Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with electricbike

Is a folding electric bike worth it?

Gucky — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:47:52 -0800

Folding electric bike to supplement my BART commute - genius or folly? I am sick of driving to work (from San Francisco to Fremont - a suburb about an hour away by car), but my work is far enough away from the two closest stations that this proves difficult without a $12 cab ride each way.

I am not an active person, nor skilled with the biking. There are also slight hills and winds between BART and work that would be challenging.

But a folding electric bike, I could bring it on transport even during commute hours and the electric could get me there with some assistance, right?

Experience with electric bikes - are they worth it?
Experience with folding bikes - are *they* worth it?
Any recommends as to which to buy or avoid? (A Google search yielded the eZee Quando as the most likely option. The one electric folding bike mentioned on askme seems to be unavailable in the states.)

Are there solutions that I'm completely missing here?

where in the U.S. (prefer warmer climates) can I rent an electric bicycle?

carrynation — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:26:00 -0800

where in the U.S. can I rent an electric bicycle? I've found websites for many US bike stores that sell e-bikes, but I'm looking to rent one for a bike tour, and I haven't seen many stores that seem to do that.

I'm organizing a self-contained bike tour for December, contingent on finding a base city with a store that has a few electric bikes for rent by the day or week.

Warm, if not downright hot, climates are preferred, so I'm partial to getting some store names/locations/websites anywhere in the more southern states.

For example, I've been looking but unable to find much in Arizona and southern Florida.

Oh yes: I do own an electric bike, but am unwilling to fly domestically with it. The weight of it basically doubles the airfare.

All leads appreciated!

Hub-motor drive electric bicycles?

loquacious — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 01:40:13 -0800

Do you have any first or second hand electric bicycle experiences, particularly with the new hub drive retrofit kits? I'm sick of waiting for buses - but I'm entirely uninterested in "giving up" and buying a big, bulky, wasteful car. I've got a meager 18 mile commute, round trip in a town that has something like 500 days of sunshine a year - it's even sunny here in Phoenix on the days it rains in Monsoon season. My shifts are generally long enough that I can get a full charge back into a battery.

I'm looking at these particular models: 600 watt brushed motor and 400 watt brushless motor, both front wheel hub-motor designs. This seems to be a pretty good price.

I'm also interested in the chain-gear driven "LashOut" electric bike, but the bike they mount it on sucks greatly. (I had a chance to ride one on the streets recently. The motor/gear combo has some serious pickup and oompf, but the bike is a piece of crap.) They apparently don't have a proper "LashOut" add-on kit, yet. Only the old Currie "ElectroMotiveDrive" model, which looks hinky and is apparently rather inefficient, and the precursor to the current "LashOut" design.

Does anyone have any first or second hand knowledge about the reliability, speed, cold-start power and durability of these new, imported hub-motor-drive models linked to above?

Long, anecdotal disclaimer: Yeah, I can ride that 9 miles, easily. The bike I have probably has 20,000-40,000 miles on it, and the one I had for 8 years before that probably had twice that. I love biking and cranking, but I get to work all sweaty and gross, and there's no showering options, and I deal with staff, faculty and students at a helpdesk all day long. I get really sweaty. I'm a large, hairy mammal with well a well functioning cooling system. I'm also looking to extend my bike-travelling range. I was recently in a rather hardcore but broad-spectrum bike shop looking at commuter/mountain bike style hybrid bikes, and when I asked if they had any electrics the guy got all snooty on me. "Bikes are meant to be pedaled!", the guy said. "Yeah, I pedal mine a lot. I have a 10 mile commute, and I'd get to work all sweaty. Plus it gets to be like a gazillion degrees here in the summer." "Well, I bike 20 miles to work every day! Even when it's a hundred and twenty!", he said in a superior tone. *blink* "Uh, yeah, but you work in a bike shop. I have to wear a shirt and frickin' tie and deal with corporate doofusii all day. I really want an electric bike". As a further example of this anti-powered bike bias, just before I went into this store I met the nice fellow who had the LashOut bike that I tried on the streets. Some yuppie yelled some sort of bike epithet at us as he cranked by in his spandex and $3,000 Klien carbon graphite full suspension mountain bike. We stood there and talked for a while and the guy rode by and yelled something at us again, then proceeded to go rack up his bike on his frickin' Lexus SUV and drive off. Grr. Damn your SUV-drivin' yuppie hide, I want an electric commuting bike - not a 5 pound mountain bike that's the price of a small car I only ride on weekends on the street.