Calling all Bay Area ebike riders

[quuxman]

I'd really like to see some sort of group for Bay Area e-bike riders. Could simply be a mailing list, maybe even a monthly meetup. If this already exists, I want to join, and if it doesn't, please send me your email and I'll start it.

I have two main motivations for this: 1) I have one friend who I go on rides with, and would like to do this more often with more people. 2) Tool sharing. I have a heavy soldering iron that I've used for replacing my 30 amp Anderson connectors, and volt meter, but now I need to service my hub motor, and don't want to buy or own the puller for taking it apart that I might use once every 5 years.

If there are people who don't want to be bugged about meetups and rides, or others who don't do their own maintenance, they can be separate lists: a social one, and another for sharing parts, tools, and shop space.

Cheers

[quuxman]

Thanks to the few who responded . Are there any more around here? Pretty sure this will be quite a low volume list. Nothing has been sent so far.

[snowranger]

O reillys loans out those gead pullers for free

[Alan B]

Not aware of a Bay Area specific list.

I'm interested.

I'm in the East Bay, north of Berkeley, not far from San Pablo Reservoir.

[quuxman]

Alan: cool, PM me your email and I'll invite you.

@snowranger what?

[tungsten2k]

I'm at the San Francisco/Daly City twilight of the Crocker-Amazon (top of Mt. San Bruno). I've been lovin' my new Bafang setup and have already convinced a friend over in Bernal Heights to build an eBike (they have a Falco system on order to convert their Marin road bike).

I'm looking to convert my battery setup to a standard charger with BMS (no BMS currently) and looking to gang up an order at BMSbattery to order their SmartBMS with custom programming and a couple of their chargers with custom voltage (4.1v max). If anyone is interested, let me know ! Also, if you have a line on a better alternative setup, I'm all ears

-=dave

[CobraJet]

Hi I'm Greg, the new guy on the block. I live in East Contra Costa County.

I just found this forum on a search for E-bikes as I don't currently have one but I'm contemplating/researching building one of my own. I'm not a newby in regards to all battery powered things. I started out on NiCads and canned motors in 1993 flying electric powered remote controlled airplanes.

I'm currently working on a 1500+ watt, Lipoly/brushless powered 200+ MPH pylon racer. My biggest motor to date is a 4000 watt neodium magnet monster rated to fly a really large aircraft.

Anyway, I am familiar with Lipoly care and charging and motors and the technology. I just wanted to see what other people are doing.

Lately I've noticed the large hub motors. How big do these go? Is anyone rewinding these to take really big power?

Any news on these is good news to me!

[Alan B]

Hi Greg, welcome to ES.

People do rewind hubmotors, though it is a lot of work and fairly rare.

CroMotors, MXUS and Crystalyte are a couple examples of beefy motors that can take a lot of power with stock windings. There are hubmotors for scooters and motorcycles that can take even more, though the weight can be significant. A good sized scooter type bicycle hubmotor weighs more than an entire racing bike, for example. But the performance with 6+ KW is very nice.

Even your 4000W motor would work quite well on an ebike if properly geared.

[Alan B]

Any Bay Area ebike riders out there?

[adamcooks]

Hey Now!!

I just got my bike assembled. 1200 watt MXUS geared motor 22Ah 48v LiFePO4 battery. Commuting Vallejo to Berkeley. If there's a list or group in the area please feel free to PM me for a connection.

[Alan B]

Welcome to ES!

That's quite a commute, what is the distance and approximate route?

[adamcooks]

Welcome to ES!

That's quite a commute, what is the distance and approximate route?

you can ignore the time. My commute is just about an hour +/- 10 minutes for wind. Its quite a nice ride, we will see what the winter brings though.

[Alan B]

OK, right down SP Avenue. Quite a ride. I used to do over half of that route for my motorcycle commute, just out to near Hilltop.

[Barnfresh]

Pretty large group of bay area e-bikers here: http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-E-Bike-Meetup/

[Alan B]

Good find, I hadn't seen that one yet. They appear to be commercial ebikers for the most part, but good to see other ebiker groups out there.

