|
Post by SylvreKat on Sept 29, 2014 7:27:39 GMT -5
The Boxx--I'd get it confused with my DeLonghi space heater, plus that whopping 20-mile range might just manage to get me home.
And all for only $4000. I'll pass. And go for that bright green Elio instead!
>'Kat
|
|
|
Post by xyshannen on Sept 29, 2014 11:34:22 GMT -5
Kat, that's another downfall with e-bikes made for the US and EU market.. They are usually way over priced! My bike has way more power and range than that thing. I payed over $500 for the base bike and still finished the build for less than 2k total. And I guarantee that my bike is of way better quality than that thing. Just looking at it, I would be sceerd to take it over 20mph.
Check this out...pay attention to the guy's shoes.
|
|
|
Post by oldchopperguy on Sept 29, 2014 12:48:13 GMT -5
I love it!! More "alternative" vehicles need to be available to the US market. I'm all about the electric ride. It's freaking great to be cruising at 45+ mpg and have dead silence. When I went on disability, I had to get rid of my $500 a month car so I built an electric bike that was capable of 45 mph for 30+ miles on a single charge. The motor is actually capable of close to 100 mph provided you have enough $ to pay for the $1500 worth of lithium batteries needed to do this. My battery alone was over $800. That's what is in the rear luggage rack. The size and weight of a car battery (little smaller actually) but worth about 12 car batteries in power. i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a624/xyshannen1/316803_1944266545460_2123263427_n_zpsb95df448.jpgI rode this bike for almost 5 years until recently I decided This thing not safe to drive in this city. Jacksonville is one of the worst cities for bicycles. Not only is the city huge and spread way out, there are very few to no actual bike lanes. Not to mention drivers here are just straight up a holes when it comes to cyclists. I literally would keep a pouch of rocks and smack your car if you did something stupid. I had to refill that pouch way too often. But because the electric aspect of the bike made me aware of the downfalls of fossil fuels, I still hate burning gas. With the cost of electric cars being way out of my budget, I opted for the scoot. Woo HOO! THAT is one GREAT electric bike you made!
Your talents extend FAR beyond leather... While I'm an old-school gas-power fan, simply because we all like what we grew up with (my 82-year-old Wife grew up riding a HORSE to school, and would go back to a hay-burner yet today if she could...) I realize it's on its way out. Once batteries are really perfected, electric power will certainly dominate, just as Diesel-electric locomotives replaced steam locomotives and steam-ships, for the same reasons.
Even the best gas engines are not all that efficient. They are COMPLEX, they are still prone to giving TROUBLE, and are EXPENSIVE to make and repair.
You can power a car or truck with a 100hp electric motor at each wheel a LOT easier and cheaper than with a 400hp gas engine. And what's involved in an electric motor? Just one moving part on bearings. They don't even use brushes anymore... Cheesh... Talk about SIMPLE. Every couple hundred-thousand miles, replace the bearings... NO trannies, NO emissions, NO complexity... Just a simple computer-controlled throttle, forward/reverse control and charging controls.
With a battery that puts out enough juice to run 500 miles, WHILE RUNNING AC AND HEAT... And believe me, THAT is a big, BIG BIGGIE... LOL! The days of gas-powered cars will be over. Heck, your bike alone proves the theory is even practical for 2-wheelers!
In fact, your creation shows it MIGHT be that all-electric 2-wheelers MAY be closer to practicality than their 4-wheel cousins. In a factory-produced vehicle, the cost of an expensive battery is largely cancelled out by the lack of an expensive engine/transmission component in a mass-produced vehicle... Hmmm...
I think you're onto something here!
Keep it up!
Leo
|
|
|
Post by xyshannen on Sept 29, 2014 13:36:54 GMT -5
My profession was installing and maintaining DC powered Telephone systems. Building this bike was kinda a no brainer for me. The hardest part was the research involved in not buying some cheap ebay kit, but finding a good quality motor and controller that wold handle the amps I was planning on putting to it. I ended up going to a canadian based company because their motor's capabilities is still one of the best on the market. And actually illegal to be sold here in the states. Well I don't know that illegal is the right word. It has to do with the way the laws around these bikes are written and the liability door that gets opened if a company based in the US sold electric motors for bike use with the power that that one is capable of. That's also why just about every e-bike commercially made for the US market is advertised to only go 20mph. Anything faster is no longer considered a bicycle.
