No Carrier's Comments

Research done on Electric Bikes and our last good night to Atom

As I finished my research on electric bikes I thought what I found out was interesting enough to share with my friends.
Here goes.
The definition of an electric bike is at this point somewhat fluid. In the EU an electric bike needs to have the rider peddle before the electric motor kicks in. This is a legal rule, not one based on technology but based on what makes a bicycle. in the EU, is bike doesn't require the rider to peddle its not a Bike ! its something else.
Thus there is this term Pedalac .. which means its an EU version of an electric bike.. But they also sell full power Bikes in the EU, but in some countries that would mean you have register it like it was a motorcylcle.

Lee Iacocca was one of the first big names to embrace the idea of a electric bike. His company called EV Global is a tragic story which is worth reading for anyone wanting to start up a business. How you can get too much backing, too much promotion without a product or really a ood idea on the market.

The story can be read here. The EV Global company seems to be out of business here in the US, but I was able to find this site in England which seems to be selling the bikes developed by Ev Global and selling them to the UK Market.
These bikes, are a little weak by todays standard and they look good, but I would stay away from them until they get up par with newer batteries and more powerful motors.

Since the 80's when the first real ebikes started to hit the market the battery of choice was the old car type battery, (lead acid) aks SLA. (Sealed Lead Acid)
As you know these batteries have their strengths and weaknesses
On the bad side

• They are heavy
  
• bulky
  
• Can only be recharged limited times (200 or so)
  

On the plus side

• Cheap
  

Bikes used them, and many still do. More recently NiCad's and NiMH have become less expensive and many e-bikes use them as upgrades to the old SLA type batteries

The cutting edge of batteries is the Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer. You can find companies who support them now, but many other companies have found their testing shows these batteries in an ebike environment can cause the batteries to explode or catch fire.

Interesting, that Toshiba has a new battery technology which surpasses Lithium which is out early 2008 You can read about it here. - Takes you into the business of the Ecar ..

Back to my quest E-bikes

Like I said before in my previous post you can get bikes in either a compete bike or in a kit form. and have yourself, or your local bike shop install the motor for you.

Looking around I found no bike shops local who carried any ebikes... it looks like the demand or awareness is not high enough to demand.
Nice Ebike shops do exist in San Diego, San Francisco, and Portland as well as Salt Lake city and New York city. But LA ?
Oh well

Back to the grind, I new now I wanted something with NiCad or NiMH type battery as the power source, and after reading specs after specs, and reviews I found one thing in common..
Most of the ebikes out there were made in China, and were under engineered for the US. they put in whimpy motors (250 watt) and lame SLA type batteries in them.. and sold them for 500 bucks or so.

All except the Rolls Royce of the Ebike world Heinzmann. (back them in a minute)

The more powerful and thought out options turned out to be the kits which came from two suppliers.

• Bionx and
• Crystalyte
  

You can read about them. But you have the option to pick the bike you find you want and put the motor of your choice on it.

The are lots of other smaller companies selling similar things to these hubs and batteries, some have a motor attached to the chain, some companies like to power the front wheel, some like to power the rear wheel.
I found that when trying to compare .. it was always like apples and oranges. I could find myself be sold based on specs on just about any of them. (expect some of the ebay's kits you pick up for 300 bucks ) those just had to be junk in my opinion.

The more I read, I wanted to find the best one which was no easy task. Every company explained in the best techno electro jargon how their system was superior in manufacturing design and quality control and pure power over their competition.
Apples and oranges.

Back to the blogs and user groups for actual user experiences.
Over and over again the name of Heinzmann came up. Every time with comments like
Hands down , the best motor. From user after user this company out of Germany who have been in buiness for 50 years selling electric motors and controls really seem to have something.
Who would have thought, a German company selling a quality product, at a premium price. Where quality of workmanship matters more than beating up the price to compete with everyone. (think BMW) LOL

Turns out they carry not only kits for existing bikes they also make complete bikes. Holy Crap ! Batman.. Here it is, a quality bike from the ground up from a company with a respected following, who have been in business for more than 2 years..
Sure the price of these are about 1/3 more than putting together a bike myself,and putting motor on it.. but hey.. why not.. its a bike. !! Might as well get the best (if you dont know that about me, read my posting about espresso machines )

Trouble is.. Heinzmann doesn't sell their complete bikes here in the US ! Something about how often we in the US sue people with motorized vehicles .. got them a bit shy to enter the market with bikes..
But they do sell their kits. !! yahoo. !!
Once I contacted Heinzmann in German they were happy to give me the US distributor of their kits.

Light Electric Vehicle Technologies, Inc. North American Warranty Service Center Philip Leavitt 404 S. Arthur Ave. PO Box 1606 Pocatello, ID 83 204

Tel: +1 208 478-5388 Fax: +1 208 232-3717 LEVTusa@aol.com

Speaking with Phillip today, I knew in a moment I was in the right place. Everthing I had learned was finally falling in place.

I have a nice heavy road bike picked out, a local bike shop waiting to put it all together for me, and my new German electric motor and controls on their way. !
For me for this project I wanted something stable, which didn't need to go faster then 25 mph. But I wanted to have road bike I could count on. Ill let you know once is all put together and I have had my first test drive on it.. I hope it was worth the effort.

On a personal note last night we said good by to our baby monkey Atom. He has been part of our family for the past 4 years and his spirit will be missed for years to come. His nightly playing in my hair and cuddling are just the beginning of things I am going to miss.

Take care everyone
Bob Lee

posted by Bob Lee @ 8:49 PM