Electric Bikes -N- Scooters Blog

Archive for January, 2010

Scientists at Stanford University have developed lightweight, pliable batteries that are so light they are compared to feathers. These ultra-light batteries have been described as supercapacitors and resemble paper.

By utilizing carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, scientists at Sanford have been able to coat a sheet of paper with ink made of the nanotubes. The end result was a storage device that is highly conductive and low cost, not to mention high performance.

Now, before anyone gets too confused on the difference between batteries and capacitors I need to explain the difference:

1. 1. Batteries are great for storing and holding energy for long periods of time until you use them.
2. 2. Capacitors can store the energy also, but they hold the energy for shorter periods of time, while having the ability to discharge the energy much faster!

According to Stanford studies conducted by assistant professor of science and engineering Yi Cui,  the university researchers designed and created the nano-batteries by using the nanomaterial that easily sticks like ink to fibrous material.  This property makes the batteries far more durable while allowing the batteries to charge and discharge (40,000 charge/discharge cycles) far better than the current state of the art batteries, lithium-Ion.

Some of the benefits of creating these batteries border on the incredible. For one thing, because this material is so thin and durable, you can easily fold the batteries and or crumple them into any shape that you want to.  They have even been soaked in basic solutions or acidic solutions while keeping the performance of the batteries intact.

Of course there are obvious applications for these batteries, especially in the realm of electric types of vehicles like electric scoters or even electric bikes. Because the batteries are so light and thin they could easily be pasted to the frame of and e-bike or electric scooter and this would increase electric output while taking off the extra weight caused by the usual storage batteries.

Here is a clip of the new paper batteries:

One of the most important facets of electric scooters and ebikes is battery capacity.  Over the last 10 years there has been some brilliant advancement in the technology behind the batteries and their capacity.  The one thing that you must keep in mind with electric bikes is battery capacity, because it may take some time before technology can improve batteries to the point where they can compete with gas.  As I just said, battery capacity is the key.  The more efficient the entire system is the greater the distance and longer the charge will last you.

Now for some tips on how you can save energy and reduce the battery output of your electric bicycles charging system.

Here are several basic ways you can add power and recapture energy with your electric bicycle

1. Pedaling – There are some models of electric bicycles on the market that allow you to charge the batteries while pedaling.  The concept is pretty basic, as you pedal the e-bike the power is generated and sent back into the batteries.  Of course, this means that you will be pedaling and that while you are charging the pedaling may become harder because of the drag due to a heavier bike and the generator creates more drag as well.  However don’t despair, because if you get to a hill you can use the second method of generating electricity for your electric bicycle which is ….
2. Coasting – Some ebikes have systems that can recharge while you coast on an ebike. The downside to this method, however is that you can’t generate very much electricity using this method because you obviously need to climb a hill to be able to ride down it and generate the electricity and the amount of energy you will spend as well as the slope down will determine how much electricity is generated and stored into the batteries.
3. Regenerative Breaking – Now, believe it or not, one of the best methods of charging your batteries outside of plugging the darned thing into the wall is by regenerated breaking. Quite simply, this method stores electricity into your batteries by using the breaks.  Some of the electric powered cars of the 1990’s had this option, but since the electric car pretty much got squelched, some of the advancements in the technology got shelved and was not improved upon.  Once again, there is a downside to this system and that is you don’t normally ride on your breaks.  So, once again, there is a limited amount of energy that you will be able to create using this method.
4. Motor Generating-Last, but certainly not least, is the system of recapturing energy by doing so while the motor is running.  However, this method of generating electricity is in the experimental/ development phase right now.  Hopefully, by the end of the next decade we will have something like this to look forward to.  If it becomes a reality, then the electric bikes and scooters will be greatly enhanced and electric biking and electric scooter use will be something that will be very desirable in most households.

We have only to wait and look forward to the future!

Here is a new website that I found that I think sells a good, high quality product.  The name of the company is the Golden Motor company of China and their plant is located just outside of Shanghai.  This company carries the latest

in high quality hub motors, batteries, electric scooters and they even sell an electric car kit!  Actually the electric car kits are for smaller types of cars like golf carts or ATV’s.

As for the electric hub motors they sell one conversion kit called ” The Magic Pie”  This ebike conversion kit is their top of the line electric bicycle conversion which can not only with a hub motor in the back of your electric bicycle but also add one to the front on what Golden Motor calls a”dual hub system”. Golden motor touts itself as a manufacturer of super thin /high torque motors that can give n ebike enthusiast the power and

performance that you would want without draining  your wallet.

There are three different hubs that have different power levels 24, 36 or 48 volt systems.  You can see the different hub

motors at  Golden Motor by clicking here.

I get notices from time to time about different sites and shops in the electric scooter or  electric bicycle business that are running specials.  I love to help people out in these businesses because they have always been so nice to me.  I have been moving away from selling other people’s products by way of affiliate programs pretty steadily now so that whenever I endorse a product, I can do so without being biased.  I am in no way affiliated with 50 Cycles but I am a friend of theirs by way of this blog, and they have quality products that I love to write about.

I got an email from them and they have stated that they are having a sale of some of the e-bikes that they have had custom built for customers and for some reason the sale did not occur.  Now, 50 Cycles is located in England and they sell all sorts of wonderful electric bikes through their Internet site, and I am not sure if they sell internationally outside of the UK.  If you are from the U.S.  you may want to visit their site and see if you can purchase one of these bargains and have it shipped to you.  I’m not sure how much international shipping would be from the UK but 50 Cycles may have a sister store here in the U.S.  Either way, it would probably be a good idea to at least look into one of these gems if they are a really good deal.

