E-bike E-xperiences? 520
Jakedata writes "I am in the process of building my first e-bike. I intend to use it to commute to work a couple times a week, weather permitting. I can only assume that many members of the /. crowd are already riding e-bikes and would be only too happy to share their experiences. I am looking at a very affordable e-bike conversion kit from Golden Island Machinery. They offer a 36 volt lead-acid battery pack for it, but I am concerned that it will be too heavy. Rabbit tool has a selection of components and power options but they are pretty pricy. So, is Golden Motor's kit any good? Is lead acid OK to start off with? Does someone want to donate a direct-conversion methanol fuel cell to the project?"
Why not... (Score:3, Insightful)
Something like a Trek or Cannondale.
how about a real bicycle? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't like pedals? (Score:1, Insightful)
Back in my day, people seemed skinnier too.
Ha Ha!
GoMotorboard 1500X (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:how about a real bicycle? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why not help him? (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't believe how pessimistic this slashdot crowd can be. Some guy wants to work on a new project to replace his car and all anyone can do is call him a fat ass.
Re:how about a real bicycle? (Score:3, Insightful)
You can pick them out easily, because they end up smelling up the place.
For the sake of all that is good and holy, DO NOT bike into work unless you intend to SHOWER when you get there.
Good lord...welcome to slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:exercise (Score:2, Insightful)
This doesn't help the environment. It increases the use of batteries. Add some more acid to the compost heap.
Reminds me of an article I read a while back about the proliferation of "e-bikes" in China and how ironic it was that China was being so much more environmentally aware than us stupid Americans.
I couldn't help but think that those e-bikes were most likely replacing "regular" bikes as opposed to getting people out of their cars. So instead of reducing emissions, they were adding a bunch of lead-acid batteries that need to be charged and that would eventually go to landfills.
Of course in the poster's case, he probably would be getting out of a car, so he would be making an improvement, just not as much as if he did all the pedalling himslef. Hmmm, what affect would all the extra CO2 from the heavy breathing have?
an observation about the OSS crowd (Score:5, Insightful)
making jokes about being Tubby and this and that..
this is a common (but unfortunate) attitude i often find in the OSS community at large (bad pun, i know)
the question is NOT "what do you think about e-bikes" or "do you like the idea of
the question is about how to build one regardless of your opinion on the matter.
i often encounter this attitude in IRC aswell somebody asks a question about how to use a program and people say things like "what you are trying to do is stupid, you shouldnt be doing that at all, instead you should " rather than helping the person do what it is they are asking about in the first place.
point is: if you dont have something constructive to say that helps the person asking the question they are posing to you, butt out and let people who are actually interested in the specific topic in question to help add productive comments to the thread.
Re:Good lord...welcome to slashdot (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe that's because those comments are right?
An e-bike confers no speed advantage, at the cost of being environmetally unfriendly, and denying the user exercise.
Objectively speaking, this is a net loss. So yes, he is a lazy bastard, and a polluter to boot.
MartRe:an observation about the OSS crowd (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't agree. If someone asks you for help doing something that is obviously stupid, you should tell them that it is stupid and why, and not help them do it - that's not "helping" at all!
I agree that that's not the case here (saying e-bikes are always a bad idea is just wrong), but it is true of, for instance, some programming questions people ask, probably similar to the "OSS" stuff you're talking about.
If someone has variables named x0, x1, x2, x3, x4 etc and wants to do strange hacks with introspection and manipulation of namespace tables etc to change them all inside a loop, but has no idea how to do that - you don't explain how it could be done, you tell him "you don't want to do that, use a list" (I'm thinking of Python things). That is constructive.
Re:Two or Three a Week (Score:5, Insightful)
I was coming down out of the mountains last year and got stuck behind some flatlander doing 35-40 mph around the curves. On that road it's all curves. The funny thing was, there was a bicycle behind him and the guy on the bike was tailgating the flatlander.
FYI, not all vehicles handle curves the same, nor do all tires. Also, many people don't want to feel the centrifugal force while going around the corner, or have everything in the back shift to the other side of the vehicle.
Is it the car commercials that creates the race-car mentality in most people? Is it the long commutes to work? What? Its amazing how irate people can become when you do "only" 5 mph over the speed limit. Or when you slow down on a curvy road so that your stopping distance is less then your field of vision. Speaking of stopping distance, its amazing how many people think that a 20 year old pickup, fully loaded, with trailer, will stop as quickly as a compact car. At least, that's what I'm assume they are thinking, why else would they pull out right in front of me?
Slow down.
Re:how about a real bicycle? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good lord...welcome to slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
- Confer a speed advantage
- Often need to be pedaled in addition to electric power.
Many others have already pointed these things out, perhaps you would do well to read a bit more.
You might also want to consider that a person who is planning to build/buy an e-bike to take to work at least some of the time is most definitely reducing pollution relative to taking a car to work every day. So what does he get instead of help with his plans and maybe a little praise for lowering pollution? Crap from people who think his good efforts are not good enough unless he's a triathlete.
By they way, how do you get to work?
E-bike not for geeks (Score:3, Insightful)
As a geek you need body activity because sitting behind the screen just doesn't get you any. So get yourself a regular/racing/mountain bike.
Within a couple of weeks you notice a better condition and an increasing average speed. And, if you really need to, you can add a cardio/speedometer to increase the geeky factor.
As a real geek you could also get into the details of bike training. The different body types and their specialties, the different goals in training (muscle building, endurance, agility, fat burning etc...), the food to take etc, etc...
Re:Two or Three a Week (Score:3, Insightful)
Okay, personally speaking I like the feeling of getting into a curve, especially if I know the area very well.
Maybe 10 years or so ago there was a stretch of road where I grew up that was very very winding. THe cool thing was that there was a long straight away (~2km long) where you could see who entered the "track", if you drove slowly there the guy in front of you made it wonderfully up the side of the hill before you entered the "maze". So we had those little "races" where we timed ourselves on how long it took to get from the bottom to the top, I think I topped it out at ~70km/h average on a really twisty and windy course.
Reality is: Most speed limits are set at a pace that allows even the worst drivers to navigate carefully, and knowing the limits of your car does not only come in handy when you try to "race" but also when you have to swerve around obstacles or get into an emergency situation.
EVERY new car I owned I ended up going to a parking lot within the first week and litterally drove the car to a point where I lost control and skitted / spun out.
Why? Because I wanted to know how far I can push it without losing control, this came handy more than once when I had all of the sudden an obstacle on the road that I had to swerve around or break (breaking is not always the safest option, depending on road condition and what's going on behind you).
Re:35km/h ? (Score:1, Insightful)
you can easily get good hard road tires for a mountian bike. and getting a light enough frame negates everything else.
Not true. The suspension on a mountain bike absorbs a good part of the rider's output. You'll be far more efficient on the road with suspensionless bike.
Electric Bikes Northwest (Score:2, Insightful)
Electic Bikes Northwest has some good information as well as a movie of one of the bikes climbing a serious hill. They seem to favor the kind of e-bikes that are activated by peddling. Something about the drive being about to provide power through the gears as opposed to a fixed gear ratio.
E*bike research comparison notes? (Score:2, Insightful)