The last ebike manufacturing challenge

[EdC]

I live in Chicago where ebikes are just catching on. I ride an ebike everyware so I’m always curious to see if bikes I see are ebikes too. Before an ebike gets close enough to me to visually identify, it gives itself away by the sound of its motor. If an electric car passes me, I only here the tire noise. Will ebike ever be able to make a noiseless ebike motor. Ed

 

[onlineaddy]

It's funny: car manufacturers are actually adding artificial noises to their electric vehicles to warn pedestrians of their presence.

 

[Calicoskies]

Direct drive is pretty quiet.

 

[ebikemom]

My geared hub is pretty darned quiet.

I noticed that fatbikes are very noisy--I wonder if some of this is tire noise?

 

[Chopperbill]

My RadRover tires sound like a pickup on dry pavement with snow tires. People turn and look even if I’m dead heading down a hill. I consider it a safety feature.

 

[harryS]

Fatbikes are like a swarm of bees with knobby tires on pavement, but they are silent in snow. or maybe the earmuffs blocked the sound. I've taken them off my fatbikes in favor of smooth tires.

 

[PaD]

I live in Chicago where ebikes are just catching on. I ride an ebike everyware so I’m always curious to see if bikes I see are ebikes too. Before an ebike gets close enough to me to visually identify, it gives itself away by the sound of its motor. If an electric car passes me, I only here the tire noise. Will ebike ever be able to make a noiseless ebike motor. Ed

My Vado with Brose S motor is very quiet most of the time. Sometimes it makes a little more noise when cadence is above approx. 77 but not always. Still there is always less whining than I remember from test riding Bosch bikes a year ago. I don’t think the Bosch is bad because of that, it’s just that I find my bike less ”noisy”.
I think I quite often can visually identify an e-bike by the low cadence

 

[kathik]

I own two bikes with Brose motors. They are nearly silent.

 

[Balemonkey]

I have a fat bike with a hub motor and I get more noise from the tires then the motor. Even with the tire noise it is still pretty quite.

 

[AHicks]

Even the direct drive bikes will "whine" at speeds over about 10 mph. I know mine does for sure. It's ALL tire noise!

Still in their infancy, the e-bike manf's. and more probably, the tire manf's producing tires for use on e-bikes, need to bring some efficient tires to market that will offer decent traction without excessive noise.

 

[ilanarama]

My husband and I rode our (non-electric) mountain bikes today, and we marveled at how much noisier they are than our nearly silent e-bikes. I think it's the combination of the wider, knobby tires, and the derailleur noise (our e-bikes are chain drive with sealed hub CVT gearing).

 

[DouglasB]

Electric motors are pretty quiet in general. Can't say that I notice much in the way of a noise from my Bosch when I'm riding. Some times there is a very faint whine but that's about it. My tires are fairly wide but have a street tread so they are quiet as well.

 

[Ken M]

My RadRover tires sound like a pickup on dry pavement with snow tires. People turn and look even if I’m dead heading down a hill. I consider it a safety feature.

Sadly those noisy knobbies are a handling / safety issue in my opinion on streets. Get some real street tires and you will quickly realize how those balloon knobbies are put on these bikes to make people feel they can go high performance mtn biking and that's ????

 

[rdpchef]

Electric motors are pretty quiet in general. Can't say that I notice much in the way of a noise from my Bosch when I'm riding. Some times there is a very faint whine but that's about it. My tires are fairly wide but have a street tread so they are quiet as well.

I agree, i just got mine, rode only 12 miles yesterday but didn't hear a thing. Last year when i first rode one in Greece i definitely noticed noise. i'm going to have to pay attention this week when i ride.

 

[TimJohn]

I assembled a E-bike and put a front HUB motor (Bafang G311 - standard wind) and it is silent. Its all in the gears. The gears are helical rather than straight cut and that makes all the difference. A direct drive would be silent as well. The other point to consider is the drag. Can you pedal the bike effortlessly as if you don't have a motor when or if the battery runs out. Well with a geared motor, at least, the one that I have is really good in this aspect. The bike is just about 12 lbs heavier.