ebike needed for work comute

[Deleted member 4366]

been a while since any post on here so here goes..

i went to the cycle show today and tried out 3 ebikes and liked them all. only the little folding one i tried had throttle and i loved being able to just twist and go so thats a must. i didnt however like the smaller bike so even if it is a folder, it needs to be full size, ie mountain bike/hybrid or whatever.

few questions..

1) why is the whoosh sirroco 2 so cheap for a bike that seems very popular, has the bigger battery and looks nice also?

2)how easy would it be to deristrict the motor/controller? i know this is more for speed not hillclimbing but as the main journey i will use it for will be about 12 miles round trip i can eat into the battery a little more if it was giving more speed?

3)how 'puncture resistant' are kenda tyres? it is best to fill them with that tyre goo?

lastly, as i have stated many times above, any/all recommendations to roughly meet my requirements are welcome.

1) The Woosh Sirroco is so cheape because Woosh Bikes is a very low overhead business. It's run by nice people and their bikes have the same components (motors, batteries, frames, etc) as most of the other sub-£1000 bikes. You should ask them when they expect to replenish their stock because they might have something better coming and still surprisingly cheap.
2) No. some bikes are actually set to 15mph max, which you can release to about 18mph, but many have 201 rpm motors that will do about 17mph. The only way to get more speed is to change the battery to a higher voltage.

There's too much choice now in the sub £1000 price range and they're all much of a muchness. You choose the one that looks nice, or you have to ride them to see which is the most comfortable. Woosh bikes are good quality and a bit cheaper. You can find some nice electric bikes on Ebay without support. If you need Support and warranty, Juicy, Woosh and Kudos support this forum, so it's guaranteed, after that there's loads to choose from.

 

[marc.knuckle]

1) The Woosh Sirroco is so cheape because Woosh Bikes is a very low overhead business. It's run by nice people and their bikes have the same components (motors, batteries, frames, etc) as most of the other sub-£1000 bikes. You should ask them when they expect to replenish their stock because they might have something better coming and still surprisingly cheap.
2) No. some bikes are actually set to 15mph max, which you can release to about 18mph, but many have 201 rpm motors that will do about 17mph. The only way to get more speed is to change the battery to a higher voltage.

There's too much choice now in the sub £1000 price range and they're all much of a muchness. You choose the one that looks nice, or you have to ride them to see which is the most comfortable. Woosh bikes are good quality and a bit cheaper. You can find some nice electric bikes on Ebay without support. If you need Support and warranty, Juicy, Woosh and Kudos support this forum, so it's guaranteed, after that there's loads to choose from.

cheers mate.

yeah, i am still looking mainly at the woosh but am seriously considering a kit.

you say some can have the speed released, how would i know and how would i do it?

if i go for a kit, any opinions what standard bikes to fit it to for £300 or less?

thanks again

 

[Cyclezee]

cheers mate.

yeah, i am still looking mainly at the woosh but am seriously considering a kit.

you say some can have the speed released, how would i know and how would i do it?

if i go for a kit, any opinions what standard bikes to fit it to for £300 or less?

thanks again

Hi Marc,

We supply eZee kits that can be derestricted, but to stay within the law they are restricted for use on public roads and land.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

cheers mate.

yeah, i am still looking mainly at the woosh but am seriously considering a kit.

you say some can have the speed released, how would i know and how would i do it?

if i go for a kit, any opinions what standard bikes to fit it to for £300 or less?

thanks again

The cheaper hub-drive bikes tend to be restricted by a pair of wires coming out the controller: Jooined = restricted; not joined = unrestricted. It doesn't normally make a lot of difference.

Every bike is different, but sub £300 ones normally don't have octalink or hollowtech cranks, which would be a problem for the pedal sensor. They also have cheaper gear systems, so it's not such a problem changing things.

