Sell Insight to buy E-Bike?

[benphyr]

This seemed like a good place to let people know of an e-bike for sale. I noticed this advertisement in my work "buy and sell"- kind of a workplace classifieds:

_________________________________
(August 18, 2014) For Sale: Gio E-Bike for sale

Gio 2011 E- bike for sale...Hardly riden...and it is a shame that it is sitting waiting to be riden...brand new...paid $1200..asking $750 or best offer.

Asking $750 obo
_________________________________

Since I don't have the permission of the vendor (yet) I have left any contact information out of the advertisement. Let me know of any interest and I will give your information to the vendor.

Cheers,
Benphyr

[Grant-53]

One of the features I enjoy on my bike is the use of my mini aero bars. These are mountain bike end bars that I moved inboard. I set them each five inches from the center. I covered them with foam from an old steering wheel cover. This gives me a comfortable alternative position for my hands so my palms don't go numb and I get an extra mph cruising speed.

[Grant-53]

This is a drawing of a fairing concept for a high speed TT style bike.

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by Grant-53

One of the features I enjoy on my bike is the use of my mini aero bars. These are mountain bike end bars that I moved inboard. I set them each five inches from the center. I covered them with foam from an old steering wheel cover. This gives me a comfortable alternative position for my hands so my palms don't go numb and I get an extra mph cruising speed.

Re the hands going numb, have you considered cruiser bars? I recently put [flipped] Soma Sparrow bars on my commuter and am quite happy with them. They put my hands in a very natural position. Not good for winter or off-roading due to lack of leverage, but great for around town.

As far as the upright fairings go, I'll just leave this here...
The Recumbent Bicycle and Human Powered Vehicle Information Center



There is also likely some good upright fairing info in the early IHPVA Archives, but I'm too lazy right now to sift through them.

[Grant-53]

Yes, I have a whole collection of handle bars in the basement! I recognize the photo of Upright Mike from the recumbents.com /Technical forum. I have been part of a thread there too. Things are starting to catch on with streamlined uprights as high speed commuter bikes

[Sven7]

I've been thinking about following that forum more because there's some interesting stuff on the website, but I always get bogged down in pedantic discussions. It seems to be a lot like this forum sometimes- someone gets it in their mind that they can save 0.25% of their energy and dedicates 10 pages to the explanation. Oh well. I guess that's part of where innovation starts.

A fairing seems like a good idea for an e-bike just beause you don't have to work up so much of a sweat while pedaling. I don't think I could use a fairing between April and October, even in the Great North. I just heat up too easily. (Then again, while my commuter is very useful, it's an aero disaster)

[Grant-53]

I have been using my fairing for a year and don't have a problem with overheating. I cruise at a leisurely 12-13 mph. Upright Dave is going twice as fast. His legs and head are in the air flow. We can control air flow over the body since the fairing isn't airtight on a commuter. Next up is a tail box and side panels for use on a mountain/city bike.

[vskid3]

Ebikes haven't been getting much love recently. Between rain (still don't have proper fenders) and giving a coworker rides to work, I've been riding much fewer miles than the first couple months.

My wife's ebike has just over 350 miles on it. The rear CST Cyclops tire has almost 250 miles on it and still looking pretty good, should be able to get at least a couple thousand miles out of it at this rate. Front wheel has the stock knobby tire back on it because I was sharing the wheel with my bike.

My ebike is still at 600 miles. I haven't gotten any further with replacing the rim on the motor. Got a Rockshox XC30TK fork installed along with Avid BB7 disc brakes front and rear (using the wheels that came with my wife's bike when I ride it). Took it mountain biking and the brakes and fork performed great.

I'm currently considering switching to a 20" wheel bike for my commuter. I would rebuild the hub motor from my bike as a 20" wheel, which is part of why I've been holding off rebuilding it as a 26". I want to keep my bike pedal-only because I don't think the motor would perform well on the trails around here. A smaller commuter would be easier to store inside and throw in the back of my Prius to transport, as most trunk racks aren't rated to hold a 35lb bike with a 15lb hub motor (not to mention batteries if I ever get them installed on the bike).

BMX bikes are pretty much out because the rear dropouts are only 110mm apart and I don't want to mess with bending them. Folding bikes would be great, but from what I've read, 1000w and 25-30MPH might not be the greatest on a bike that's been cut in half. The Cannondale Hooligan is kind of a BMX style bike with the rider position similar to a full size bike, but I can't find any used ones locally and $1k for a new one is way too much. So now I'm looking at kids bikes. The Diamondback Cobra 20" is a decent looking hardtail and Walmart has a few full suspension 20" bikes that don't seem too bad. The front shocks on all of them are terrible, though. My biggest worry about the Walmart bikes is that, while the dropouts were all steel, they didn't exactly look beefy.

[Grant-53]

The trick is finding a 20 in. bike frame to fit you such as a Moulton. It may be easier to build a heavy duty carrier or find one designed to carry more than one bike.

[Grant-53]

I looked up folding bikes on Wikipedia and they gave quite a list of manufacturers.