[jpcoolguy]

Now, Uber ties up with the electric cycle sharing app Yulu.

Source: https://economictimes.com/small-biz/...w/69157843.cms

[ani_meher]

Originally Posted by RM Motorsports

Now, today, the company has unveiled yet another product — Mi HIMO Electric Bicycle T1.

It is powered by a 350W brushless permanent magnet motor which is claimed to offer high-end performance.

Interesting design. Not trying to hide in body of a petrol 2 wheeler. IIRC, we need to register any e-vehicle with above 250w engines, so that it has a proper number from RTO. Also we need to buy annual insurance just like a petrol 2 wheeler.

If at all xiomi wants to launch this in India, they will have to detune it!

[pareshraheja]

Guys, anyone heard of this e-conversion brand e-adicct from Pune.
http://www.eadicct.com/

I did check out the converted e-bike in Bangalore of one of their customers. Was mighty impressed since it was on a Montra Hybrid. The advantage being it is much lighter than the MTB's offered by Lightspeed and Roulik. I did test ride these 2 brand cycles also.

The 3 main queries I have wrt e-adicct are:
1. They claim regenerative charging on braking.
2. The motor is geared internally allowing for better torque speed ratio compared to other similar capacity motors in market.
3. They have a hub motor drive which they recommend to be installed on the front wheel. (All other brands including Hero have it on the rear wheel)

Can someone throw some light on the above.

For this, the kit comes at a price of 38K which seems on the higher side. Even the kit by Lightspeed is similarly priced although the Bangalore dealer of Lightspeed pushes to buy their cycle instead of the kit since the price works out similar.

Cheers

PS - I currently have a Firefox Rapide and prefer to install a kit on this rather than buy a New MTB

[GeeTee TSI]

Spotted this contraption on the road and of all Google search results, found an Amazon link


Possibly but posting it here wherein Mods can move it to any other appropriate thread (I could not find one)

Since many such (non ARAI certified) models are not formal launches in the media, can we have a thread to post generic electric bikes' information?

[pareshraheja]

Originally Posted by GeeTee TSI

Spotted this contraption on the road and of all Google search results, found an

This is a Hyd based company. They have a dealer in Bangalore and I did test ride this electric Mofa along with their scooter and cycles all of which are electric. The best part of all is the detachable battery which is quite useful for people staying in high rise.

[Animesh]

It is about time that we get the likes of Trek, Giant, Yamaha, etc to have their e-bikes launched. The Hero and the likes have such uninspiring products. They are useful, but hopefully it gets better from here onwards.

[ani_meher]

Is there anyone in Pune offering electric conversion for old cycle? I have a Riverside 120 and I absolutely love its riding position.

Or if there is any enthusiast in Pune wanting to ecycle conversion, I will be glad to team up. I would appreciate any help in this matter.

[ani_meher]

I test rode the Firefox adventron and Hero Lectro electric cycle recently. The Adventron is very well made, and sports some nice equipment like disc brakes, front shocks, key lock removable battery. It costs 61k, a steep price perhaps well matched with the quality offered. The salesman was lying thru his teeth, saying this cycle has a battery that lasts 100kms on accelerator and 200kms on pedal assist! Later I found out on net that the battery capacity is around 35kms and 50-60kms respectively. The pedal assist even at low or medium setting was kicking in nicely. I didn’t dare the High setting in the store.

I found the 26k costing Hero Lectro to be quite flimsy. Somehow even though the controlling units was looking exactly the same as the Firefox adventron, its response was no the same. It appeared far more muted, even at high setting.

After these test rides, I am definitely intrigued by the pedal assist tech. Hope a better affordable solution will soon surface.

Edit: Just saw the following tweet.


10k for a branded electric cycle is nothing short of amazing.

[ani_meher]

It would appear I am spamming this thread! Yesterday I saw Mumbai based Toroid cycles.

https://toroid.in/

The kit is definitely different than Hero / Firefox one. The cycle costs 35k, and appears fairly made. However the kit was amazing. There was a remote key using which one would switch on the system. You can use it as car key to enable/disable the system.

Another aspect that I really liked was the cutoff with brakes. In Hero Electro, even if you press brakes and give accelerator, the tyre accelerates, pushing you forward. In a gasoline vehicle, you get aural feedback that the engine is running. But in an electric vehicle, you can't know whether the engine is active because your hand is somehow pushing the accelerator.

The battery was key-locked and removable. The speedometer/battery meter was looking very interesting. A key point I noticed was that, the battery and the system looked like Pune based eAddict kit, which alone costs 35k. So at least visually, Toroid is giving similar kit with a proper bike (21 gears, front lockable shock absorbers, headlights, horns (!) etc) at the price of just the kit of eAddict.

I also saw a new fatbike version of the same, however it was yet to get unpacked. It was costing 39k.

I didn't test about the quality of the cycle, but good to see many new and different options popping up.

Test rode the Hero Lectro basic 21k model again. This time I felt that the throttle response was adequate, but the accelerator not cutting off with brakes was startling. Hope Hero adds this safety feature in future ecycles.

[scienty]

Looks like a new contender in the market. https://www.paramaemobility.com/product.php any reviews please?

[NPV]

Not sure if this has been posted before (my search on Team BHP for eROCKIT did not yield any results):
This one is called a human hybrid, it's pedal assisted, has a battery and bigger, wider tyres and resembles a motorcycle.
Link

[proton]

Originally Posted by anku94

The ones I'm talking about cost only an arm! And they look closer to this:

Attachment 1809052

(Image credits: kalkhoff-bikes.com)

Yaar, itne me to purani Activa aa jati: everyone before riding one (Translation: dude, you could've gotten a second-hand Activa for the price)

Wonder how much will my firstborn fetch in the market: everyone after riding one

Any one can post about owner experience of this bike or equivalent available in India?

