This addiction.....

[veloman]

....never gets old.

It's been almost a year and 4000 miles since I've had a decent hub motor. Now, I have been upping the power, at least until the past 3-4 months where I seem to have hit the sweet spot of 1300watts on my 8 turn Mac. Okay, yeah I've run 2000w for a few runs, but I am trying to withhold going there for a daily commuter. Tonight I realized that I so rarely go WOT other than on hills. But there's a part of me that says, "why not build a high power bike?" I know I've only scratched the surface, but what I do know is that there is definitely something to a fast ebike instead of a motorcycle. Maybe it's the idea that being different and being something that is a 'sleeper', or riding something you built is so much fun. Anyone with some money can go and buy speed with a motorcycle, but to build it yourself, just ads so much.

It's part of the reason why I like road cycling a lot too - what else other than a bike can be so much fun at relatively low speeds?

 

[Philistine]

The main reason I love high power ebikes is that they can actually get you places in an urban environment faster than a motorbike, due to the ability to cut through suburbs/city on non-roads etc.., and to go up the side of the road when the traffic is peak hour etc.. I choose to ride my ebikes when I commute over a car or even motorbike, because I can ride into my lift, and take my bike right into my office. It is about 12 minutes door to door for me on my ebike (with no shower needed, as I only ghost pedal), but to drive my car is about 20 minutes (maybe 25 minutes after parking etc.. is factored in), and saves maybe $60 a week in petrol/gas.

But there is little doubt that the money I save on rego and petrol I probably spend on ebike addiction and R&D. I hate to think of the thousands of dollars I have smoked on the hobby. I currently have three ebikes, all for different purposes. But as my wife says, at least it gives me a hobby not directly related to abusing my organs.

But it has also lead me to blow money on other hobbies. After buying all the lipo gear for charging etc.., I then started buying RC cars to play with my son, and we blew apart two hobbyking cars recently on a local BMX track. It was hard when ordering a bunch of lipo for my bike to not just buy the cars at the same time. One lipo order I got an RC yacht and me and my son sailed it into the middle of the lake and it lost radio and sank on the first voyage. My son has become interested in planes now, so today we just ordered two RC planes, which I know will be crashed and destroyed before the week is out. But again, I consider it my most productive and healthy of addictions, and there are plenty of them....

 

[chisixer6]

Banana Hobby has these 33mm EDF jets fairly cheap and indestrucable.I am tempted, in addition to my addition on ebiking, I need to win the lottery.

http://www.bananahobby.com/2185.html

 

[dogman dan]

Ha ha, no matter what your hobby, it always goes to costing more than your budget. Just don't get into hot air balloons, or any other flying if you want to keep your money. It took me 5 years after I stopped flying to catch up with paying for my ballooning. We stopped when we added it all up one day. 10 years of ballooning cost about $80,000.

Man oh Man, ebikeing is so much cheaper! The 40 mph club is really quite cheap to get into. And of course, good RC lipo packs can run on any of your bikes.

It does go up in price some to get to 50 mph though. If nothing else, more battery.

 

[sacko]

Compared to my RC Helis, this "hobby" is cheap.

Like already said though, any hobby costs more than your anticipated budget

 

[pff7]

Banana Hobby has these 33mm EDF jets fairly cheap and indestrucable.I am tempted, in addition to my addition on ebiking, I need to win the lottery.

http://www.bananahobby.com/2185.html

Wonder about those Genesis Lipo packs anyone use them for ebike?

 

[pff7]

Ha ha, no matter what your hobby, it always goes to costing more than your budget. Just don't get into hot air balloons, or any other flying if you want to keep your money. It took me 5 years after I stopped flying to catch up with paying for my ballooning. We stopped when we added it all up one day. 10 years of ballooning cost about $80,000.

Man oh Man, ebikeing is so much cheaper! The 40 mph club is really quite cheap to get into. And of course, good RC lipo packs can run on any of your bikes.

It does go up in price some to get to 50 mph though. If nothing else, more battery.

Would like to try building a cri-cri(not sure of spelling) aircraft would compliment an ebike fleet well.

 

[veloman]

I was referring to the pure joy of ebiking, that's the addiction.

 

[catchinem]

After building my new Ebike I've made the mistake and started refurbishing Marantz, Advent, and Acoustic Research vintage stereo systems. They just don't make em like those anymore. It sounds so good. I find myself on the Ebay site regularly now. I do have 2 new rear hub motors that will need bikes this winter tho! Thinking 72 volts.

 

[Ykick]

From an early age I've always been addicted to bikes of any type. Live to ride, ride to live is my way of looking at it. Dirt, sport, cruisers, tourers, ebikes, kickbikes, bicycles - if it has 2 wheels I'm up for a ride and basically don't care about the $$$.

 

[atom1025]

Banana Hobby has these 33mm EDF jets fairly cheap and indestrucable.I am tempted, in addition to my addition on ebiking, I need to win the lottery.

http://www.bananahobby.com/2185.html

Check rcgroups in the vendor talk section. Maybe they cleaned up there act but banana hobby had a lot of haters a few years back.