In Florida if a e-bike can go over 20 you have to have it tagged and registered. If a cop knows the law (most don't actually) and he see's you doing over 20 you can be ticketed and risk having your bike impounded. I always just made sure I was "fake" pedaling at speeds around 30 and anything over 40 I kept a very watchful eye out for the po po.
|
|
|
Post by oldchopperguy on Sept 29, 2014 13:58:09 GMT -5
Xyshannen,
YOU are something else... In a very GOOD way! Have a bone!
I can't help but think you may somehow become a big part of the soon-to-come electric-vehicle revolution...
Hang in there!
Leo
|
|
|
Post by xyshannen on Sept 29, 2014 16:21:12 GMT -5
Oh I fought tooth and nail to avoid burning gas ever again,, but in the end hormonse won out. Dating is next to impossible with the ebike.. It's not exactly meant for 2 lol.
The batteries are still the big hold back keeping e-vehicles from being more dominant in the market. Sure it's close to the cost of a motor and tranny, BUT you should never have to change the motor and tranny in the average life span (5 years) that you own a car. The batteries, wile are getting better every day, one hiccup and BOOM you need new bats. Not to mention the danger of the cheaper lithiums I've seen many a house burnt to the ground because someone was using hobby grad lithiums. Wile they have awesome power capabilities, they tend to be very fragile, and more often then not when they fail they catch fire. The fire is so hot from lithiums it will melt metal and concrete. Since Lithiums provide their own fuel a normal fire extinguisher is useless.
The safe type of lithium is LiFe PO4 that uses a phosphate cathode (what's on my bike) and wile they are very safe and don't burn, you loose a lot of performance as the discharge rate is only 3 times that of the batteries amperage capacity. Hobby grade lithiums are up to 60 times capacity. LiFe PO4 is also about 4 times the cost.
Thanks for the bone my man!
|
|
|
Post by SylvreKat on Sept 29, 2014 22:49:37 GMT -5
Xy', I don't even know what to say about that shmo. Except he obviously wasn't set for the acceleration he went for. And that it's a perfect example why riders should always wear ATGATT. Including boots that fasten up over their ankles.
>'Kat
|
|
|
Post by scooter on Sept 29, 2014 23:34:34 GMT -5
Check this out...pay attention to the guy's shoes. That was great.
|
|
|
Post by xyshannen on Sept 30, 2014 7:21:28 GMT -5
That bike belongs to a guy I know, it was an early prototype compared to what he has now. He beats motorcycles in races
|
|
|
Post by bandito2 on Oct 1, 2014 23:01:07 GMT -5
I like some of the alternate transportation vehicles, like the Elio. It has a pretty broad performance envelope and has a simple, high efficiency drive train. Alas, the Elio is not based on a scooter drive train. I'd like to try out that Elio. It looks like fun. Yeah, it might be fun............. some day if they ever get it put into production. Seems like just before they are scheduled to get production going, they push back the production start date to another time. Last I was aware of, the production start date was pushed back to the 3rd quarter of 2015. We'll see how that goes. One of the original stated goals was to use mostly off the shelf items. They could have done that with the 3 cyl. Metro engine, but decided on an "improvement" and are going to use a newly developed engine for it. So that put it off til later... then when that date was nearing..... "Oh, but with such a new and efficient engine, the Metro transmission will just not do." So they put it off again for transmission development. This has been the pattern for some time now. Yeah, I'd like one too, but with the way they are going about it, IMO the Elio is heading for a fate like that of a thing called the Aptera. The Corbin Sparrow failed as I understood it, because of the cumbersome battery set up it had and was sketchy in turns because it really had too narrow of a foot print for as tall as it was. I have a set of plans for a thing called Xzilarator and think it would be neat to use something like a Honda Silverwing FSC600 scooter as the basis for it and make it fully enclosed......... maybe some day.
