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April 27, 2009
Some Different Electric Bikes
Rhawn the electrician brought in a couple different electric bikes last week. He has a friend who is a distributor of electric vehicles. These were E+ bikes, and Rhawn let me ride two different ones home for lunch. He took my LaFree for a spin, too. Well, these bikes are a lot different than mine - the result of 8 years of improving technology, I guess. They had considerably more power, and ride more like a regular bicycle. They have the motor in the front hub, and the battery in the rear hub. Unlike my bike, these will power you along even if you don't pedal. I can easily ride home on them at 20 mph without even pedalling. In fact, they are geared pretty low, so you have to pedal like mad to go 20 mph. I re-geared mine a couple years ago for the same reason. The controls were not quite as easy to use on these bikes - you set the assist by pressing on a thumb control - the harder you push the more the electric motor kicks in. You can set a "cruise" speed and the bike will hold that speed regardless of terrain and how much you pedal. Rhawn tells me the range on these bikes is around 20 miles, so nearly double my bike's range. The biggest downside of these bikes is that they cost nearly $2,000. You can buy a lot of gas for that kind of money. And, like any electric bike, they are just too lightweight for commuting distances greater than about 5 miles (IMHO).
Posted by rossm at April 27, 2009 10:47 AM
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