Since gasoline because unusable after awhile, most cars will become obstacles and block up roads.
So we of course want something that can zip around the roads!
The main advantages I see are:
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Peddle when out of juice
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Peddling charges the batteries, so in an emergency you can turn on the battery
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The batteries can reasonably be charged by solar panels that a lot of houses have.
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Gets around all the blocked roads.
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Generally easier to repair.
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The distance travelled on a full battery is absurd
I don’t expect any movies to put their heroes on an eBike, but they should!
IDK just thought you’d appreciate my dumb thought XD Any other reasons why during an apocalypse you should find an ebike?
- Peddling charges the batteries, so in an emergency you can turn on the battery
This is generally not a thing.
- Generally easier to repair.
Generally no. DIY ebikes from good components are easier to repair but not without spare parts. Good luck with that during an apocalypse. Cheap factory ebikes as well as expensive factory bikes with mid drives aren’t repairable. Finding parts is a problem with the former (today, not in an apocalypse), the other can only be repaired by authorised shops due to parts and DRM.
As others mentioned, batteries may not last too long depending on the make and chemistry. A LFP based DIY would likely last the longest. You have to keep a few spares of all parts - controller, motor, computer, and a spare battery.
This is generally not a thing.
Regen is a fairly common feature in ebikes. It doesn’t work while you ride, other than as a brake going down hills, but as most are hub drive if you lift the rear wheel off the ground you could use the bike as a generator and charge the battery by pedalling.
However, it would in no way be energy (food) efficient compared to just using a bicycle due to the losses, but if you needed it for emergencies or for powering something else, it could be used.
It’s not a common feature.
It doesn’t make as much sense to do on an bike, mainly because regenerative breaking requires more expensive electronics and stresses the battery more.
My family has 7 ebikes, all different models and none has regen.
It’s not common, but it does make sense to do! No, not in charging the battery but in braking. Regen slows down the bike without wearing down your brake pads, which is extra important with a heavy bike. I cannot even manage 900 miles without changing my longtail’s pads. I have yet to replace the pads on my regenerating e-trike.
The extra 20% range is nice but I’m more happy about the money and hassle I’ve saved in not replacing brake pads.
It also requires special frame dropouts consideration because of the back-and-forth torque. Typically a strong torque arm.
Regen is only really a thing with direct-drive hubs and not even with all of them. Yes you can weld the clutch of a geared hub, but this isn’t done in production. Some DIY shops like Grin do it on some motors but that’s not a widespread practice. And there’s definitely no regen on mid drives. To be clear, I’d absolutely use regen if I had a direct-drive hub, because the controller I use supports it, but yeah, it definitely isn’t common.
I mean 5 years is longer than the 6 months for gas, so if you have a vehicle that out lasts that I’d love to know it!
Many do charge when peddling, you can google and see many offer that feature.
I design and build DIY ebikes. I’m aware of what common systems are available and I don’t know any that is capable of this. The only thing that comes close to this description is regen braking which isn’t engaged while pedalling because it creates enough resistance as to make you stop. On a DIY you could theoretically turn regen on while riding at low rate to charge from your legs. Wouldn’t be very practical because you can just use the same energy from your legs to ride longer. To be clear, there’s no free charging where you just pedal normally and the battery charges. If you engage charging the battery, like turning on regen, it will make pedalling harder. The difficulty will be proportional to the energy you put in with additional 10-20% losses. Say you ride at 15kph, that generally takes about 60W. You know how that feels. If you charge with 60W while going at 15kph, your legs will have to produce about 130W. That’ll feel as difficult as riding at 25kph.
It’s the apocalypse. There will be plenty of spare parts to scavenge. We live in a world of abundance.
That’s exactly why repairing any old Honda or Toyota hatchback will be easier than repairing an e-bike.
