Hillhater said:
but patents dont prevent individuals using those ideas, ..and i dont recall many private builds with batteries in the front wheel. ! ..I wonder why ??
It is pretty damn hard for a private person to manufacture a front hub to that holds batteries.
..Lucky for us they got that patent... foolish Ebike companies may have copied it !
E+ has leased the rights, and is currently building bikes with front hub battery/rear hub motor.
You say it is foolish... Have you ever ridden a TF or an E+? Given your comment I would bet dollars to donuts that you have not, whereas I've put thousands of miles on TF/E+ bikes, on top of having built/ridden dozens of my own ebikes, and sampled a huge number of other products. Based on that experience, I assert that TF/E+ are the most incredibly stable, balanced commuter ebikes I have ridden. I saw recumpence talking about the moment of inertia... Frankly I don't think that is an issue on a commuter ebike :?, I maintain that this format is the most stable hubbie configuration, and with the low COG I lean those bikes way way over in turns, and even new folks can balance on them while stopped. In fact, this format is clearly superior to the rear-hub/rear-battery configuration used by the majority of bikes on this site, which dangerously offloads the front wheel.
TF is my first recommendation to Neophytes who wants a reliable commuter but doesn't have the skills to build their own. A2B is a close second; Stealth and Opti are quality too but not in the typical neophyte budget. They are built to American quality standards, and have
the most sophisticated eBike control scheme on the market - which also makes them the most silent EV out there - a 9c sounds like a Harley in comparison.
I love the design, but the company has held it back, they have done little to update it. They still use NiMh, only 36v9.5ah of it, and the bikes are restricted to 1000w, and do @26mph unassisted. Not a HotRod, HyperMiler, or trials bike to impress the bragging-rights crowd, but for a commuter the bikes run every day without fiddling.
Ypedal said:
The TF was one of the biggest influences of me getting into ebikes in the first place, could not afford one at the time tho.. that goes back like 6 years !!
I wanted one back then too
, but at the time I couldn't imagine spending $2,500 on a bicycle.
That led to me building my own, frying tons of stuff, and spending crazy $$$$... $2,500 sounds cheap now, If I had just bought one to start, I would have stuck with it and saved tons of $$$ and effort building my own, but I wouldn't have learned a fraction of what I know now.
Don't forget that they had to issue a recall on those wheels too.
Are referring to the early recall of (100) S-750's that were built with defective Spokes? Pretty small recall, that speaks more to a supplier issue than the underlying design issue. 8)
-JD