Electric bikes !!

[wanderingbob]

Lets talk about your electric bikes and what you think about them ! We have had our fat tire , twenty inch , folding bikes for two weeks and have been riding them 8 to 12 miles per day . We pedal constantly just because it feels right although I assume you can go on battery twenty some miles . We maintain 14 MPH pretty easily and with more throttle we can get up to twenty ! Our brand " Ecotric Dolphin " , about $ 850 . We like to wander around small towns and some time have to park far away , out in the boondocks because of the length of our rig , we hope this will lead to more exploring and some trail riding . We tend to always pedal and use the battery when these 77 year olde legs get tired ! What kind have ya got , do ya use them as much as ya think ya would ?

[wa8yxm]

I would like to see Electric vehicles (Golf Cars, Bikes, Scooters) with a user settable "Max speed" Governor.

The campground I frequent has a 5MPH speed limit. they don't enforce for Bicycles but it would be nice if I could dial in say 10MPH and not worry about going 20.

[JRscooby]

Lightning55 wrote:
I think trying to hold on, I actually hit the twist throttle and launched it as I went down. Not a fun ride.

Back when I was about 10, kids my age in the neighborhood where getting new bikes. Dad decided to teach me to ride his motorcycle around the big yard. A better thrill than new bike.
1 thing he drilled into my head; "It will not work if you are going to hit something, but if you see you are going to fall, open the throttle. Most times, power is more likely to pull you up than brakes, you get a 2nd chance to control it. And if you don't pull it out, you go down in glory!"

[Lightning55]

ktmrfs - I guess I was exaggerating a bit at 100lbs, it's actually 65 lbs. When I crashed, I was on my back under the bike and it felt like over 100 lbs. trying to get out from under it! I think trying to hold on, I actually hit the twist throttle and launched it as I went down. Not a fun ride.

[ktmrfs]

Lightning55 wrote:
Just a little reminder to electric bike riders: Be careful on these things! While camping last weekend, I went for a ride with my grand daughter and crashed.
Riding on an asphalt path on a hillside, my front wheel drifted off the edge of the pavement and hit the dirt. I lost traction and went flying. Lucky I didn't break anything but got banged up. At 74 yrs old, I don't recover as fast and didn't walk too well for a couple of days. It was my own fault. I was going faster than I should have and didn't have the ability to control this nearly 100 lbs bike when I lost traction. I was lucky I'm not in the hospital right now.

yes, on the e bikes it's easy to go faster than you would on a regular bike. Not sure about a 100lb ebike, ours are a typical "heavy" e bike at 52lbs each. And have hydraulic disk brakes. those hydraulic disks work much faster and more controllable than the mechanical disk brakes my regular bike had.

[Lightning55]

Just a little reminder to electric bike riders: Be careful on these things! While camping last weekend, I went for a ride with my grand daughter and crashed.
Riding on an asphalt path on a hillside, my front wheel drifted off the edge of the pavement and hit the dirt. I lost traction and went flying. Lucky I didn't break anything but got banged up. At 74 yrs old, I don't recover as fast and didn't walk too well for a couple of days. It was my own fault. I was going faster than I should have and didn't have the ability to control this nearly 100 lbs bike when I lost traction. I was lucky I'm not in the hospital right now.

[ktmrfs]

way2roll wrote:

ktmrfs wrote:

GMH wrote:
I’m aware! I don’t travel at night and the signal lights are still visible…somewhat. The bikes are the last thing to get loaded before I leave the city and I drive extremely defensively in traffic, so I am more worried about a ticket than an accident. If I do get one I will have to re-think things. I have thought of relocating the plate. I added a warning to my post for anyone who may consider this option.

In oregon your ok for the headlights as long as your driving in the daytime. nighttime would get you into trouble. I looked at this option for my motorcycle on a front rack. Headlights and turn signals would have been ok, but the top of the bike interfered to much with my forward vision so I dropped the idea. My truck also has turn signals visible on the rear view mirrors from the front or back, not sure if that would suffice for turn signal visibility.

Aren't headlights required in rain and fog?

depends on the state. Not required in oregon. headlights required to be on from 1/2 hour before sunset to 1/2 hour after sunrise and when you can't see cars 1000ft in front of you. So you could be required to use headlights during heavy fog or heavy rain.

On two of my cars, headlights do come on automatically when the wipers are on or in intermittent mode.

[way2roll]

ktmrfs wrote:

GMH wrote:
I’m aware! I don’t travel at night and the signal lights are still visible…somewhat. The bikes are the last thing to get loaded before I leave the city and I drive extremely defensively in traffic, so I am more worried about a ticket than an accident. If I do get one I will have to re-think things. I have thought of relocating the plate. I added a warning to my post for anyone who may consider this option.

