The Cycle Show

[vfr400]

I went today. As always, there was old stuff and new stuff. Electric bikes are now starting to appear on lots of stands instead of just in the general electric bike area.
I'll post some photos tomorrow, but some things to look out for that I found interesting were:

1. Double chainwheel on one of the new Bosch motors (Corratec bike)
2. Try the Bosch ABS system. It works really well, though the moment I stepped over the bike, I could feel the heavier steering, like weight on the handlebars. See what you think.
3. Revos friction drive kit with small lithium battery for about £500. It uses a bottom gear teeth proximity sensor as a pedal sensor. Nothing at all on the handlebars. Switch it on and off while you're riding by back-pedalling, which the proximity sensor detects. Total kit weight including battery is about 3kg, which means a 12kg electric bike would be easy.
4. Electric Ice Trikes with Shimano crank motors - looked very neat.
5. Panther carbon framed folding bike.
6. Semi-hard paniers on the Juicy stand
7. Very interesting white Chines bikes from Elite Energy Co Ltd with battery in the crossbar and motor in the down-tube. The frame was no thicker than a normal bike.
8. New Ebco bikes A300 Adventure £1495 with the new tiny Bafang cassette motor. Nice styling - maybe my next bike. U300 general utility bikes (commuter) also with the same motor that seemed a bit wasted on a bike like that. Nice bikes though at only £1395.
9. Loads of bikes with the new Bosch performance motors. Take your pick.

One other thing that for me was very noticeable, especially after our recent discussion about brakes. Rim brakes are now old school. You'll have to look very hard to find any bikes at all in the show that don't have disc brakes. Discs are on nearly all the road bikes now.

 

[KirstinS]

Oooo. Thanks for the info

Very keen to know more about 7 in particular. That's jumps out to me

 

[soundwave]

still no carbon ceramic brake discs tho

 

[vfr400]

Oooo. Thanks for the info

Very keen to know more about 7 in particular. That's jumps out to me

It must have been some sort of bevel-drive motor that turned the bottom bracket, like the Vivax system. I think she said that there was a demonstrator there, but I forgot to try it. Someone else that goes there must try it.

 

[vfr400]

still no carbon ceramic brake discs tho

I managed to buy a few for my shopper.

 

[Nealh]

The Revos is just another engineering version of the friction drive (as with this type of drive tyre wear will occur quicker) and doesn't have a release mode to move it clear of the tyre if needed, the reverse pedal action is quite good though the sensor can slip round on the chain stay and loose the proximity signal of the low gear. Square wave brushless RC type motor is not very quiet.
Voltage is 24v and about 14a using PF cells in 3p format for 8.8ah/211wh (range about 25 miles/500m climbing), 250w is said to held through out it's power delivery. Small controller is located in the base of the bottle battery, 2.1kg with small battery 2.5kg with the larger one.

Kit fitted to Pinnacle Arkos,

.

 

[vfr400]

The Revos is just another engineering version of the friction drive (as with this type of drive tyre wear will occur quicker) and doesn't have a release mode to move it clear of the tyre if needed,

Are you sure about that? Doesn't it use the motor torque to engage/disengage? It says zero drag in the listing. How does it achieve that?

Bike Radar seemed to like it, though I take everything that any magazine or newspaper says with a pinch of salt. They said that the motor disengages.

The Revos is a delightfully simple and affordable e-bike conversion kit that fits (almost) all bikes

Updated bolt-on e-bike conversion kit from Bristol goes into full-scale production

www.bikeradar.com

 

[Woosh]

Are you sure about that? Doesn't it use the motor torque to engage/disengage? It says zero drag in the listing. How does it achieve that?

a freewheel?

