E-bike E-xperiences?

Jakedata writes "I am in the process of building my first e-bike. I intend to use it to commute to work a couple times a week, weather permitting. I can only assume that many members of the /. crowd are already riding e-bikes and would be only too happy to share their experiences. I am looking at a very affordable e-bike conversion kit from Golden Island Machinery. They offer a 36 volt lead-acid battery pack for it, but I am concerned that it will be too heavy. Rabbit tool has a selection of components and power options but they are pretty pricy. So, is Golden Motor's kit any good? Is lead acid OK to start off with? Does someone want to donate a direct-conversion methanol fuel cell to the project?"

Comments

Why not...

[ericdano]

Why not just invest in a good, light weight bike. It will cost you a lot, but the light weight construction will be a LOT easier for you to bike with.

Something like a Trek or Cannondale.

how about a real bicycle?

[brer_rabbit]

when I was employed (oh so long ago...) I biked to work 2-3 times a week, about 12 miles each way. Screw the e-bike, get the real thing. Peddling your ass that distance will get you in great shape. On top of that, I find cycling a lot less stressful than driving, it's relaxing really.

Re:how about a real bicycle?

[mykingdomforahorse]

Though I understand your thought, I tend to get irked by bike enthusiasts who decry the e-bike and take an (often) macho approach to human-powered transportation. Maybe the poster isn't as concerned with "peddling ass" and is more worried about environmental issues, or simply agrees with you about the stress issues of commuting, and doesn't want to get all sweaty before work. (Thus begins "peddling ass" jokes.)

Re:how about a real bicycle?

[still_sick]

There're a couple twits in my office that do this (Bike to work every day as exercies).

You can pick them out easily, because they end up smelling up the place.

For the sake of all that is good and holy, DO NOT bike into work unless you intend to SHOWER when you get there.

Re:how about a real bicycle?

[whookey]

I find the odors emanating from the fat and lazy, the smokers, and those who need to distance themselves from smelling like real people by applying an excess of chemicals to their bodies to be much more bothersome. I pedal in to work every day awake, usually with a smile on my face. Try biking sometime, it's great.

Don't like pedals?

[sapgau]

Back in my day, we used our feet to get the wheels turning... we managed to use the different gears to adjust going up hill. If the hill was too steep we got off and pushed.

Back in my day, people seemed skinnier too.

Ha Ha!

GoMotorboard 1500X

[Doc Ruby]

I've been riding a GoMotorboard 1500X that I got refurbished for $150 (down from $300 retail). It really does go 15MPH for about 10-15mi on flat, paved streets on a charge. Small hills (30 degrees) slow it to a crawl and eat the battery, but it keeps chugging, though the rises in Manhattan and most of Brooklyn are no problem. And the regenerative braking seems to work, albeit at much less than 100% efficiency. I've had some battery charging problems, but I got a couple replacements that I can now carry charged, extending its roundtrip charge life to up to 45mi or so. Best of all, it snaps down into a 25lb package over my shoulder, so 10 minute walks from subways are now 3-5 minutes. And it's really fun whizzing around nearly silently. But I wish it had inflatable (less efficient) tires, because the ride over any roughness, including sidewalk seams, can be too much. And quits immediately if the drivewheel gets even a little wet. Worth it.

Why not help him?

[potat0man]

Why don't you help this guy instead of giving him advice he's not asking for?

I can't believe how pessimistic this slashdot crowd can be. Some guy wants to work on a new project to replace his car and all anyone can do is call him a fat ass.

Good lord...welcome to slashdot

[omarKhayyam]

The poor guy asks for advice building an e-bike, and 50% of the +3 comments are "Why don't you just peddle (you lazy f*ck)?" Because I'm sure that thought NEVER CROSSED HIS MIND. Ever.

Re:Good lord...welcome to slashdot

[mvdwege]

Maybe that's because those comments are right?

An e-bike confers no speed advantage, at the cost of being environmetally unfriendly, and denying the user exercise.

Objectively speaking, this is a net loss. So yes, he is a lazy bastard, and a polluter to boot.

Mart

Re:Good lord...welcome to slashdot

[gujo-odori]

You write like a person who has never ridden one, maybe even never seen one. E-bikes do:

- Confer a speed advantage

- Often need to be pedaled in addition to electric power.

Many others have already pointed these things out, perhaps you would do well to read a bit more.

You might also want to consider that a person who is planning to build/buy an e-bike to take to work at least some of the time is most definitely reducing pollution relative to taking a car to work every day. So what does he get instead of help with his plans and maybe a little praise for lowering pollution? Crap from people who think his good efforts are not good enough unless he's a triathlete.

By they way, how do you get to work?

Re:exercise

[djchristensen]

Why not just peddle the bike.

This doesn't help the environment. It increases the use of batteries. Add some more acid to the compost heap.

Reminds me of an article I read a while back about the proliferation of "e-bikes" in China and how ironic it was that China was being so much more environmentally aware than us stupid Americans.

I couldn't help but think that those e-bikes were most likely replacing "regular" bikes as opposed to getting people out of their cars. So instead of reducing emissions, they were adding a bunch of lead-acid batteries that need to be charged and that would eventually go to landfills.