Here is the link to the 50 cycles site: 50 Cycles They also have a pretty good 50 Cycles Blog as well.

ELMO

The Electric Scooter Site and Electric Bike Site

This week in Abu Dhabi there is an environmental summit in which corporations and governments from around the world will gather to impress upon each other the commitment to put the planet back in environmental harmony. Worldwide  businesses will gather to display the latest in green technologies.

A person like myself can only question and ponder if electric bike enthusiasts and electric scooter fans alike will be represented at this summit. It would be great if there were at least a few electric scooter or electric bike models were present at this important summit. One of the electric vehicles that were talked about at the summit is an electric car that could go about 300 miles on a single charge.  This was featured on the  CNN site and you can see the clip here: Electric Car at Dubai Summit

As I have stated before, I don’t think humans are heating up the environment I believe that the Earth is probably going through a warming cycle right now and it will probably go through a cooling cycle someday, but I don’t know when.  However, I do think that this energy summit is very important, because I don’t like being dependent on oil and I do like to live in a clean environment.  So, I guess you can say that I am somewhat of a tree- hugger.

My question is this: If you can get a car to drive almost 300 miles on a single charge, how far can you get an electric scooter or an electric bike to go?  It seems to me that over the last four years, batteries have taken a leap forward.  Here is an article from Technology Review on a battery breakthrough.

Apparently, there is a Texas company named EEStore that has created a battery that can out perform lithium – ion batteries.  The batteries can outperform acid based batteries by almost 10 times, or so the company claims. From what I can see, there is quite a bit of controversy about whether the batteries and the capacitor storage syste can do what they say they can do.

I tried to find out more by going to EEStore’s site, but the site is currently down.  Apparently their site is being renovated and will be online very soon. You can find out more about this company from Wikipedia.

Anyway, I am very enthusiastic about the possibilities behind all of this green technology and being an electric bicycle and electric scooter enthusiast, I am very excited to see fine companies pouring the energy into creating products that help us get away from our dependency on oil.

ELMO

Electric Bikes and Electric Scooters Site

KTM the Austrian sports motor company, is planning on unveiling and  producing an electric motor cross bike this year.  The company which has grown steadily since 1934, is planning on utilizing lithium ion battery technology which will give the motor bike a duration of about 40 minutes of high energy work.   KTM has been involved in off road vehicles considerably in the past and now it plans tom expand itself into the rapidly growing electric scooter and electric bike markets where it will have a definite distribution advantage over other companies that are in a similar niche market.

Not only has the company expoanded into the electric bicycle market but it is also getting involved in the production of light weight cars that they began in 2006 called the X-bow.

In my opinion, I have never seen more beautiful bikes.  The craftsmanship that goes into a KTM bike is outstanding.  You can easily check out everything on their website here: www.KTM.com

Many electric bike and scooter enthusiasts are thrilled by the prospect of a company of this magnitude and excellence getting involved  in these types of electric motor cross bikes.  We can only hold our breath once again and expect ebikes to take another giant leap in technology when this caliber of company gets involved in the industry.

ELMO

Now that we are fast into the new year, I thought that I would challenge you all in the electric bike community to try to make a New Year commitment to something other than losing weight.  If you have been reading this blog at all you will probably know that I don’t believe that humans are heating the Earth.  As a matter of fact, I DO believe the Earth is heating up slowly as part of a regular pattern that the Earth simply goes through on its own.  However, I still believe in keeping the environment clean, because I like to have a nice clean place to live.  Trust me, if I had my way we would be living under the ground in cool homes like the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings and have a pristine environment so, I am sort of a tree huger myself.

Anyway, I want to challenge as many of you as I can to use greener technology and either used an electric bike or an electric scooter this year.  One of the cheaper methods of doing this is to use an electric bike kit.  You can actually get a high quality ride by buying one of these and hooking them up to your bicycle, provided ypu get and match the correct size wheel bub to your frame.  (Not a hard thing to do at all, trust me.)

I wanted to highlight a couple of these electric bike kits in this blog post. Some of you may like the kits that I have decided to write about and some of you might hate them.  I have scoured the Internet to find the most popular electric bicycle kits that are out there and report on them so that if you are going to take me up on this challenge then you can make an intelligent buying decision.

The first kit I want to highlight in this series is the Crystalyte Roadrunner Brushless Bicycle Hub Motor Kit.  This kit not only propels you on an electric powered bicycle, but it also assists you in your peddling power if you desire to do that as well.  Basically the Crystalyte Roadrunner kit gives you the option to just pedal or assist your pedaling or use the electric motor all by itself.  You can have the best of all three worlds!

Now, in case you don’t know much about brushless motors, I can give you a summary in just a nutshell.  The brushless motor is a sealed environment and because they have no internal conecting parts then the maitainence on these types of electric bike motors is pretty much non existant.  I can tell you that the power of this electric motor (torque) is pretty strong and it is great for making it up hills and carrying loads.

The Roadrunner has two versions that you can purchase. One model is the 4825 system and it has about a 1.8 horsepower motor that can get you up to about 24 miles per hour.  One of the cool things about these kits are all of the options that you can get.  For example, You can have a selection of a 16″ single walled, or a 20″, 24″, or 26″ double walled rim.  On the throttle you can either have the full twist or the half twist option.  There are also other options like a cruise control, a brake inhibitor and a host of other features that makes this kit a real good buy.

I believe that a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a bazillion words, so here is a video for you to look at on the Crystalyte Roadrunner Brushless Bicycle Hub Motor Kit: