Today I realized that if I could ever figure out how to get my #eBikes' #regenBraking to work right (currently can't get over 300W), I could be pedaling hard to get down the hill, which should give me extra points with the piously sweating club that likes to grouse about how e-bikes will make us dependent on motors and don't you know lithium and cobalt mining are incredibly damaging to the environment sorry what I can't hear you over the CAR traffic.
"I get that there is a legitimate case to make that we have to dismantle capitalism to effectively address climate, but I can't imagine any scenario in which the starting point for that project is #eBikes..." 💯 -- @chrissmithus
Best-selling electric vehicle in US? The e-bike. WaPo on appeal of the car replacement that makes you happy. https://wapo.st/3RXYuAb (gift link)
Kawthar Duncan: “Before I know it, I’m riding 20 miles a day,” she laughs. “I never thought it was going to be me.”
Adrienne McCann: "Eventually, a lightbulb turned on when her e-bike-owning friend told her she wasn’t buying an expensive bike. It was a cheap car." #EBikes#EV#BikeLove#BicyclesChangeLives#ClimateAction#transportation#BikeTooter
how do you waterproof an xt60 connector without making it too much pain to take apart? I'm thinking 1.5-2 wraps of cut rubber innertube with tape and zip ties on each end, like a 2in bandage over the connector. #eBikes
@jpanhans I've got the two tiny shrink wraps around the soldered point, but there's still a gap. See recent pic, there's an unglued overlap on the underside of the front part, that would hopefully allow it to drain (not planning to submerge it.)
When I sold my last car in 2011 and switched to bike (first a standard, last 5 yrs eBike) I walked past the auto-electrician, the tyre place, the rego office, spare parts dealer, the mechanic, the panel beater, the petrol station etc etc and counted all the money I was saving and it made me very happy.
Also noticed how many things I did not spontaneously shopped for because I had no way of getting them home (and really didn't need them anyway).
It works well for me, public transport is used for trips I can't make with the bike.
The freedom of pulling up next to the shop without having to search for a parking spot is priceless.
Some would find it extremely inconvenient for sure. Others, like myself, find it very liberating.
@tshirtman friends just spent $8000 on a car barely worth more than that, to get it back on the road. It was great to 'get their freedom back' they said. 🤔
Conditioning and the inability to think outside the box (pardon the pun) proved costly.
ran out of #eBikes battery on the tandem coming home from Tigard, tried both of us pedaling on what few downhills with ~200W regen but that only amounted to maybe a few minutes total. The baserunner did give us maybe 100W on Multnomah + bits of climb after that, but it was, overall, a sweaty ordeal. I have not been keeping this one parked on the charger, since we've been experimenting with the regen setup, need to plan ahead better if it's not always fully charged. 😅 💦 #pdxBikes#BikeTooter
The key to biking in the heat, and what e-bikes are extra great for, is to always keep the air speed up, at least if it's a dry heat, splash some water on your face etc. But when you're stuck grinding up a hill at 4mph 😞
So my range from some random last charge level ~90% is some random number of 1.5mi trips up and down the hill to school with 0-2 stokers plus a 2-then-1-stoker trip to spring garden park, plus riding to Tigard and cook park and back... numbers swirling in the air etc... 36-ish hilly miles on the 14.5Ah pack.
I went to get groceries but sorry kids it's raining, #climateAction#eBikes are cancelled. I take it all back, long live cars, nobody should have to suffer like this.
Riddle me this, Batman: I have rear wheel hub motor from the original Swytch bike indigogo campaign. 36v,22a controller. It was on a 700c wheel and I could regularly get up to 26-28mph on max PAS on a flat. I had the motor re-laced into a 20" wheel and can barely get above 16-17mph. After looking closely at the motor, it seems likes it's a Shengyi DGW22, which is nearly identical to the sx2 from GRIN, standard wind. 1/2
@Karstan@driusan whatpressureyourunning, rolling resistance etc? You could dial all of those parameters into the motor simulator to match, but I would expect wind resistance between 20-28mph to be significant vs at 18-20mph, tuck and lycra or not. All other things being unchanged (hard to match the tire performance when the rim size is different though), you should get 20/28ths of the prior speed. Sounds like 10% higher losses though?
