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Some context: The average electric bicycle has a 300 watt motor. These baby's have 2000 watt motors (or 2 x 1000 watt motors, I couldn't tell) that are roughly
by mmaunder 14y ago
Some context: The average electric bicycle has a 300 watt motor. These baby's have 2000 watt motors (or 2 x 1000 watt motors, I couldn't tell) that are roughly a 5th of the size of an electric bike motor. Include a battery big enough to power that motor and the fact that they're adding regenerative braking, which electric bikes don't have, and this is a seriously awesome engineering challenge.
- jamesaguilar 14y agoWow. Which leads one to ask, could you just take the motors off the board and put them on a bike? What's the new tech that makes these motors possible?
- jonnycowboy 14y agoBrushless motors. You could put them on a bike but then you'd break the laws governing electric bicycles (500w or 1000w limits depending on the jurisdiction).
- wildmXranat 14y agoI'm not familiar with how a bike mounted motor can be tested, but unless the motor has '2000w' stamped on it, you're good to go.
- tisme 14y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamometer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamometer
- mmaunder 14y agoMy first intro to brushless motors was on a delta RC plane. The power makes a gas engine look like a joke. If you've not seen these motors, the basic difference IIRC is that brushless motors don't have brushes so they have less friction, longer battery life and greater power to weight ratio. They remove the brushes by moving the permanent magnets to the rotating part of the motor and use a controller to switch the stationary electromagnets.
- TylerE 14y agoCouldn't you get around that by calling it a moped rather than a bicycle?
- shimon 14y agoOf course, but then you'd be subject to restrictions on where you can use a moped. Depending on where you are, this would likely rule out bike lanes, sidewalks, etc. and thus make the bike less useful. Enforcement is highly variable, though, so this may or may not matter.
- rapind 14y agoThe problem there is that mopeds / scooters are often regulated. For example, in Toronto you need a license and insurance for scooters which drastically increases your costs compared to a bicycle or skateboard (motor or not). I expect some cities are mulling over the regulations on e-bikes since many of them (but not all) are basically scooters but with an electric motor and useless pedals.
- rapind 14y agoTrek's Ride+ uses regenerative breaking. http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/collections/electric_assist/feature_tour http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/collections/electric_assist/f... TBH, it's not that big of a deal (over-hyped). P.S. I only mean regenerative breaking isn't that big of a deal. This product actually looks pretty cool to me.
- stcredzero 14y agoI wonder how the Trek Ride+ does on hills?
- rapind 14y agoIt's pretty great. There are 4 assist settings from barely helping (1), up to make you feel like superman (4). On the 3rd-4th setting hills are a breeze, on the 2nd setting you still work a bit, and on the 1st setting it really just makes up for it's weight imo (motor + battery = heavy). You can also go into resistance / negative settings (-1 to -4) is you're a masochist (or in amazing shape).
- damian2000 14y agoThen you'll probably enjoy this one too: 16.5 Kw peak power with 4 motors (4WD) http://gnarboards.com/Trail_Rider.html http://gnarboards.com/Trail_Rider.html ... with a price to match ($4000).