Things to look out for when fitting a kit:
if the bike has integrated gear-change/brake levers, you need "hidden wire" brake sensors as opposed to complete brake levers with switches.
If you have twist-grip type gear change, you need a thumb throttle
If you have rapid-fire double trigger type gear changers, you also need a thumb throttle. That means only the thumb-lever changers can be used with a half or full twist-grip throttle.

Fitting a kit doesn't save you much money, but can allow you to get a bike more how you want it: speed, power, comfort, size, weight, suspension, etc. My general advice would be to get a ready-made bike for your first, so that you can figure out how the stuff works and fits.

Getting more speed out of an e-bike isn't easy. 15mph on the flat doesn't take much power. Typically, you see about 120w on the meter while you're pedalling, and a lot of the motive power is coming from you. For 20mph, it takes a lot more power and all the difference will come from the motor, so you see 350 to 500w on the meter. Therefore to sustain 20mph, you need a stronger motor, battery and controller than what you get in your average cheapo 250w e-bike.

To hotrod a cheapo bike, you can solder the shunt in the controller for a bit more climbing power, and get a 44v or 44v battery for proportionally more speed. The motors can take about 30% more than what they're set at, but that erodes the safety margin. The higher you go, the higher the risk.

 

[flecc]

The eZee kits and bikes use left hand twistgrip throttles so are a good solution for bikes with twistgrip gearchangers. I've had two eZee models like that since I like twistgrip changers and dislike thumb throttles.

 

[marc.knuckle]

thanks guys

The cheaper hub-drive bikes tend to be restricted by a pair of wires coming out the controller: Jooined = restricted; not joined = unrestricted. It doesn't normally make a lot of difference.

Every bike is different, but sub £300 ones normally don't have octalink or hollowtech cranks, which would be a problem for the pedal sensor. They also have cheaper gear systems, so it's not such a problem changing things.

Things to look out for when fitting a kit:
if the bike has integrated gear-change/brake levers, you need "hidden wire" brake sensors as opposed to complete brake levers with switches.
If you have twist-grip type gear change, you need a thumb throttle
If you have rapid-fire double trigger type gear changers, you also need a thumb throttle. That means only the thumb-lever changers can be used with a half or full twist-grip throttle.

Fitting a kit doesn't save you much money, but can allow you to get a bike more how you want it: speed, power, comfort, size, weight, suspension, etc. My general advice would be to get a ready-made bike for your first, so that you can figure out how the stuff works and fits.

Getting more speed out of an e-bike isn't easy. 15mph on the flat doesn't take much power. Typically, you see about 120w on the meter while you're pedalling, and a lot of the motive power is coming from you. For 20mph, it takes a lot more power and all the difference will come from the motor, so you see 350 to 500w on the meter. Therefore to sustain 20mph, you need a stronger motor, battery and controller than what you get in your average cheapo 250w e-bike.

To hotrod a cheapo bike, you can solder the shunt in the controller for a bit more climbing power, and get a 44v or 44v battery for proportionally more speed. The motors can take about 30% more than what they're set at, but that erodes the safety margin. The higher you go, the higher the risk.

thanks mate, considering the sirocco 2 has a 36v 15ah battery and also they told me temporarily the motor gives 500w to help with starts then reduces to the 250w, i presume it would be powerful enough to go faster or more powerfully up hills. it uses the bafang 8-fun motor, any idea if that can be deristricted?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Like I already said. It probably will do about 18mph, but if it only does 15mph, you can unplug the wires. There's not a lot of difference You can get that by pedalling a bit harder. The torque of the motor starts to die off once you get past about 12 mph, so the faster you go, the less help you get until you're on your own. The only way to get usable extra speed is to use a higher voltage battery, which pushes the whole power curve up he speed scale. As a downside, you can lose efficiency at low speed, so overall range goes down. You can never get something for nothing. To every up-side, there's always a down-side.

