The OFFICIAL E-bike(electric)/green discussion thread

[Sash[DSL]]

And what about this argument:

"powered vehicle is using the human metabolism to convert food energy into work, with a conversion efficiency of about 25%. That's the first part of the picture, then we have to step back and look where the food energy comes from. In north america and europe, the food is grown with the aid of chemical fertilizers and machinery, it is then transported, processed, packaged, transported, sold, transported again, and finally cooked before consumption. In the end about 10 times more primary energy went in to producing the food than is actually stored in the food itself. The net effect is that for every unit of human energy used on a bike, about 40 times that much was consumed.

By comparison, with an electric vehicle you are taking primary energy from the grid and storing it in a battery at between 60-80% efficiency, and then converting it to work through an electric motor with roughly 75% efficiency. That's a lot more direct than the human route. Once you take into account the energy to manufacture and recycle the batteries, e-bikes end up consuming from 2 to 10 times less fossil fuel energy than their human-powered equivalents. To see more details and references, have a look at the Ebike Energy article.

Also, electric bikes open up cycling to a whole slew of people who would otherwise be driving a car. It's wrong for cyclists to assume that anyone can ride a bike. Many people would like to, but find it impractical or impossible because of hills, distance, health reasons, knee problems, aging, or even the inconvenience of having to shower and change at work. E-bikes suddenly make biking a whole lot more accessible to the 98% of our population who aren't cyclists." http://www.ebikes.ca/faq.shtml#quiz6


Last addition for the night: isn't putting ultra light Li-ION high performance kit on a good road bike total ownage?

http://www.jvbike.com/bikes/CRD_BionX.htm

If this was ~$1000 cheaper, I'd buy it right now. It's rediculous how fast you can go on that.

[AzN_RiverdaleCI]

^ Vancouver though, also it says its not road worthy/legal.

[Sash[DSL]]

^ Vancouver though, also it says its not road worthy/legal.

The only thing that makes it not road legal is disabled speedlimit " Yes, the speed limit was disabled, and of course this is now an "OFF ROAD USE ONLY" electric bicycle."

You can enable it back by manipulating the menus of the controller.

[AzN_RiverdaleCI]

The only thing that makes it not road legal is disabled speedlimit " Yes, the speed limit was disabled, and of course this is now an "OFF ROAD USE ONLY" electric bicycle."

You can enable it back by manipulating the menus of the controller.

wait wait, time out, so you can modify this "controller" so it can go 32km/h when ur on the road, and faster when your off-road? how fast can it go? I would like to modify my scooter ebike!

[Sash[DSL]]

wait wait, time out, so you can modify this "controller" so it can go 32km/h when ur on the road, and faster when your off-road? how fast can it go? I would like to modify my scooter ebike!

Well, acording to the above link it can go to 35 mph = 55km/h. When I talked about modifying I referred specifically to the Bionx, I read about it on this forum: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/elec...-pl-350-a.html

What bike do you have?

[AzN_RiverdaleCI]

Well, acording to the above link it can go to 35 mph = 55km/h. When I talked about modifying I referred specifically to the Bionx, I read about it on this forum: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/elec...-pl-350-a.html

What bike do you have?

no name chinese bike import from China: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...d.php?t=505140

[AzN_RiverdaleCI]

bump

[Sash[DSL]]

no name chinese bike import from China: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...d.php?t=505140

Is it gone or do you still ride it?

[AzN_RiverdaleCI]

Is it gone or do you still ride it?

I still ride it. So is it possible to modify its speed?

[CSR]

Why do you need an electric bike? Do you have no legs? All that the battery is going to do is weigh your bike down, and make you more sluggish on uphills, increasing your reliance on that battery (which is not "green").

+1, it doesn't even look like it's possible to pedal those "e-bikes"..

[Bullseye]

I've been interested in an electric power add-on package for a bike for awhile now. The cost and the uncertainly have kept me from acting so far, but I'm still looking.

My commute is max 17km one way. Too far to bike manually without being sweaty (tried it a few times). Scooters need insurance and must ride with traffic, which worries be a bit (about getting rear-ended). Currently, I'm driving a Toyota Echo 2-door with manual trans. Cheap to run, plus I get weather protection.

[Sash[DSL]]

As far as added weight - this is dead on the key issue with electric bikes. VAST majority of the weight the modification adds to your bike is the battery; there are acid batteries, NiMh batteries and Li-Ion batteries. The former is the heaviest and cheapest, the latter is the lightes and most expensive. The relative inefficiency of use of the energy by the motor causes the need for a very high capacity battery to be installed, making the entire set-up both heavy and expensive.

The high-end models currently only add ~16lbs of weight to your bike which isn't that much. A light road bike(~22-24lbs) combined with one of these is still lighter than most mainstream bikes of similar size @ major retailes. Crystallite model is about ~$1300, Bionx is ~$1600.

I feel that there is much potential for this once R&D takes off; currently, the motor is placed on the actual wheel and bypasses bike's transmission. There are some inventive individuals that modified their bikes so that the electric motor helps drive the crank versus the wheel itself and the speeds they reach are far beyond of those possible with current set-ups. Once this idea enters mainstream manufacturing, we will see much less power required to acheive same speeds.

There's another idea I'd like to add to this: foldable bikes with electric motor: http://nycewheels.com/birdy-electric-folding-bike.html
The idea of combining an electric bike with public transit is quite enticing. For instance, commuting on TTC within Toronto area is very quick and reliable as long as you are on the subway line. Once you have to connect a bus route to the subway, the commute becomes quite bothersome. For instance, you could take the subway downtown and commute around the downtown core on your ebike, much quicker and more reliable than taking the streetcar/bus. Also, this essentially takes care of the possibility of running out of power as you can just hop on a bus if that was to happen. Of course, this doesn't work as well during peak hours.
Another issue is the road conditions. All folding bikes with no exception have very small tires, thus you can't really go very fast, otherwise one bump and you are out.

[stealth]

Interesting thread, although I dont see what makes these any more "E" than a Vespa, and a whole lot less cool.

powered vehicle is using the human metabolism to convert food energy into work, with a conversion efficiency of about 25%. That's the first part of the picture, then we have to step back and look where the food energy comes from. In north america and europe, the food is grown with the aid of chemical fertilizers and machinery, it is then transported, processed, packaged, transported, sold, transported again, and finally cooked before consumption. In the end about 10 times more primary energy went in to producing the food than is actually stored in the food itself. The net effect is that for every unit of human energy used on a bike, about 40 times that much was consumed.

This part is just laughable. As if owning one of these bikes means the operator will never have to eat again, lol. The environmental issues with elctric power have already been mentioned so I wont repeat them.

That being said, if I lived in the downtown core and didnt rely on my vehicle for work, I would totally get a Vespa or something like this. But living here in Miss/Oak, I have yet to see one in real life as they arent very well suited to the burbs.

[ShadowVlican]

Interesting thread, although I dont see what makes these any more "E" than a Vespa, and a whole lot less cool.


This part is just laughable. As if owning one of these bikes means the operator will never have to eat again, lol. The environmental issues with elctric power have already been mentioned so I wont repeat them.

That being said, if I lived in the downtown core and didnt rely on my vehicle for work, I would totally get a Vespa or something like this. But living here in Miss/Oak, I have yet to see one in real life as they arent very well suited to the burbs.

the way i read that quote, is that just by BEING ALIVE as a HUMAN BEING, we are negatively affecting the environment

and yea, these aren't practical for the suburbs, but they sure work well in DT

[Bullseye]

That being said, if I lived in the downtown core and didnt rely on my vehicle for work, I would totally get a Vespa or something like this. But living here in Miss/Oak, I have yet to see one in real life as they arent very well suited to the burbs.

Really? I've seen a few scooters around Burlington and Oakville. I pass one guy every day on Rebecca st (3 seasons per year, anyways). I figure it's mostly Sheridan students.