In oregon your ok for the headlights as long as your driving in the daytime. nighttime would get you into trouble. I looked at this option for my motorcycle on a front rack. Headlights and turn signals would have been ok, but the top of the bike interfered to much with my forward vision so I dropped the idea. My truck also has turn signals visible on the rear view mirrors from the front or back, not sure if that would suffice for turn signal visibility.

Aren't headlights required in rain and fog?

[ktmrfs]

GMH wrote:
I’m aware! I don’t travel at night and the signal lights are still visible…somewhat. The bikes are the last thing to get loaded before I leave the city and I drive extremely defensively in traffic, so I am more worried about a ticket than an accident. If I do get one I will have to re-think things. I have thought of relocating the plate. I added a warning to my post for anyone who may consider this option.

In oregon your ok for the headlights as long as your driving in the daytime. nighttime would get you into trouble. I looked at this option for my motorcycle on a front rack. Headlights and turn signals would have been ok, but the top of the bike interfered to much with my forward vision so I dropped the idea. My truck also has turn signals visible on the rear view mirrors from the front or back, not sure if that would suffice for turn signal visibility.

[GMH]

I’m aware! I don’t travel at night and the signal lights are still visible…somewhat. The bikes are the last thing to get loaded before I leave the city and I drive extremely defensively in traffic, so I am more worried about a ticket than an accident. If I do get one I will have to re-think things. I have thought of relocating the plate. I added a warning to my post for anyone who may consider this option.

[CavemanCharlie]

GMH wrote:
I bought this folding CCM carrier for our regular bikes. I didn’t trust it for our e-bikes so I replaced all the folding parts with heavy wall tubing. It is rock solid now.

That would get you a ticket around here. First, and most importantly of all, you are blocking the turn signals !! Second, you are blocking the headlights. Third, you are blocking the front license plate. Forth, you could be interfering with the operation of the air bag system (might not get a ticket for that part though) .

[GMH]

I bought this folding CCM carrier for our regular bikes. I didn’t trust it for our e-bikes so I replaced all the folding parts with heavy wall tubing. It is rock solid now.
Disclaimer: You may need to address Plate and lighting issues with this setup!

[dedmiston]

ktmrfs wrote:

Lwiddis wrote:
E-bikes are fun and you can see a bunch but is that no or low exercise activity what is best for you vs. pedal power?

Have you ever riden an e bike for any length of time over varied terrain?


It's hardly a "low excercise" activity, more of a "continous excercise" activity. it's pedal assist and on level ground your the power, on hills yes, it helps a great deal but your still pedalling. And for us it's easy to get out and do a 25+ mile ride for a few hours instead of 30 minutes on a short ride. So overall I'd say we are getting more and better excercise on an e bike.

The good thing about Lwiddis is that he rarely actually participates in the threads that he opines in. He typically just flies in, drops a load of smelly comments, and then flies back out. Fortunately most of his comments get deleted before they have a chance to derail the threads.

[ktmrfs]

Lwiddis wrote:
E-bikes are fun and you can see a bunch but is that no or low exercise activity what is best for you vs. pedal power?

Have you ever riden an e bike for any length of time over varied terrain?


It's hardly a "low excercise" activity, more of a "continous excercise" activity. it's pedal assist and on level ground your the power, on hills yes, it helps a great deal but your still pedalling. And for us it's easy to get out and do a 25+ mile ride for a few hours instead of 30 minutes on a short ride. So overall I'd say we are getting more and better excercise on an e bike.

And why is a bike only for excercise? Often places we want to go are only accesible by bike, or we want to take the slow and scenic route that a bike give us. e bikes are perfect for that.

[ktmrfs]

we just bought two REI co-op e bikes, "Co-op" is their "house brand" of bikes. Lots of good components, good reviews and comparing them to similar bikes the price was "right" Add to that, they had them in stock in their warehouse and we got them in about a week. they did a good setup on them for us and so far we love them. Electric range looks like it will easily be in the 50 mile range for our riding style and when our grand daughter took it for a ride in "high" power mode her eyes almost popped out of her head!

[gtnsmlr]

Biktrix Juggernaut Ultra 1000 Pro, 1500W peak output. I've got a few thousand miles on it so far, have yet to find a hill it won't climb. It's good for anything up to blue diamond single track but, the fat tires do get in the way sometimes. It will do 40mph on flat ground. Only one downside, if you're not shifting properly, it will eat the drivetrain.