 

[marc.knuckle]

cheers mate.

have you got any personal recommendations under £1k? the faster and better at hill climbing the better.

any advice in general for both electric bikes and cycling overall? i havent been a bike user for about 20 years.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Maybe the Ezee Sprint Primo from Cyclezee. I've not ridden one, but the motor is a lot bigger and more powerful than the others, so it has a lot of hot-rodding potential. If you want more power, you should upgrade the battery. Don't say that you want to go faster on the road otherwise he gets a bit twitchy about selling it to you.

 

[Cyclezee]

Thanks for the publicity d8veh

Incidentally, the eZee Sprint Primo is available from £695 with the 8Ah battery and we only have 2 diamond frame models left in stock.

A 10 Ah version of the Primo is now available in both stepthru and diamond frame for £795.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Wouldn't it need the 14aH battery to run in "off-road" mode, or is the 10aH one a high discharge one?

 

[Cyclezee]

The Primo which has the Mk1 eZee motor along the Forza EV and Dahon Bullet which have rear Bafang motors cannot be derestricted for off road use. Using larger capacity batteries increases range not performance.

All other eZee bikes, Torq Mk3, Forza Mk2, Sprint 8 and conversion kits with the Mk2 eZee motor can be derestricted for use on private land.

We do not dictate to customers how or where to ride and if they wish to modify a bike or kit to suit their requirements that is up to them.

However, if someone asks us to supply something that is likely to be impractical, unsafe or illegal, or invalidate warranty, I think most would agree that we have a responsibility to advise against it.

I hope that clears up any misunderstandings.

 

[marc.knuckle]

thanks for the advice guys.

it is ashame that the ones that can be deristricted are well over my price range while the ones inside cant.

thanks anyway.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Marc,

If you have a donor bike, we can supply with an eZee conversion kit to give you what you want within budget.

 

[marc.knuckle]

i dont suppose you do a service for me to provide you with the bike and you fit the kit for a fee? i was thinking i could buy a bike and have it delivered to your shop and for you to fit then send back out.

thanks again.

 

[Cyclezee]

i dont suppose you do a service for me to provide you with the bike and you fit the kit for a fee? i was thinking i could buy a bike and have it delivered to your shop and for you to fit then send back out.

thanks again.

Hi Marc,

Yes we can do that and have done so for customers as far away as Greece.

Please note that we do not have retail premises, we have an office, workshop and warehouse in Milton Keynes.

 

[marc.knuckle]

thanks.

i wouldnt yet know what donor bike to buy but this would be a good possible bike...
Rockrider 5.3 2012 B'TWIN - All Bikes - On sale on Decathlon.co.uk

how much would you charge for that service? what kit could i put on that sort of bike, i think i'd want it on the rear wheel, and would like the ability to deristrict it if i needed to.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Marc,

I have sent you a PM.

 

[marc.knuckle]

hey.

i have sent a pm back.

however, i think i have decided that whatever i do i would prefer new. also i will take your recommandation and if i buy a kit i will fit it myself and save some money.

in which case, i came up with a few questions that may help me decide..

1 - what, if any, would be the benefits/downsides of the 700c and 26" compared to each other.

2 - how waterproof is the battery when connected to the bike and also the connection itself while the battery is removed and the connector is open to the rain? such as while secured outside while i would be at work.

3 - i cant remember if you told me about the tyres and if they are puncture resistant like kenda tyres.

thanks again

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Marc,

I assume that you have read my reply to your PM.

Question No.1 is a topic for debate and I am sure other members would share their views on the subject, I really think it depends on the type of bike that you want and where you are going to ride it. (Phew, managed to dodge that one)

2. The battery case is waterproof under most conditions, but should not be submerged in water. The Anderson connectors are not waterproof, all other connectors are waterproof or protected with heat shrink, if the battery is going to be left on the bike than heat shrink can be used to permanently seal them from the elements, however if like most people you need to remove the battery for charging, then a finger from a rubber glove and a couple of elastic bands will prevent water getting in, the same applies to the connector when the battery is removed.

3. The tyres fitted as standard are puncture resistant, either Schwalbe Marathon Plus or Maxxis Overdrive.

Regards,