News   Jun 28, 2024
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Electric Bikes

I don’t understand how the speed limiters work on ebikes. If the limit is 32 kph, but if I can cycle to 35 kph under my own power can I then switch on the assist and Mario Cart myself up to 60 kph? It would seem logical that the assist engine should only work when the combined manual and electrical speed is 32 kph or less. Otherwise the ebike speed limit is meaningless.
I have one. The motor will only provide a boost until the bike is moving at 32. Say I'm pedalling down a hill and doing 30, it'll only provide a 2 km/h boost. If I get to or exceed 32, the motor won't engage. So you can ride at however fast your legs will carry you, but you won't get any assistance to go faster than the limit.
 
I like that folding model, as you can take it on the subway. My office is at Dufferin and Supertest (north of Finch) and I've been thinking of relying on the subway instead of my car, but the bus is a slow, traffic stuck option.
Occasionally, that e-bike in question can have a $200 coupon from Amazon, dropping its price down from $799 to $599.

Judging from the reviews, it's a good and inexpensive e-bike.
 
This article says it best….as a motorcyclist and bicyclist I find ebikes to be a scourge.

I tend to agree with him. We have a lot around here and they ridden in just about location in any manner. Some seem defiant of the rules of the road (and common sense) but other just seem to have no clue how to safely operate them.

I sort of got the sense, perhaps mistakenly, that the author felt that they can be legally operated by someone who has been convicted of impaired. They can not.
 
Does anyone have experience with ebike retrofit kits, where you can make your existing pedal bike into an ebike? My wife isn’t that strong a cyclist, so wants help riding up hills, but does not want to replace her cherished, but heavy Linus Dutchi8 bike. When we ride nowadays I’ll ride alongside and with my hand on her back push her up the hills, but I’m getting old too.

I see them online, https://www.cyclingnews.com/feature...on-kits-give-your-current-bike-a-power-boost/ but I don’t want to do the work myself. Is there a bike shop in Toronto installing these kits?

Here’s two I found on the Google:
https://ebikebc.com/pages/toronto-e-bikes-and-conversion-kits
 
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She needs to stop being stubborn, sell her bike and invest in a quality ebike, preferably one with a German Bosch motor. It'll change her life.

Man I miss my ebike.
I can't tell the wife she's stubborn. Are you married :) What happened to your ebike?

I assumed everything Bosch now has a Chinese motor. In a prior life I was the product manager for a power tools brand. They sent me to the EISENWARENMESSE – International Hardware Fair in Cologne, Germany. The main floors of the show were normal halls of innovation. But in the basement levels of the China pavilions, the true secrets were revealed, where shady characters would make you anything you wanted for your brand. In these halls you'd see the same Chinese electronic firms making Black & Decker, Bosch, Craftsman, DeWalt, Hitachi, Makita, Milwaukee, Porter-Cable, Ridgid, Ryobi, Skil, etc. cordless power tools, often times with seemingly identical internal components. Their questions to me where essentially, how much do you want to pay (they would adjust component quality accordingly), what skin do you want, do you want UL/CSA, how long does this tool need to last (for example, 20-30 hours of run time the usual lifetime use of an econo cordless power drill), and how many can you buy? Always closing with, for you, special price.
 
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And people shouldn't necessarily interpret that to mean they will obtain certification from those organizations. They often just mean 'do you want the logo'.
Absolutely true. The entire UL/CSA/Intertek certification is a racket. I am disappointed, but not surprised that Canada does not require every electronic device sold in this country, included and especially on Amazon to have a CSA certification. If it doesn't have a CSA mark, Canadian retailers are not supposed to be selling UL or ETL marked electronics unless it has the Canadian equivalent "C" marking.

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ETL-LOGO-101508_large.jpg


But even then, when you think you've covered all your bases, the subterfuge resumes. I remember when my team designed a plug in plug air purifier. We paid for the the top rack ETL testing. When we got the prototypes our regulatory guy discovers that the company who got the ETL certification was not the company name we paid to have this done. That's a problem with China, where there's so many layers of players. When our supposedly ETL approved device started to smoke we cut our losses and walked away.

So, I'd start my ebike search with this query.


 
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Absolutely true. The entire UL/CSA/Intertek certification is a racket. I am disappointed, but not surprised that Canada does not require every electronic device sold in this country, included and especially on Amazon to have a CSA certification. If it doesn't have a CSA mark, Canadian retailers are not supposed to be selling UL or ETL marked electronics unless it has the Canadian equivalent "C" marking.

large.png
ETL-LOGO-101508_large.jpg


But even then, when you think you've covered all your bases, the subterfuge resumes. I remember when my team designed a plug in plug air purifier. We paid for the the top rack ETL testing. When we got the prototypes our regulatory guy discovers that the company who got the ETL certification was not the company name we paid to have this done. That's a problem with China, where there's so many layers of players. When our supposedly ETL approved device started to smoke we cut our losses and walked away.

So, I'd start my ebike search with this query.


When it comes to electrical/electronic devices, I would never, ever buy something from Amazon unless it was a known brand; certainly not from some unknown third-party seller. I realize even the brick-and-mortar commerce isn't perfect but how Amazon gets away with some of the dangerous junk they sell amazes me.
 
Dodgy lithium ion battery devices are a risk not worth taking.
I don't trust the supposed good ones. I never leave my phone, ipad or laptop plugged in overnight. Even for good batteries it's not good for their lifetime to be plugged in always. I had an app on my phone that beeps when it reaches 80% so I'll unplug it before it overcharges.



My kid's friend's brother almost burned down the family house because he brought an escooter into the house and plugged it in overnight. They escaped, but my kid's friend had to run through the fire to escape, burning her feet.
 
I don't trust the supposed good ones. I never leave my phone, ipad or laptop plugged in overnight. Even for good batteries it's not good for their lifetime to be plugged in always. I had an app on my phone that beeps when it reaches 80% so I'll unplug it before it overcharges.



My kid's friend's brother almost burned down the family house because he brought an escooter into the house and plugged it in overnight. They escaped, but my kid's friend had to run through the fire to escape, burning her feet.
Android devices can limit their max state of charge. Most laptops do as well.

These days, you have lithium ion batteries in smoke detectors.
 

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