Electric Bikes as Delivery Vehicles

[Ian]

Does anyone know of electric bikes being used for delivery or courier purposes. I know German posties use them and our that own Royal Mail is considering them but know of no other examples except perhaps the small fleet of rickshaws in use in Leicester city centre. These are primarily powered by a cyclist but the publicity material says they have an electric back-up motor.

A regular visitor to the street in which I live is the delivery lad from Pizza Hut on a horrendously noisy moped that can eventually manage 25 mph on a good day. Every time I see him I can't help wondering whether the job could be done better on a decent e-bike, the slight speed disadvantage being easily made up by the ability to use cycle paths etc. It would also avoid the dubious legality of learners driving for hire or reward as all the mopeds at the local Pizza Hut have "L" plates and undoubtedly insurance premiums are high. Any doubts about range could be solved by keeping a spare battery on charge by the pizza oven.

Another possible use would be for lunchtime sandwich deliveries, a city centre sandwich shop currently uses a pedal tricycle, with large baskets front and rear for local deliveries, but with a bit of help they could deliver more sandwiches further afield.

 

[flecc]

I don't know of any, even in cycle friendly London the idea doesn't find favour.

The cycle taxis (rickshaws) like the Cycles Maximus models are too slow in traffic unfortunately, and local authorities sometimes ban them because of the traffic jams they cause. The motors are either a Heinzmann in the front wheel or the very powerful Lynch motor on the rear axle, but even with that it's generally stuck around 8 mph and 6 mph uphill. 140 kilos without a load takes some moving, and the pedalling is just tokenism.

A trade bike style electric should be ok for it though, either small front wheel with a trade basket frame or box above, or the same over a small back wheel. The biggest problem though is the battery. In working terms, it's time rather than miles, and the taxi with Lynch motor and two very big lead acid batteries can cope with only about a two hour motor duty cycle. With NiMh batteries on a more normal electric bike, maybe five or six would be needed to get through a working day. Very costly, plus all the hassle of changing them all the time.

I'd like to see it happen though, but it would be best on short term or very intermittent deliveries. The lunchtime sandwich run that you suggest might work for some, though a friend who owns and runs one of these businesses has several over two hour routes doing that.

Mike Burrows 8freight trade bike is used for lots of heavy load purposes in Central London, but it doesn't lend itself to electric power adaptation, having single side support wheels, car fashion, and no easy way to add a crank drive. Mike is anti motors on bikes anyway, so wouldn't help in that respect.
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[Ian]

I'd certainly want a motor, and a big one at that, on one of those 8 freight monsters. However as you say the wheel design hardly lends itself to a conventional hub motor.

I'm not sure of the specific details of the Leicester rickshaws, as far as I know they operate in the otherwise pedestrianised city centre which is an area I have no need or desire to visit.

 

[flecc]

I think there's three makes of the cycle taxis, and we have a couple of makes among the London ones. Last I heard of ours was that there were about 350 of them, mainly in Central London, but some in Lewisham and others in Croydon.

The only ones I know that have motors are the Cycles Maximus but others are likely to. The van version takes a 5 cwt payload, so that Lynch motor is essential. Rated as 200 watts, it peaks at over 5 kw, so it has the weirdest of power curves, starting at the top of the graph and collapsing almost immediately as speed rises down to very low levels.

We do have quad bikes with advertising hoardings on the tail, and that company has been very successful for some years. Pedal only though.
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