaller footprint for storage, can be easily brought up a few stairs or put in the back of your car (by one person), slower (a perceived safety advantage by some, as most motorcycles can go highway speed), maintenance is less daunting (again, perceived), culture (perceived) as some people are quite turned off by motorcycle culture, and many many more. One of the major problems with ebikes is the exi…

Motorcycles have all those advantages against cars, except being able to bring them indoors. Yet people aren't all riding around on motorcycles. E-Bikes have their niche, but they're not going to replace cars, since motorcycles didn't.

Motorcycle culture is something you choose if you participate in. If you're a lady commuting to work on a scooter, few people will expect you to participate in that.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#282

Post by jacquesm »

Tepix wrote: post #246
jacquesm wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I'm pedaling just fine, thank you for asking. The range on this thing is not that large even when you are pedaling strongly, it just uses a lot of power. As you probably know the power consumption of a bike goes up considerably as the speed increases, this is NL and while we don't have hills we do have wind, and plenty of it. Add in a 40 to 45 kph top speed and you can see the battery dwindle in real time. As fo…

On my ebike the power consumption goes to zero when traveling faster than 25kph because then the engine is not allowed to assist you past that speed. Anyway, if you use high power settings due to your bad leg, I understand. With assist set to low or even medium, you can get a lot more than 55km out of a 500Wh battery.

Yes, but this is an S-Pedelec, top speed is 43 and then the assist goes completely off and I am not strong enough to maintain that speed without assist for more than a few minutes on this bike.

With assist set to low or medium I would end up with a hospital visit after a single ride. I have half an Ikea in my right leg, two 40 cm long pieces of steel and a massive number of screws to hold it all together so I really can't risk another fall or overloading it.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#283

Post by carlosjobim »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #265
carlosjobim wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not to be blamed on the cops. Let's try to be truthful.

This reaction is interesting to me. In many jurisdictions around the world, police are required to call off a chase if it is deemed unsafe for any reason . In what world do you think it is OK for a 12-year-old boy riding an e-scooter to die after being chased by police? Before you respond: Ask yourself how you would react if it was your son (or close relative). Any parent would devasted.

I don't participate in clan mentality, where every tragedy has to be blamed on an outsider. An accident is tragic, it doesn't make it any less tragic that it was the kid's own fault. Or if you can't stand not having somebody else to blame, it's clearly the parent's fault.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#284

Post by medi8r »

Panzer04 wrote: post #175
medi8r wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the assistance you get from a bike being light is huge. I wonder if expensive light bike > assisted bike in terms of saving human effort per trip. Obviously if the e-bike requires no pedalling at all it wins but then that is not legal everywhere.

Human effort just isn't worth very much. The strongest humans on earth can manage about 400W for an hour. Even very small ebike motors are usually capable of 500w continuous/forever, so long as the motor does not spend too much time stalled or at very low speeds. For a normal human, a "legal" 250w motor is easily doubling or tripling their normal power output, so hauling around an extra 20kg on top of the existing ~1…

I forget the weight is just regular weight not weight on the wheels. Good point.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#285

Post by isthatafact »

thrill wrote: post #208
bootlooped wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

60kmph / 37mph is very fast for somebody who might just be wearing a bicycle helmet (hopefully). If traffic is going that fast, I think it may just not be the appropriate place for a bicycle to be. I've gone that fast on an e-bike before, and it doesn't feel comfortable nor safe.

People ride analog pedal bikes all the time in places with road traffic and they impede that traffic when they are going slower - I’ve known more people hurt because someone tried to pass them when they’re departing a traffic light or needing to turn across traffic than from falling down while going “too fast”. It’s frequently more than getting yelled at when multi-ton vehicles intentionally pass by you so close you…

It is difficult to know whether going faster is overall safer. In my experience, some fraction of cars will pass a bicycle under any conditions, no matter what speed that bicycle is going (even if keeping up with traffic above the speed limit), no matter how dangerous it might be, no matter if the bicycle has "taken the lane" leaving no room to pass safely -- for some car drivers, it is about getting ahead of the bicycle.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#286

Post by jacquesm »

trelliumD wrote: post #249
jacquesm wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're also a great way to get really badly hurt.

No, that is not true. If you ride a velomobile, you are protected by its aeroshell. Consider it a full body helmet. You are rather flipped/ pushed away, than coming under a car. Of course you are not happy after a crash, but you mostly survive. And you also have other benefits, such as weather protection. In heavy rains you are sitting dry in your bicycle, listening to your radio, where your fellow ebiker gets soakin…

A Velomobile is not a socially acceptable vehicle, it is very fast compared to a normal bike but still limited to bike infrastructure and other cyclists absolutely hate them. Yes, they solve the leg suck problem and if all of the cars would be gone and you could use the roads then that would be a great solution.

I lived right next door to the guys that developed it and in the Groningen country side you could see them zoom by with some regularity. But where I live now I think I've seen exactly one in five years and that was after it had bowled into a mom on a cargo bike... the stigma roughly identical to driving a Canta on the bike path.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#287

Post by jacquesm »

lukan wrote: post #243
fgfarben wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A heavy battery makes an ebike extremely unpleasant to pedal manually. You should try it. I built almost exactly the same size pack (2 kWH) as Jacques in 2020 on a hybrid road bike and hated it so much that I only rode it 20 times or so. The battery still sits in the corner of my house doing nothing.

On a flat road I disagree, but uphill you notice it a lot of course, but way worse is carrying the heavy bike. I take mine into trains a lot and unfortunately there are often lots of stairs and no escalators involved.

I would never take this one into a train. I'm pretty sure it is a better pack (and much better monitored) than a store bought one given what I've seen inside of those but still, the amount of energy stored in there is pretty impressive and just the thought of it going into thermal runaway is enough to ensure that will never expose other people to it.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#288

Post by jacquesm »

saidinesh5 wrote: post #190
medi8r wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the assistance you get from a bike being light is huge. I wonder if expensive light bike > assisted bike in terms of saving human effort per trip. Obviously if the e-bike requires no pedalling at all it wins but then that is not legal everywhere.

I think the main difference due to weight boils down to you riding in one gear lower when not using assistance. On flat roads, I usually ride on 3rd or 4th gear (out of 7), now i ride in 2nd or 3rd. But where i ride, the road isn't even and has a lot of steep slopes. There I'm on 1st gear all the time anyway and the assistance i get totally saves my knees, and ensures I'm not all sweaty when i reach my destination. E…

Once at speed you can maintain tempo in the highest gear on this bike. It does consume a lot of power that way but it is also really neat to be doing a 65 km ride in what is much less than twice the time that it takes to do that same trip by car.

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#289

Post by jacquesm »

avhon1 wrote: post #276
jacquesm wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're also a great way to get really badly hurt.

Recumbent trikes have the potential for leg suck, but two-wheelers havee no especial safety risks.

This wasn't a trike but a two wheeler and you can have leg suck on those just the same (low racer, a Zephyr).

Re: Long Range E-Bike (2021)

#290

Post by wffurr »

jeffbee wrote: post #72

The aerodynamic situation of a bicycle is so disadvantageous that the easiest way to get a long range e-bike is to simply ride more slowly. People internalize beliefs about energy-range ratios from electric cars, but they don't translate well to bicycles.

What about a velomobile? They're quite expensive because they're boutique items right now, but it seems like using the pedelec classification for something with significantly better aerodynamics would make for an interesting electric vehicle.
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