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?
In general, yeah. And if it has a decent cargo setup or a trailer you can leave the solar panels out to charge small things while traveling.
On the down side, you’re relatively slow.
Not really that slow once you remove the governor or buy an unlocked e-bike: https://discerningcyclist.com/fastest-electric-bikes/
I think you misspelled “Bikes” in your title.
Ebike is another way to refer to electric bicycles. It’s the new transportation mode people are absolutely loving as an option for city living. This is due to the emphasis of cities becoming walkable to reduce their impact on climate change.
They know, they’re saying ebikes would suck in the apocalypse. I agree. They’re too heavy and the batteries don’t last long enough to be useful without power access. If you had that kind of power access an emoto would be better.
why an e motorcycle over an electric bike? I feel the disadvantages are worse: its heavier, larger and requires more time to fully charge. Sure its faster, can probably get your further, and can carry heavier things, but every time you’re not using those aspects, the disadvantages are more pronounced. Can’t fully charge the battery due to slow charging with whatever you can muster up? will now you’re just carrying dead weight.
Will there be nice roads that you know are safe for you to drive fast on? Maybe, again you may be carrying deadweight otherwise.
If you’re not using it to carry large/heavy items, again you’re riding around in dead weight.
Guess the concern is maybe in the apocalypse might not have a ton of food, but having a solar setup should be pretty easy.
But either way, need more bike riders in apocalypse movies!
Batteries are only good for about 5 years.
Nah. No offense, but give me a Surly Trucker over any e-bike. If I was not so messed up with my back, I’d still be good for 200 miles plus in one day on a couple of Snickers bars. Even in my rough shape, I can manage 30 miles daily as is and ~50 with consequences after.
Even without roads, I’m nearly as fast on a carbon 29’er hardtail like a Cannondale Flash and if I was in shape, I would want to cut my own trails anyways.
I’d probably look for a way to move to a makeshift belt drive and single speed. I could probably rig up rubber belts from cars and stuff for far longer than I’ll be able to source chains. I’d eventually be able to do a leather belt drive to stay running for awhile. The hard part will be what to do about wheels in the long term. Wooden rims were standard long before aluminum. I bet I could still salvage enough heavy canvas, glue, and scrap rubber to make my own tubulars. Yeah, I think I could be riding for many decades.
How are you at reverse engineering circuits and rewinding motors? I’ve wound my own transformers before, but a stator is a whole different beast, especially with brushless. That ~30 mile range, battery lifespan, and monstrous dead weight without power would drive me mad.
- 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
