3 ms·
My first thought was that it should be impossible, too, but the answer is that the battery isn't in the frame. It's either in the saddlebag or (in the fancier v
by resoluteteeth 11y ago
My first thought was that it should be impossible, too, but the answer is that the battery isn't in the frame. It's either in the saddlebag or (in the fancier version) disguised as a water bottle.
- nl 11y agoThere's plenty of room in a frame for a battery. You don't need to run the motor 100% of the time - 1 minute bursts at critical times is more than enough. Shimano, Campagnolo and SRAM all make batteries designed to fit in the seat tube for electronic gear shifting.
- resoluteteeth 11y ago> Shimano, Campagnolo and SRAM all make batteries designed to fit in the seat tube for electronic gear shifting. Electronic shifting uses almost no power; the derailleur just has to periodically move a few millimeters. There's absolutely no comparison. In total, there is "plenty of room in a frame" and so it's probably theoretically doable, it would just require much more work to pack it with cells and wire everything up. The companies currently making these motor kits are probably using off-the-shelf battery packs. Maybe you're right, though, that a smaller battery providing "bursts of power" would be enough to make a difference though.
- alistairSH 11y agoAbsolutely - in a climbing stage of le Tour, a racer would just need a few bursts to match the acceleration of the other tops riders as they try to drop the peloton on the steepest sections. 20-30s bursts, 100-200W, would be more than enough to stay in the race. In something like cyclocross, the difference from a frame motor would probably be even bigger. The races are shorter (60 minutes vs 4-6 hours) and the power bursts are short and intense - power through a mud pit, stay on bike instead of running a super steep hill, etc.