[Alan B]

Some of us are planning a leisurely ride around the Three Bears Loop near Orinda, CA a week from today, and we're looking for a few more ebikers to join us.

See thread:

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewto ... 25&t=71333

[emonkey]

hello, I live in Campbell and ride down to 101 and 17 to work, mostly on trails. Starting to see more bikes everyday. Ride a rather stealthy surly karate monkey with a BMC in the back and battery in a triangle bag. Also have a Troll with the Bafang set up and a Cargo bike with a front hub that is going to blow up any day. The Bafang is a trip, goes easily up anything. Like to ride over to Soqeul on old Santa Cruz highway (hint several 120 plugs at Loma Prieta park on the summit)

[gammaray]

I'm moving down to San Jose for around a year starting this September and I would love the opportunity to meet up with other electrically-driven people. I'm not sure if you guys consider San Jose part of the Bay Area (perhaps South Bay), but all the same.

I have two main motivations for this: 1) I have one friend who I go on rides with, and would like to do this more often with more people.

How long are these rides and what speeds are considered cruising speeds?

I have two main motivations for this: 2) Tool sharing. I have a heavy soldering iron that I've used for replacing my 30 amp Anderson connectors, and volt meter, but now I need to service my hub motor, and don't want to buy or own the puller for taking it apart that I might use once every 5 years.

If there are people who don't want to be bugged about meetups and rides, or others who don't do their own maintenance, they can be separate lists: a social one, and another for sharing parts, tools, and shop space.

That sounds like a great idea as well.

Edit: mistake

[Alan B]

Welcome all to ES and to this thread, I'm sure the OP for this thread is around somewhere. He made it to both of my rides.

We haven't done too many group rides, but we want to do more. I've organized a ride around the three bears loop in the East bay a couple of times, others are welcome to suggest/organize something.

There's also some folks on meetups (the online meeting website) who do some electric rides, I think they're more off the shelf ebike oriented, but it might be good to join one of their rides. It is good to understand range limitations as they vary a lot depending on the ebike. I know the meetup group went up Mt Diablo once, neat trip but could be bad to run out of juice on.

The Bay Area includes a lot of territory, all that really matters is who can get to the ride. Some are limited to where they can take mass transit to, while others have vehicles with racks and fewer limits on ride locations.

I was just looking today at communications for rides, it would be really nice if we had some radio comm to use on our rides, we used to do that on Motorcycle rides and it enhances the safety and the quality of the rides if some or all of the members can communicate over a modest distance. There are bluetooth systems, and the FRS radios are good too. We might discuss picking something for those interested in doing that.

[quuxman]

Send me a PM or make a post with your email and I'll add you to the list. Alan, you're also an admin on the list and should be able to invite people.

[Alan B]

Thanks, I didn't realize that. Good to know.

[Barnfresh]

Fairfax - Bolinas Ridge - Olema E-BIKE Loop - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Start in Fairfax, get on fire trails, then road to Alpine Dam, then steep ascent on road (1,700') to Bolinas ridge trail 17 miles down to Inverness on single track. Stop for lunch and battery charge. Back on road to Samuel Taylor State Park on trail and back to Fairfax. The views of Tomales Bay from Bolinas ridge are magnificent. 42 miles and 4,500' vertical gain and descent.

http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-E-B ... 224594994/

[Alan B]

That's an ambitious ride!

[quuxman]

Fairfax - Bolinas Ridge - Olema E-BIKE Loop - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM

... views of Tomales Bay from Bolinas ridge are magnificent. 42 miles and 4,500' vertical gain and descent.

http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-E-B ... 224594994/

This sounds excellent. I'm in!

[adamcooks]

How does the recumbent handle single track?

Fairfax - Bolinas Ridge - Olema E-BIKE Loop - Sunday, September 20, 2015 - 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM

... views of Tomales Bay from Bolinas ridge are magnificent. 42 miles and 4,500' vertical gain and descent.

http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-E-B ... 224594994/

This sounds excellent. I'm in!