Sunder
10 MW
This is my bike:
It's nothing special. Built on a cheap Orbea frame, with a mix of cheap Unbranded, low end, and high end Shimano gear.
Oh. And Q100H, oil cooled, pumped by a Phaserunner pushing 1100W.
I never designed it to be stealthy. Only to avoid being a theft target, and police asking awkward questions. As they say "Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies". The left hand pannier holds all the electronics. The right hand one holds my change of clothes for when I get to work (Office worker). The Q100H is hidden between them, and with a 42mm wide tire at the rear - almost impossible to see from behind either.
I've been riding in 3-4 days a week for 5 weeks now. And aside from the 40km/h cruising through parks, and sometimes up the left side of stopped traffic, I've found another joy. The despair I cause to some arrogant "purists" and the confusion I cause to other eBike users. You see, eBikes are now EXTREMELY popular in Sydney. Almost 1 in 3 bikes. But 90% of them are mid-drive, the other 9.9% of them are front hubs, but pretty much all of them use a shark style battery. In other words, almost all cyclists "know" what to look for to identify an electric bike... Unless you build it like me.
So in the last 5 weeks, I've had:
1. A woman, looking like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. Sponsored jersy, riding a high end carbon Giant with Deep V wheels, the kind of bike that costs $10k+ AUD (>7k USD). Flies past me down a hill, at least 20km/h faster than my already high 40ish km/h. No problem. It's not a race, I'm commuting, not competing. But on the flats, I'm slowly catching up, and on the hill, I decide I would rather not slow to 30ish. I'm well past her. At the next lights, she pulls up next to me. Doesn't say a word, but she's not hiding that she's eyeballing my ride. Looks at the handle bar. Ordinary bike computer, no voltage, current, or energy consumption meters. Looks at the centre triangle. No battery. Looks at the rear rack, no battery. Looks at the front wheel. No motor. Looks at my bottom bracket - Cheap set of Alivio pedals, no mid-drive. With every glance, the frown on her face looks more and more like a scowl.
All she had to do was ask, and I would have told her it was electric, but the growing frown on her face was priceless.
2. A few days later, two gents riding off the shelf mid-drives pull up to me while I was on the road (Small section I don't have a dedicated bike path.) One politely asks "Mind if we cut ahead? We're both on electrics". Faced with such politeness, of course, it's "Be my guest". But within 300 meters, I am of course passing them, as they hit their 25km/h assist cut off, and I'm still pulling hard.
3. Finally, a couple weeks after that, someone clues on. There's a guy with an obviously home made bike - neat, but no way is it factory made. At first I don't want to pass him. He's doing mid 30s, and smashing up hills almost as well as I am. But finally, there's a very long straight section, no pedestrians, no drive ways, no cross roads. It's safe to take my time to inch past. Again, he catches up to me at a lights. One glance, and he says; "That's gotta be electric mate... Where's the battery and motor?" I point them out to him, and he marvels how small the whole thing is. "My build added about 14 kilos, what's yours?", "About 6", I reply. We chat a bit about oil cooling, and how using LTO battery means I don't need to worry about draining too deep, or using too high a C-Rate, so I can size my battery tiny. After 5 mins, we part ways with him hoping we run into each other again so he can ask more questions.
But anyway... The first electric bike I built used a large Golden Circle hub motor, and a bit rear rack battery. That was about 9 years ago. The amount of negative attention I got, especially from lycra riders treating the road/footpath as the Paris-Roubaix, or setting their personal best every morning... I preferred to keep a low profile. This time, I'm not saying anything unless they do first.
It's nothing special. Built on a cheap Orbea frame, with a mix of cheap Unbranded, low end, and high end Shimano gear.
Oh. And Q100H, oil cooled, pumped by a Phaserunner pushing 1100W.
I never designed it to be stealthy. Only to avoid being a theft target, and police asking awkward questions. As they say "Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies". The left hand pannier holds all the electronics. The right hand one holds my change of clothes for when I get to work (Office worker). The Q100H is hidden between them, and with a 42mm wide tire at the rear - almost impossible to see from behind either.
I've been riding in 3-4 days a week for 5 weeks now. And aside from the 40km/h cruising through parks, and sometimes up the left side of stopped traffic, I've found another joy. The despair I cause to some arrogant "purists" and the confusion I cause to other eBike users. You see, eBikes are now EXTREMELY popular in Sydney. Almost 1 in 3 bikes. But 90% of them are mid-drive, the other 9.9% of them are front hubs, but pretty much all of them use a shark style battery. In other words, almost all cyclists "know" what to look for to identify an electric bike... Unless you build it like me.
So in the last 5 weeks, I've had:
1. A woman, looking like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. Sponsored jersy, riding a high end carbon Giant with Deep V wheels, the kind of bike that costs $10k+ AUD (>7k USD). Flies past me down a hill, at least 20km/h faster than my already high 40ish km/h. No problem. It's not a race, I'm commuting, not competing. But on the flats, I'm slowly catching up, and on the hill, I decide I would rather not slow to 30ish. I'm well past her. At the next lights, she pulls up next to me. Doesn't say a word, but she's not hiding that she's eyeballing my ride. Looks at the handle bar. Ordinary bike computer, no voltage, current, or energy consumption meters. Looks at the centre triangle. No battery. Looks at the rear rack, no battery. Looks at the front wheel. No motor. Looks at my bottom bracket - Cheap set of Alivio pedals, no mid-drive. With every glance, the frown on her face looks more and more like a scowl.
All she had to do was ask, and I would have told her it was electric, but the growing frown on her face was priceless.
2. A few days later, two gents riding off the shelf mid-drives pull up to me while I was on the road (Small section I don't have a dedicated bike path.) One politely asks "Mind if we cut ahead? We're both on electrics". Faced with such politeness, of course, it's "Be my guest". But within 300 meters, I am of course passing them, as they hit their 25km/h assist cut off, and I'm still pulling hard.
3. Finally, a couple weeks after that, someone clues on. There's a guy with an obviously home made bike - neat, but no way is it factory made. At first I don't want to pass him. He's doing mid 30s, and smashing up hills almost as well as I am. But finally, there's a very long straight section, no pedestrians, no drive ways, no cross roads. It's safe to take my time to inch past. Again, he catches up to me at a lights. One glance, and he says; "That's gotta be electric mate... Where's the battery and motor?" I point them out to him, and he marvels how small the whole thing is. "My build added about 14 kilos, what's yours?", "About 6", I reply. We chat a bit about oil cooling, and how using LTO battery means I don't need to worry about draining too deep, or using too high a C-Rate, so I can size my battery tiny. After 5 mins, we part ways with him hoping we run into each other again so he can ask more questions.
But anyway... The first electric bike I built used a large Golden Circle hub motor, and a bit rear rack battery. That was about 9 years ago. The amount of negative attention I got, especially from lycra riders treating the road/footpath as the Paris-Roubaix, or setting their personal best every morning... I preferred to keep a low profile. This time, I'm not saying anything unless they do first.
