Electric Bike Podcast #2 - Cold Weather Tips & Gear, Velomobiles, Sondors Car, Haibike Denver

[Admin]

Podcast available in audio form on SoundCloud now: https://soundcloud.com/user-280486140/sets/electric-bike-podcast

Greetings fellow electric bike enthusiasts... myself (Court Rye), the owner of Propel Bikes in Brooklyn (Chris Nolte), the owners of the New Wheel in San Francisco (Brett Thurber and Karen Wiener) and a head mechanic from Blue Monkey Bicycles in Salt Lake City Utah (Mikey G) got to chat about cold weather gear and some best practices for batteries this week... among so many other things! We had a guest speaker, the CEO of Easy Motion, there to talk about two wheel drive electric bikes and battery insulators. Sorry this wasn't posted sooner to gather questions, I got a bunch from the YouTube comments and the last post. Hope you enjoy! There is also now a podcast sound-only resource on SoundCloud linked above.

The main topic for this podcast was cold weather tips and it started with a guest commentary with Steve Lindenau, the CEO of Easy Motion Electric bikes. His company is one of the only I’ve heard of that offers mainstream two wheel drive ebikes including the Evo Snow and Big Bud Pro. They deliver better traction and have an optional accessory Neoprene wrap that can be zipped on to keep the packs from getting cold so fast which impacts range and can also damage the cells (extreme cold and extreme heat). After a bit of chatting Mikey G from Blue Monkey Bicycle chimed in about Bar Mitts and neck warmers. Chris and Brett also joined in on the topic with scarfs and even full body suits. I was excited to see the full body bicycling suit and we got into safety with reflective clothing and lights. Some helmets now offer warm liners and Mikey had one from Bern which could be swapped out in the summer for a visor. He also suggested using rain pants for riding in the snow and rain, you can wear them over your jeans or other regular pants. Another great accessory is the tubular scarf which can be pulled up over your mouth and ears but take note your breath can fog up glasses. From here we transitioned to discussion on the Sondors Electric Car, the Organic Transit ELF Velomobile and wind farings for bikes. The subject of crotch strength on pants came up and that there are some pants that can be reinforced or are specially made for cycling. Later I talked about my trip from Arizona to SoCal and then we got into news. People for Bikes had their first Draft meetup event in San Francisco recently and has several more coming up throughout the year. You can meet others who enjoy bicycling. Haibike has moved their headquarters in the US to Denver Colorado and the governer John Hickenlooper has created the Colorado Pedals Project to expand infrastructure. There’s talk of a new TDCM mid drive motor with five speed internal gearing from Sturmey Archer and this week CBS is airing a 60 Minutes episode on mechanical doping in professional cycling, the Vivax assist from Gruber came up as one of the smaller less detectable ebike motors.

Other things we talked about:
- Chris's shop in Brookly New York, Propel Bikes: http://propelbikes.com/
- Brett and Karen's shop in San Francisco and Marin California, New Wheel: http://newwheel.net/
- Mikey’s shop in Salt Lake City Utah, Blue Monkey Bicycles: http://www.bluemonkeybicycles.com/
- 60 Minutes Mechanical Doping interview with Istvan Varjas: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cbs...es-mechanical-doping-in-professional-cycling/
- Tubular Scarfs (all sorts of companies make these): https://www.etsy.com/market/tubular_scarf
- Respro Pollution Mask: http://respro.com/pollution-masks and totobobo mask https://totobobo.com/
- Bicycle Farings from Zzipper http://www.zzipper.com/
- Organic Transit ELF: http://organictransit.com/
- One Piece Bikesuit http://www.bikesuit.eu/
- AB Fits clothing alterations in San Francisco: http://www.abfits.com/
- People for Bikes Draft Events: http://www.peopleforbikes.org/pages/draft and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DraftMeetup/
- Colorado Pedals Project: https://www.bicyclecolorado.org/initiatives/colorado-pedals-project/
- Accell E-Bike Motor with Integrated 5-Speed TDCM and Sturmey Archer: http://www.bike-eu.com/home/nieuws/...tor-with-integrated-5-speed-gear-hub-10128755
- Inventor of hidden motors UCI Tour de France: https://cyclingtips.com/2016/10/inv...-blocking-motor-tests-at-2016-tour-de-france/

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[Ravi Kempaiah]

Great series with useful information.

