Carbon Dry Japan POWERed Bike S1

[shiruba]

Picked this up cheap on yahoo auctions broken, and fixed it, since all that was wrong as a broken battery and some rust. This seems to be based on the Diavelo/Protanium Speed Bike/Au2Bahn, with the largest differences being a different controller board and the carbon cover on the rear wheel. This version also has a mountain bike style suspension fork. The European sites say it is a 36 volt battery, but it turns out to be 48v on the Japanese model.

According to Japanese law, this is not a bike, but a moped, so it needs to be registered as such with a license plate, insurance, etc., but it very easily gets up to 40kps.

It's hard to get this bike going from a stop when going up a hill, which I found out is because it uses a speed sensor instead of a torque sensor.

 

[Joe Darkness]

Nice find .. that was sold new for over 380,000 JPY looks like you paid 50,000 JPY for it
Wish i could find a deal like that !! - I have never seen anything like that in Tokyo

Does the controller board have any marking on it ? - I don't know if you could retro fit a torque sensor


I wouldn't worry about Japanese police they couldn't find their ass with both hands tied behind their back as long you don't do anything silly

 

[shiruba]

Hi,

Well I got it for cheap, but ... I did had to spend a little bit of money (and a lot of time) fixing the battery by replacing a bunch of cells, and it also took a while to remove all the rust. (I highly recommend liquid nejizaurus for that!),
It has very little wear and tear, I think the original owner get it and just kept it in a damp warehouse or something. That would explain the rust and also the battery dying (if it was never charged).

I bought it more for the challenge of fixing it than to actually use it (as I have an XM-1 and an XM-D2 already...), so I may just decide to resell it now that it is working. (I expected fixing it to occupy me for longer than it did...)

One interesting thing is that it has turn signal blinkers!

Another interesting thing is that according to the controller, it goes up well over 500 watts. Perhaps it is 500 watts continuous but something like 800 or 1000 watts peak.

You're right, you probably wouldn't get caught driving it illegally - but.... Japanese police have been on a campaign against illegal imported Chinese eBikes that don't follow the rules, and if they do catch you, you get tickets like: Driving without a license, driving an unregistered vehicle, uninsured driving, etc. It only took me like 15 minutes and 200 yen to register it and get a cute license plate.

Actually I drove it from Yokohama to Tokyo before fixing it, but I figured anyone who stopped me would give me the benefit of the doubt seeing as how it wouldn't power on. Actually, even broken it isn't a bad bike. Given that it has disk brakes and a decent suspension, it would probably be at least 50,000 JPY.

There are "Some" markings on the controller, but not terribly informative. I have attached some photos and the user manual to this message.

 

[Joe Darkness]

You have some really nice bikes ;-) ,I have a crossbike but it's just a normal one it's nice carbon forks and disc hydro brakes

Was kind of disappointed in the range of non - MamaCha bikes last time I looked at the range it has got better still would like to get a rad wagon cargo

 

[shiruba]

A little clarification about the license plate: It is free in Suginami-ku to register and get your plate, but you have to pay 2000 JPY in tax. The other minimum cost is the mandatory insurance.

Anyway, I can afford to spend a little bit more on my bikes since I don't have to pay for a car. I considered getting a SuperCub, but I decided to stick with eBikes because I don't have time to go to the gym for exercise. With the eBikes, I can turn off the assist and get a workout, or turn it on for convenience. I don't think lugging a Super Cub without the engine on would be the kind of work-out I want!

As for range: I don't think it is a realistic issue for around town type use. Even with my XM-D2 on high assist mode, I can go from Suginami-ku to Adachi-ku and back without running out of power. The XM-1 and XM-D2 can also charge like 80% in three hours. The charger is a bit bulky but not very heavy, so you could potentially bring it with you to charge somewhere - but I have never felt the need to do that. If you uhm.. tweak the assist to work at higher speeds, then of course the battery would run out faster.

I am not sure how long the PoweredBike takes to charge as I have only had the time to test it a few times, but the charger for that is also a laptop style unit that could be easily stuffed in a backpack. I also assume that the PoweredBike would last less distance than the Panasonic bikes on high power for a few reasons:
1. The Poweredbike is 500 watts (at least), compared with 250 for Panasonic.
2. The Poweredbike will keep powering up to much higher speeds, where wind resistance is greater
3. Panasonic and the like have spent many years tweaking their controller algorithms, and from what I have heard, they make better use of the battery power than foreign competitors. This is partly because they make the batteries, controller, and motor, so they can integrate everything more tightly.

The truth, however, is that the only long ride I did with the Poweredbike was from Yokohama to Tokyo, and that was before I fixed it, so it was just a heavy bike at that point - so I can't say much about the battery life. By the way, if you like really long and boring movies, you can watch that one here: