Latest / New / Prototype Bikes

[JohnInStockie]

Hi Everyone

I am very interested in the Diavelo, but it seems that that may never appear. Advice here is that the kits arent that bad, and some of them may be even more powerful than pre-built bikes.

So I wondered if it would be possible to build my own bike.

I have found a couple of sites that Im sure many of you have seen, but here goes anyway.

What if I mixed the Zero City Bike http://www.zerocycles.co.uk/

With the Dual Speed Crystalite Motor from team hybrid http://www.teamhybrid.co.uk/pages/crystalyte/motor_dual.htm

What do you think?

Please pass on any ideas for bikes you may have had too!

 

[flecc]

Looks like an ideal utility and commuter bike John, but although the dual speed hub seems a great way of overcoming the problems of combining hill climb and speed, I've got some serious questions about it. It's in the nature of electric motors that they need to be designed for very specific purposes to be efficient, and I suspect that motor might suffer high power consumption in consequence of it's compromises, trying to do two things. I don't know where one could get satisfactory answers on that, I'm not sure Mark at Team hybrid can have much experience of that aspect yet, and no doubt Crystalite will say it's fine of course.

The Zero shaft drive is very attractive for day to day use, but there are some downsides apart from a small loss of efficiency. When the wheel is removed for tube change etc, the grease covered gears are completely exposed so can easily pick up roadside grit or transfer grease to clothing etc. Maybe a slight improvement on the messiness of chain, but by no means the complete solution it could have been, due to the attachment needs of the hub gear. Ideally it should have had a gearbox designed to integrate with the drive, leaving the wheel detachable BMW motor cycle style, with gears always fully enclosed.

 

[rsscott]

Hi John,

for all intents and purposes I believe the Schwinn bike is identical to the Diavelo. Note that the Euro spec Schwinn is 250W but the US version is 400W. As per your note about Moore Large, the distributor, both would have be ordered in for you from the US whichever spec you go for.

Also this model has the standard gearing setup instead of the shaft drive.

cheers
Russ.

 

[JohnInStockie]

Flecc - Those crystalite motors do sound very promising, even if they cant really do the 2 tasks (wish that the EU limit was 400w).

Russ - I think I will await the new year for the Schwinns I think. The shops I have spoken to will only order one in if I am going to buy it, and I'm not going to do that unless I have tried one, and so I'll wait until someone is advertising them.

But thanks for the feedback.

Can I ask your opinions on this electric bike (which unfortunately is not legal in the uk)? I believe that it is also being used by our police force in policing Hyde Park (I read in an article somewhere)

EMB-36 ELECTRIC MOUNTAIN BIKE - EV TECH

Thanks

 

[flecc]

The EVtech motor seems to be respected in the USA, and they've been punting that single tube frame design for a long time now. As you'll see elswhere on that site, there's a long established police bike on the same lines, and given the weight of many US citizens and police officers, it must be quite strong.

The range they call long on that model is "up to 15 miles", and I don't think we'd call that long in the UK, accentuating the widely held US view of e-bikes as playthings rather than serious transport. The range is due to the rather small carrier mounted battery and I'm doubly critical of that. First, putting it there compromises the use of the carrier, second, putting the weight of the battery high up like that is bad for stability. This is especially true on that bike since the high large frame tube also has much of the frame weight equally high.

All in all then, a relatively unstable design due to the high centre of gravity. There are better bikes around at this high price level. For example, Kinetics will build you a quality bike to your outline spec with an illegal high powered 700 watt Heinzmann motor giving you around 19 mph with quite good hill climbing, also with "up to 15 miles range". The eZee Sprint when it returns gives 18 mph and quite good hill climbing, coupled with much longer range. There's also the various US and Canadian sourced illegal 350 watt bikes like the BionX PL350 which I'd regard as much better.

 

[JohnInStockie]

Hi Flecc (and everyone)

Question : Is it possible to have a switch on the handle bars the switch between 400w and 250w capacity for off road / on road capability? This would be ideal with the newer 400w motors coming out now (schwinn & crystalite plus others).

What I mean is even if it was a 400w motor, only supply it with 250w. Is this possible to do, and if it was, would it get past the legal requirements?

Thanks everyone.

John

 

[JohnInStockie]

Additional to the above, if you had 2 motors, one on the rear at 250w, and one on the front at 400w, and you had a switch to switch between them on the handlebars (again for on road /off road) would this pass the legal requirements?

What is everyones opinion on this?

Thanks

John

 

[flecc]

The switch from 250 to 400 and vice versa is only really practical on motors wired for that in the first place like those dual speed Crystalites. An external supply controller could be designed to do the job, but the performance of a 400 watt motor supplied with the lower output in that way would be pathetic, so not worthwhile. There's nothing wrong with the dual speed Crystalites in performance terms, it's just the consumption problem, and I see Mark of Team Hybrid hints at that in his comment on the need to help with pedalling in the high torque mode to keep consumption within bounds.

The idea of using dual motors from a single battery source with a true changeover switch would be entirely legal as long as you were only caught using the 250 watt switch position. There's no law against the manufacture or supply of high power bikes, the law simply rules against their use on public roads. If the prosecution cannot prove you were using the high power version, they could not easily prove that case.

As a precaution to be totally safe, it would be wise to ensure you have a reachable location in mind on which you could use the high power position. This would enable you to show a legitimate and believable use for it in support of your defence, as a protection against a bench ruling that there appeared to be nothing other than an illegal purpose for the high powered motor.

 

[JohnInStockie]

Hi Everyone,

Just found this link on the web, alledgedly the 'best bikes in the world..'

Advanced Finest Electric Powered Bicycle, Electrical Motorized Bikes

Whats peoples opinions, has anyone ever seen/tried one of these?

John

 

[rsscott]

Hi John,

I believe the first production run of these bikes was completed recently after a lengthy development. They are not cheap, at least $5000 dollars (!). There are a few videos on the net showing its hill climbing capabilities. The Yahoo Power-Assist forums has a long-running discussion on this bike.

 

[flecc]

It would be nice if we could enjoy this sort of drive system and power, but all these models are illegal in Britain of course.

 

[adamtki]

The optibike is nice but I would feel more like I'm on a slow motorcycle than a fast bicycle.

 

[Jed]

I think it looks a little strange. If you can go 30mph+ on one of those things I can imagine the Police taking an interest pretty quickly. I much prefer a bike to look as little like an electric bike as possible - stealth!

thanks
Jed