@enobacon Yeah, too high for tire variation and riding position to account for. I'm essentially trying to dial in exactly what this motor's specs are so I can decide what to do with it going forward.
"As #ebikes age, they are quickly turning to electronic waste destined for the scrap yard along with old laptops, tube monitors, and old cell phones. That is something the industry needs to be prepared for. I hope there is regulation that will require companies to support these products for a reasonable period of time."
"A step #ebike manufacturers need to take is to make their bike sustainable for the long term. An (insert sigh here) analog bike could last indefinitely with regular maintenance."
@seachanger
For some reason goverments just can't take the obvious step of requiring the manufacturers and vendors to provide the reverse logistics for every product they sell.
If they can build a logistics supply chain that brings raw materials together as a product and puts it in the buyers hands, they could take it back from the buyer at end of life, and end up with raw materials again.
I guess I'm somewhat of an expert on #eBikes at this point, but I'm kinda surprised they don't already have some resources they could ask about this. 😏
the CHP e-bike safety training at least seems straightforward about actual hazards of #eBikes (such as unexpected motor activation while stopped) and not dripping with moral panic and ignorance.
@cyclingelectric My kids will never get that many bikes back in it. The front bike no problem, but if they want the middle bike the front bike needs to come out and won't get put back. Woe be to the person who wants the back bike. It also doesn't have space for a trailer, tandem or cargo bike. I have to give it a fail to be useful for the job.
four-wheeled cargo #ebikes, sometimes referred to as #biketrucks or #bikevans, haven’t been legal in #NYC due to local ordinances that limit #cargobikes to three wheels and a maximum width of 36 inches.
ted wheeler is the kind of leader to talk about things being 10 years in the future when he should be talking about making it happen next year (in this case it was #eBikes, and even the cheap ones with plastic tri-spoke wheels are a better mayor than him.)
HEADLINE: "Concerns grow over safety of e-bikes amid reports of accidents"
We are now entering an era of some amazing pearl clutching over #ebikes.
Of course E-bike accidents are on the rise. More riders=more accidents. Worsened by the fact that drivers are not only used to (but also outright refuse) sharing the road with anyone else, let alone e-bikes.
Any deviation or challenge to car-dominance triggers a super weird victim blaming reflex with headlines like "Teen boy killed in E-bike crash" to describe a teen ebike rider getting hit by a multi-ton cargo van.
ClEArly the BiKe'S FauLT. Fantastic journalism. Call it a day!
@JulieEmery Seems to me they’re using Bafang motors. I’d prefere Bosch or Shimano for repairs and spares parts. I know that Bafang has some spares too, but I think they don’t have trainings for mechanics as Bosch and Shimano do. Also check you have a local bike shop that is able to fix and service the bike. Ebikes are ridden more and weight more so service is typically needed more than just once on a year.
did some shopping on our Rad Bikes today. were immediately approached by an elderly couple asking "how do you like your Rad Bikes??", so we shared how much we love them.*
the reason they were familiar with the brand was that a lot of their friends apparently had bought a Rad Bike over the past year, and every single one of them just loves it.
<eeeexcellent>
I am not earning a commission, although maybe I should be. 😅
@robyn glad for them. I was caught in the RadWagon4 problem, where they told me I shouldn’t bike my bike for nine months. Customer service was pretty bad and waiting nine months was… a fail. You get what you pay for. Still riding my Rad, but… not thrilled.
This GMAC tandem is my first big hub motor and wow, this thing goes! I still need to test it on a steep hill fully loaded but it just delivers power where the bbs02 on my edgerunner would have me so busy managing shifting. I have 250 and 350W 36V geared hub motor #eBikes, but did not expect the amount of thrust (this is the "slow" winding in a 20in wheel so it has all of the torques.)
@enobacon Nice! Yeah I ran a few models in that tool and saw the profile is VERY different than mine, particularly at higher voltages. I'm planning on selling my truck this month and using some of the cash to make some ebike upgrades. I'd originally considered buying a new ebike, but I couldn't find any that offered regen.
While I was only its CTO for a month before a layoff in 2022, I still dream of owning a Vässla Pedal e-bike (or preferably an unreleased successor that improved a few things).
I hope a company with better operations management buys its intellectual property because this e-bike design was beautiful, functional, and not just a motor bolted onto a bicycle.
