Electric Bicycles - Who has one?
Discussion
I've had a few electric bikes including several homemade examples with old washing machine belt drives tie wrapped to the spokes ;}
They are good fun and a damn sight more appealing and practicable now.
For a city commute of perhaps upto ten miles they are a no brainer.
Help Keep you fit as long as you pedal most of the time.
The legal power output machines need you to pedal to get the speed to a reasonable level.
Personally I think a limit of 20mph would be better for simple electric bikes, that would cover 95% of cyclists, the current 15mph is a bit slow and encourages illegal modding and risk taking.
Mandatory cycle helmet would be my only condition.
They are good fun and a damn sight more appealing and practicable now.
For a city commute of perhaps upto ten miles they are a no brainer.
Help Keep you fit as long as you pedal most of the time.
The legal power output machines need you to pedal to get the speed to a reasonable level.
Personally I think a limit of 20mph would be better for simple electric bikes, that would cover 95% of cyclists, the current 15mph is a bit slow and encourages illegal modding and risk taking.
Mandatory cycle helmet would be my only condition.
I looked into this some time ago - there are plenty of options out there which wouldn't have a problem with a 30 mile round trip, even without charging at work. Lots of information and (sometimes very in depth) knowledge here:
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/pedelecs-forums/
http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/pedelecs-forums/
Yes, I home built an old UniVega mountain bike into an electric bike, I have a range of around 20 miles with zero pedalling, Although that "no pedalling" was a range test, it gets ridden like a normal bike and helps me up the two huge hills between home and work.
I use it to go to and from work in the dryer months and it saves me around a half hour in the summer because of traffic.
I often get all week out a charge because of the way I ride it, my commute is 6 miles either way.
Mine is a little unusual in that it looks totally stock except the pannier bag and the hub motor, well, its also matt black but that just how I like it.
Speed is limited to 14mph for on road but the top speed when we played with the ECU settings was almost 40mph.
Its light, uses 13 laptop batteries, and even though the motor is a few kg it is able to be ridden exactly like a normal bike, its no harder to pedal and has 21 gears.
I have put almost 1000 miles on it this year, next up on my modification list is a motor capable of re-gen, the hills I go down would probably put about a 1/3rd of the energy I use per day back in the batteries so would extend my range and save me plugging it in.
I use it to go to and from work in the dryer months and it saves me around a half hour in the summer because of traffic.
I often get all week out a charge because of the way I ride it, my commute is 6 miles either way.
Mine is a little unusual in that it looks totally stock except the pannier bag and the hub motor, well, its also matt black but that just how I like it.
Speed is limited to 14mph for on road but the top speed when we played with the ECU settings was almost 40mph.
Its light, uses 13 laptop batteries, and even though the motor is a few kg it is able to be ridden exactly like a normal bike, its no harder to pedal and has 21 gears.
I have put almost 1000 miles on it this year, next up on my modification list is a motor capable of re-gen, the hills I go down would probably put about a 1/3rd of the energy I use per day back in the batteries so would extend my range and save me plugging it in.
Edited by Getragdogleg on Saturday 14th December 09:54
Edited by Getragdogleg on Saturday 14th December 09:56
mikeday1991 said:
That's amazing! Did you build it from readily available plans, or design and build it yourself?
Just an idea I had one night when I was watching tv with a mate and saw the lame offerings from the manufacturers, We have built more since but they are strictly off road.We have a BMX, VERY off road, it will do 25mph and is a wheely machine, it is a mad little thing and excellent fun on a track. Painted forks, crank and seat post in Kawasaki green and left the frame bare metal to rust. Looks evil.
We cut out the top bar and welded in two smaller tubes flared apart, then put the battery pack and ECU in the void in a steel box, all wiring is just cable tied out the way and it is essentially finished, we made it to test the re-gen hub and that test is a success.
Edited by Getragdogleg on Saturday 14th December 10:05
mikeday1991 said:
That's brilliant.
Where is the motor from? Is it a dedicated bike motor, or some form of washing machine?
There is a pic up now, Its a dedicated bike hub motor, we found a supplier in china and bought a dozen different ones, some have been used in other bikes and others have been stripped and re-purposed.Where is the motor from? Is it a dedicated bike motor, or some form of washing machine?
The fasted one we made was theoretically capable of somewhere over 60mph, I test rode it and did not find the top speed, it all becomes too unstable. It actually scared me and I like to go fast.
To me it is a tool for a job, the job being to get me to work and back in the most painless way, the car is a no-go in the summer here in west Cornwall due to volume of traffic.
I can go on the rather good bay cycleway and be home 15 minutes before I would be in the car in the summer.
Plus you get to ride along the edge of the beach and look at bikinis rather than staring at the back of some old Doris in a Nissan Micra.
I can go on the rather good bay cycleway and be home 15 minutes before I would be in the car in the summer.
Plus you get to ride along the edge of the beach and look at bikinis rather than staring at the back of some old Doris in a Nissan Micra.
t out of me as it was a lot quicker than I expected, but I was riding it around inside the Geneva Show halls at the time! Gassing Station | EV and Alternative Fuels | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff