BS: While shopping for an electric bike...

Subject: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Donuel
Date: 23 May 05 - 12:59 PM

I came across this one I call the Prius Fetus. http://chengfeng.en.alibaba.com/product/50021339/50298408/Electric_Bicycles/5000W_Electric_Bike.html

I was looking to upgrade the motor power of my electric scooter and found that it is cheaper to buy a whole brand new scooter.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 May 05 - 01:32 PM

Bad link

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Bill D
Date: 23 May 05 - 01:43 PM

worked for me....pic of a little golf cart looking gadget

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 May 05 - 01:50 PM

There's a whole shop of Electric bikes in west London (just round the corner from South Ruislip tube station actually) but they don't sell anything that looks like that!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Donuel
Date: 23 May 05 - 01:56 PM

I have one that looks like this http://www.wjpowersports.com/eb01.html
it poops out on any hill more than 10 degrees...

but the bike in which I simply added a 36 volt 400 watt front hub motor is really fast

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: open mike
Date: 24 May 05 - 02:17 AM

this is not a bicycle it is a quadracycle
the links worked fine here.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 May 05 - 04:42 AM

that scans like while riding on a train going west - Franklin

While shopping for an electRic bikE
I saw a person that I did not like
With great excitement I told my dog, Rover
I'll jump in my car and I'll run him over

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 24 May 05 - 10:18 AM

Just stick with a normal bike. A thin tyre road bike is best. The design has changed so little in a century, because it works so well.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: GUEST,Shanghaiceltic
Date: 25 May 05 - 04:13 AM

I have not seen this type of electric bike here in Shanghai, the two wheeled varieties are very popular, some of them look more like motor scooters than and electric one.

Prices are very good too here equiv of US$220 (about 120 GBP)they have become so popular a price war has broken out.

At least in Shanghai they are replacing the smelly little two stroke Piaggio copies, however in Beijing they have been banned. The reason was that the bus companies and taxi companies thought that they were being done out of revenue if people used these, so they put pressure on the Beijing Local Govt to ban them. Only it was not put that way, the official reason was that they were dangerous(?) and the govt could not decide if they were a motor vehicle or not.

In other parts of China they are popular too. Each city here has the right to formulate its own regulation regarding motor vehicles which results in something being banned in one area but not another.

The down side of all the electric bikes in Shanghai is that they are silent and the only warning you get as one comes along is a frantic shout of 'Wei! Wei' as they get nearer their kill zone. The riders ignore any rules of the road such as there are anyway. No licence is required to drive one, and it shows!

The motors seem to be quite powerfull, though the top speed is limited to about 20 KMH I have seen ones with three people on. Dad, mum and the wee'en.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Matt_R
Date: 25 May 05 - 04:21 AM

As soon as me moped's front mudguard is fixed, I'm gonna find that creep and put him down

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 May 05 - 07:25 AM

If you ride an electric bikle in wet weather, you may have a short journey!

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Bobert
Date: 25 May 05 - 07:39 AM

I didn't see any prices in the link and was a fraid to click on too many things fir fear that a Chinese salesman would show up at my front door...

Are they really only $220? That sounds purdy cheap to me...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 May 05 - 07:54 AM

The things that are about that price here are the 'toy things'....

They would probably be about AUD$1500 if they were available here.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Donuel
Date: 25 May 05 - 09:48 AM

Yes you can get a powerful 48 v 800+ watt bike/scooter/motorcycle that will climb 26 degree hills for $270 + shipping. It has pedals for assist so having to register as a motor vehicle is easily bypassed. The tires are only 10 inches so there is a ton of torque. Uphill speeds are about 20mph but down hill is way more.

There is an electric motorcycle coming out soon that goes 0-60 in 5 seconds with a 100 mile range but it will cost over $5,000.
It can be found at NYCEwheels.com.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 May 05 - 08:37 AM

It's all very well having an electric bike, but aren't you limited by how long your extension cable is? What if you want to go to the shops 1/2mile away and your cable is only 15yards?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 May 05 - 01:00 PM

Donuel -

Yes you can get a powerful 48 v 800+ watt bike/scooter/motorcycle that will climb 26 degree hills

Not intentionally being pedantic, but the requirement for US combat vehicles is only to climb at 30 degrees (a 60 percent slope), and regulations prohibit testing one on a slope that steep without safety devices in case they tip off (and they sometimes do).

