Oh, right, two; soon(ish) to be 4, plus one completely from scratch frame.
1 Like
Having a hard time believing that this is only a 5% loss over conventional drivetrain.
Radical new electric bike drive system requires no chains or belts, entirely ride-by-wire
Maybe for cargo bikes with long chains / chainstays there is more loss?
1 Like
Haulin Colin built one of these for his Shamu double-longtail viewpoint recumbent cargo tandem
the recumbent stoker’s cranks now have a very short length of chain driving a 6-bolt fixed cog on a hub motor
instead of a mechanical shifter to set their independent gear ratio on the IGH jackshaft, they now have an electronic throttle to set the wattage for their hubmotor’s resistance
this is all kinda stupid when the thing has 20 kWh worth of Chevy Bolt battery
but it means that the stoker boom is self-contained and instantly adjustable to different leg lengths without having to fuck around with chain lengths
8 Likes
Would absolutely love an updated photo of Shamu at some point. Watching it evolve through the years has been amazing.
1 Like
I have been thinking about a “proper” ebike for my wife. The Giant Talon 3 looked to be the closest to my pricepoint, so I test rode one last night. It was a very natural experience compared to my cadence sensed 500 watt bafang, but it felt pretty damn weak by comparison. Price in NZ dollars was 3300$, apparently they are 2800$ US.
Has anyone heard good or bad things about them? I feel like it would have to be ridden higher up it’s power curve in order to get along at a reasonable pace, which would impact on the range ?
The pedal assist ones are a different feeling, much more like pedaling with a stoker rather than having a motor attached. You might have to have a shorter range but the tradeoff is it feels like a bike. Also my IRL range on the xtracycle is quite a bit better than the quoted range because I’m willing to pedal harder.
1 Like
I ended up buying the Talon with the 500 wh battery.
Is this a hack below or us this a standard offering? Probably a similar range to a Leaf.
1 Like
Depends on what is allowed in your podunk nation state. There’s a class in freedumb land that hits 28 m.p.h. assisted. Also note the extra battery that is most certainly a hack.
1 Like
Looks like someone hacked an extra battery pack on the stock e-domane ?
1 Like
Oh ok, that’s what I was referring too. Yeah we have a 300 watt limit that is not enforced in any way.
That’s one of my real hang-ups with allowing any type of e-assist bikes on MTB trails here. It’s hard enough to enforce a “zero e-bikes allowed” policy, but the minute we allow some e-bikes but not others basically all enforcement is out the window. Ain’t no way the Forest Service has the know how or capacity to check if a bike is “class 1” vs. class 2 or higher, and half the time it will be folks on rental bikes who don’t know themselves what they are riding.
4 Likes
Can anybody who has used a mid-drive kit comment on how they affect the general bikey-ness of their bike?
I find that maybe 2-3 days a month, I would like to have an e-bike. It’s typically either some fatigue or I feel like I could go someplace outside my normal range with a little assist. But 90% of the time I’m very happy to not have the motor and wires etc and like being human-powered.
Of all my bikes it would make most sense to put an e-kit on my Big Dummy. But as I say, despite it being slow, I kinda like how it rides right now. The e-bike kits seem more like they want to be mopeds and don’t really seem marketed towards “bike people”
I think I’ll end up with some sort of integrated factory e-bike someday (especially if I have kids to haul around), but I just want to check on how good current kits are if you actually like riding bikes
With my cadence sensored kit bafang, the feel is very unbikey. Too much power. Very off or on. On the new bike 
brought my wife last week which is torque sensored, it is a completely natural feel. Gutless by comparison, but that is it’s strength. It can be ridden at low speed easily. It was fun building the bafang tho. And it could really haul !
2 Likes
Integrated STEPs on our eBullitt feels much more bikey than I expected - i can ride it daily and not feel (too much) like a slouch.
Motor off is a bit sluggish, especially with the massive kids box, but still rideable around the neighborhood and i do switch off often when riding unloaded.
Eco mode is nice for taking the edge off hauling - imo feels like removing the weight of the kid(s) and just enjoying the ride.
but the lack of backpedaling definitely reminds me it’s an E-Bike (cranks just spin, no chain engagement)
3 Likes
agree that they’re too binary compared to torque sensing (that you only really get in integrated Yamaha/Steps/Bosch etc models) or very fancy kits.
but you can get the USB programming cable and adjust the parameters, see the Settings in the second tab (Pedal Assist) section for how to change how the power is ramped in/out:
1 Like
Klite Kerry told me about these. Cheaper and lighter than a bafang, in 250watt version anyway. I couldn’t find one here easily so brought an integrated whole bike thingo. https://www.desertcart.nz/products/55505953-new-version-52-v-750-w-tongsheng-tsdz-2-ebike-kit-mid-motor-with-torque-sensor-throttle-brake-front-light-included
1 Like
The Tongsheng seems like it’s the closest to what I would want, but reviews over the years seem kinda mixed (though this is true for all the kits I feel like).
I think I’ll probably scuttle this idea until I can get an integrated bike. Or I have to haul kids around or have some sort of ridiculous commute, at which point a lightweight electric motorcycle might actually make sense.
On the plus side, I weighed my kit bike last night, as I prep it for sale, and it’s 18.6 kgs. That’s a lot less than the 23.4 kg thing I bought the wife. Just an old rigid giant alloy ATX with discs that someone donored me.
1 Like
Ok I am mentally dithering on ebike stuff again. The CYC X1 Stealth looks pretty good but in all the videos on youtube it sounds loud as hell! Like a big ass power drill running every time they have the motor going. Is that pretty normal for e-bikes? In this case the noise is enough to scare me away.
no i had a bafang and it was super quiet. and it was on a shitty bike too.
1 Like