What do you want in an ebike? - Participation needed

grindz145

grindz145

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Rochester NY
Help Evolve Ebike Design! Share your pain.

http://emotorbikes.ideascale.com/

Over the past 5+ years that I've been a member of this community I have seen thousands of post relating to wishes/needs/gripes/and general brainstorming from the most qualified group of electric motorbike mavens in the world.

As part of my Master Thesis at RIT, I'm trying to understand what the community and world needs with respect to ebikes. But I thought, why not do it in the most open-source and collaboritve way possible?

Here's where it gets interesting. So do you know any of the social pagerank type sites such as Digg/Reddit etc? Why not do this as a way to collaborate with the leaders of the Ebike/LEV revolution.

So here's what you can do
-Log in Here: http://emotorbikes.ideascale.com/ (I tried to disable login, but I can't, but you can login with any OpenID provider)
-Vote up Ideas that you like
-Add new ideas to the pool

Anything is fair game. Range, Design, Pricepoint, Rocket Launchers, flux capacitors, Submit whatever ideas you'd like to see and pick the best ones.


I'm hoping to generate a survey based on what comes up here, but this site may be more useful than anything else. What do you think?
 
Does anyone have an idea how I can make this better? Does it make any sense at all? :mrgreen:
 
Dauntless said:
You need a dirtbike section, maybe two. One for a little Madass 125cc type and one bigger. More to it than just suspension.
Click to expand...

No sections needed, just submit your idea, whatever it is, and vote stuff up that you like. The idea is to generate a list of killer features the we can all use to focus on, in an effort to push the state of the art.

Sounds to me like there are at least like 4 ideas that could be submitted just from your comment. Without people signing in and voting on stuff though, it won't become much. At least vote up things that you like, if not submit ideas.

Does the concept make sense? It's like Digg or Reddit, but for Ebike needs.
 
I like the idea, and I like the tool you're using. I just added an idea "power cutoff integrated into brakes". Kind of a no-brainer, but added just to practice using the tool.
 
Perfect. Thanks. I'm trying to force myself to take a step back and really take a look at these types of features from a high level again. It's actually really hard when you've spent your life pouring over details, but still, really helpful.
 
What can I do to entice people to participate? Do I need to give some crap away....:)
 
I think it's a good idea but a bit backwards....
Your questions are very generic and pidgeon holed...too many answers are grey area based on the type of bike someone is looking for...No single bike will do what everyone wants and not everyone will want the same style of bike for the same purposes.

I think it would be easier to offer up a parts list to actually pick and choose and 'build' your dream bike on paper...then extrapolate the patterns from what people are selecting.

Or otherwise, provide specs that they can fill out. Example: rather than asking "An ebike should be able to do minimum of 32kmh? Y/N" A better question would be "What is your required maximum speed"

By providing the user with a selection of "bike type" (like, 'cruiser', 'dirtbike', 'commuter', 'cargo', etc) you can extrapolate what people expect out of those types of bikes based on their requirements per type.
 
What do you mean by greyed out? Everything is fair game.

Just enter what you would like to see. Maybe I caused confusion by using the "design your dream bike" name.

Just think of it as a list of wants, and a poll.


Just vote up things that you like, it's that simple. Each idea is completely independent of another.
 
r3volved said:
Your questions are very generic and pidgeon holed
Click to expand...

This is not a poll, it is a platform for sharing ideas, Submit your ideas! It's just like Reddit or Digg but for ebikes. I just haven't done a good job of explaining it yet, but I'm getting there :mrgreen:
 
I don't mean grayed out - like cannot select. I mean gray area - like applies only by context.

I want peddle assist (if context applies to commuter style), but I don't want peddles (if context applies to dirtbike style). So do I up vote peddle assist or not?

I see though more what you mean as digg style and not a questionnaire.
 
r3volved said:
I want peddle assist (if context applies to commuter style), but I don't want peddles (if context applies to dirtbike style). So do I up vote peddle assist or not?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I see what you mean. I would pick individual needs that you have, and they need to be specific.

