First Electric Bike

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raleighnut

Legendary Member
Two youngish MTB riders passed me the other day and the rearmost one laughed at the trike as he went by, he didn't laugh when I scooted back past on the next uphill bit though. :cycle: still at 16 mph. :becool:
 
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MarkF

MarkF

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
I fitted the new batteries, a right palaver. The lights, indicators, horn and display work, everything electric works, apart from the motor......... It's been stuck in the garage ever since, 2 other bikes have turned up since the Sakura arrived and they have had my attention, but I'm running out of stuff to do with them and am going to have to look at the horrible thing this weekend.
 

Sara_H

Guru
I fitted the new batteries, a right palaver. The lights, indicators, horn and display work, everything electric works, apart from the motor......... It's been stuck in the garage ever since, 2 other bikes have turned up since the Sakura arrived and they have had my attention, but I'm running out of stuff to do with them and am going to have to look at the horrible thing this weekend.
Hmmm.... Has the Mrs seen it yet?
 
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MarkF

MarkF

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
It's a goer! I'm off work today and it's sunny so after too much (months) procrastinating I dragged it out of the garage and got it running properly. Without the basket it looks a lot better, tho' still bloody horrible, it's horrible to ride too. No family member wants to use it so I think I'll put in on Ebay before it goes wrong again. :okay:

sakura.jpg
 

Gravity Aided

Legendary Member
Location
Land of Lincoln
All the world's problems wind up on eBay. Then, someone else pays good money for it to be their problem. Sorry that didn't work out, but it's good to know more about electric bicycles. Good luck with the auction.
 
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MarkF

MarkF

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
I'd ride that no problem, yes it's ugly, but it has a "rat", urban, utility look to it. The Sakura has way too much plastic about it, it's not manly and I'm not riding it.

I've seen 'uglier' how about this from Giant

Electric_bike_shanghai.JPG

xx( :thumbsdown: xx(xx(

EDIT:- Hmm........ just seen this on youtube, it's got be thinking of a "chop" electric bike again.

 
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raleighnut

Legendary Member
I use a thumb throttle control on my electrified Trike (250w front wheel motor with a 14ah lithium battery pack-kit) I didn't buy the pedal assist sensors and the assist level handlebar computer although I can fit them if so required in the future (the wiring option still exists to the controller, just fit plug in and go) mainly so that I could simply choose when to use the battery power and when to conserve it but unlike a switch the power is controllable and the electronics needed to power the 3 phase 'Hall Effect' front motor (and the 15mph limiter) mean the power is fed in gently at first.
I'd fitted a similar kit to Marian's Dawes 'Geneva' hybrid and TBH it doesn't look that much different to standard (it originally had a hub-dyno front wheel and the motor ain't that much bigger.
EDIT
front-kit-bike-drawing.png
 
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MarkF

MarkF

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
BTW The fault was in the stand senor, like on motorbike it won't power up with the stand down. Never expected that on an electric bike.

Somebody has already chopped one. :smile:

8428-3976938619c4db706cb3050483355fc9.jpg
 
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MarkF

MarkF

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
I was going to list it on Ebay but found 4 already on, this after not having seen one on there for months! So I've given it good trial for the lucky new owner instead, I rode to Skipton on it, I took off everything bar the rack (to which several cables are attached) but It still looks horrible. The ride was horrendous, enough put anybody off cycling for life, it still weighs about 40kg, you can't ride it fast on the flat because you run out of gears and uphill is accompanied by an annoying motor noise. The worst thing though was that I felt stupid, I know I looked it, I have vintage a Vespa it's means a lot to look good on the road. :sad:

sakura1.jpg
 
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