2 bikes 1 e-bike system?

[ajefford]

Hi All,

I've been looking at various ebike systems for a while, but cannot decide what to do - the predicament i am in is that my partner needs to use it often, but so do i - but our bike setup is very very different, i was wondering what is the easiest solution to "transferring" whatever we go for from one bike to another - i'd say about 20mins of faffing.....
the traditional front or rear wheel based systems, seem to need a few crank sensors and brake sensors and of course battery connections and throttles / computers too
the bottom bracket ones also seem to need these, and of course it worse to change a BB over each time...
finally i've been trying to look at the newer wheels, like Copenhagen - but cannot seem to find out much info about if they also need lots of sensors? or is it really "plug and play" of replace wheel, and ride..........

if anyone has any advice - i'd be most welcome!

Thanks

 

[anotherkiwi]

The battery is the most expensive component. Your best bet would be to mount two complete motor kits and swap the battery. This would leave the bike without battery usable too but un-motorised.

Then when you win the lotto you can buy a second battery

 

[flecc]

The Copenhagen wheel is the simplest, you just fit the wheel, set the settings once with your smartphone and ride off. There's nothing else, it's just the wheel which contains the battery and the app you download into your smartphone.

But it's only available in the USA as far as I know, so you'd have to import and that means support difficulties if anything goes wrong.

Nothing else come close, any other kit takes time to fit and sensors, wiring and and handlebar controls are involved. So the next best solutiuon is anotherkiwi's suggestion.
.

 

[ajefford]

thanks flecc - yeah that was kind of the direction i was ending up with, but its a big cost/risk to get it, and then find out there was an easier and more "local" option - hence why i posted up here to see if more experienced peeps like yourself knew of anything....

any idea how the Copenhagen wheel detects if your on the brakes/not pedalling???

i also seem to remember in the past someone developed an all in one solution that clamped to you seatpost the battery/motor and then another clamp on to the rim of your rear wheel hub - but i cannot for the life of me find where/what this is!!!

 

[trex]

...
any idea how the Copenhagen wheel detects if your on the brakes/not pedalling???

i also seem to remember in the past someone developed an all in one solution that clamped to you seatpost the battery/motor and then another clamp on to the rim of your rear wheel hub - but i cannot for the life of me find where/what this is!!!

IIRC, the Copenhagen Wheel has an internal torque sensor to detect when you pedal.

There are other solutions like the Add-E
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/add-e-simply-add-electricity-to-your-bicycle#/

None of them is cheap.

The cheapest solution is as Kiwi said, buy two kits and one battery, it takes litterally seconds to swap the battery.
total spend about £750. One easy example, two Woosh GSM kits (£250 each) and a battery for about £200-£300.
http://wooshbikes.co.uk/?cdkit#gsmkit

 

[flecc]

any idea how the Copenhagen wheel detects if your on the brakes/not pedalling???

i also seem to remember in the past someone developed an all in one solution that clamped to you seatpost the battery/motor and then another clamp on to the rim of your rear wheel hub - but i cannot for the life of me find where/what this is!!!

As Trex said, the Copenhagen wheel has it's own internal torque sensor to detect pedalling, so only the transmissions from the phone app are external.

There have been many quick attach solutions over the years but all have quickly disappeared, mainly due to not working very well. Even the ubiquitous Clive Sinclair made one at one time in two versions, the Sinclair Zeta, but it wasn't powerful enough and very noisy:

Zeta 1 all in one unit video

Zeta 2 separate battery front unit video
.

 

[ajefford]

the problem with two kits, is the extra weight (and resistance?) of having the wheel with the motor but no battery attached and all the wiring...

hmm the least amount of wires to connect the better, is there any system that has a wireless assist controller/panel? or even smartphone as a controller - similar to copenhagen wheel but actually can get our hands on over here in the UK.

 

[flecc]

The internally geared hub motors are quite light and include a freewheel that operates on overrun, so drag isn't normally a problem. If one of these wheels is spun by hand, it usually takes well over a minute to stop, despite a hand spin only getting it to 5 mph at most.

I don't think we've had any attempts at smartphone etc control of a motor here, and most of the US projects seem to have faltered or died.

I don't know if there's any space problem, but given how cheap bikes are these days, how about another bike or two to give you both motorised and unpowered bikes always ready to ride? Dearer overall, but far more convenient.
.

 

[trex]

the problem with two kits, is the extra weight (and resistance?) of having the wheel with the motor but no battery attached and all the wiring...
.

A motor wheel without battery will add about 2.2kg, controller, LCD, wiring and battery base will add about 0.4kg. Total extra weight is about 2.6kgs.
You don't feel it when cycling. I ride my Giant D5 with the whole kit (10.2kg bike + 5.8kg for the electrics) often without power and it feels fine.

hmm the least amount of wires to connect the better, is there any system that has a wireless assist controller/panel? or even smartphone as a controller - similar to copenhagen wheel but actually can get our hands on over here in the UK.

Yes, there are, like this one:
http://www.falcoemotors.com/
but it's a heavy kit.

 

[oldtom]

I don't know if there's any space problem, but given how cheap bikes are these days, how about another bike or two to give you both motorised and unpowered bikes always ready to ride? Dearer overall, but far more convenient.
.

Keeps it all simple if space permits.

Tom