First 1000 miles on an ebike, lessons learned

[MikeSSS]

1 It's better to ride an ebike that works well, than to not ride an ideal ebike that is out or reach.

2 A sensorless, brushless, direct drive, Aotema 36v hub motor and controller, has been trouble free and can operate on either 36v or 48v.

3 36v of gel cells will power the bike OK, but a 48v lithium battery is more fun to ride.

4 A 7.5 lb lithium battery on the rear rack, gives the bike a lot better ride and handling than a 27 lb gel cell battery on the rear rack.

5 An upright seating position is nice, especially for looking around. You miss a lot when riding aerobars on a road bike.

6 A conventional mountain bike frame allows you to stand up over bumps and that's a good thing.

7 Thumb shifters work really well.

8 I shift more on the front than on the back.

9 I use the big gears a lot more than the low gears, when riding an ebike.

10 The Kryptonite, New York, Fahgettaboutit U lock is much faster and less hassle to use than a chain and lock. But the chain is still needed sometimes.

11 A big, wide Cloud 9 seat is comfortable for the upright seating position.

12 A plastic cutting board, on top of the rear rack, provides a good, stable base for the battery bag.

13 Harbor Freight tool bags, mounted on top of the cutting board, make great battery bags. Big size leaves room for U lock, tools, pump and some water or groceries.

14 Modern rechargeable LED headlights and taillights do their job very well.

15 Slime in the tubes helps them hold air better, so you do less pumping. Slime is not just about flats.

16 I still get dusted by roadies, they just ride faster than I do, electric assist or not.

17 Map my Ride on the smart phone is a lot easier and faster to use than a small Garmin gps. But, the Garmin has its place too.

18 Nobody notices I'm riding an ebike. Serious bike riders don't see, don't want to see, non serious bikes and riders.

19 If you flat on the hub motor wheel, it's good to have the tools you need with you.

20 A CO2 inflator is a lot more fun to use than a small tire pump.

21 Rim brakes are just fine for my riding speed.

22 It's nice to have a power switch on the controller.

23 Fast, convenient removal of the battery, when going into stores, is really nice.

Well, there's more, but it's late and I'm sleepy. number 1 is actually the "bottom line".

 

[dogman dan]

Sounds like a summary of my first 5000 miles, which was all on aotema stuff. Though almost comically primitive by todays standards, the ol aotema front kit is still a quite dependable rig.

The only real downsides of it are the switch can, and often does let water into the controller.

And in heavy duty city riding, the combination of semi fast wind and smaller diameter motor results in less efficient starts. That is why I took up the habit of pedaling the first 20 feet, then starting the motor when I rode the aotema. At that time,, I was still healthy, and strong enough for it.

One thing to remember about the aotema. if you ever have to put a new connector on the battery wire, NEVER forget that one of those positive wires is red, and the other side of the plug it's black. I fried off two controllers forgetting that one. On the controller itself, the black wire is positive. Maybe they changed that in the last 8 years, but that's how they were.

 

[MadRhino]

Well, there are some things there, that you should have learned before. I mean, not ebike specific.

Then, we learn different lessons with different riding habits and different bikes, at different speed and power on different terrain.

Things that I learned in my first season, that are different than yours:

Any motor can be fried in a few seconds: monitoring temp is a must.

The same battery can last 20 miles or 7 miles: monitoring battery is a must.

Big wires and reliable connections can save a lot of troubles.

It is easy to add power, but balancing weight distribution and tuning geometry is complicated.

A hub motor can flip you upside down very quick in a jump: never try to correct a jump with throttle.

Brakes have to match weight and speed: testing braking distance is a must.

The quick and compact way to lock a bike is a disc lock.

With speed and power, tire choice and PSI tuning is more important.

Spare parts will not be readily available: keeping some inventory is a must.

Other users of the road are not expecting a bicycle coming so fast: lights are a must.


You see ?
Different bikes and riders: different lessons to learn.

 

[MikeSSS]

The LED lights are way better than the incandescent lights from the bad old days. My rear light is mounted on the hat I wear under the helmet and it always blinks. The front is handlebar mounted, I use blink mode during the day and continuous mode after dark, when blinking is unpleasant to oncoming traffic. These lights recharge from USB and they have never gone dim, even during 26 mile rides. Love em. Those of us who rode a lot "back in the day" can remember dim lights that quickly ran the battery down and got dimmer and dimmer during the ride.

My ebike speed averages between 9 mph and 14 mph most of the time. Pedal power roadies ride a lot faster than I do on my ebike. Nobody is surprised by my speed.

Lately it's been 100 degrees F here and it's hotter over pavement. The ebike assist power lets me ride without sweating ... unless I'm putting a lot of power into the pedals, then sweat happens. Sweat free is a big deal to me.

Yesterday I rode 25.7 miles, used a Luna 13 series, 4 parallel, GA cell battery and pedaled pretty hard. Usually I charge the battery to the 90% setting, mid switch position, on the Luna three setting charger, this gives about 52.7v at the beginning of the ride. Yesterday was different, the battery had been charged to the 90% setting, but because the ride would be over 20 miles, I put the battery back on the charger set for 100%. The battery did not reach full charge before it was time to ride, so the battery came off charge, onto the bike and the ride commenced. After the ride, the battery had 49.1v on one of my Harbor Freight meters. When I put the battery on the charger, reset to 90%, the charger used 48.1v to push the initial charge amps through the battery. Yeah, the HF meter and the Luna charger don't read the same voltage, but the point is that the battery still had lots of charge remaining after 25.7 miles of riding. Split speed on some of the miles was over 16 mph Bottom line is that the Luna GA cell battery is delivering great service. Total miles on the Luna GA cell battery are a bit over 800 mi.

This ebike uses Suntour shifters, derailleurs and compatible chain, cogs and chain rings, all about 35 years old. It seems to shift OK. But, my other bikes have newer Shimano stuff. When I ride on the Shimano equipped bikes I'm always surprised by how much better the later Shimano groups shift.

Most of my pedal only riding is now on a full suspension bike, the ride quality is much better than my rigid ebike or rigid gas bike. This FS bike would probably be a good host for a mid drive, like a BBS02 or BBSHD. There is a seatpost mounted rack on the FS bike, plan would be to put a cutting board and Harbor Freight bag on the rack for the battery, tools, groceries, etc.