Here's How I would write each of those:
-Peddle Assist - I want a peddle assist bike that is lightweight, and has functional peddles in order to achieve additional range.
-Dirtbike Style Ebike - I want an ebike that takes the form of an enduro type of bike, but is much lighter and utilizes mountain bike components.

But any way that you would like to catalog them would be acceptable for sure.
 
Here's another way to look at it, What do you want that doesn't exist yet? What do you build that you would rather buy. The idea is to identify where voids exist that developers should focus on.
 
grindz145 said:
Here's another way to look at it, What do you want that doesn't exist yet? What do you build that you would rather buy. The idea is to identify where voids exist that developers should focus on.
Click to expand...
This is more of my thought.
Filter down in location, needs and requirements to 'cyber-build' your ideal bike. Then catalogue and analyze to find demand gaps in regional markets.
 
r3volved said:
Filter down in location, needs and requirements to 'cyber-build' your ideal bike. Then catalogue and analyze to find demand gaps in regional markets.
Click to expand...


But that's not the purpose of this venue. It's really to identify top level things that we're missing. I've named a few that I think are markedly missing, like GOOD fully engineered batteries. It might just be a failed experiment. I have a good old fashioned survey to administer too... but this could be way cooler. meh.
 
r3volved said:
Probably just needs more content for me to wrap my head around. I'm sure there were opponents of digg and reddit before they know how awesome they were.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I'll add a bunch more content in order to try to give examples of what I have in mind.
 
High quality hall throttles.

Precision throttle control with economical controllers.

Variable regen braking.

To me it's absolutely absurd that 6 years into this hobby for me, and these problems that were glaring 5 or 6 years ago still have no solution without purchasing a controller that costs more than a motor and requires 3rd party expert help to set it up properly.
 
John in CR said:
High quality hall throttles.

Precision throttle control with economical controllers.

Variable regen braking.

To me it's absolutely absurd that 6 years into this hobby for me, and these problems that were glaring 5 or 6 years ago still have no solution without purchasing a controller that costs more than a motor and requires 3rd party expert help to set it up properly.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. It seems that a lot of this stuff has been stagnant. That's what I'm trying to identify. I'll add your ideas to the list!
 
I'm not the most web savvy guy, so I might just add my wishes here.

I want a compact, watertight, multipin sockets and plugs, both panel mounted and in-line. How many hall wires or throttle wires have been soldered because a convenient plug wasn't possible or practical?

That would make me happy for a while :)
 
jonescg said:
I'm not the most web savvy guy, so I might just add my wishes here.

I want a compact, watertight, multipin sockets and plugs, both panel mounted and in-line. How many hall wires or throttle wires have been soldered because a convenient plug wasn't possible or practical?

That would make me happy for a while :)
Click to expand...

I prefer to hardwire everything.
 
grindz145 said:
r3volved said:
Your questions are very generic and pidgeon holed
Click to expand...

This is not a poll, it is a platform for sharing ideas, Submit your ideas! It's just like Reddit or Digg but for ebikes. I just haven't done a good job of explaining it yet, but I'm getting there :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

You can't get much of a discussion going about generalities. Meanwhile, when what little is specified doesn't apply to you, you're simply left out.

If you think people are going to be ready to jump right in as you intended, they have to see that in front of them first.
 
John in CR said:
jonescg said:
I'm not the most web savvy guy, so I might just add my wishes here.

I want a compact, watertight, multipin sockets and plugs, both panel mounted and in-line. How many hall wires or throttle wires have been soldered because a convenient plug wasn't possible or practical?

That would make me happy for a while :)
Click to expand...

I prefer to hardwire everything.
Click to expand...

If you can be confident that the components you are using are reliable enough to not need servicing later on. Things like throttles tend to go fairly often.
 
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