Should pedaling charge the battery? Or going downhill?

[larry-new]

Rad City has regen..if I'm down a bar and use regen, the bar will return, but not last very long after going down a moderate hill.

Unfortunately , what goes down has to come back up...lol.

 

[tomjasz]

The natural braking aspect of regen is an interesting feature that could be a plus in very hilly areas (like where I live!)

The biggest reason for liking regen is the braking. I use regen braking on my 1500w front drive city haulerand trailering bike. CA3 Cycle Analyst allows for powerful enough braking to overtake any rim or disc brake. Amazing and can have a full range of settings. It’s my truck. And most used city bike. It’s a shame others just simply say front drive is crap. It’s all about application. I’ve built flat foot 3 speeds with coaster brakes and front drives that stop as needed and have been running for 4 years with little maintenance. Making those coaster brake 3 speeds safe stoppers.

 

[Auldphart]

RadCity rider for over 1500 miles. My morning commute starts with a good most-of-a-mile downhill and the regen braking is a bummer when the weather is nice and appreciated when it's in the 30s(F) like it was this morning. My commute is downhill+flat out and flat+uphill home. I'm not sure the regen is doing me much favors except for saving a little brake wear. Can't keep up with my trad bike friend on the downhill due to lack of high gearing on the RadCity. He's hitting 30+ mph and I struggle to hit 26.

I plug in at both ends of my ~13 mile commute because I need the oomph of a pretty full batt on the homeward bound leg and I'm a bit of a Nervous Nellie on the work-bound leg with a tiny climb at the end. Could likely get away with every other charge cycle but one of the reasons I'm riding this thing is to make commuting easier, and that includes worrying. And yes, I'm aware I'm decreasing battery life with this approach.

 

[elizilla]

I have a friend who was part of a small startup making electric scooters. Scooters not bicycles, but I think the questions are the same. Anyways, he told me that they did put regen on their scooters, but not because it was useful. It wasn't. They only did it because being able to say they had regen, was a selling point when talking to potential buyers. From a pure engineering point of view, he said it was better not to have it, because the small vehicle doesn't waste enough power while braking, to be worth the cost/weight/complexity of the equipment to capture it. But it is a feature the buyers care deeply about so they included it.

 

[AHicks]

From what little I know about it, it's not near as complicated as it sounds. 1 tiny circuit in a micro processor, is turned on when you engage the brake lever (which I hope is already there?)

 

[tomjasz]

I have a friend who was part of a small startup making electric scooters. Scooters not bicycles, but I think the questions are the same. Anyways, he told me that they did put regen on their scooters, but not because it was useful. It wasn't. They only did it because being able to say they had regen, was a selling point when talking to potential buyers. From a pure engineering point of view, he said it was better not to have it, because the small vehicle doesn't waste enough power while braking, to be worth the cost/weight/complexity of the equipment to capture it. But it is a feature the buyers care deeply about so they included it.

All but the cheapest controllers and hub motors can or have regen capability already. No big expense unless the scooter is using the cheapest controllers available.

 

[elizilla]

I don't know how much they got from the world parts bin and how much they made themselves. If they were building their own controllers or motors, they may have had to design their own regen systems.

It has been a few years now and that company no longer exists. I liked the prototypes I rode for him, though.

 

[tomjasz]

I don't know how much they got from the world parts bin and how much they made themselves. If they were building their own controllers or motors, they may have had to design their own regen systems.

It has been a few years now and that company no longer exists. I liked the prototypes I rode for him, though.

Experience and history leads many to blieve it’s an industry that is rife with “borrowed” ideas and direct copies. The truth is in hours of research, or accepting opinions of those that muddled through. That said anyone that portends to know it all is a fool.

 

[slowguy]

The former Polaris is PIM which I love. They have very strong regeneration down-hill. Depending on choice, -1 or -2 you get 50 or 100 w regeneration the manual claims. It certainly slows you down quickly; feels like the Chevy VOLT level; enough to make to feel the change in momentum. By the way, they are really great trail bikes but were really too expensive as Polaris.

 

[MetroDuck]

That's such a good point. I had a bike in Japan that had lights that were operated by electricity generated by riding the bike--the light had a little wheel that rolled against the front tire, producing the energy to power the light. This produced quite a bit of drag, so I only used the light when it was getting dark or at night.

That is great. I had one of those generator lights back in the day too!

 

[Snookguru101]

Hi all,

When folks hear about my ebike, I fairly frequently get the question "does pedaling charge the battery, or does the battery charge when you ride downhill?"

It makes sense to me that pedaling wouldn't charge the battery, as we want that energy to propel the bike during the riding process. I saw the Mando Footloose EV where pedaling extends range by charging the battery. It seems to me, from reading the specs, that the amount of range extension is pretty negligible, so that there's no way that pedaling can really keep a battery charged. And, it makes sense to me that pedaling on conventional ebikes which don't charge the battery immediately applies the energy to the road surface, also extends range, perhaps more efficiently than pedaling-to-charge-the-battery would, since I think bicycles are pretty mechanically efficient to transfer rider energy output to the road.

But one thing I wonder is about going downhill. This is a common experience for me, since I live in a very hilly area. Sometimes I pedal downhill, if it is not very steep, to get more speed. Other hills, well, I end up BRAKING. That braking is wasted momentum, isn't it? Mighten there be some kind of software solution that takes excess energy and puts it back into the battery? I imagine that any such system, though, would produce drag. Hmmm...

I'm sure you can tell by reading this that I have no technical background. Just using my ordinary imagination ... Musing ...

 

[McCorby]

Snookguru why did you just quote an old post??? Do you have a question?

 

[Snookguru101]

No it was called an observation attach to an answer

 

[McCorby]

No it was called an observation attach to an answer

I don’t see a reply/answer from you. Just you quoting the OPs original post. What am I missing?