E-bikes.....

[svizzerams]

... an elegant solution to short term commuting? No tabs, no license needed, no $4+/gallon petrol, easy to park, no insurance......

I think so :-)))))



Just need to slap on a Mr. DP sticker and put on the skull valve covers.



SPECS:
Motor Brushless Gearless Hub Motor on Rear wheel
Power 500 Watt
Gears & Speeds 6 Speed Shimano Gears
Batteries Lightweight Lithium in a Removable Pack
Shifter Shimano SIS Index® Shifter
Charger Smart Charger Included
Amps 10 AMP Hour
Volts 36 Volt
Tires Kenda 26" x 2.30" K-RAD Urban Tires
Speed 20 MPH using motor power only
Distance 15 - 30 miles per charge(depending on rider weight & terrain)
Throttle Type Twist Throttle Variable Speed Control
Frame Type 6061 Light Weight Aluminum
Handlebars Cruiser Style with Promax Stem
Braking System Avid BB-7 Front Disc Brakes and Dia-Compe Rear Hub Brake
Drive System Rear Hub Motor (Motor is in rear wheel)
Measurements Wheel to Wheel -35" W-13" H-39"
Seat - Padded Adjustable Seat Height 33" to 39"
Bell -- Standard
Battery Indicator On Handlebars
Warranty 1 Year
Battery Warranty - 3 years

[Kurt]

Chinese deliverymen in NYC have been using similar designs for two years now. Personally I think electric cars are a great idea but right now they just are not really working with the whole "range anxiety" thing but I hope hippies and idealists continue to buy them and people continue to make them simply because when the car first came out it was no match for the horse but techno-heads and rich people helped get things right.

But cars and airplanes had their origins in the humble bicycle, and I think that is going to be the real future of electric powered vehicles today as well. Steam powered "Omnibuses" were popular in England in the 1840s as an option to use instead of horses and trains but a combination of them being unwieldy and "Red Flag Laws" limiting their top speed to 5pm and that they had to be accompanied by a flag waver warning pedestrians of their approach killed the English steam car. It took the bicycle combined with a more Laissez faire attitude in Germany and America to make the car take off, and we need that attitude today if an electric will eventually really compete against gasoline.

Sadly I think we are headed more toward legislation to substitute car engines with electric ones and that will eventually leave us with electric Trabants.

[Jäeger]

Nifty little machine. How long does it take to fully charge it?

[svizzerams]

Nifty little machine. How long does it take to fully charge it?

Takes about 3 hrs. The battery is locked on - just unlock and slide it off (it is the bit on the back that looks like a rack) - if your commute is long enough that you'd run low on battery power on a round trip then you can re-charge at work.

Here's the website: http://www.pedegoelectricbikes.com/

[Woodsman]

I like it.

Can the batteries be charged by pedaling the bike x amount of distance?

Commercially utility company supplied electricity is about 75% generated with fossil fuels (mostly coal, but gas and oil do figure in also, and coal must be transported by diesel trucks) - none of this may matter to you one iota, but the power bill will - you will be paying for it in KW/Hour fees every time you charge the battery by plugging it in.

Solar is the better way: Think about it: It's powered the planet since before there were humans.

P.S.> Specs inconsistent: 36v x10amps = 360 watts, not 500...

[svizzerams]

Would be cool to charge it via solar panels. Alas, it doesn't generate power back to the battery while pedaling. However your functional range is affected by how much you use the "juice" - so if you mostly pedal you have a longer range. It is an excellent device for the type of commute I have here to work, which is just a bit over a mile with a bit of a hill at the end. It is quite handy for this environment. I can use it basically from mid-March to early Nov or 'til the snow falls, melts and then begins its freeze-thaw cycle for the dreary season.

[strapped]

P.S.> Specs inconsistent: 36v x10amps = 360 watts, not 500...

The spec was 10 amp-hrs which is a measure of how much charge the battery can hold (essentially how long it will run for).

I'm not a battery expert but I think the bigger the ratio of amp-hrs to battery size the better quality the battery.

I am surprised that it doesn't charge if you pedal. Brushless DC motors depend on solid state but the electronics aren't all that complicated so a charging capability should be pretty easy. Maybe a business op for all you budding electronics designers out there.

I like electric bikes... especially ones with green rims... a cool purchase.

[Novimya]

How long is your commute? Would a pedal bike work? Then you would get your exercise and commute done in one swell foop. Would be difficult to get enough juice from solar. If it's just a couple of miles, ride a pedal bike. See lots of these in China.

[Novimya]

A MILE!!???! You won't pedal or walk a mile?!

[Jäeger]

svizzerams:

Would be cool to charge it via solar panels.

Simple to do. Buy some small solar panels, wire them to an adapter that will mate to your bike battery, fit it in a housing like a small wooden box, put it outside and voila, instant solar charger.

Now, you basically have to let the box sit in the sun all day to fully charge one of your batteries while you use another one, but just leave one or two out when you're at work and the sun will do the rest. I have the plans somewhere from when I made some solar boxes to run things off of lying around at home. If you need them, I'll e-mail them to you next time I'm back in PA.

[el3so]

It is an excellent device for the type of commute I have here to work, which is just a bit over a mile with a bit of a hill at the end.

Save some money and get a pedal bike.

[BillyOblivion]

But cars and airplanes had their origins in the humble bicycle, and I think that is going to be the real future of electric powered vehicles today as well. Steam powered "Omnibuses" were popular in England in the 1840s as an option to use instead of horses and trains but a combination of them being unwieldy and "Red Flag Laws" limiting their top speed to 5pm and that they had to be accompanied by a flag waver warning pedestrians of their approach killed the English steam car. It took the bicycle combined with a more Laissez faire attitude in Germany and America to make the car take off, and we need that attitude today if an electric will eventually really compete against gasoline.

