Drop-Bar eBikes (like a "road" bike)

[ScooterMan101]

Yes, Exactly, as it is now the 201 rpm one only gets me 18-20 mph, and only up to 22-23 with me pedaling, with a compact 50/34 crankset ,
and that is on flat ground , no wind.

For where I live it would be best to have two, the 328 for speed to keep up with the young/healthy/serious roadies,
and
the 201 rpm speed one for when I want to go up hills, ( I run my 201 speed one on 48 volts, however like chas58 says in the post below , I would only run a 328 rpm one at around 36 volts , the person who did run a 328 on 12s lipo's killed it when going into a very strong , apx 20 mph head wind, so from what every one seems to agree on if you do get a 328 rpm one run it on a 36 volt battery )

Thanks for the advice. So you would have gotten the 328rpm version because you want a higher top end speed?

 

[chas58]

Couple of things:

328 is not a great solution for most people.

The 328 rpm version would be happiest at 25-26mph, but it can only do about 22 by itself (36v Q100). So you are not getting into its efficiency range unless you can find a way to make the bike faster. Yes, a strong rider that can do 200-300 watts continuous can bring the speed up to 25-26mph on a fast light bike.

I would never overvolt a 328rpm Q100 by going over 36v. You are just going to generate more heat and get even farther away from your efficiency range. That isn’t going to be a durable solution, and would certainly die a quick death on a hill.

Most people are happiest with the 260rpm version. It is happy at 20mph, and some people reportably have had success at 48v, which brings it up to a similar speed as the 328rpm version. Again, going much over 260rpm (no load speed) is going to make hill climbing tricky as you will generate a lot of heat.

 

[ScooterMan101]

bdole,

I went to a bike shop today that sells Specialized Bikes/Gear

On display was the New Roubaix, several interesting new features to that already great bike.

The Item you might be interested in is the Drop Bar, it is raised 15mm on the upper part, so now riders can have a more relaxed position and when needed/wanted a more aerodynamic position down on the drops.

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/components/hover-expert-alloy-handlebars-15mm-rise/118174

Now if we all can get someone to develop a touch pad throttle, one small and thin enough to fit on the upper half of the brake/shift handle on STI Shifters. A throttle ( touch pad ) that has + and - pads that for each press of the + or -
the speed increases in increments of 1 mph or even 1 kph.
the lower - part of the throttle touch pad positioned where our fingers are when pulling in the brake.
and the + part of the touch pad throttle up where when you put pressure on it , no pressure is put on the brake lever, the very upper part of the brake/shift lever.
( I am writing this so Grin Technologies/ Justin, and / or someone else will design such a throttle for drop bar road bikes with STI Shift/Brake Levers ) .

 

[Raged]

The issue with incremental increases is that it's like cruise control where you need to tap the brake to stop it. The tried and true spring mech where the throttle auto closes is still the safest option. As I mentioned earlier, if you're not on the throttle much, some buttons with set voltage will do you fine ( I settled on 30%, 70% and 100% ).

 

[ScooterMan101]

I do not use the spring function on a throttle, on a twist throttle it hurts my wrist, what I do on my first build is get to speed then press the green button for cruise control,
I have a few times had to put on the brakes and forgot to push the green button , but , it was never dangerous , even when going over 30 kph, I have disc brakes and I could tell the bike was not stopping as normal and so used my thumb to press the green button to disengage the cruise control. ( Em3ev half throttle and infineon controller )

On my current e-bike, ( Q100c CST motor/Kuntang Controller and Thumb Throttle ) there is no cruse control button , and the constant pressure of a spring hurts my thumb , so I took out the spring of the thumb throttle , and wrapped white athletic tape around the inside , which causes enough friction for me to use the throttle to make it a cruise control , using one finger to pull up to speed up, and the thumb to push down to slow down/stop the motor. It works great !
because it is right next to the brake lever, and I have a very fluid motion of pushing down on the thumb throttle with my thumb on the way to the brake lever. Again a few times the motor was still going when I wanted to brake, However, You can tell within a second of this and make adjustment in enough time and the added bonus is that the brakes do not lock up.

I am using disc brakes on both bikes , so factor that in for added and better braking in the first place, if you do forget to disengage the cruise control function , you have the benefit of ... Not locking up the brakes .
For the general public ..
Remember , many people have brake levers, or an inline switch that shuts off the motor when pulling in on the brake lever. and production bikes have this feature to begin with anyway.

The way I describe a better design of throttle for road bikes, using a touch pad , two in fact, one for speeding up and one for slowing down, I did not fully describe how to make it get out of the cruise control , so here you go.
Design it so as when you press either + or - for a half second , it speeds up in increments of 1 mph or 1 kph,
To disengage and/or to speed up/slow down like a spring throttle , just hold the up or down continuously .
.