Of course in the poster's case, he probably would be getting out of a car, so he would be making an improvement, just not as much as if he did all the pedalling himslef. Hmmm, what affect would all the extra CO2 from the heavy breathing have?

an observation about the OSS crowd

[Anonymous Coward]

i dont know how many comments ive see that say something like "why dont you just peddle the bike and forget about the e-bike stuff"

making jokes about being Tubby and this and that..

this is a common (but unfortunate) attitude i often find in the OSS community at large (bad pun, i know)

the question is NOT "what do you think about e-bikes" or "do you like the idea of ..."

the question is about how to build one regardless of your opinion on the matter.

i often encounter this attitude in IRC aswell somebody asks a question about how to use a program and people say things like "what you are trying to do is stupid, you shouldnt be doing that at all, instead you should " rather than helping the person do what it is they are asking about in the first place.

point is: if you dont have something constructive to say that helps the person asking the question they are posing to you, butt out and let people who are actually interested in the specific topic in question to help add productive comments to the thread.

Re:an observation about the OSS crowd

[Scarblac]

I don't agree. If someone asks you for help doing something that is obviously stupid, you should tell them that it is stupid and why, and not help them do it - that's not "helping" at all!

I agree that that's not the case here (saying e-bikes are always a bad idea is just wrong), but it is true of, for instance, some programming questions people ask, probably similar to the "OSS" stuff you're talking about.

If someone has variables named x0, x1, x2, x3, x4 etc and wants to do strange hacks with introspection and manipulation of namespace tables etc to change them all inside a loop, but has no idea how to do that - you don't explain how it could be done, you tell him "you don't want to do that, use a list" (I'm thinking of Python things). That is constructive.

Re:Two or Three a Week

[dasunt]

I was coming down out of the mountains last year and got stuck behind some flatlander doing 35-40 mph around the curves. On that road it's all curves. The funny thing was, there was a bicycle behind him and the guy on the bike was tailgating the flatlander.

FYI, not all vehicles handle curves the same, nor do all tires. Also, many people don't want to feel the centrifugal force while going around the corner, or have everything in the back shift to the other side of the vehicle.

Is it the car commercials that creates the race-car mentality in most people? Is it the long commutes to work? What? Its amazing how irate people can become when you do "only" 5 mph over the speed limit. Or when you slow down on a curvy road so that your stopping distance is less then your field of vision. Speaking of stopping distance, its amazing how many people think that a 20 year old pickup, fully loaded, with trailer, will stop as quickly as a compact car. At least, that's what I'm assume they are thinking, why else would they pull out right in front of me?

Slow down.

E-bike not for geeks

[SpaghettiPattern]

This is a geek site. You're a geek, I'm a geek, we're all...

As a geek you need body activity because sitting behind the screen just doesn't get you any. So get yourself a regular/racing/mountain bike.

Within a couple of weeks you notice a better condition and an increasing average speed. And, if you really need to, you can add a cardio/speedometer to increase the geeky factor.

As a real geek you could also get into the details of bike training. The different body types and their specialties, the different goals in training (muscle building, endurance, agility, fat burning etc...), the food to take etc, etc...

Re:Two or Three a Week

[MKalus]

Is it the car commercials that creates the race-car mentality in most people? Is it the long commutes to work? What? Its amazing how irate people can become when you do "only" 5 mph over the speed limit.

Okay, personally speaking I like the feeling of getting into a curve, especially if I know the area very well.

Maybe 10 years or so ago there was a stretch of road where I grew up that was very very winding. THe cool thing was that there was a long straight away (~2km long) where you could see who entered the "track", if you drove slowly there the guy in front of you made it wonderfully up the side of the hill before you entered the "maze". So we had those little "races" where we timed ourselves on how long it took to get from the bottom to the top, I think I topped it out at ~70km/h average on a really twisty and windy course.

Reality is: Most speed limits are set at a pace that allows even the worst drivers to navigate carefully, and knowing the limits of your car does not only come in handy when you try to "race" but also when you have to swerve around obstacles or get into an emergency situation.

EVERY new car I owned I ended up going to a parking lot within the first week and litterally drove the car to a point where I lost control and skitted / spun out.

Why? Because I wanted to know how far I can push it without losing control, this came handy more than once when I had all of the sudden an obstacle on the road that I had to swerve around or break (breaking is not always the safest option, depending on road condition and what's going on behind you).

Re:35km/h ?

[Anonymous Coward]

you can easily get good hard road tires for a mountian bike. and getting a light enough frame negates everything else.

Not true. The suspension on a mountain bike absorbs a good part of the rider's output. You'll be far more efficient on the road with suspensionless bike.

Electric Bikes Northwest

[Koatdus]

http://www.electricvehiclesnw.com/

Electic Bikes Northwest has some good information as well as a movie of one of the bikes climbing a serious hill. They seem to favor the kind of e-bikes that are activated by peddling. Something about the drive being about to provide power through the gears as opposed to a fixed gear ratio.

E*bike research comparison notes?

[Ironic77]

I have also been looking for awhile. I'd like to compare notes with what you have found privately to aid both of us in a decision w/o all the flames and tangents. -K