Better Bike PEBL

[Winnipeg_rider]

So the PEBL is in the last few hours of the kick starter It's almost there it's doing quite well if anybody was thinking of funding it now is the time

I spoke to the owner of the company Kevin Murray and he did say that they have 10 confirmed purchasers are people who have funded enough and they have confirmed that they want to buy I am one of them I'm quite excited to hopefully be getting a PEBL.

Apparently they have been working with somebody who used to work for organic Transit who makes the elf and apparently have been working out a lot of body details and structure to make it a lot stronger and a much quieter ride


Sadly organic Transit apparently does not have very good reviews from its employees


I was speaking to one owner of an elf who regrets their purchase and apparently that person was speaking to one of the service techs in the company about getting some help with some stuff that was going wrong their elf and apparently the service tech end up leaving the company and sold his elf. Very interesting anyway

Oh well I guess that's the way things go hopefully this one gets funded and hopefully it's a quality product

[NeilBlanchard]

They made it, I am glad to say!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...dal-electric-v

They raised $21,635 from 68 people by the deadline. I pledged $210, and I hope to be able to see their new unit in person later this year.

[freebeard]

Hemp & soy composite body

I hope that's not GMO soy.

I was looking for someplace to post this:

Rugged Ceramic Batteries Deliver 3X Leap in Capacity, Operate At 120°C and Beyond

Solid electrolyte batteries can't happen soon enough for me.

[NeilBlanchard]

Update from Better Bike:

Thanks again to all our backers! We are moving forward with the steps necessary for our fall production of PEBLs. The new molds we need to have fabricated will take about two months to produce and then we will begin production and hope to have the first run of PEBLs completed late November/early December.

There are many steps for us between now and then with such a complex project, and we will be posting updates on our website (better.bike) as they proceed. In the meantime, please take the time to respond to our survey so that we will know specifically how many we will be producing in the first run at that base price of $5500.00.

We hope to have the website updated by the end of next week to allow you to reserve your PEBL and choose specific options with their pricing. For those that are purchasing one of the fall PEBLs, we will also need the balance due by the beginning of October to allow us to place bulk orders of the necessary components.

If we are shipping your PEBL, we are gathering quotes, but so far, we are getting quotes of around $450.00 to the west coast plus $150.00 for the crate, so hopefully shipping will total $600.00 or less, depending on where you live. This is a rough estimate at this time though.

We hope you are as excited as we are for things moving forward with our first production run, please feel free to email us if you have any questions.

[NeilBlanchard]

I went to Better Bike yesterday, and saw their first production unit, ready for delivery. It has several options: a 120watt solar PV roof, a windshield wiper, and the 32Ah (I think?) battery, which is rated for about 50 miles electric range. Oh and a day glow green color:






It comes standard with a 16Ah battery, and also has a 75 mile and 100 mile (!) batteries available. It has reverse, lights, turn signals, horn, a small second seat, nice storage bays, roll up doors, and a removable floor that you can install in the winter. It has a 750watt motor, and it has regen.

All three wheels are suspended, and the charging cord stows in the round door on the lower back right.

I will be placing an order soon, and hope to get it by the late autumn. They are still learning a lot about production - they are using a layer of hemp fiber and a layer of fiberglass, now. The hemp alone was too flexible.

[Stubby79]

I want one. Or something like it.

[freebeard]

You may have yours before I might have an Arcimoto SRK.

It's an interesting effort and reminds me of the Mark Murphy's BugE with the open floor.

[Christopher Jordan]

Pleasant surprise! For some reason Elf has been avoiding north California. I saw 1 from Los Angeles in person that was for sale and it had no storage behind the seat- only a relay box right in the way. This has space behind the seat! I LIKE!

[NeilBlanchard]

A friend has an ELF 2FR, and it is taller and wider than the PEBL. It is MUCH more open, too - you can see the front wheels inside. You can get third party doors, and the sides are vacuum formed plastic, so it is much louder over bumps. The ELF will fit taller people. The ELF is also more expensive - the base price has crept up to just under $9K.

I will have my PEBL with a lowered seat. It was set up for the buyer, so I fit, with very slight interference with my knee on the handlebar when turning. There was room to move the crankset forward - and then there would be more room for the backseat.

Set up with the 100 mile battery, windshield wiper, cruiser tires with liners, 12v power port (for electric vest / jacket) interior lights - comes in at just over $8600.

[NeilBlanchard]

So, I ordered a red PEBL on Saturday! I am getting it with the 100 mile battery, which is 48V 64Ah, the windshield wiper, interior lights, 12V power outlet (which I plan on using an electric vest/jacket in the winter), the 3" cruiser tires with puncture protection. The total price is $8605. Expected delivery is in the October / November time frame.

They will be lowering the seat a couple of inches to provide more headroom. I'm 6'-4" and my hair was lightly brushing the headliner, with the optional ~1" mesh seat cushion.

Standard features are the rollup doors, floor panel, electric reverse, cruise control, regenerative braking, lights and turn signals and horn, 8-speed rear hub gears, USB charging, voltmeter, front drum and rear disk brakes, fully suspension, rear bench seat.

The base model has a 25 mile (16Ah) battery, and costs $6450, in your choice of 6 colors. You can get a 50 mile (32Ah), or a 75 mile (a 32Ah and 16Ah), or the 100 mile (two 32Ah) batteries.

I decided against getting the 120watt solar panel, because we have so many trees, that it would only make a small difference, if any, much of the time. I will be having a 10kW solar PV system on my house, so that is the best way to do it. And the other option I passed up is a 600watt heater. I will use an electric vest / jacket in the winter, and if I am out in a snow storm, I'll just have to deal with things.

Doing the rough math, the 48V 64Ah battery is a touch over 3kWh, and if it goes the estimated 100 miles, that is ~30Wh/mile - which is over 1100MPGe. Paying our high retail electricity rates (about 21¢ / kWh), that would be about 0.63¢ / mile.

That is roughly 8X better than our EV's, which is really good, already.