Anyone heard of Pi Mobility??

[ekline309]

Just stumbled across these guys today, their design is very.... let's say...interesting.

One thing is for sure, anyone working for wide-spread adoption of ebikes is a friend in my book.

Their strategy seems to hinge on building a network of Pi stations all around the bay area to supplement BART. Mayor Newsom has talked about 'smart bikes' before, so I'm guessing he'd be all for this.

 

[ekline309]

This might help:

http://www.pimobility.com/img/Pi_Specs.pdf

 

[fitek]

I met Marcus, who I think is the founder of Pi Mobility, at an SF EAA event. He was quite nice. The bike is very complicated but I like their approach on parts. They have built it to be as reliable as possible. Most of the bike sharing I have seen in Europe takes this approach (internal gears, hub brakes, etc), but of course without electric bits. Pi uses NIMH batteries (Japanese I think) and a Heinzmann DC motor. Simple and effective. Marcus spoke about testing all sorts of other batteries and motors but the failure rates were too high. For example, BLDC motors kept having hall sensor problems.

Weird story: one my GF's landlord's best friends had to move out of his boat building shop in Marin. He was pretty upset about it. He said the people who moved in built this funky U shaped looking bike and I should check it out. I couldn't find any mention of it online. Two weeks later Marcus rode in on the Pi to this SF EAA event. Small world?

 

[fechter]

Yes, I saw one in person at the Marin County Fair. Some aspect of the design are good, others are retarded. The one I saw had a Heinzmann brushed motor. The batteries are stuffed inside the frame which keeps them protected, but makes them very difficult to service.

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

shoulda strategically stood a little to the left for a Benny Hill moment.
Der großes rote schwanz.

It's my feeling that Marcus beat 'safe' to his ver.#004.
He's got the straight beam, a Warren truss; an arch would have been the next evolutionary step as he works his way toward the state of the art.
I'm looking forward to the cantilever version myself, should be an impressive sight.

 

[MitchJi]

Hi,

I've gotten to know Marcus and ridden the Pi. Very high quality, very well done. Everything works very together. It is designed to be legal so its not hugely powerful but when you are in the correct gear for a good pedaling cadence the motor is in or near its optimum. The performance is impressive considering the power. Since the Fair picture the design has been optimized to lower the cost of production and the wheelbase has been shortened. The change feels good.

Their strategy seems to hinge on building a network of Pi stations all around the bay area to supplement BART. Mayor Newsom has talked about 'smart bikes' before, so I'm guessing he'd be all for this.

I don't doubt they would pursue "building a network of Pi stations" if it seems like a viable idea but I'm sure their marketing is not limited to that.

I met Marcus, who I think is the founder of Pi Mobility, at an SF EAA event. He was quite nice. The bike is very complicated but I like their approach on parts. They have built it to be as reliable as possible. Most of the bike sharing I have seen in Europe takes this approach (internal gears, hub brakes, etc), but of course without electric bits. Pi uses NIMH batteries (Japanese I think) and a Heinzmann DC motor. Simple and effective.

In October he told me he was using LG Chem Li-ion. The Pi has disc brakes.

The batteries are stuffed inside the frame which keeps them protected, but makes them very difficult to service.

More sophisticated than "stuffed inside the frame". The cells are in trays that slide into the frame. The trays are designed to maintain contact with the aluminum frame so that the frame is a heat sink for the batteries.