The biggest problems with plug-in electric cars today:

• Battery energy density is already past the low hanging fruit, and from here on out it's marginal increase--meaning that unless there are MAJOR technical breakthroughs we're going to see slow, linear increases in battery capacity, which means that the battery capacity, in terms of energy density, will not be equal to a petrol/diesel/gas engine in the next two decades.
  
• Almost all of our electric power comes from coal, with natural gas coming in second. So you're really (with Coal) substituting a relatively clean fuel (diesel/petrol/gas) for a massively toxic one (Coal, which contains radioactive compounds, mercury and other heavy metals etc.). As far as clean, efficient vehicles go for in-town commuting get a natural gas powered car. You'll have a small choice of fuel points, but that's no big deal.
  
• If you're looking at solar power you can't do math. Go ahead, yell, scream, stamp your feet and then ask your nanny to change your diaper. Yes, solar would be better. Yes, if you set a system up carefully you CAN get "off the grid" and use Solar power to run most of what you need, if what you need is to live like a fucking monk. If you think you can get a solar system to recharge your batteries for a 10 mile commute in a hilly area, especially in northern climbs you're innumerate. (Look, I want Solar to work, I really do. I've been following Solar stuff since I was in the 4th or 5th grade, it would be WONDERFUL if we could build cheap, reliable high efficiency solar panels that produced more power over their lifetime than you could get out of a comparably priced quantity of natural gas (and the amortized cost of the generators), but it DOESN'T NOW, and there doesn't look to be anything that will scale to industrial levels for the next 8 to 10 years IF WE'RE LUCKY.
  
• Even if we were to build about 50 new Nuke plants in the US (to solve the coal/NG problem) our power grid wouldn't be able to handle the power requirements--most of the grid is designed to run a VERY low capacity over night to allow residual heat in the transformers to bleed off. If we were going to replace a significant number of IC vehicles with electric vehicles we're going to need to upgrade the whole f'ing grid (since we don't know where the clusters of cars will be after the early adopter phase).
  
• Most of the lithium (for the batteries) that I know of is in DPs--Afghanistan, Bolivia etc. Oh, and refining it produces a lot of pollution as does recycling the used batteries, so net/net it's not as good for the environment as it looks up front.

Sadly I think we are headed more toward legislation to substitute car engines with electric ones and that will eventually leave us with electric Trabants.

That's because the sort of socialist fucks who would push that sort of thing picture the world as a drab and joyless place and work like hell to make it so.

[svizzerams]

How long is your commute? Would a pedal bike work? Then you would get your exercise and commute done in one swell foop. Would be difficult to get enough juice from solar. If it's just a couple of miles, ride a pedal bike. See lots of these in China.

Although the bike has the electric assist - you still have to pedal, esp. if you hit a hill. There is also a trick to the timing when you hit said hill as well. You don't just sit on it and go. I actually bike more, longer and up steeper terrain and in windier conditions now. I consistently walk to work (and would be pedaling more except I have a student living with me who is training in my department and she isn't comfortable riding a bike so I walk with her per politeness). I do have pedal bikes as well. I really like the idea of this bike and could see it as a viable alternative to commuting by car esp. for people who wouldn't ordinarily consider an alternative. Also the riding style is ideal for commuting - upright posture, good for scanning for pedestrians and other vehicles. For an uber athlete or serious pedaler probably not so much, but for the casual bike rider or less athletically inclined it very well could be an excellent device to getting them out of their car and commuting short ranges say, 7-10 miles - you really are more efficient and almost as fast as a car could go in typical city driving, parking is a dream. Bike is fun and comfortable as hell to ride.

That all said - I figure one day we'll all be walking again when the energy crunch comes - then maybe I'll get a horse.

[Kurt]

It is an excellent device for the type of commute I have here to work, which is just a bit over a mile with a bit of a hill at the end.

Save some money and get a pedal bike.

You have a point there but sometimes there is a benefit that cannot be seen right away with just the application of logic until you apply the logic of others. Like I wrote before and Novimya wrote, the Chinese use bikes like these all the time. In NYC it is rare to see a chinese man on a bicycle that is not electric (I never see Chinese women on bicycles here though and that is odd), so, like with French people and food, I tend to assume Chinese people know more about practical bike riding than I do. I know your area of the world also has its share of practical bike experts too and perhaps we have not considered the long term effect of the Chinese enthusiasm for these kind of bikes, like when the battery is unable to hold a charge and the replacement cost is not worth the price (that will be another electric car killer) but in the meantime it is an interesting blend of people buying them...bike hobbyists and working deliverymen.

Something has to be right with that.

[BillyOblivion]

You have a point there but sometimes there is a benefit that cannot be seen right away with just the application of logic until you apply the logic of others. Like I wrote before and Novimya wrote, the Chinese use bikes like these all the time. In NYC it is rare to see a chinese man on a bicycle that is not electric (I never see Chinese women on bicycles here though and that is odd), so, like with French people and food, I tend to assume Chinese people know more about practical bike riding than I do.

If you want to know about practical bike riding in NYC ask the expert: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/

The Chinese don't buy electric bicycles because they want electric bicycles, they buy electric bicycles because they can't afford anything more.

If you want a reasonable electric vehicle (modulo my other criticisms of them) I would suggest skipping the bicycle thing entirely and getting a motorcycle or a (real) scooter. Like this http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s/specs.php or this http://www.brammo.com/home/.

Yeah, they're a little more expensive, but they're faster and can go longer.

If you want to pedal get a pushbike. If you want powered transportation get powered transportation.