E Bikes

[Joeboy]

This Ebike popped up in my newsfeed today, 100mile range!

https://www.waubike.com/pages/the-bike? ... mYQAvD_BwE

Had not given these any thought until seeing them in Loire, anyone here into them?

[Bugtownboy]

Best part of £2K - would need to be used regularly. I suppose if it gets more people out of cars and as an introduction to E vehicles, it’s positive.

Neighbours have got a couple of nice folding E bikes - never seen them used though.

Think Gus is the E personal vehicle guy ?

[Mr Gus]

Battery is in 2 variants, one EXTREMELY BIG to get close to that range.

On my A2B the battery is large & heavy, (rear mount weight over the hub motor) & that is the type you want to allow for age, bills etc, any smaller & when the cold weather hits ..well you all know the difference, & honestly mine is around 480 Watt hours, ..bikes weigh, I have never ridden consistently in one setting, because when the motor cuts out you want to be rolling hard having been assisted through the hard part in the knees, (this I'm doing 20mph or more.

this bikes blurb is Samsung 25Ah - 882Wh / 900Wh (chances are that's an upgrade on the conventional SMALL battery that will cost you best part of £1000.

Samsung 10.5Ah - 378Wh ..pifflingly small.

Our escooter has a "nearly" 500Wh pack also, & trust me you don't want smaller, in summer the 15.5mph is eaten up in around 7 miles on flat fen tarmac roads ..by comparison 100 mile range on a bike to justify it requires some serious leg input to achieve in the real world.
By comparison, my e bike will get 26 odd miles of mixed use per charge, but I don't let either pack get low, because if you ever had range anxiety in a smaller bev car, then triple it when it requires your input (another reason to get through to an easy to maintain 20+mph via battery assist then the remainder is your own steam.

Ebikes are great if you never need to lift them in & out of a car, they are not typically light compared to your old mountain bike (regardless of battery being removed)

Due to typically bigger tyre size (hybrid) it is not likely that it will fit in an upright wheel rack of a train either, I was lucky coming back from bristol, first on, aimed it in regardless & tied it in place, ..stuffed if I had been the second bike.

Takes time but there are plenty of disillusioned purchase ebikes on ebay, but you have to travel & be careful of the druggies selling stolen bikes.

That range quote is manipulative bs to occasional "thinking about a b.bike" let's & bum not used to cycling Joe

[billi]

Hi Joeboy

Interesting bike from the first look ,
Indicators and brake light is a good feature to have
But on the second look its nothing too special
A fat battery does not convince me , as e-bike riders hardly commute for extreme long distances , so on a daily trip that extra weight and if so i am thinking of getting a spare battery for mine , that i can carry with me , if i have no time to recharge
Also look out at the Nm torque of the motor (sure Befang is a well known player ) they produce a lot of different models (i could not find the Nm in the description)
E-bikes are heavy , to carry them arround railway-stations and by train ( i read they are not allowed on a bus)
Longest ride for me non stop through hilly North-Bavaria was 50 miles and i arrived in my B and B to recharge with only 3 mile left in the battery .
Gear or i mean assistance shifting is essential to increase the reach to make sure to arrive at the destination ( how much one can rely on those "board-computers ? ) .

I bought an e-bike just now and sent it to my son
I decided for one with similar components to mine with the main features in the Enviolo Automatiq stepless shifting. , and the Gates carbon belt "chain" , a pure joy not to think of changing gears and allways have the right torque in place to start at a crossroad , cycle mountains etc

Billi

[Oldgreybeard]

Building an ebike got me back into cycling around 16 years ago. I've built around five or six ebikes over the years, started off looking for ultimate performance but ended up going for the very lightest bike I could build. My current bike is based on a lightweight alloy folding frame I imported from the USA and has the lightest geared hub motor I could find, bought from China and laced to wheels with stainless spokes and decent alloy rims. I didn't fit conventional gears, as years of riding ebikes taught me that I rarely used more than a low gear and a high gear, as the electric assist fills in the gaps well. Instead I fitted a two speed bottom bracket gear, not much heavier than a normal bottom bracket, but has a heel operated kick button to change between two ratios.

