qwerkus said:
Obviously money is not an issue for you...
I payed less than 4000€ for all (3) of them.
Here is a picture of all 4 (incl. one for my girlfriend):
I changed the drive system and some components, so overall the price has been higher, but still significantly below 10.000€ for all 4 of them. I plan to use them for 20 years. The limit is the lifetime of the BionX motors. I have bought lots of spare BionX parts for that reason.
Insurance is only part of the story. To ride an s-pedelec, you need a simplified driving license in most countries = extra costs.
The driving license for a car is good enough. I did already have one, so no extra cost
And more importantly: you need a bike with legal homologation, otherwise no insurance will cover it. That basically excludes all diy ebikes, unless you are prepared to pay for the whole process of approval, in which case you'd better go commercial. And those bikes are super expensive.
I bought those old speed Pedelec, because they use 250W BionX motors and are technically compatible with my other bikes and because their certificate of conformation is almost empty. I have that 250W information, a motor type number, the tire size and size and weight of the vehicle. That's it. I can not change the frame, about the rest nobody cares.
For the BionX D drive in my first speed Pedelec I went to the Dekra (TÜV) and got an "Einzelzulassung".
Not easy but also not expensive. Now having nobody at BionX and nobody left at the manufacturer (they switch to Bosch drives 6 years ago) its difficult, but nothing really bad can happen. Insurance still is intact.
Can you see how the system works: either you're stuck with an artificially slow bike, or you have to spend more money than for a 2 hand car, and I'm not even mentioning all cases where there is simply no suitable product on the market for your need.
I'm glad you can afford to be happy with how things work. Doesn't mean everyone is in the same situation.
In the German Pedelecforum there is an used E45 for offer at 700 Euro for example. This gives you a speed Pedelec with 500W GoSwiss Drive motor and a battery system wher you can add your won 36V battery if you like.
Btw, I also built us a 1080Wh and 1320Wh battery for our BionX Speed Pedelecs. You are "free" which batteries you use " in those old sPed (just the voltage of either 41V or 48V, 11s or 13s is documented, but not in the CoC) so I fail to understand why sPed are not for DIY. It's a bit more complicated, but not so impossible as people tell you...
The proble is people simply don't know about the possibilities and the new sPed that are registerd as L1e-B have become much more restrictive than my old ones (another reason why I bought 4 of them). I don't even need t wear a helmet on my old L1e-A speed pedelec.
I do think that given the increase in cycling injuries due to ebikes, insurance is actually a good thing. I just don't see why people trying do something to reduce co2 output from transportation would have to bare extra costs for it.
So if I put solar panels on my roof they should be for free. My holiday by bike should be for free because I did not travel by plane? If I eat vegetarian stuff instead of meat it should be free because I emit less CO2.
Imho this is nonsense. If you want to promote climate friendlier living give CO2 its price and that's it. I see no reason why people should not pay for an electric bicycle (btw, the CO2 emission for an ebike are higher than for a regular bike, at least for overweight people that do it to much anyway)
Hence the idea of a mandatory insurance for all cyclist funded through co2 tax. Maybe you'd have to pay for a 1 time registration, to show you are the bike owner, and that's it.
Power levels should be flexible, and as other pointed it here: speed limit is an effective method to reduce risks, and can be easily implemented.
You can ask for many things. Maybe they will happen someday, maybe not.
Myself on the other hand did analyze what is possible today and I acted.
That#s the reason why I drive electric bikes at 45km/h in the EU and why others are whining and dreaming about riding faster than 25km/h. (or tuning their bikes and drive them without insurance which is a VERY bad thing if anything happens)