 

[ScooterMan101]

Raged,
When I posted about the better designed touch pad throttle, it was just before going to bed and I forgot to mention the part about the design also including the feature of ...
making it so that when you press on either the up or down pad continuously , it speeds up or slows down just like a spring throttle , thereby canceling out the cruise control part.
you posted before me getting up and editing the post , so I must explain the difference here , between touching each pad for a half second/second,
and when touching the pad up or down continuously.
Also
When riding with others 30% or 70% etc, just will not work , they do not ride that way, I must match my speed to theirs and to do so it is best to be able to do so in small increments.

So to sum it up , and to include / explain all that I should have earlier ...
when someone designs such a touch pad throttle to fit onto the hoods / or brake lever of a road bike , there will need to be 2-3 features.

1) speed up / slow down in small increments when pressing on the pad for 1/2 or 1 seconds at a time
and
2) speed up and slow down to a stop / stopped motor , when continuously.
and
3) incorporate a sensor that will shut off the motor when the brake lever is pulled to a certain point. ( just like what is available for Hydraulic Brakes/levers at this time ).

The issue with incremental increases is that it's like cruise control where you need to tap the brake to stop it. The tried and true spring mech where the throttle auto closes is still the safest option. As I mentioned earlier, if you're not on the throttle much, some buttons with set voltage will do you fine ( I settled on 30%, 70% and 100% ).

 

[Mündawg]

Hey all!

I'm very much a road biker, drop bars and spandex and all that ridiculous stuff.

My question is if there are any good, performance oriented eBikes out there that have drop bars, road bike geometry (a little more leaned over and stretched out), and maybe tend to be lighter than a usual hefty eBike.
.

Is this what you mean?

 

[Raged]

Raged,
When I posted about the better designed touch pad throttle, it was just before going to bed and I forgot to mention the part about the design also including the feature of ...
making it so that when you press on either the up or down pad continuously , it speeds up or slows down just like a spring throttle , thereby canceling out the cruise control part.
you posted before me getting up and editing the post , so I must explain the difference here , between touching each pad for a half second/second,
and when touching the pad up or down continuously.
Also
When riding with others 30% or 70% etc, just will not work , they do not ride that way, I must match my speed to theirs and to do so it is best to be able to do so in small increments.

So to sum it up , and to include / explain all that I should have earlier ...
when someone designs such a touch pad throttle to fit onto the hoods / or brake lever of a road bike , there will need to be 2-3 features.

1) speed up / slow down in small increments when pressing on the pad for 1/2 or 1 seconds at a time
and
2) speed up and slow down to a stop / stopped motor , when continuously.
and
3) incorporate a sensor that will shut off the motor when the brake lever is pulled to a certain point. ( just like what is available for Hydraulic Brakes/levers at this time ).

Ah... yeah I get you. You could do the incremental path with a simple DAC like an arduino nano ( incremental step up voltage to mimic the throttle ). 4 digital input with 1 analog out.

Digital 1 : Increase speed.
Digital 2 : decrease speed
Digital 3 : Emergency stop. (BBS02 kits have 2 brake sensors, so plug one to digital and other to hardware brake )
Digital 4 : cruise.

Analog 1 : output to throttle ( 0-5v ).

Drop bars are these :

 

[E-geezer]

I'll just leave this here:

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/road-eplus#overview

 

[Warren]

Damn. They are apparently allowing it to come into the US with a 28 mph limit setup. That is awesome. No roadbiker I know would want an e-assist with the 20 mph limit.

 

[Raged]

$4k for a complete build... Then vendor locked.... Imagine trying to source new batteries for that when it eventually dies...

 

[Warren]

All true. But most people aren't going to build up their own bike. Many folks buying name brand roadbikes don't think of $4K as expensive.

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/bikes/on-road/race

 

[E-geezer]

Damn. They are apparently allowing it to come into the US with a 28 mph limit setup. That is awesome. No roadbiker I know would want an e-assist with the 20 mph limit.

It's legal as a Class 3 bike in some states. In the others, it's don't ask, don't tell.

 

[chas58]

So to sum it up , and to include / explain all that I should have earlier ...
when someone designs such a touch pad throttle to fit onto the hoods / or brake lever of a road bike , there will need to be 2-3 features.

1) speed up / slow down in small increments when pressing on the pad for 1/2 or 1 seconds at a time
and
2) speed up and slow down to a stop / stopped motor , when continuously.
and
3) incorporate a sensor that will shut off the motor when the brake lever is pulled to a certain point. ( just like what is available for Hydraulic Brakes/levers at this time ).

My solution was a bit simpler.

Just use a push button for the throttle. The best I found were those "try me" buttons that come with those LED light switches at automotove stores.

then, just put a small potentiometer inline somewhere - best near the head tube.
The throttle is an on/off switch
The potentiometer allows you to vary the speed of the motor continuously.