Interesting Folding Electric Bikes but not available!

[MikeyBikey]

Interesting new (well 2013 it says) bike on Alibaba but 80 piece min order, and no price quoted, grrr! Anyone else know of bikes that have caught their interest but not available?

Huaxin LiCi - Usual suspects on spec list, Shimano tourney 7sp, disc brakes, but some features not seen before and some useful. Possible Air suspension rear shock + (it appears to have a shock pump valve in pic, but no details in spec!). Hidden 8ah Battery slides out of folding front frame to recharge elsewhere +. Assume controller hidden in rear frame, seems connected by 2 pole terminals +. Handlebars fold down between the two halves of the 'klapprad' alloy frame, more compact fold +, but rear frame raised by dahon jetstream style buttressing -. Weight quoted without batt at 18kg net, not gross -. Makes of batt & motor not given - .
Still no 3rd wheel roller to ease moving these things once folded
Wonder if 5sp control has Walk Mode to power it up stairs?
cheers, Mike
20" foldable full-suspension electric bicycle, 2013 new style, lithium-ion battery powered, View 20" folding full-suspension electric bicycle, Huaxin LiCi Product Details from Shenzhen Huaxin Energy Technology Co., Ltd. on Alibaba.com

 

[Deleted member 4366]

If you ask for a sample, they'll sell you a quantity of one. The shipping cost will be relatively expensive, but the overall cost should still be reasonable.

 

[trex]

it's similar to the woosh zephyr in specs and shape with minor differences:
The Zephyr | Foldable Electric bikes from Woosh | electric bike sales & hire

 

[peerjay56]

it's similar to the woosh zephyr in specs and shape with minor differences:
The Zephyr | Foldable Electric bikes from Woosh | electric bike sales & hire

Looks quite different in black from the white shown on AB. Black doesn't look as appealing, to me at least.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Our Kudos Secret bike is very similar,we went away from a softail rear,like was on our Cheetah model,because most customers of small folders such as this wanted them for road use only,on the back of motorhomes etc,although the Cheetah had a good following.
The latest Secret will have a 52tooth chainwheel to reduce cadence at speed and make the gear system more useable,also a telescopic seat post to suit taller riders but the rest of the spec will remain unchanged....don't sort what don't need sorting!!!!
KudosDave

 

[MikeyBikey]

Not electric, but looks like someone, called Memos?, is manufacturing a Dahon Curl lookalike. Birdy fold of rear wheel and front fork folds back under, resting beside main frame tube too. Hope that fork hinge is strong! Rollers attached allow rolling of folded bike. This Singapore classified advert refers to preorders at S$850, so not in stock. Interesting fold in way it 'curls' up .
20" Folding bike with rollers (help to roll into MRT easily) - | OLX

 

[flecc]

That's clever, changes colour too when it folds.

 

[Kudoscycles]

To be honest I don't think any of these folders folds as we would want. What is needed is that the size of the bike should be the diameter of the wheels plus the mudguards,say 24" overal diameter on a 20" wheeled bike and the crank,handlebars and seat post all folds into that diameter-the nearest I can find is the concept VW ELECTRIC BIKE (perhaps someone could google an image and load it on this forum). The VW has no pedals so cannot be classed as a Pedelec but the design of the fold in the way the handlebars and seat post are radiused into the fold is quite clever.
All the electric folders are really electrified vanilla folders,this means the fold ends up fat in width and many elements outside of the folded envelope....what is needed is one of the big manufacturers (Honda?)with big R&D facilities to design the bike as an e-bike from conception,this is beyond the small suppliers such as Kudos with our limited volumes.
KudosDave

 

[trex]

A (front) Copenhagen wheel could be an interesting solution to folding e-bikes, most folders already fold awkwardly, the task is made even worse with the electric conversion - wrong weight distribution, battery and cables to get in the way etc.

 

[flecc]

what is needed is one of the big manufacturers (Honda?)with big R&D facilities to design the bike as an e-bike from conception,this is beyond the small suppliers such as Kudos with our limited volumes.
KudosDave

Honda did design a good one ten years ago, the Step-Combo, but it was a simple centre fold design. 50cycles were the UK agents and they sold for around £1250, a lot of money at the time:

There's a full review on this link

More detailed close ups on this link
.

 

[Kudoscycles]

Flecc....nice looking bike but the fold is still too bulky. The VW folds such that it will fit in the spare wheel well of a Golf. Trying to think outside the bix....could the pedals be connected to the driven axle,like a monocycle but with another wheel just for stability,not sure whether the driven wheel needs to be at the front or the back. If the pedals folded inside the driven wheel rim then the stabilising wheel could fold parrallel and in line with the driven wheel,making the fold very small diameter.
Some gearing needed where the pedal axle powers into the driven axle but this could be like a combined Nexus and Bafang hub motor.
Any budding designers out there with ideas?
The lot needs to weigh less than 12kgs and have 20 mile range,
KudosDave

 

[flecc]

Yes, the Honda was still a bit too big, though it's smaller than normal wheels helped.

Here's a link to the Volkswagen folder you mentioned, video also showing the fold:

VW folding e-bike

 

[RobF]

It's still impossible to beat a converted Brompton, such as my Nano.

Home

Still no sign of the Brompton factory ebike.

 

[trex]

A built in motor wheel battery or saddle bag battery would remove the need for a front bag.

 

[flecc]

Another approach for cities with heavily used dedicated cycle lanes would be induction coils buried in the lanes for e-bike energy pickup, e-bikes then only needing a tiny auto-charging battery to bridge the non-induction sections of a route.

Induction isn't very efficient, but for e-bike's minimal current usage the losses are acceptable.

 

[RobF]

A built in motor wheel battery or saddle bag battery would remove the need for a front bag.

Doubt there's enough room for motor and battery in a Brommie wheel.

Seatpost/saddlebag batteries compromise the fold, and the Brommie bag is handy for, in my case, carriage of my flask and other bits and pieces.

A bit of weight on the front also improves the Brompton's notoriously twitchy steering.

 

[trex]

this is only a thought experiment on this rainy day - the weather is too misearable to go out. Arrange 30 cylindrical batteries around a motor - arrange also controller and BMS on a donut PCB. That should fit into a 16" alloy moulded rim. The wheel should weigh about 4.5kgs.
The only connection to the outside is 5 low power wires: +/- , clock and data for LCD and brake sensor.

 

[flecc]

this is only a thought experiment on this rainy day - the weather is too misearable to go out. Arrange 30 cylindrical batteries around a motor - arrange also controller and BMS on a donut PCB. That should fit into a 16" alloy moulded rim. The wheel should weigh about 4.5kgs.
The only connection to the outside is 5 low power wires: +/- , clock and data for LCD and brake sensor.

Pouch cells would lend themselves well to that arrangement.

 

[trex]

on the subject of thought experiment, if the controller and BMS are on the same PCB, one could do something else to improve climbing ability: have two windings on the same motor. If the two windings are fed in parallel, the motor will be run on fast mode, if they are put in series, the motor will run in high torque. The arrangement removes the need for a big motor.

 

[flecc]

Switched windings for that purpose have been in some hub motors, mainly sold by Team Hybrid at times, They warned of very high consumption in one of the modes and I don't know the winding arrangements in those motors.