 

[Thecaptain115]

Compared to rc stuff, its as cheap hobby. My 1/8 buggy cost way more than my bike, and that's just the chassis.

 

[Jason27]

Ebiking is one of those GOOD addictions more people need to get hooked on. I ride all the time and everytime I do it feels like I'm beating the system. I have saved so much money in gas and car insurance payments it's paid for the building of my 2 ebikes.

 

[hillzofvalp]

After building my new Ebike I've made the mistake and started refurbishing Marantz, Advent, and Acoustic Research vintage stereo systems. They just don't make em like those anymore. It sounds so good. I find myself on the Ebay site regularly now. I do have 2 new rear hub motors that will need bikes this winter tho! Thinking 72 volts.

I'm trying to restore a luxman Rx-101 suckface. Sounded great until my gf hit the power button when I was blasting it. No fuses broken.. I can still here the radio but it's very faint. Ideas?

Yes ebikes are an addiction, but I think thats just part of being a nerd.

 

[motomech]

My Ebike
Well, it's stopped raining,
maybe I should put the battery charger on the car?
When was the last time you drove, oh yes, you took your brother in law to the airport three weeks ago.
You can't take somebody to the airport on an electric bicycle, no, of course not.
If you used both power supplies and the Hyperion in PB mode, I bet you could charge that car battery @ 20 Amps, what would that be, 1/2C?
You really don't need to charge the car battery @ 20 Amps, no, of course not.
How you used to love that car, but you have loved all your cars, even the clunkers.
But it seemed so big the last time you drove, like a boat. All that glass and metal, the fenders sure stick way out there.
Do other people realize how big their cars are?
Remember reading about how much air a car engine sucks though it, something like it would empty a barn in a minute,
That's a lot of air, but it's air. Hard to imagine how big a volume of air is.
Maybe you should drive the car to the supermarket and bring back a lot of stuff?
Wouldn't that make more sense than riding there 8 times a week?
Maybe you should wash your bike today? You have all that car washing stuff, the soft soap, the swirling brushes on a handle that you screw the hose on.
No, that doesn't seem right for the bike. Got to find that hand brush, are the bristles soft enough?
Still, it would be easier to wash than a motorcycle with all it's bits and crevices.
No such thing as as "detailing" a motorcycle, TO CLEAN IT IS TO DETAIL IT.
Why don't you miss having a motorcycle?
This is the longest you have been without since you were a kid.
Ah, my motorcycles, they parade by in the mind's eye, lovely.
Remember that first big road bike, grabbing your Capt. America helmet, a jacket and a bedroll and taking off cross country.
Remember stuffing newspapers down your jacket when things got nippy, or sitting in Denny's those last long hours before dawn sipping "ketchup soup"?
How about the time you threw out your bellroll in the farmer's field and in the morning, the nice lady at the country store asking you if you weren't worried about snakes crawling into your bag?
You hadn't even thought about snakes, had you?
Was that freedom?
How far could you go on your Ebike?
And when I got there, would it seem too far to come back.
And where is "there"?
You didn't worry about that when you were a kid and you didn't have two quarters to rub together.
Now you have a wallet full of plastic...and you worry.
You worry too much.

 

[Cresh]

This is why I love reading this forum - it confirms that I'm not crazy and there are other people like me! Yes my car seems huge and unnecessary now especially just to commute back and forth to work by myself. I ride part of the way on a multi use path, and I see other bike commuters struggling up hills like I used to. And I think to myself why are you struggling? Now I find it amazing that people choose to get stuck in gridlock in their cars while I ride right on by them. It makes me so happy to have this addiction!

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[pff7]

OK yesterday was my first maiden ebike ride(but I test drove a pedelec ebike before) and NOW I know this addiction you speak of first hand....all I can say is WHAT A RUSH!!!!! so cool gliding w/o a sound...WHAT A RUSH!!!!! these hub motors rock!!!(at least with Lipopolymers). And to think this is a regular 48V 500W motor---a higher power bike would be soooooooo cool!

 

[veloman]

Yeah, maybe it's because I still do normal pedal cycling, it keeps my perspective in check. I really do love hub motors, they just work so well in most situations and are very quiet. Most people are accustomed to being in a car so they have little appreciation for efficiency, faster than bicycle transportation that isn't as fast as a car on an open road.

What power were you running? 48v on 22amps likely? That's where it starts getting fun.

 

[pff7]

Being a newbie some stuff I'm not clear on like amps-----but using 4 x 5000mah Turnigy hardpacks (4s) giving me ? amps,probably 4x5000mah=20 amps I'm figuring. V=15.2x4=60.8 volts w/half charge I figure with a 48 volt controller which thankfully didn't blow or anything. Did get a flat when I filled chinese tire to 60psi though,had to walk bike back.

correct me if wrong then 60 volts with 20 amps, tried to baby the thumb throttle to keep amps down....

to and forgot to add a 500 W controller

 

[hydro-one]

AMEN!! great post moto

 

[cal3thousand]

Addictive hobby for sure. But it comes with benefits that others do not. Spent more on that new battery pack? Well... you'll just have to ride it more to save more money to make up.

It's a vicious (bi) cycle