I might have bought the wrong Pedelec

[freddofrog]

I am in my 50's, born and lived in the UK most of my life. I cycled a lot when I was young, cycling on the roads in the UK in the 60's and early 70's was fine. But I stopped cycling at the age of 18 when I got a car.

Then I spent 3 years living and working in Holland until 2003. For those who do not know, Holland is cyclists paradise. If you ignore dual carriageways and motorways, then there are more miles of cycle lanes than roads. All roads in countryside/villages/towns/cites have at least one red cycle lane on the road. On those roads, the cyclist is above the car in the pecking order. I loved it there. Then the job ended and I came back to the UK.

When I came back, I tried to persevere with my re-found love of cycling, but cycling here is ridiculous, I have nearly been killed on the road by drivers on several occasions. About a year ago I became a bit more determined. I have a shoulder injury (not related to cycling), which makes it difficult to lean forward on a mountain bike, so I fitted two stem extensions to my mountain bike with a curved back handle bar so that I can sit fully upright. Nice and comforable.

Then a few weeks ago I went to a shop that specialises in Pedelecs (shop is actually listed in a county in the Dealer Directory in this site's Home Page).

For reasons I am not sure, I bought a foldup Pedelec, mainly because the seating position is fully upright.

Now I come to the problems with it:
1. Wheels are 20", so rolling resistance is not good
2. All the weight is on the back (though battery pack is 36V 9Ah Li-ion)
3. Tyres only inflate to 40 psi, making rolling resistance really bad
4. No suspension, so bumps are horrific

Apart from selling the bike at a loss, I have a few ideas which I will discuss in the main forums.

 

[indalo]

Hi Freddo and welcome to the forum.

You may well have made a poor choice; it happens and you're not the first. Fear not though; there's plenty of guys on here who can suggest all sorts of ways, usually inexpensive, to modify and improve even the poorest ebikes.

If you need to get rid, there's always eBay though you may need to take a hit in the wallet. See what comes up when you tell us further about your purchase.

Regards,
Indalo

 

[Deleted member 4366]

1. rolling resistance: lift the bike and check that the wheels spin freely. You can get a stuck clutch in the motor or binding brakes. Some motors take a little running before they free up.
2. can't help with that unless you want to do a bit of wiring and move the battery to the front.
3. Don't take any too much notice of the pressure written on the tyre. 50 or 60 psi should be possible, but I don't think this is where your resistance is coming from.
4 Different tyres can help, but not much
Tell us which bike and it's easier to help!

 

[freddofrog]

hmmm, I mean that a 20" wheel will have a worse rolling resistance than a 26" wheel (for the same type of tyre, tyre pressure, and surface), first penalty of a bike with 20" wheels, which I didn't consider when I bought it, and only realised when I thought about it over the days following the purchase.

The battery weighs 2.6 kg

The battery plus rear wheel weighs 7.3 kg

And I weighed the frame etc, with both wheels and battery removed, and it was about 14kg

So over 30% of the weight is at the back, and then I add another 90 kg onto the back because I am not leaning forward.

Bike is .... IZIP Santa Cruz as can be seen in my cycle trainer