No Carrier's Comments

Photo's and comments after day 1 of riding a ebike

Yes, Its finally here.
The delays turned out to be a nice learning curve for me an my local bike shop. (20 oranges) TJ has been very fair and reasonable with prices. Jim has a great attention to detail.
As for the ride, its not quite what I expected. The sound was little more than silent, (who knows why I was expecting the motor to be silent )
Starting from a dead stop works much better if you peddle once or twice first to get it moving, the kick the electric motor on. Starting from a dead stop can be done with the motor, but the motor doesnt have quite enough tourqe to get moving quickly. Plus from what I understand starting an ebike from a dead stop is the quickest way to use up power.

My travel time for my 10 mile communte tuned from 50 minutes to 35 minutes this morning. I cant say for sure why, but I suppose that when I felt like not peddling , I let the motor take me at full speed might have had something to do with it.

The bike is heavy, which is one reason I had heavier rims installed, heavy spokes and upgraded fatter tires put on it. My battery pack as you can see from the pictures is mounted under the rear rack which to me was done for pure aesthetics but ... because of the weight of the battery the back end of the bike does sway a little on turns, and I cant really peddle moving the bike left and right like I can on my bike without a motor.. This one I have to keep somewhat upright or the back end begins to feel like I am towing u-hal in the wind. I might have to think about an additional brace to keep this rack from moving arround when I sway the bike from side to side.

The sound it makes is similar to an electric golf cart or electric train. sort of high pitched hum- squeaky sound. Not bad really

There are two basic types of throttles available for e-bikes ; a twist grip, like a standard motorcycle or lever. I choose for this bike the twist grip as this bike but after riding it I think the lever might be better.

Power :
The power for me isn't quite enough to pull me up a large hill, but it does really help. As I peddle in a low gear with the power on as I go up a hilll it feels like I am peddling on a flat surface. I am beginning to get looks from people who see me scream by without so much a movement. If you recall the movie Aliens I think where Sigourney Weaver wears some sort of robot suit. Its her controlling but there is power assist.

My next step in this process of research is go the closest e-shop in Laguna Hills. I don't need another one I am just interested in learning as much as I can about this technology.

Bob

posted by Bob Lee @ 8:39 PM