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JCU wrote:@stu, It sounds like you're describing the Orbea Gain. I love the design and thought process that went into developing this bike. If I had to have an eBike, the Gain would be it. They just need a bit more tire clearance. The GRX-spec comes stock with 700x38 with a max 700x40.
Mark wrote:Bosch has been in the cordless tool business for a while now. So that inspires confidence in their ability with motors, controllers and housings. No breakthroughs in battery tech for 2021?
Mark wrote:No breakthroughs in battery tech for 2021?
chas wrote:
There has been a continuous stream of battery progression since I built my ebike 8 years ago.
chas wrote:
There has been a continuous stream of battery progression since I built my ebike 8 years ago. Its wonderful! Batteries are smaller, more power dense, and cheaper. Certainly all the info I see points to the trend continuing giving us smaller, more power dense, cheaper batteries!
OTOH, controllers, motors and transmissions are in flux, perhaps. So Yamaha vs. Bosch vs. Bafang...?
P.S.: +1 on eight years’ design experience! I am certainly interested in your take on the topic, chas!
P.P.S.: Do you have a web page or a blog or something that records what you’ve learned?
Mark wrote:
Yes, and, the non-revolutionary evolution you aptly describe means a battery gotcha is not lurking around the bend.
OTOH, controllers, motors and transmissions are in flux, perhaps. So Yamaha vs. Bosch vs. Bafang...?
P.S.: +1 on eight years’ design experience! I am certainly interested in your take on the topic, chas!
P.P.S.: Do you have a web page or a blog or something that records what you’ve learned?
Well, there is a lot of research and articles on revolutionary battery stuff, but nothing near term. I mean, I’ve been hearing about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for 25 years, but the technology has always been 10 years in the future. ;-)
Mostly near term is using Li-Ion chemistry to get the price down, while increasing energy density (and for passenger vehicles, fast charging). That, and reducing the amount of rare metals (i.e. using aluminum instead of cobolt). But it has been a steady march forward. I think 2 years from now there will be an explosion of passenger vehicles, 5 years from now there will be little advantage to using Internal Combustion (ICE) over an electric vehicle, and lord knows Europe is already outlawing ICE vehicles (thanks largely to the Diesel fiasco).
All that bodes good for e-bikes.
The biggest changes I have seen is that there are some beautiful clean integrated designs these days, where 5 years ago, everything looked like an ugly Frankenstein project.
Bafang has been around (relatively) forever, so I’m confident in their stuff. But of course Yamaha and Bosch certainly know what they are doing and have the engineering resources.
My goal in building my bikes was to make it light and fast – which of course didn’t exist 8 years ago. I got some inspiration from Specialized’s first ebike, but that thing cost $7,000 and did everything that my bike did for $500 (+donor bike – which ironically was a specialized road bike) – and I built mine first, lol.
Design goal: minimum weight, +5mph top speed for commuting. 25mph, 25lbs (+3.3lb battery), 25mile range, with me supplying 50% power. I did document the build on a builder and a biker forum, but those posts are pretty old.
Ironically I don’t use it that much as I’d rather pedal while I’m still strong and in shape. It does come in handy for commuting, or on days where I need an “easy” day, or lately it works wonderful allowing me to use fully studded tires in snow and ice.
The bikes these days are so much better looking than the early days. I was going home after some “race training” one day, when a Trek pulled out in front of me – so I followed. We were doing 28mph into a hilly head wind, and I was thinking this guy is one of the strongest bike rides I have seen – how do I not know him? At a stop light he laughed, and said I must have been working pretty hard. He was on Trek’s latest e-bike (and I couldn’t tell by looking at it). Dang. Punked – after 8 years of punking everyone else I had run across when on my ebike. ;-)
Mark wrote:I am too old to start a project like this, but somebody should be exploring regenerative hub braking (if it hasn’t happened already).
Mark wrote:Meh. Need to be separate like with Toyotas. Speaking of, ... CVT?
stu wrote:
I suppose you could go fully electric by pedaling a generator which powers a motor. "Gearing" would be implemented in the electronic motor control with whatever algorithm you want to program. You could hot rod your bike with firmware updates.