What have you learned from your e-bike experiences?

200mile range is good for me. 300mi range would be amazing.
Well, you know, Starlink is using ion-drive propulsion for its satellites. So, maybe someday?

(I’m just joking guys, but I do hope battery tech grows maybe an order or magnitude distance/weight in the near future.)
 
I’m just joking guys, but I do hope battery tech grows maybe an order or magnitude distance/weight in the near future.
Order of magnitude?

images.jpeg

Personally, I hope Margot Robbie shows up at my door with a carbon-everything S-works Creo 2 she converted to flat bars just for me. So we can ride together when she's in town. And my wife will be so happy for me!

I think I have better odds.
;^}
 
Last edited:
Order of magnitude?

View attachment 199469
Personally, I hope Margot Robbie shows up at my door with a carbon-everything S-works Creo 2 she converted to flat bars just for me. So we can ride together when she's in town. And my wife won't mind at all.

I think I have better odds.
;^}
Bicycle? There's a bicycle? What bicycle?
 
one thing i've learned from bikes and e-bikes - no matter how well you plan, ALMOST ALWAYS some small thing goes wrong in modifying, upgrading, maintaining, adjusting a bike. sometimes it's a deal breaker, sometimes just an annoyance, sometimes the lack of a tool makes a 20 second job take 20 minutes, or 2000000 minutes.

today i converted my beat up old front hub commuter to belt drive, bled the brakes and replaced all the rotors and pads. on the first try, i had to go back a few steps because the instructions were wrong about the sequence of installing the tensioner and e-shifter module. redid that. first test ride, no shifting. several steps back, bad alignments between the e-shifter and the sturmey 4 speed hub. now it's shifting again, the brakes are awesome (i'd been living with serious pad/rotor grinding), but the beltline is off by a few millimeters. pretty cool otherwise!

2420-belt.jpg
2416-cog.jpg
2415-cog.jpg
 
one thing i've learned from bikes and e-bikes - no matter how well you plan, ALMOST ALWAYS some small thing goes wrong in modifying, upgrading, maintaining, adjusting a bike. sometimes it's a deal breaker, sometimes just an annoyance, sometimes the lack of a tool makes a 20 second job take 20 minutes, or 2000000 minutes.
Leave out the "ALMOST" and you'd have my track record with these things.

Can we see the whole bike?
 
Leave out the "ALMOST" and you'd have my track record with these things.

Can we see the whole bike?

oh, it’s nothing special - a much maligned vanmoof. it spent most of its life with my younger daughter on the back, many great miles :)

she outgrew it and now propels herself.



IMG_0342.jpeg
IMG_2419.jpeg

the two tone metallic grey areas are a spray paint job to cover the damage when some years ago a thief with an angle grinder went to town on an abus lock, not being particularly careful about the bike. lots of very deep scratches and grooves. sanded filled and sanded and primed and painted. with the IGH and kick-lock it’s very practical for errands - and the front hub makes it all wheel drive :)

the part on the top tube is the same color as the bottom, not sure why it looks so different lol.
 
oh, it’s nothing special - a much maligned vanmoof. it spent most of its life with my younger daughter on the back, many great miles :)

she outgrew it and now propels herself.



View attachment 199562View attachment 199564
the two tone metallic grey areas are a spray paint job to cover the damage when some years ago a thief with an angle grinder went to town on an abus lock, not being particularly careful about the bike. lots of very deep scratches and grooves. sanded filled and sanded and primed and painted. with the IGH and kick-lock it’s very practical for errands - and the front hub makes it all wheel drive :)

the part on the top tube is the same color as the bottom, not sure why it looks so different lol.
That Vanmoof is wicked cool, @mschwett . Very interesting beast with a unique design. Battery and electronics are in the top tube? Do you like how the combination of pedal power through the IGH works with a front motor? Seems really clever for anything but rough MTB-type terrain!
 
I do like it, has a hint of 90s GT frames.
I really like that elongated top tube design. I haven’t seen anything like that before. To me it looks indestructible with those monstrous-diameter tubes, and at the same time it looks kind of svelte. Very nice design. To my eye, separating the hub motor from the gears/IGH really makes the bike look clean (like the old single-speed bikes).
 
That Vanmoof is wicked cool,
Vanmoof company has been dead for a longer while. Honestly, I wonder how mschwett can use it after the brand's servers went down, rendering all Van Moofs useless.
People were buying Van Moof for the looks not giving them the second look, that is, how sustainable the company would be.

1757950206949.png

Van Moof showroom in Battersea London. It had to be a terrible wake up for the users when they could not start their e-bikes a year later.
 
Back