 

[RossG]

Funnily enough it was Sir Clive Sinclair who developed a friction drive bike motor, must have been nearly 40 years ago now. Same kind of thing as we have here where the motor just dropped down onto the rear tyre possibly at the pull of a lever or something like that. I think you could disengage by pulling it up off of the tyre and then drop it on when needed.
IIRC the idea was the motor did all the work and you were not expected to pedal, not sure if it had a throttle. No lithium batteries in those days, probably lead acid strapped on a rear rack.
It didn't get anywhere sadly but at least we Brits did it first....sort of.

 

[vfr400]

One other thing that I forgot to mention. You can see that some of the manufacturers of the normal hub-motored bikes are on the ball. 13g spokes are now oldskool. 14g rules.

 

[Rykard]

Did look at the cytronex system? What did you think?

 

[Deleted member 25121]

Did you notice that all the discs had been mounted the wrong way round?

 

[soundwave]

I managed to buy a few for my shopper.

these ?

Alpha's Ceramic Rotor RS - superlight Spanish carbon disc brake rotors

A few years ago Spanish motorcycle company Alpha got a bit of a resurrection and at the same time made the transition also into e-bikes. That crossover…

bikerumor.com

 

[sjpt]

Funnily enough it was Sir Clive Sinclair who developed a friction drive bike motor, must have been nearly 40 years ago now

They were around before that, but small petrol motors. A few teachers at school had them. Perhaps Sir Clive Sinclair was the first to try an electric one? (probably didn't work right like almost all his other things).

Reference to 1946 in http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattle/nacc/arc0119.htm#001

 

[Deleted member 25121]

They were around before that, but small petrol motors. A few teachers at school had them. Perhaps Sir Clive Sinclair was the first to try an electric one? (probably didn't work right like almost all his other things).

Reference to 1946 in http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pattle/nacc/arc0119.htm#001

Yes indeed. Petrol driven ones were very popular in France in the 60's & 70's and probably earlier. I remember a friend trying to set up a business in the early 80's and having them made in India, needless to say nothing become of it.

 

[vfr400]

Did look at the cytronex system? What did you think?

I didn't see them there this year. i tried it first two years ago, and it didn't work very well. The pedal sensor was intermittent. I tried again last year, and it it was much better, though they're bespoke control system seemed to have a mind of its own. I think it was working properly, but the way you operate it is weird compared with normal systems.

I think that it's a very expensive kit for what it is. You can buy small bottle batteries from Aliexpress for about £150. Add a Q100 motor from BMSBattery and a KT controller from PSWPower, and you have a really nice robust, user-friendly kit at half the price of the Cytronex.

 

[Rykard]

I didn't see them there this year. i tried it first two years ago, and it didn't work very well. The pedal sensor was intermittent. I tried again last year, and it it was much better, though they're bespoke control system seemed to have a mind of its own. I think it was working properly, but the way you operate it is weird compared with normal systems.

I think that it's a very expensive kit for what it is. You can buy small bottle batteries from Aliexpress for about £150. Add a Q100 motor from BMSBattery and a KT controller from PSWPower, and you have a really nice robust, user-friendly kit at half the price of the Cytronex.

would that give you pedal assist?
Are there any how to build guides around?

 

[vfr400]

would that give you pedal assist?
Are there any how to build guides around?

Every different donor bike has different problems to overcome, so you need to show us your exact bike before we can give exact advice.

 

[BazP]

I visited the cycle show but had two disappointments. First was the £16 mugging in the car park and secondly that there were no big bike manufacturers showing next year's models.
One big surprise was an Indian company, can't remember the name who were showing a rear hub motor mountain bike with 400wh battery for £299. Yes £299. I certainly didn't look 20 times worse than the Specialized.

 

[Rykard]

I visited the cycle show but had two disappointments. First was the £16 mugging in the car park and secondly that there were no big bike manufacturers showing next year's models.
One big surprise was an Indian company, can't remember the name who were showing a rear hub motor mountain bike with 400wh battery for £299. Yes £299. I certainly didn't look 20 times worse than the Specialized.

that sounds interesting, missed that one