- Chris's shop in Brookly New York, Propel Bikes: http://propelbikes.com/
- Brett and Karen's shop in San Francisco and Marin California, New Wheel: http://newwheel.net/
- Mikey’s shop in Salt Lake City Utah, Blue Monkey Bicycles: http://www.bluemonkeybicycles.com/

Wonderful people!

- Respro Pollution Mask: http://respro.com/pollution-masks and totobobo mask https://totobobo.com/

These things are widely used in China!
Beijing and other main cities in China have extreme smog conditions and everybody uses them. There are better and inexpensive solutions available on Ali Express et al.,

- Accell E-Bike Motor with Integrated 5-Speed TDCM and Sturmey Archer: http://www.bike-eu.com/home/nieuws/...tor-with-integrated-5-speed-gear-hub-10128755

This 5-speed gearbox only works with the pedal cadence and not through the motor. So, it's sort of similar to IGH but not entirely !

 

[James Kohls]

- Tubular Scarfs (all sorts of companies make these): https://www.etsy.com/market/tubular_scarf

At least around here, Neck Gaiter is the term more commonly used for this type of garment.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=neck+gaiter

With any garment that covers your mouth and nose, glasses or goggles fogging up will be a problem. Products like Cat Crap anti-fog are helpful in milder temps above freezing. Below freezing, none of these products can defend against the amount of moisture your breath holds. If it is really cold, your glasses/goggles will form ice almost instantly. The only solution is to keep your gaiter below your nose or find a neck gaiter that has breathing holes. I use a Saucony Omni, which is great down to temps of about 25 degrees, and supplement it with a merino wool gaiter pulled up to just under my nose during colder temps.

I did a long post a while back about riding gear in freezing Minnesota, if anyone is interested.

https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/winter-biking-advice-from-a-minnesotan.11032/

 

[Admin]

Thanks for the tips and links @James Kohls! I realize we could have gone much more in depth on products and done a better job on the winter riding topic... I guess these tend to be fun conversations, a bit of randomness and general coverage of the topic. I'm totally open to feedback but enjoyed the first two and that's part of what makes them worth doing. How did you like them and what would you like to see changed or added?

 

[James Kohls]

I wouldn't worry too much about going in depth on every topic, every time. That's what future discussions are for. For new topics (which all topics in the near future will be relatively new), keeping this shorter is good as it can be used to gauge how much interest there is in a topic. If you get a lot of people who respond well and want to know more, an in depth discussion can happen in the future. I think in the early days, having podcasts that cover many topics would encourage people to stay tuned. I know some podcasts have a regular fun discussion podcast like you're doing, then post "special" podcasts for in-depth discussions on specific topics that may have a narrower audience.

It is not my podcast, so I don't really feel comfortable telling you what I'd like to see changed, but if I you were to solicit one opinion, it would be to come up with a show format. Maybe start every episode with e-bike news (new bikes, new legislation, new gear); maybe mention the new reviews posted to ElectricBikeReview.com; a pointed discussion topic (specific bike, technology, event, etc); a special guest (like EasyMotion); and summary. I have a number of podcasts where I only like specific segments they do. I love it when they always tend to have the same format so I can easily jump to the area I'm interested in.

No matter what, the fun conversations are great to watch. You found some cool people to do these podcasts with. If it isn't fun for you guys, it probably wouldn't be worth while.

 

[Chris Nolte]

How about inviting some ladies on to give their perspective on daily commuting challenges or on the e-bike scene in general? If I'm to believe the article below, significant market growth will come from women, and this probably applies to e-bikes too. I've noticed that women usually wander onto this forum and ask a question or two, but are initially pretty discrete. If you want to promote e-bikes in the US, you need to get women on board...

https://momentummag.com/women-lead-the-way-for-future-growth-of-cycling-in-north-america/

I had someone recently recommend something similar. The idea that women can really start accelerating the trend. Through most surveys and our analytics and our sales we see most ebike customers are men currently. I really hope that things become more equitable. I believe a large part of that is driven by product development and marketing. We've seen some brands do really well with women. I've found that most women riders appreciate practicality and design and the brands that focus on this generally do well.

Next week I think we're going to talk about ebike lights. We'll definitely think on how we can integrate this topic in a future talk.

 

[Chris Nolte]

Very well thought out advice as usual @JayVee we're seeing the same trend and we're frankly moving in the same direction. I actually ride the Moustache Lundi myself quite a bit and I really enjoy it. I think we need to put the days of men's and women's bikes behind us. I sell just as many low step bikes to men as I do women. It is really nice to see things evolve. I think the non-electric bike industry can learn a lot from the electric side as to who their market is and what they "really" want.

