Research Project: Where is the British e-Bike boom?

[t_savez]

I think @t_savez should be commended for being ‘present’ in this thread.

SO many researchers just don’t bother, so well done from me and good luck.

Thanks, I just practice gratitude. I will post survey results as a courtesy here once I finish, and will credit the forum

 

[Andy in Germany]

Thuis is a very interesting thread for those of us outside of the UK. Stuttgart is hilly and rich so we have a massive number of E-bikes. Where my son will be working from Sept they only sell ebikes now, and those start in four figures.

Oddly enough I also know one of the managers on the Bosch E-bike project and she tells me busines is exploding

 

[Spinney]

Sorry, gave up at Q3. I'm self-employed, there is no option for that.
I also work at home. As I cannot see further questions until I've answered earlier ones, I'm wondering if you have included that option too - i.e. I do not commute at all.

 

[Deleted member 23692]

I wonder how many people have done this rather than buying an e-Bike outright, hmm.

I have

I mixed a new frame, an old hub geared bike and a crank drive motor setup (imported from the factory in China), and made this...

It's my commuter, utility, pub bike etc and does the job perfectly.

I'm not retired, but no far off

 

[t_savez]

Thuis is a very interesting thread for those of us outside of the UK. Stuttgart is hilly and rich so we have a massive number of E-bikes. Where my son will be working from Sept they only sell ebikes now, and those start in four figures.

Oddly enough I also know one of the managers on the Bosch E-bike project and she tells me busines is exploding

I am a German national, from my research the Germans are right up there with the Dutch in terms of popularity!

 

[t_savez]

Sorry, gave up at Q3. I'm self-employed, there is no option for that.
I also work at home. As I cannot see further questions until I've answered earlier ones, I'm wondering if you have included that option too - i.e. I do not commute at all.

Ah shoot, terrible oversight, the 'not employed, not looking for work' clearly is not a good describer. I have added a '/self-employed' tag to it now, hopefully you can try again. In regards to second question, the question alternatively asks what is your main method of travel.

Many thanks!

 

[t_savez]

I have

I mixed a new frame, an old hub geared bike and a crank drive motor setup (imported from the factory in China), and made this...

View attachment 423333

It's my commuter, utility, pub bike etc and does the job perfectly.

I'm not retired, but no far off

I have a question:

How easy or hard is it to turn your normal bike into a e-Bike?

Could end up savings a lot of £££'s if the E-Bike is not all that different for real cycling enthusiasts.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

There are a large number of e mountain bikes in the pusteral valley in Sud Tirol. Maybe 90% of the bikes you will see. I think many are hire bikes. The hire price is €20 per day compared with €12 a day for a standard mtn bike.

 

[Spinney]

Ah shoot, terrible oversight, the 'not employed, not looking for work' clearly is not a good describer. I have added a '/self-employed' tag to it now, hopefully you can try again. In regards to second question, the question alternatively asks what is your main method of travel.

Many thanks!

Seems very odd way of doing it (although I suppose if you put a new option in it spoils your existing results). It kind of implies that self-employed people are not actually working. As I said, I work at home (bashing a keyboard), but I could equally well be a self-employed plumber with a van, travelling to various places to work each day.

Done

 

[Deleted member 23692]

I have a question:

How easy or hard is it to turn your normal bike into a e-Bike?.

It's quite simple with the bits I used (TSDZ2 motor), and should take the average home bike mechanic just a couple of hours using basic bike tools.

• The battery fixes to the down tube using the bottle cage bosses - 2 bolts.
• The motor assembly replaces the bottom bracket (standard 68/73 British thread)
• Then put the display on the handlebars and put the speed sensor on the chain stay and magnet on the spokes
• Finally connect the three cables to the battery unit - 1 to the motor, one to the display and one to the speed sensor

And apart from normal bike fettling, that is all there is to it

The motor I used has a torque sensor so doesn't need to have the motor cutoff switches wired into the brake levers, so that's 2 less cables to play with, so it's a simpler/tidier job.

Cost was £295 delivered for the motor kit from China (via Germany) to my door. The battery (36v 14Ah with Panasonic cells) was sourced in the UK for £275.

 

[Salar]

@Ffoeg Excellent build.

I've looked at buying batteries and motors from China, no problem dealing with the Far East, but aren't the delivery costs high.

How did you get around the normally high delivery costs?

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Cheers

I used PSWPower's shop on Aliexpress... and selected the UPS delivery option (as instructed). The motor arrived within a week(ish), dispatched from Germany with no extra to pay. Going by all the documentation/labels etc I assume PSW have a warehouse in Germany and dispatch EU orders from there.

Battery was UK Sourced, from here - http://www.eclipsebikes.com/ But they've gone up in price since I bought mine

 

[Salar]

Interesting,

I'll check them out.

Many Thanks

 

[Salar]

Forgot to ask, what brakes did you use.

Thanks

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Forgot to ask, what brakes did you use.

Thanks

Levers and calipers are Shimano M395 (super cheap, reliable and bombproof) but I don't like the stamped rotors that came with them so they got swapped for SLX ones (RT66) - 180 front, 160 rear.