great ideas for ebikers

[Ebikegear]

Hi. I'm new here but I'm wondering is it ok to ask for opinions on possible products for ebikers. At present they are only ideas but I would like to gauge interest before going any further.

I understand that if I do begin trading then I will need a trade account.

 

[Alan Quay]

Hi. I'm new here but I'm wondering is it ok to ask for opinions on possible products for ebikers. At present they are only ideas but I would like to gauge interest before going any further.

I understand that if I do begin trading then I will need a trade account.

It's not my forum, but I'd be happy to answer.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[KirstinS]

Absolutely I'd have thought .Sounds intriguing

If you are actually trading then you are right, that's different

I've seen quite a few ideas over my years on.... I'll be honest and say most were not great. Quite often because the supposed unique selling point was no way enough to justify the small batch, high cost prices.

But don't let me put you off. Folk on here are pretty straight and true . If you've got a winner they shall buy it, if it's rubbish- they shall tell you. And make suggestions

And, by the way, welcome

 

[Ebikegear]

This may have been suggested before but how's about,
Range extender clothing. A jacket or vest integrating flexible solar panels.?
I would estimate 40watts of free constant power daylight providing of course.

Could double as a trickle charger.

 

[RobF]

This may have been suggested before but how's about,
Range extender clothing. A jacket or vest integrating flexible solar panels.?
I would estimate 40watts of free constant power daylight providing of course.

Could double as a trickle charger.

A range extender would be attractive to many of us who like to do longer rides.

I have very little technical knowledge, but my initial thought is solar panels on a jacket wouldn't provide enough power to extend the range of an ebike battery by a useful amount.

Hopefully from both our points of view I am wrong about that.

 

[KirstinS]

Solar panels have been discussed quite a bit before and in detail

Even with perfect weather you need a very large suface area to be any practical use at all . Far larger than you can wear

And this is before you get into any proper technical challenges (or cost versus simply carrying more batteries)

 

[RobF]

Solar panels have been discussed quite a bit before and in detail

Even with perfect weather you need a very large suface area to be any practical use at all . Far larger than you can wear

And this is before you get into any proper technical challenges (or cost versus simply carrying more batteries)

I suspected that might be the case.

I once had a chat with an endurance cyclist who was wearing a solar panel on his back.

He told me that in good conditions it would put a bit of charge into his iPhone, but not much else.

Pointless for most of us, but he was cycling across continents and the like, so the panel was of some use to him.

 

[KirstinS]

I had a fold out 25w panel when I went travelling about a decade ago. About the size of a thin paperback folded and a broad sheet newspaper unfolded.

It was perfect for charging ipod, phone and my camera aa cells

Sadly we need huge capacity batteries by comparison and use them up far quicker

 

[soundwave]

you can get a folding 300w solar panel but its $2500

http://www.hi-powercycles.com/hpc-suncapture-300-folding-solar-panel-and-charger/

 

[Ebikegear]

A range extender would be attractive to many of us who like to do longer rides.

I have very little technical knowledge, but my initial thought is solar panels on a jacket wouldn't provide enough power to extend the range of an ebike battery by a useful amount.

Hopefully from both our points of view I am wrong about that.

Based on e bike having a 250w motor & being able to harvest 40w that gives you about 18% of your total power. That should boost your range quite nicely.

Currently you could wear 47w Inc helmet using readily available ebay panels.
No need for extra batteries. Bespoke flexible panels have more potential.
Plus I read that a thin solar film is being developed.

Interested to read the prev discussion could someone link to it.

 

[Ebikegear]

you can get a folding 300w solar panel but its $2500
100w roll up panel on eBay 70 pounds.
210 for 300watts.
http://www.hi-powercycles.com/hpc-suncapture-300-folding-solar-panel-and-charger/

 

[Wicky]

Will all bike batteries accept a trickle charge while on the hoof? - as the Panasonic system on my KTM needs to be switched off before it can be charged. Though it should work on a spare battery.

Something that you'll need to research before investing time & money...

 

[KirstinS]

You can't trickle charge lithium batteries, only sla

 

[Ebikegear]

Will all bike batteries accept a trickle charge while on the hoof? - as the Panasonic system on my KTM needs to be switched off before it can be charged. Though it should work on a spare battery.

Something that you'll need to research before investing time & money...

Batteries are simply a storage medium. You put power in you take power out.
Lead acid seem very flexible on a car so why not other types?.
You are thinking in very fixed terms.
In fact you can charge a laptop whilst using it. So lithium,s are flexible to.

 

[Geebee]

Based on e bike having a 250w motor & being able to harvest 40w that gives you about 18% of your total power. That should boost your range quite nicely.

Don't take this the wrong way I am trying to save you a lot of heart ache and money, the short answer is it won't work well enough to justify in any way.

A 250w ebike motor can actually draw upto 800w, plus a 40 watt panel would be 40w under ideal condition and aimed correctly for maximum sunlight, whilst riding for an hour ideal orientation would be minutes of that time.

Next issue is a flexible solar panel is less efficient than a rigid panel and a 40w rigid panel is roughly 530 x 650mm.

A designer previously tried promoting a jacket as described, it charged a USB bank that could charge upto about 6 ah at 5v with no statement of how many hours or days it would take to charge the power bank, now that pack would add 1 amp hour at 36v without any losses of which there would be some ie. stepping up the solar panel voltage, charging circuit etc.
The tech sights made fun of how useless it would be for any charging function, the most damning thing was that the designer never released charging specs.
http://gizmodo.com/no-one-needs-a-solar-powered-jacket-1667736727

The only kind of successful usage of this idea I have seen or can conceive of working is mounted as a roof on recumbent trikes to give you the required area and good exposure to sunlight, plus they can charge whilst parked.

 

[Wicky]

While my system has regen - as I mentioned earlier to charge the battery via mains it needs to be switched off. This might be a feature unique to the Panasonic system on my KTM eRace P bike - but then again it might not...

 

[Mussels]

If it's sunny enough for solar panels to be effective there's no way I'd want to be wearing a jacket.