What kind of bike do I want: commuting all the time edition
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JorgeGortex.
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April 21, 2014 at 8:39 pm #999123
dasgeh
ParticipantThanks, 83(b). Do you know if they’ve done anything with a midtail (the Boda’s are the only midtails left on the market, though until last year there was also the Kona MinUte)?
I guess this is a dumb question, but aren’t all e-bike systems proprietary? I thought that you had to buy the battery of whatever system you had, Bionx or whatever?
April 21, 2014 at 9:08 pm #99912883b
ParticipantI know that you can put one of the ebikes.ca kits onto a Boda Boda, but I don’t think they plan to offer one stock. The Clever Cycles guys offer Yubas (and Kinn, which is a less publicized American made mid-tail), and I’m sure would be willing to put together one with an ebikes.ca kit for you if you wanted one. Clever Cycles and ebikes.ca partnered on their Edgerunner offering. Alternatively, you could install a kit yourself. It’s not much harder than switching out the front wheel and the grips. All the electrics in the kit just plug together.
As far as batteries go, the ebikes.ca kits come with a standard connector pin (called an Anderson Powerpoles). When it’s time for a replacement you could get a new one from them or you could order from a third party like Ping. Ping’s batteries don’t come in the nice hard case that others do and you have to crimp on the connectors. But they’re several hundred dollars cheaper and come in a much wider range of capacities. If your commute changed and you wanted something to carry you 60-70 miles on a single charge, Ping makes it.
BionX uses a proprietary motor controller that is built into the hub motor and proprietary battery management built into the battery. So a dead BionX battery has to be replaced with a new one of theirs. The ebikes.ca kits separate out the components so a failure only requires replacing the failed component. But if the eBaks is on a BionX system it may make the most sense to stick with that so that the batteries and chargers are cross compatible.
April 21, 2014 at 9:16 pm #999129jnva
ParticipantDon’t forget about em3ev. I’ve bought several kits from them and am happy, but it is a DIY effort with some soldering and configuring the controller software. But, I enjoy doing that kind of maintenance work.
April 21, 2014 at 9:40 pm #999136dasgeh
Participant@83(b) 83069 wrote:
I know that you can put one of the ebikes.ca kits onto a Boda Boda, but I don’t think they plan to offer one stock. The Clever Cycles guys offer Yubas (and Kinn, which is a less publicized American made mid-tail), and I’m sure would be willing to put together one with an ebikes.ca kit for you if you wanted one. Clever Cycles and ebikes.ca partnered on their Edgerunner offering. Alternatively, you could install a kit yourself. It’s not much harder than switching out the front wheel and the grips. All the electrics in the kit just plug together.
As far as batteries go, the ebikes.ca kits come with a standard connector pin (called an Anderson Powerpoles). When it’s time for a replacement you could get a new one from them or you could order from a third party like Ping. Ping’s batteries don’t come in the nice hard case that others do and you have to crimp on the connectors. But they’re several hundred dollars cheaper and come in a much wider range of capacities. If your commute changed and you wanted something to carry you 60-70 miles on a single charge, Ping makes it.
BionX uses a proprietary motor controller that is built into the hub motor and proprietary battery management built into the battery. So a dead BionX battery has to be replaced with a new one of theirs. The ebikes.ca kits separate out the components so a failure only requires replacing the failed component. But if the eBaks is on a BionX system it may make the most sense to stick with that so that the batteries and chargers are cross compatible.
Thanks. The ebaks is not Bionx – it’s some random system that bakfiets in the Netherlands uses. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse for compatibility with generics…
I’m definitely interested in the turn-key-ness of the elBoda or elMundo, and the idea that I can get it from an LBS (for service, etc), but at least for the Mundo, I don’t like the placement of the battery on the elMundo…
April 22, 2014 at 12:18 am #999140peterw_diy
ParticipantFYI, BikeFriday is about launching a 35# xtracycle bike that can fit on bus racks: http://familyride.us/2014/03/28/seattle-bike-expo-featuring-bike-friday-haul-a-day-and-some-other-bikes/
April 22, 2014 at 2:10 pm #999180dasgeh
Participant@peterw_diy 83081 wrote:
FYI, BikeFriday is about launching a 35# xtracycle bike that can fit on bus racks: http://familyride.us/2014/03/28/seattle-bike-expo-featuring-bike-friday-haul-a-day-and-some-other-bikes/
Thanks. Lots of good stuff there, especially about the return of the MinUte. I’ve seen the folding xtracycle, but it is not recommended not to be used with kids, so boo.
And how I wish we lived in a place with a store called “family cyclery”
September 16, 2014 at 4:58 pm #1010000JorgeGortex
ParticipantAnti/never-seize grease is the way to go. Whenever I put threaded things together I use it, especially when its dissimilar metals touching each other (i.e. steel hex bolt into an aluminium rack eyelet). I have never found this grease to enhance loosening through use, but when I want things to come apart, they do!
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