Electric Bikes -N- Scooters Blog

Archive for the ‘Electric Bikes’ Category

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say happy Fourth of July to all of us that are living in the United States of America as we celebrate the birth of our country. I  just want to say that we appreciate all of the men and women who are working and serving our country abroad in our armed services as well as other capacities. We really do appreciate your service to our country and we understand the great sacrifice that you make by being away from your families and defending our freedoms with your lives. We really do appreciate you and will be praying for you during this holiday season and continue to pray for you during the rest of the year. We are thinking about you and you are important to us.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say how fortunate I feel to be living in a country that has had probably more freedoms than any other country in the history of mankind. If you look through world history you will see that the United States of America is a rare occurrence. There is no other time in world history wherein people were empowered to run their country and their elected officials were not monarchs, dictators or despots but public servants. Yes, we have public servants in America.

When George Washington took office as the first president of the United States he made sure that he was wearing plain clothes of a common working man and not a general’s uniform. He also took measures to ensure that the title of the presidency was to be just that, the presidency. Not exalted ruler, not lord or emperor, but just president. When Harry Truman left office as president of the United States he said, “today I feel very fortunate because I am now going to get a promotion.  I am no longer going to be a public servant but I am going to be one of you.”

This type of ideal along with our freedom of enterprise, as well as our constitutional rights is what makes America such a great place to live.  If we want to start a business, we can. If we want to learn how to fly a plane, we can. If we want to design a better electric bicycle, we can. America was built on freedom of enterprise and the innovation of great men and women and those people who came here with a dream and build a future for themselves.

It is my prayer that we always keep these values and our country intact.  We will always have to be vigilant and keep our eye on our freedoms and those that would try to take them away from us, because if you understand world history and all you will know the democratic republics do not last very long and there have been so very few of them like the United States of America.

Finally, to sum up the way I feel about this issue, here are the words of Benjamin Franklin;

Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.

God bless, and have a great fourth of July.

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
Electric Bikes-N-Scooters

ElectricRider's site is easy to navigate

When you are looking for different types of electric bike parts it is always a good idea to bookmark on your web browser different types of electric bike and scooter parts stores. If you are located in the United States then you will probably want to bookmark this particular site because it has a lot of different electric bike parts that you can order to have sent you pretty quick. One of the great things about the Internet is the fact that you can find all sorts of information very quickly on just about any subject that you care to look up. For example, yesterday I wanted to learn how to fix a dishwasher in my home, and within minutes I found an excellent video that showed me how to do that.

You can do the same thing with electric bicycles. If you have an electric bicycle you really should learn how to do your own maintenance on it because parts and maintenance can be very expensive if you don’t know what you are doing, so it would be a good idea to learn how to do many of these maintenance and repairs on your own. Not only do you need to know how to fix different things on your electric bike or scooter but you will also need to know where you can get the parts from should the need arise.

The website ElectricRider.com ( http://www.electricrider.com/parts) is just loaded with all types of different electric bicycle parts from different companies that deal with electric bikes. When I was on their site earlier today, I noticed that they had every type of part imaginable ranging from batteries, battery chargers to sprockets, gears, headlights, and even drive belts for the different types of electric bike motors. Of course, they were dealing with companies like Crystalyte, Currie, Schwinn,Vega and a host of other outstanding electric bike companies. So, this is a really good reference for anybody that would like to buy or need to take your electric bicycle part.

One of the things I like about the website is the fact that it is so easy to navigate and to find exactly what you are looking for rather quickly. The company didn’t waste a lot of money hiring a website programmer to put flash pictures and other items on there that would take a while for the website to open up. So, if you are operating on a DSL or regular cable Internet connection, this website will open up immediately and you will be treated to a menu of things that you can click on automatically. One of the things I just hate about going to certain websites is the fact that they are designed in such a way that they want to look real advanced, while sacrificing functionality. This is one of the reasons why Amazon.com beat the tar out of everybody in sales. It is so easy to navigate and find exactly what you’re looking for.  The same thing can be said about  ElectricRider.com is a great site, the load is quick and gives you fast navigation so you know exactly what you are looking for.  Not only that, but they are dealing with high-quality parts and things that you would need if you get in a pinch for a particular part on your electric bicycle or scooter.

So, take a look at their website, I do not think you will be disappointed in what you see and you will definitely want to reference this in your bookmarks.

ElectricRider.com – http://www.electricrider.com

You know, I’m not an environmentalist, but I think that when you consider all of the risks involved with using fossil fuels all of the time and being totally dependent on them it is just too great a cost on so many different levels. Just consider the number of times we’ve heard news reports from the Exxon all these all the way to the recent BP oil debacle that the environment took a beating on, not to mention the economic impact those situations had on people that lived in the area in which these events occurred.

I was recently on the Alex Jones website which is known as “info wars” and I was reading some of the material on their concerning BPs dumping of 5 million barrels of crude oil into the gulf of Mexico, close enough to do massive amounts of damage to the environment and to coastal businesses. I’m sure you all are very familiar with the situation, but in my opinion this is just another reason why we should get further away from fossil fuels to look towards alternative energy technology. Trust me, I have a car and I love it and I drive it all the time, but I also love going into nature and enjoying its beauty. I really get mad when I go to a state park and I see garbage all over the place because I like to kayak on my days off and I really enjoy seeing nature, but people are like pigs and they throw their garbage all over the place.

so, in my opinion and also being an electric bicycle enthusiast, I think that the movement away from fossil fuels will be a much more cleaner alternative in the future. The fact of the matter is, there’s only so much oil in the ground and sooner or later there will be much around (That’s a line from a tower of power song. Sorry, I couldn’t resist) however, that statement is very true. There really is only so much oil and sooner or later we are going to have to find an alternative anyway. With the world population going up every day and more more people becoming reliant on the black goo that comes out of the ground, unless we can find a vast amount of it and learn to burn it in a different way, then we are going be faced with some serious challenges as a human race.

Anyway, you might want to take a look at the Alex Jones website at www. infowars.com and check out this article on the oil spill caused by the British Petroleum company.

One of the things that will come up sooner or later with electric bicycle owners is the fact that you will probably need to have a part replaced on your electric bike.  Fortunately, there are plenty of parts available for electric bikes as well as electric scooters; you just have to know where to look for them.  The problem is that there are so many aggregate data based websites that are kind of like Shopzilla that you could spend endless hours trying to find an online resource that is specifically developed for electric bike parts.

Two of the places I have found to be great for finding electric bicycles are Electric Rider Bike Parts  Link: Electric Bike Parts (http://www.electricrider.com/parts/) and Electric Cyclery Link: Electric Bicycle Parts (http://www.greenspeed.us/).    Both of these dealers have a considerable amount of merchandise on the websites and it is all categorized inj a fashion that makes it very easy to find what you need.

Other Resources

Another website that is dedicated to electric scooters but may also have electric bike parts is:  Electric Scooter Parts . Com  and you can find the link here: (http://www.electricscooterparts.com/index.html) or here:  Electric Scooter parts.  This site primarily focuses on electric scooter parts and it has them all neatly categorized in  a manner that will allow you to find the e-scooter and the e-bike parts relatively easily.  If you can’t find the parts there, you can always go on Amazon or eBay to look for dealers in electric scooter and bike parts however; you will probably have to look around quite a bit.  As you probably already know, those sites already have extensive databases of products and if you already know what it is you need exactly, it will make your search a lot easier.

Well, if you’ve been looking at the news lately, you will notice that is pretty obvious that oil prices will begin again to start soaring and of course, gas prices will naturally go up. If there ever was a time for a call for alternative energy vehicles and alternative energy lifestyles, this is the time.

Actually, they hand writing has been on the wall for quite some time because of the fact that the world population has now exceeded 6 billion people and all of those people will probably be using fossil fuel to get to work and back as well as all of the other activities that are involved with their lives. The problem with this scenario is the fact that oil is a finite resource and will eventually run out. So, human beings on the planet Earth need to think about what type of alternative energy we can use to sustain the lifestyle that we have.

One of the easy ways that people who on electric scooters or electric bikes can get almost free energy from the sun is to buy electric panels for your garage or house. After you have purchased the electric panels (which aren’t cheap by the way) you can then wire them in a manner which will be conducive to charging up your electric bike batteries. Once you have your electric bike batteries wired from the solar panels you will be able to extract free energy from the sun without being on your city’s electrical grid.