BTW, excellent program going recorded now by me on BBC regarding cycling increase world wide because of pandemic created avoidance of public transport.

[anku94]

Quick update on the ownership experience of the Indian e-bike (that's with a close relative), around the battery replacement.

After around 4 years and 4000-odd km's, the battery started dying out. It was supposed to be a 60 km battery, started out with 70-80 km of range on pedal assist, gradually decreased to 30-40 kms and then suddenly dropped dead.

So these e-bikes are being built by small assemblers at low volumes from Chinese kits. The support/upgrade system is therefore ad-hoc, and one cannot just go to a shop and buy a replacement like a car/inverter battery.

As a reminder, these batteries are made up of 18650 li-ion cells. Ours was a 48V battery. I took it apart and found that it had a 13s4p configuration (13x4 cells arranged as 13-series, 4-parallel) for a voltage of 13 * 3.7 ~= 48V.



A 13s4p li-ion battery pack, credits: voltaplex.com



A sample BMS, credits: greenbikekit.com

In addition to the bank of cells, these batteries simply have a balance BMS (battery management system). It is a small controller that ensures that all 13 4-cell banks are charged to an equal voltage, and cuts off charging appropriately. Nothing particularly complicated.

The only catch is that these need to be spot-welded. Soldering irons are too hot and can degrade the cells during the assembly process. Spot welding, OTOH, supplies a high current for a couple of ms, forming a strong weld without heating up the cells.

Many designs for spot welders are available online, and you can build one using Arduinos etc for 10k-15k. Perfectly reasonable if you're doing 5 batteries, but a tad overkill for just one battery. I considered the DIY route briefly but then decided to seek "professional" options for convenience.

The first order of business is to decide on a cell. LG/Samsung cells cost around ₹250-₹350/piece. (So 52 cells is easily ₹15,000 in raw material). The BMS is another ₹1500 or so. This does not include the labour and misc. costs (tapes/connectors), so it's looking expensive.

The other problem is to find a custom assembler. I found a whole bunch of numbers (from Delhi/Pune/Mumbai etc) on Indiamart and called folks up. Turned out that most of them were wholesalers and wouldn't do one custom battery. I then stumbled upon a gent from Delhi who sounded technical, helpful, and interested over the phone.

I initially asked him for a quote with Samsung 26J batteries. He advised me against those, as those were designed for flashlights and all, and not high-discharge applications like electric vehicles. He recommended me a Chinese brand called "BAK".

I was skeptical about Chinese brands, and worked out some amperage math. (Since mine is a 250W motor, that's not a whole lot of current draw). So 26J could work, but he was right in that a 3C battery (higher discharge rating) would be ideal.

The next question was whether to go for a higher discharge branded cell or whether we could "wing it" with the Chinese option presented. Three things turned the decision in BAK's favour:

1. The older battery had no-name cells, and had served us well.
2. BAK is "premium Chinese", in that unlike questionable no-name brands, it is a solid large-scale operation. The weight etc. checked out, and it looked like a 80% of the job at 50% of the price kinda deal.
3. I found this Russian video of a dude putting the BAK cells through the paces. From what I could gather with auto-captioning and auto-translate (2021, really! ), it held up well against spec sheet claims of discharge rates/voltage drops etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-_neZrjLVU

So BAK it was. There are two BAK models in the 3C category - 2600 mAh and 2900 mAh. You can get the cells in the wholesale market for ₹70 and ₹100 (approx) respectively. Coupled with a new BMS, that's around ₹6500 in raw material for the 2600 mAh cell (2900 mAh was apparently having some stock issues). I was getting labour quotes of ₹30/cell from a dealer, but he did not carry BAK. All in all, ₹8000-₹8500 would've been a fair price for a new battery.

But apart from the Delhi gent described above, I had a hard time getting someone to do a custom job for me. Out of any other options, I reached out to him again, and he quoted me ₹9850 for the final battery. He was professional in that he recommended I send the full battery unit to him instead of him sending me a new inner "core" designed with pictures as a reference, so as to avoid any fit/compatibility issues later on. (Add ₹350/side in shipping to/from Punjab).

The new battery should be shipped back any day now, and since he'll repackage the entire thing himself, it should Just Work™ for a good 3-4 years, by which time the landscape would've evolved a lot more.

Bit of work, but it's all indiamart and calling and whatsapp-ing and paytm-ing (2021 I tell you!) and also gives you a nice peek into our nascent EV battery industry.

Originally Posted by proton

Any one can post about owner experience of this bike or equivalent available in India?

My Bangalore e-bike experience is there in the first couple of posts. I hope that and the battery update give you the insights you were looking for!

[proton]

Originally Posted by anku94

My Bangalore e-bike experience is there in the first couple of posts. I hope that and the battery update give you the insights you were looking for!

Thanks for the reply. Thus seems to be an ebike with rebranded Bafang 450w middrive, as seen 1 min into the video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t3xonctcGxQ

Seems a fair price, considering the Bafang kit costs $500, albeit the 750w version. This Indian company is quite up-to-date, allowing some customising of riding modes, via a phone app!

PS I'm not having business links with the company, just interested in converting by btwin foldable into a configuration allowable on the metro. Looks like I have to go the hub motor route.

[saisree]

Originally Posted by NPV

Not sure if this has been posted before (my search on Team BHP for eROCKIT did not yield any results):
This one is called a human hybrid, it's pedal assisted, has a battery and bigger, wider tyres and resembles a motorcycle.
Link

Nice concept here and I found this video in YouTube feed today.

https://youtu.be/-YiiOjzhwB0