 

[bob armani]

Podcast available in audio form on SoundCloud now: https://soundcloud.com/user-280486140/sets/electric-bike-podcast

Greetings fellow electric bike enthusiasts... myself (Court Rye), the owner of Propel Bikes in Brooklyn (Chris Nolte), the owners of the New Wheel in San Francisco (Brett Thurber and Karen Wiener) and a head mechanic from Blue Monkey Bicycles in Salt Lake City Utah (Mikey G) got to chat about cold weather gear and some best practices for batteries this week... among so many other things! We had a guest speaker, the CEO of Easy Motion, there to talk about two wheel drive electric bikes and battery insulators. Sorry this wasn't posted sooner to gather questions, I got a bunch from the YouTube comments and the last post. Hope you enjoy! There is also now a podcast sound-only resource on SoundCloud linked above.

The main topic for this podcast was cold weather tips and it started with a guest commentary with Steve Lindenau, the CEO of Easy Motion Electric bikes. His company is one of the only I’ve heard of that offers mainstream two wheel drive ebikes including the Evo Snow and Big Bud Pro. They deliver better traction and have an optional accessory Neoprene wrap that can be zipped on to keep the packs from getting cold so fast which impacts range and can also damage the cells (extreme cold and extreme heat). After a bit of chatting Mikey G from Blue Monkey Bicycle chimed in about Bar Mitts and neck warmers. Chris and Brett also joined in on the topic with scarfs and even full body suits. I was excited to see the full body bicycling suit and we got into safety with reflective clothing and lights. Some helmets now offer warm liners and Mikey had one from Bern which could be swapped out in the summer for a visor. He also suggested using rain pants for riding in the snow and rain, you can wear them over your jeans or other regular pants. Another great accessory is the tubular scarf which can be pulled up over your mouth and ears but take note your breath can fog up glasses. From here we transitioned to discussion on the Sondors Electric Car, the Organic Transit ELF Velomobile and wind farings for bikes. The subject of crotch strength on pants came up and that there are some pants that can be reinforced or are specially made for cycling. Later I talked about my trip from Arizona to SoCal and then we got into news. People for Bikes had their first Draft meetup event in San Francisco recently and has several more coming up throughout the year. You can meet others who enjoy bicycling. Haibike has moved their headquarters in the US to Denver Colorado and the governer John Hickenlooper has created the Colorado Pedals Project to expand infrastructure. There’s talk of a new TDCM mid drive motor with five speed internal gearing from Sturmey Archer and this week CBS is airing a 60 Minutes episode on mechanical doping in professional cycling, the Vivax assist from Gruber came up as one of the smaller less detectable ebike motors.

Other things we talked about:
- Chris's shop in Brookly New York, Propel Bikes: http://propelbikes.com/
- Brett and Karen's shop in San Francisco and Marin California, New Wheel: http://newwheel.net/
- Mikey’s shop in Salt Lake City Utah, Blue Monkey Bicycles: http://www.bluemonkeybicycles.com/
- 60 Minutes Mechanical Doping interview with Istvan Varjas: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cbs...es-mechanical-doping-in-professional-cycling/
- Tubular Scarfs (all sorts of companies make these): https://www.etsy.com/market/tubular_scarf
- Respro Pollution Mask: http://respro.com/pollution-masks and totobobo mask https://totobobo.com/
- Bicycle Farings from Zzipper http://www.zzipper.com/
- Organic Transit ELF: http://organictransit.com/
- One Piece Bikesuit http://www.bikesuit.eu/
- AB Fits clothing alterations in San Francisco: http://www.abfits.com/
- People for Bikes Draft Events: http://www.peopleforbikes.org/pages/draft and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DraftMeetup/
- Colorado Pedals Project: https://www.bicyclecolorado.org/initiatives/colorado-pedals-project/
- Accell E-Bike Motor with Integrated 5-Speed TDCM and Sturmey Archer: http://www.bike-eu.com/home/nieuws/...tor-with-integrated-5-speed-gear-hub-10128755
- Inventor of hidden motors UCI Tour de France: https://cyclingtips.com/2016/10/inv...-blocking-motor-tests-at-2016-tour-de-france/

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Court and participants~Excellent and awesome presentation. Love the doping coverage. Hope to see more podcasts to come! Thank you!