Not only can you power up your electric bike or scooter that this matter, but there are also people who are powering up their electric cars this way too. Yes, there are still people out there with electric cars, however they have used their own innovation to build their cars in a manner which allow them to run and operate on electricity. Some of them have even installed electric panels so that they can charge up their electric batteries without drawing any power from electrical grid in their areas.

This is really a reasonable and easy way of gathering sustainable energy so that you are no longer dependent on any city or for an oil company to supply you with what you need to survive.

One of the things that you will probably encounter as you get older is that you want to stay physically active, but you get tired and sore from jogging or riding a bike.  The last time I went jogging my knees got so sore, that I could hardly climb the set of stairs in my home.  So, as we get older, we don’t stop being active, we just need to find other ways and methods to still get that much needed exercise.

Besides swimming, what I like to do is ride an electric bicycle.   Now, if you don’t know much about how electric bicycles can benefit your health, then I will try to fill you in a little bit.

First of all, electric bicycles are different than electric scooters in that you can have the type of electric bike that you will still have to pedal.  On an electric scooter, you will have just a throttle on the handlebars, and all you will need to do is twist the throttle to go.

Electric bikes can also have that option, however most electric bicycles are what you would call “assist” electric bikes.  In other words, there is a sensor built into the electric bike that can tell when the torque is becoming more resistant ( just like when you are going up a hill or riding faster) and when that happens, the electric  motor starts up and “assists” you in your ride.   What does this mean for you?   It means that you will not have a tiring, strenuous ride that may hurt you, or at the very most, put you into the hospital.

Electric bicycles will enable you to still  get some exercise, but at a lower level of impact that will help you to stay in the game.  You will still have some resistance which can be somewhat adjusted to your needs while being able to get outside and get some exercise. You can get these assist electric bicycles almost anywhere on the internet, but you can find my list of recommendations at my electric bikes page by clicking on this link: Electric Bikes.

Often the question gets asked, “why ride an electric bike?” Which is the premise of this book by author David Henshaw was actually an editor with A to B Magazine, which is a magazine that is dedicated and specializes in electric bicycles since about the year 1997. This book, Mr. Henshaw try to cover all of the reasons why you should consider purchasing electric bike and what you should look for when you try to buy one.

Many times, I myself, have answered the question because it is a subject that is very important to our world today, especially since people are so concerned with global warming and increasing dependence on fossil fuels which will eventually run out. The way I look at it, electric bicycles are the lab rats of the electric vehicle world. In other words they are a smaller version of what gets tested with an electric car or an electric motorcycle. As a matter fact, the technology behind the electric bicycle as well as electric scooters has jumped considerably the last 15 years. Manufacturing has jumped almost 200% in the last 10 years because of the fact that many countries like China, India, and Taiwan are using electric bikes more because of their infrastructure. Infrastructure of those countries is such that people can easily write bicycle to work and back, so having electric bicycle electric some of the people. They could ride to work without getting all sweaty and tired before they get there and that is a big benefit.

This book also covers development of electric bikes as well as different types of classic models and a whole host of other important factors that are prevalent to the electric bike and electric vehicle would. So, this is a great primer for people who have never looked at electric bikes before want to gain some knowledge with actually go out purchase. You should know where the electric motor is usually located on bike, how power is rated for electric motor, as well as what types of batteries and charging system electric bike has. This book will cover that and a lot more.

You can purchase a copy of Electric Bicycles from 50 Cycles Electric Bicycle Company by clicking on this link.

In Germany there is a development and design company called  ID-Bike which has a group of industrial designers, economists an experienced electrical engineers which  are building state-of-the-art electric motors as well as electric vehicles. Located in beautiful Stuttgart Germany, (I lived it Heidelberg Germany for three years and Berlin for three years as well and I have been the Stuttgart many times. It is an absolutely beautiful town.)  Anyway, this is one of those high-quality Deutsche companies that never seems to sacrifice quality under any circumstances.

