rantlust

Posted by Suman on February 01st 2010 in Bicycles, Health & Fitness, Raves, Reviews
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If you’re expecting this post to be about the fine music of either of the above artists, you will be sorely disappointed. If, however, you want to ride your bicycle down to Electric Avenue, in a manner of speaking, read on.

(image courtesy youtube)


Last August I read an interesting Business Week article about how worldwide bicycle sales had remained robust despite the recession, and that the fastest-growing segment thereof was electric bicycles. This week even the New York Times saw fit to report on the trend. While I had heard of electric bicycles before, and even tried out one that a neighbor of mine had bought a while back, I could never think of what I would use one for.

The Business Week article intrigued me enough to read several of its links, and links from those links, and one item that struck me in particular that I wasn’t previously aware of was the availability of electric conversion kits for existing regular bicycles. A few months earlier I had re-acquired my old mountain bike from my brother, who had been using it for the previous 16 years. Or rather, he had used it for a few years before buying a fancier model, and mine had been gathering dust in his garage ever since. The sad part was it had been suffering the same fate in my garage too for the preceding few months before I read that article and had a ‘eureka’ moment.

I had bought another mountain bike when I moved to Florida for grad school, which I used daily for commuting then (I lived close to campus), but hardly ever used after graduating. I guess after I got into motorcycling, recreational bicycling just wasn’t really my thing! Anyway, before that bicycle was stolen a few years ago (damn thieves), I had used it for commuting exactly twice. Both times, I arrived at work drenched in sweat and so exhausted (no pun intended; I merely mean fatigued, though exercising strenuously in traffic fumes can’t be healthy) that I wasn’t useful for at least the first hour after arriving. I therefore never considered bicycle commuting a serious option.

Anyway, the aforementioned ‘eureka,’ in case you haven’t figured it out, was to convert my old bike (which has sentimental value to me having originally been given to me by my late mother) to electric and use it for commuting. I spent several weeks researching various kits, and found that prices range from about $500 for cheapo Chinese kits with heavy lead-acid batteries to nearly $10,000 for some models with light and energy-dense lithium batteries. Having had bad experiences with some inferior Chinese products, I decided to buy a decent mid-range kit and eventually decided on the NiMH-battery-equipped E+ Flex kit by Electric Motion Systems.

Features I like about this kit:

1. Motor integrated into rear hub - allows use of conventional pedals, chain, and gears for exercise when desired
2. Batteries integrated into front hub - keeps center of gravity low and uses battery weight to increase gyroscopic stability (also, doesn’t force you to sacrifice luggage rack or a bottle cage for battery storage, if that’s important to you)
3. Regenerative braking - charges batteries while braking like a hybrid car
4. Made by a company from a developed country - in this case U.S.A.

Some other kits I considered are from Bionx, which is Canadian and has many of the same features (including regenerative braking), and E-BikeKit, which uses a front wheel mounted motor and offers a choice of battery types. There are several companies out there, but some don’t seem very reputable, so in general, buyer beware. A good source of info for anyone considering an e-bike or e-bike conversion is the Endless Sphere forum.

As far as my own personal experience, the E+ Flex kit conversion has been great! It only took me a couple of hours to install all the parts (two new wheels with new tires; two new brake levers with switches for the regenerative braking; backlit controller/display showing charge status and cycle computer functions; throttle; and data/power cables), and the company has been very responsive to any questions I’ve had. Riding the bike is just like riding a regular bike except you have the option of applying the throttle to get a little boost from the motor and batteries. Note that you still have to pedal - the motor and batteries do not have enough power to propel the bike on their own. Well, not unless you and the people behind you have a lot of patience; you could eventually get across an intersection, but not before the light turns red again (you’d also drain the battery much quicker than if pedaling too). What the electric assist does is precisely that: assist. It makes pedaling easier, and therefore allows you to reach a higher speed while pedaling than you could unassisted. How intensely you pedal is entirely up to you.

I’ve been using it on average for about three days a week to commute from home to work, work to the gym, and the gym to home - a total distance of about 14 miles a day - since September 2009. While my main motivations were to restore (and get use out of) an old bicycle and enable a green commute*, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find I’ve lost 6 pounds. The best part is, while I’m now getting nearly an extra three hours per week of cardio, it doesn’t really feel like exercise. I pedal at a comfortable pace and arrive at work without - or only barely - having broken a sweat (for those so inclined, the controller offers resistance modes for more rigorous exercise or for going downhill slower with a sort of engine braking). Another benefit is that I now actually notice the scenery on my way to work, which I previously didn’t see enough of to even think it was worth noticing.

If you’re looking for a different way to get or stay fit, consider turning your commute into a fun, effective, and barely noticeable workout!

Here’s a pic** (clickable for larger image):

*Doing the math assuming $2.50 per gallon of gasoline, 19.6 lbs. of CO2 produced per gallon of gasoline, $0.11/kWh electricity cost, 1.33 lbs. of CO2 produced per kWh of electricity (2007 U.S. generation data), and 78 miles/kWh (28 miles maximum range/0.36 kWh battery capacity), one gets over 1100 mpg in terms of CO2 emissions and nearly 1800 mpg in terms of fuel cost. Those aren’t typos; the math really works out to eleven hundred and eighteen hundred miles per gallon comparative emissions per mile and cost per mile, respectively (for our metric friends, that’s 0.2 & 0.13 l/100km, or 480 & 750 km/l). No hybrid car can touch that!

**The rear case is a motorcycle trunk I added so I’d have lockable, waterproof storage for my briefcase, gym bag, groceries, etc.

Postscript February 17, 2010:

Bicycle Safety: I forgot to mention that the very first day I biked to work last fall, I was rather unnerved by the traffic on my regular (car/motorcycle) route.  I did a search for ‘bicycle safety’ that same day and found this great site that I highly recommend: www.bicyclesafe.com.  Two of their tips I’ve adopted are to use a different route when bicycling that includes streets with less traffic and lower speed limits, and to wear a reflective vest even during the day.  In addition, a few days ago while driving my car I noticed a rider with a helmet-mounted rear flashing taillight like mine (see pic below and comment #2), who had it switched on during the day, and I have to say it was really noticeable even in daylight, so I’ve started riding with my blinky on during the day too.  Definitely put it on your helmet vs. your bike - the higher up it is, the more visible it is.

Maintenance/Repair: Another excellent site I’d like to point people to if they’re not already familiar with it is the Sheldon Brown site (scroll down to the yellow box for specific sections).  Absolutely fantastic info if you’re into keeping an older bike on the road (or just maintaining a new one; the Park Tool book I mentioned in comment #2 below is extremely helpful in either case too).

Postscript May 14, 2010:

Here’s an interesting ready-made e-bike (not a kit) that has nice styling and is reasonably priced for what it offers: Pedego.