The battery pack is as small and light as I could make it, model aircraft LiPos, fitted with a proper BMS to make them safe, and tucked into a pouch under the saddle. Electric only range is around 20 miles or so, but pedal assist range is a lot further, Longest trip I've done was 44 miles and it still had a bit of charge left. I tend to use the ebike mostly as reassurance that I can get home if my knees start to play up. They rarely do, but just knowing that there is enough battery power to get me home if I do run out of puff encourages me to use the ebike more. Being able to fold it up and stick it the back of the car is a bonus, means I can leave the car in the supermarket car park after doing a shop and ride into town to the smaller stores, without having to bother about finding somewhere to park.

[Mr Gus]

After years of reading, & really wanting a Bosch motor driven on (a bit like Bill's pic) I looked at how many problems & incarnations Bosch units went through & got a rear hub, not ideal but having read some horror stories it did influence me.

That was pre covid, so a few years ago now.

[billi]

well , hard to say , but my rear befang motor in my irisch bike that was actually a 750 watt motor and just was limited to 250 watt is still in my hands , but to be frank those fat bikes are nonsense and its in my shed now ...... 4 " tyres ? what stubitidy that was


No i have to say today , much more ellegance on a slim bike today , that 4" tyre byke i had in Ireland was a monster compared with elegance what i drive now crucing around

[chris_n]

I have a Yamaha powered mountain bike that originally came with a 400Wh battery. As I live in the Alps I soon found 400 was not enough so added a parallel extender of 385Wh giving me a total of 785Wh. A typical ride will be somewhere between 60 and 90km with anywhere from 800 to 3000m of elevation gain.
I have covered 100 miles on it in the UK with just the original battery, that was when I decided that I wasn't going to take it back to UK again as I just didn't need the assistance (then )
As far as Bosch reliability goes I know 3 or 4 guys with bike hire businesses, they predominantly are Bosch and I have never heard of any problems with motors or batteries apart from one battery that got cracked and ended up with water in it.
If you don't mind making the effort mid motors are brilliant, if you want an easy time get a hub motor.

[Mr Gus]

Whilst the tech has now been around for as long as the Nissan leaf, even 4 years ago it was a bit of a gamble, esp if buying second hand, identifiers as to which model it was ...too much like hard work for those wanting several grand for a bike, ..there was a video somewhere (likely youtube) with high on all the Bosch variants all lined up, so many over a relatively short period of time, concerning.

You'll have to deep dive the internet to find details, for a while there were a lot of disappointed consumers.
It was enough to put me right off.

[billi]

After years of reading, & really wanting a Bosch motor driven on (a bit like Bill's pic) I looked at how many problems & incarnations Bosch units went through & got a rear hub, not ideal but having read some horror stories it did influence me.

That was pre covid, so a few years ago now.

Well , what do i know ? Am not a Bosch fanboy . But somehow agree on the middle motor as it brings the touque more balanced on the asphalt we ride and its closer to our pedals , sure needs frame to be different

During lock-down in Ireland i had still have a radrunner e bike with 4 inch tyres , they the US fanboys like to call it a Fatbike it has a Befang rear Motor and to tune it it was easy just with a button combination to achieve 20 miles per hour plus
I have it in my shed now and drive it occasionally , but feels like riding a tank now .... no where near as ellagant slim light and curvy than my new one

Bit sad , i have to say as its parked now neither that horse nor me the rider do not know.... . 3000 km in 3 month in Ireland during lockdown for us and the motor is just limited to 250 watt by the controller for the´EU market and is supposed to be at least 750 watt , so i can switch it to a Mopet with another controller , get insurance , a plate and ride it at 30 miles per hour

But i suppose that 25 km/h limit is a dinosaur of our past and slower past needs to be adjusted any way in a way that makes sense