Issue Six - Spring 2013 - Electric Bike Magazine

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+E-BIKE BASICS ELECTRIC BIKE BEGINNER GUIDEI More types: motors As well as the main distinction between torque sensing and rotation sensing, it’s also useful to know about the two main motor types. Second You really should test ride the two basic types of electric bike: A bike with ‘torque sensing’ control. This means that rather like power steering on a car, the electric assistance amplifies any effort you put into the pedals, making you feel like you have superhuman legs. This type feels just like a normal bike, but with a tailwind. You do need to be putting some effort (which generates torque, which the sensor measures) through the pedals, though, before you’ll get any assistance from the motor. So you can’t just sit there and let the motor pull you along: instead you’re definitely going to be getting some exercise, but without the strain. Often favoured by people who have done a fair bit of unassisted cycling, or those looking for fitness benefits from their electric ride. Prices start around the £1000 mark, however. A bike with ‘rotation sensor’ control. This means that the motor, when it kicks in, does so at a set level, and it continues until you stop pedalling or squeeze the brakes. It’s the rotation of the pedals which controls when the motor operates. You don’t have to be actually putting an effort into pedalling, you can just be waving them round. Many of these bikes also have a throttle, so you can just sit there and be pulled along, ideal as a ‘get me home’ mode if you run out of puff. You can pedal too, of course, and get quite a workout, especially if the motor assist is set at a low level – but this can take a little discipline! This type of machine is available at all price points. This is the key distinction in how bikes operate, and the ride sensation is so different between the two that I really would recommend trying both. If not, and you don’t try the type which grabs you, you’ll be really missing out. It’s always puzzled me, incidentally, why no manufacturer has a model which offers both modes, so the user could switch between them. Maybe next year? PHOTO: Batribike Geared motors are used in most hub motors and all (I’m fairly sure) crank drives. A fast-spinning motor (usually the ‘brushless DC’ type) is geared down within the hub or drive unit so that the output matches the speed of the wheels or cranks. This helps the motor operate at an efficient speed, and the motor can be smaller, too. The downside is that there’s inevitably some noise from the meshing of the gear teeth. Hubs are usually more noisy than crank drives, but in recent models the noise level is really pretty low for both. Gears can, of course, wear out, but this doesn’t seem to be much of an issue in modern drives. Good ones are well sealed and the gears run in internal oil baths or long lasting grease. Direct drive motors don’t have any gears involved at all. There’s a ring of magnets inside the hub shell, and a ring of coils attached to the axle, with just a small air gap between them. As the coils are energised they pull the magnets round. There’s no physical contact and so these drives tend to be completely silent. One possible drawback is that at very low speeds they can have limited power, although modern control systems are getting ever better in this respect. They also tend to require large hubs, which can be problematic when building small wheels, and have typically been a little heavier than geared hubs (but again development is reducing the weight). Finally, they tend to be at the higher end of prices. Examples include systems from BionX, Falco, Storck-Raddar, BH Emotion ‘Neo’ and others. 36 Electric Bike Issue 6
THE REBIRTH OF A LEGEND All the Solex ebikes feature: FOR YOUR NEAREST STOCKIST RING 01926 437700 High capacity Lithium-Ion Polymer battery A charge time from flat to full capacity in just 4/5 hours A Solex developed brushless motor Full integrated lighting system Iconic design by Pininfarina (designer of Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo) Iconic red and black design as an homage to the original Solex city scooter. RANGE 36-40 miles WEIGHT 25kg (inc. battery) SOLEXITY £1599 RANGE 30-32 miles WEIGHT 22kg (inc. battery) DIMENSIONS (folded) L-830mm W-500mm H-790mm VELOSOLEX £999 EBC Ltd is proud to be a finalist in the ‘Specialist Distributor’ category of the 2012 BikeBiz Awards. To find out how to become a Solex stockist contact Paul Stanforth on 01926 437714 paul@ebco-ebike.co.uk EBC LTD, 5 Pegasus House, Olympus Avenue, Warwick CV34 6LW www.ebco-ebikes.co.uk
Page 1 and 2: £3.95 where sold Issue 6 www.elect
Page 3 and 4: Contents 4 News: All the latest fro
Page 5 and 6: NEWSI Mission and Conv-E team up a
Page 8 and 9: +ELECTRIC MTBS Mountains to molehil
Page 10 and 11: +ON TEST Grace MX German brand Grac
Page 12 and 13: +ON TEST clicks neatly into its soc
Page 14 and 15: +ON TEST The Falco’s distributors
Page 16 and 17: +ON TEST Volt Alpine The Alpine is
Page 18 and 19: +ELECTRIC MTBS Electric mountain bi
Page 20 and 21: +ON TEST Beatbikes Beatbike We revi
Page 22 and 23: +ON TEST ABOVE: The folding process
Page 26 and 27: +ON TEST Hero Eco A2B Hybrid 24 Wit
Page 28 and 29: +ON TEST This would make the bike r
Page 30 and 31: +ON TEST Klimax Hase Bikes What, yo
Page 32 and 33: +FIRST LOOK The Sunstar electric bi
Page 34 and 35: +E-BIKE BASICS ELECTRIC BIKE BEGINN
Page 38 and 39: +E-BIKE BASICS ELECTRIC BIKE BEGINN
Page 40 and 41: +LETTERS From Simon Lord I was diag
Page 42 and 43: HIRE 5 7 HIRE 6 24 35 1 2 32 31 9 5
Page 44 and 45: Issue 2 www.electricbikemag.co.uk 0
Page 46 and 47: B I K E S The KLIMAX of all-weather
Page 48: Amazing Electric Bikes Classic Elec

Issue Six - Spring 2013 - Electric Bike Magazine

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