A 26 percent grade (14.6 degrees) might be believable. That's about the "side-slope" limit required by the US military for administrative vehicles. Tactical/combat vehicles are generally only required to negotiate 30 percent (16.7 degree) side-slopes, and many common autos, SUVs especially, would simply fall off of one that steep if they try to drive cross-slope.

The standard US Interstate Highway System only allows a 6 percent grade (3.43 degrees), although there are fewer than a half-dozen places where exemptions were allowed, up to 8.7 percent (5 degrees) in one case I believe. The US Federal Highway system, with different standards, includes several stretches of 8+ percent (4.6 degree) runs, but they're fairly rare and generally well known - and avoided by truckers.

San Francisco does claim to have a few local streets with 18 percent grades (10.2 degrees) and they're considered "scary" by people not accustomed to them.

I can see, perhaps, a 26 degree capability (49% grade) in an all-out mountain bike, since the prevailing slope in the Rocky Mountains, for soil bearing areas, is about 36 to 38 percent (19.8 to 20.8 degrees), but the dirt falls off of any grade in excess of about 20 degrees.

John

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: semi-submersible
Date: 26 May 05 - 04:53 PM

Last week we bought the twin of the red bike in Donuel's second link above. It has already started to save us car trips by helping us take our six-year-old to and from the school bus stop (now several km away - don't get me started on the offloading of public costs onto individuals or families!) Riding double is not actually legal, but the centre of gravity is so low that I feel safe doing it on our dead end road. I wouldn't dare ride with him up on a regular bike.

This sedate little beauty is called a bicycle with electric assist, under law, so here in Canada no license or registration is needed. You do have to be 16 or over. One can ride up most of our local ridges by pedalling to assist the motor. I believe the stated 35+ km range is realistic, if you take it easy. When I've an extra load, or to extend my range, I run or walk beside it on steep uphill bits. I'm holding the handlebars already, so I just twist the control enough so the bike powers itself uphill (with the kid aboard) and I don't have to push it.

I did once have to push the bike uphill. You see, I tackled a steep mountain trail right after a hilly 45 minute ride at full speed. Before I reached the top of the trail I was having to turn off the bike and let us both rest, then push it on up a little farther, with the bike power helping me all it could.

It recharges somewhat on the downhills, but it does not freewheel fully, so is heavy to ride with pedals alone. I stopped and visited friends for an hour while getting a partial recharge before finishing the ride home. Full charge from empty costs a dime or two.

The pedals are low gear only. With the wide seat, pedalling felt awkward at first but was not hard to get used to after all. It's an inexpensive, useful little machine; not for everyone, but we live at the bottom of a half mile hill, and the Scooterteq 500z makes it a lot easier for us to do errands without starting the car.

Maureen

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Donuel
Date: 27 May 05 - 07:35 AM

There are many versions of your $3-$400 scooter, mine has 36 volts and a 240 watt motor. Most electric bikes have a 400 to 600 watt motor so a bike really outperforms these scooter variations.
IF you have the 500 watt motor I'd like to know where I could buy one.

Also is you tire size 16 x 2.125 or is it 18?

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Donuel
Date: 27 May 05 - 07:43 AM

Opps your link had all. All I need to do is switch out the controller, wheel/motor and tire and I can double the power of my 240 watt scooter that I got at Target for a little over $300.

This version is exactly what I was looking for when I started this thread... Thanks Maureen.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: GUEST
Date: 28 May 05 - 05:28 AM

A friend has one with a kind of dynamo effect - when you zoom downhill it powers the battery up, and then the electrics kick in for the uphill bits, or you turn on the electrics for them, not sure which. Very handy for cycling in the hilly area where she often is; she's elderly and has a large, energetic handicapped son.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: podman
Date: 28 May 05 - 12:56 PM

I quote Donuel from a previous message in this thread:
"There is an electric motorcycle coming out soon that goes 0-60 in 5 seconds with a 100 mile range but it will cost over $5,000.
It can be found at NYCEwheels.com. "

Donuel pleas provide a link to these specs as they do not sound realistic, unless you misquoted.

Subject: RE: BS: While shopping for an electric bike...
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 28 May 05 - 08:29 PM

In order to extend the range here at night the locals never use their lights or indicators! just adds to the fun of driving here.

I have seen some bikes even cheaper than the $220 mark but the workmanship is a bit dodgy to say the least.

Many of the older Chinese bicycle companies have gone over to making them.