They have recently designed a beautiful electric bicycle called the ELMOTO, which they started work on back in the year 2009. Their idea was to create a way to change the way you move about in an urban area with an electric bicycle. Of course, like many electric vehicle companies, they are looking to create eco-– friendly vehicles as well as emission free.  Of course, the result of this is the beautiful, sleek ELMOTO which can hit speeds of around 45 km (28 mi./h) an hour in ways only 47 kg (103 pounds).

As you probably already know, this is a heavier electric bicycle because it is a crossover between of electric bicycle and an electric motorcycle. So, basically it handles just like electric bike because of its smaller size yet it has all the power of an electric motorcycle.  With a 1.7 kW and 50 Nm torque you could easily hit speeds of around 28 miles an hour with the wind blowing through your hair in style. All you will really need for this great electric bike is a good helmet, common sense and a motorist license. (This is because the electric motor exceeds the 750 what limit required by most states for a drivers license on an electric vehicle.

To see the incredible ELMOTO, just click on this link: ELMOTO electric bike.

Optibike is having a Winter Sale on Tuesday, February 15.

I’m really sorry that I did not get this message out on my blog sooner, even though that I knew all about it. It’s been a rough week this week getting a lot of things done that I needed to do, so I finally got this message out. Anyway, Optibike is having a winter sale which is their biggest sale of the year and they are offering discounts of up to 25%.

Now, if you’ve been following my electric bikes and scooters site and blog for a while, you’ll know that I really like the quality of Optibike and the integrity be put behind every single electric bike that they make. These are quite possibly the highest quality electric bikes on the market and while they are pricey they’re worth every penny that you would pay for one. Not only that, but usually Optibike custom fits it’s electric bikes to the person that is riding on it.
Two of the bikes that Optibike makes are the 850 R and the Helia. Both of these electric bikes utilize lightweight materials, utilizing the latest state-of-the-art components such as: avid hydraulic disc brakes, carbon fiber handlebars, front and rear Fox suspension, as well as a sleek look and cables that are hidden inside of the frame of the bike.  The benefit of having the cables and inside the bike, is so that they are not damaged by water and dirt as these are usually look for rougher terrain so that you can actually have a dirt bike experience while on the Optibike.

The disc brakes also perform very well because of the fact that they could handle mud soaked conditions which would be damaging to most other electric bikes that are on the market today. These electric bikes can travel well over 30 miles an hour and the hydraulic disc brakes are operated by a finger switch which makes braking extremely easy
So, if you’re considering getting a great quality electric bicycle this year, you may want to take a look at this sale that Optibike is having before the spring and summer months started getting upon us again.  These bikes also come with other great safety features such as safety lighting, Kevlar reinforced tires, and a host of other outstanding safety features that will instill confidence in your ability to write quite fast and through rough terrain.

To find out how to get in on a great 25% off electric bike sale, click on this: Optibike Electric Bikes

There are many new electric bicycle manufacturers on the market today and rarely do you find a company that produces a high quality product as this! This is the OHM 700 XS electric bike from OHM Cycles.  Just one look at this beautiful bicycle and you could tell that not only does it have a lot of craftsmanship, but also a lot of thought has been put into the design. OHM Cycles have been around since about the year 2005, and it is based in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada. The purpose of this company, focus of its product, as well as marketing, is to create a high-quality electric power assist bicycle that will stand the test of time.  Utilizing the best components on the market, the XS 700 is one of the top-of-the-line electric bicycles on the market today.

This electric bike has a BionX electric motor that sports about 350 Watts of power which will help you in the assisted mode or generative mode. This bike should whiz right along, maximizing its energy that is stored up in its lithium batteries, because not only are the batteries lighter but they are lithium. Another reason why the bike should be faster and lighter is because the frame is made of aluminum which is a lighter material.  Most of the other components that are on the bike are of the highest quality and it would probably be very hard to find a higher quality electric bicycle that is on the market today.

You can find a dealer selling the OHM XS 700 electric bike in 14 different states in the US and in five different provinces in Canada plus Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. This is a great electric bicycle and made of such high quality, it would last you for very long time. You can see more about the OHM XS 700 at the OHM Cycles website here:  Ohm Electric Commuter Bicycles