|
|
|
Post by scooter on Oct 2, 2014 1:51:28 GMT -5
I have a set of plans for a thing called Xzilarator and think it would be neat to use something like a Honda Silverwing FSC600 scooter as the basis for it and make it fully enclosed......... maybe some day. That Xzillarator is sharp! I'd like to do a covered bike myself, with two wheels, and a top and sides, and either holes to put your feet down or a mechanism that does the job for you.
|
|
|
Post by oldchopperguy on Oct 2, 2014 13:35:55 GMT -5
I have a set of plans for a thing called Xzilarator and think it would be neat to use something like a Honda Silverwing FSC600 scooter as the basis for it and make it fully enclosed......... maybe some day. I'd like to do a covered bike myself, with two wheels, and a top and sides, and either holes to put your feet down or a mechanism that does the job for you. Scooter,
There have been a couple designs like that in the past. Sadly, they just didn't sell well.
The best was one I saw at an RV show back in the mid-eighties... Can't remember the name... It had a body resembling a land speed-record motorcycle; torpedo/jet-fighter style with seating for two, in-line, like a Messerschmitt mini-car. Had a fighter-style cockpit canopy which hinged up for entry.
It was a traditional 2-wheel cycle, but had left and right outrigger wheels (tiny, 4") which deployed by lever. When stopped, the bike could lean left or right onto one of the outrigger wheels. In this manner, no more than three wheels ever touched the ground, making it legally a "truckster" or 3-wheel cycle.
It's MAJOR important to keep it to only THREE wheels, so it's legally a motorcycle, avoiding all the legalities (crash-tests, emissions, minimum production numbers, product-liability insurance, etc.) of a "car". If it has four wheels on the ground, it's a car, and you'd never get it "Big Brother approved" or licensed.
This one was powered by a 350cc two-stroke Japanese bike motor/tranny if I recall. So it would have had pretty good performance.
It really looked like a speed-record motorcycle, and with its hydraulic, lift-up canopy, it had a super jet-age appeal. But it was expensive, and people did not like the "feel" of having to deploy the outriggers at a stop. It felt "unstable" and awkward.
Add to that the fact that being fully enclosed, it would be REALLY HOT inside, so it never caught on.
Now, if you want to see something REALLY retro-cool, check out the Blastolene Bros. "DecoPod" full-bodied scooter... You can find it on the net. Search under Blastolene DecaPod. It looks like it's right out of the art-deco/steampunk era, complete with doors to enter. There's no floor, you just put your feet down at stop. It has no top, but it's oh, SO sharp... And EXPENSIVE.
China does make a few scooters with semi-bodies and tops, but you have to look for them. Cool idea, and they seem to sell in other countries, but not so well in America... If you want one, a good search of dealers will turn some up...
Ride safe, and have FUN!
Leo in Texas
|
|
|
Post by earlwb on Oct 2, 2014 15:36:01 GMT -5
A number of years ago, I remember seeing someone who had a pretty neat three wheel car that used a Triumph 650 or 750 engine in it. It had that cool space age look and worked really well too.
But having a small personal transportation machine that is enclosed to keep you out of the rain is a a pretty good idea. So it is quite interesting to see how different people come up with different designs.
Now then the side by side two wheel design like they use with the Segue reminds me of the Corbin monocycle. It works really great until you need to stop in a hurry. Then you get to gerbil rather spectacularly.
|
|
|
Post by xyshannen on Oct 2, 2014 16:27:12 GMT -5
oldchopperguy sweet! A quick look at their web site and it looks like they dropped this from production. What a shame.
|
|
|
Post by scooter on Oct 2, 2014 16:37:20 GMT -5
Now, if you want to see something REALLY retro-cool, check out the Blastolene Bros. "DecoPod" full-bodied scooter... Oh yes, that's swell! That was a wonderful era in design of everything from aeroplanes to water faucets. Look at the body work on this car. One of those might look pretty nifty on a bike! Here's a nice stabilizer system that drops wheels down when you are going slow. I saw an older couple using something like this on their bikes. It worked well for them.
|
|