Electric Bikes

[norrissee]

Electric powered motorcycles: Any ideas or experiences? Are they reliable?

I'm thinking of buying one for my daily home/office commute since I live just 1-2km away from my office don't want to wear out my car engine by driving it short distances everyday...

[Mojo]

sa Tronnix they sell an electric bike for 18k, basically its a street bike with a electric motor, battery and potentiometer to regulate speed.


they claim it can go 20km in a single charge. Problem with electric bikes is that it still uses lead acid battery, youll feel the loss of power/charge when you reach the 1/2 drain mark.

but having a electric bike is not a bad idea considering u live 1 or 2 km from your work place

[ghosthunter]

There are electric scooters which looks exactly like their gasoline powered version. Not sure of the performance though.

[the_wildthing]

Why not walk or ride a bike (yung di-pedal)? Exercise pa. Suggestion lang.

[ghosthunter]

its because sometimes it not nice to arrive at your destination smelling like you just came from the gym, especially if you have to impress a client.

[niky]

Hehe... if it rains, you'll still smell like wet dog anyway.

Maganda ito:


RevoPower Wheel... $400 (over 20k pesos... mahal!), but it's only about 15 lbs and installs in minutes... in fact, even if you have an alloy front wheel, that's only an additional 12 lbs!!! You can take it off your bike to go trail riding, or put it on to commute. It gets about 200 mpg (85 km/l), and with a 25cc gas engine and 1 hp, can get to 32 km/h. Not blazingly fast, but a good way to get through traffic. nonetheless.

By the way, the water bottle is the gas tank, so don't drink from it.

https://www.revopower.com

[ghosthunter]

Hehe... if it rains, you'll still smell like wet dog anyway.

Maganda ito:


RevoPower Wheel... $400 (over 20k pesos... mahal!), but it's only about 15 lbs and installs in minutes... in fact, even if you have an alloy front wheel, that's only an additional 12 lbs!!! You can take it off your bike to go trail riding, or put it on to commute. It gets about 200 mpg (85 km/l), and with a 25cc gas engine and 1 hp, can get to 32 km/h. Not blazingly fast, but a good way to get through traffic. nonetheless.

By the way, the water bottle is the gas tank, so don't drink from it.

https://www.revopower.com

My mountain bike weights 18 pounds empty and 25 pounds loaded with all the gear!!! At least it's self powered if equipted with revopower.

[niky]

Actually, that's what I was first thinking when I first heard about it... Being a former runner and cyclist, even just ten extra pounds seems heavy to me... but then you think about it... the only time you'll notice the extra weight is when you're trying to hit your top speed, and you're not exactly going to try to set a new world speed record if you're just going to the office.

Ang ganda pa ng system, it automatically shuts off when you stop, or when you're going faster than the engine can go, so it doesn't guzzle at idle or when you're pedalling hard.

[norrissee]

Yup, don't want to arrive in the office looking "dishelved". (but I don't think anybody would notice considering the stereotyping of software developers as veritable slobs ahihihihihihi)

anyway, I'm thinking of those types that looks just like an underbone motor. I'm just edgy when it comes to their reliability.

hmm.. maybe I could buy an electric motor and hook it up to my oldschool mitsu... put in a sticker that says "Electric Powered Oldschooler" then I'm set... hehehe

On a more serious note though, anybody got experience with electric motorcycles?

[BlueBimmer]

norris! :D

[norrissee]

sherwin! wats up? hehehe

got any ideas on electric scooters? driving 2km everyday from work to home is not a fun thing, too short for fun and not to mention the traffic... (and i dont have a stereo inside the car)

[baludoy]

i've seen some chinese made electric scooters that sells between 25-30k. they don't look at all any different from the gas powered ones (except for the extension cords heheh). then there are the japanese thin framed ones w/ the seat as the bulkiest item on the scooter. i've seen one or two running around here in the village. unfortunately, i have had no experience w/ those scoots yet

but yes, i do think it would be practical for you to own one considering the proximity of your workplace

btw i've seen some ads in the sports section of some newspapers selling those stuff too

[CaRGirL]

ok po ba ito??

Smart Bikes: Electric Powered Vehicles

as per Phil. Star (dated Aug 25), prices range from 20k-60k.

[niky]

Grabe sagad na ako sa maximum load ng ibang models diyan... :lol:

Parang medyo crude yata yung battery tech niya, pero a 20 km range isn't bad if you live close to your work.

[orly_andico]

i read that star article and emailed the supplier luckylou*pldtdsl.net

he is distributing the products from Luyuan and Dones. 31500 yung 350W.

*niky: the Luyuan product is quite high-tech: it has regenerative braking and claims an 80km range, after which it needs to be charged for 3-8 hours. it uses 4x 12V 10Ah batteries, which cost 4800 to replace (need to replace every 2 years). since it's 10Ah, 48V (480Wh) assuming a 25% charging efficiency, one would need ~2kWh to fully recharge it. That's about 20 pesos worth. So even if you can run 40km for 20 pesos (half the claimed range) that's still only 0.50/km. Then assuming you run 3000km a year (or 6000km/2 years) that's an additional 0.80/km for a total opex of 1.30/km.

compare with say a Getz. 12km/L and 43 pesos/L = 3.58/km not counting maintenance. or a Honda XRM, 50km/L = 0.86/L. so the electric scooter is not cheaper than a gasoline powered scooter because of the battery replacement issue.

the only problem right now is that according to the LTO, electric scooters need to be registered but as per the supplier (luis), there is no advice yet to the local LTO offices. so they probably can't be registered just yet. more opportunity for kotong cops i guess..

[ghosthunter]

the problem with the LTO, cops and the dealers is that they all have a different view on the electric scooter.

The dealers point of view is it's not a "motor vehicle" since it does not have a fuel burning engine. The LTO/cops point of view is it looks pretty much like a typical scooter/motorcycle and so they will flag you down to check your registration papers.

[theveed]

Seriously considering a 2-wheel transpo nadin hehe... just computed na at current fuel rates, 6-7K/mo of fuel cost is absurd.

[orly_andico]

*dabid,
we're all in the same boat hahaha.

i have a friend with an AT sentra, because it's AT mileage is around 5-6km/L. so parang 2.0 na manual. anyway he bought a honda wave. it's definitely a lot cheaper to operate. but as he said, don't expect comfort. yes it'll get you there, but you won't be in good condition when you get there. not to mention the scariness of it.

personally i'd rather commute (FX) than 2-wheeled transpo. mas comfy pa rin kahit mahaba pila. just need to get up earlier. safer too..

[theveed]

Lakas sa gas sentra nya ah, AT Altima ko (2.0) gets 6.5-7 city...

Ako I'm not really looking for comfort, 5-6km lang each way ang byahe ko from house to office hehe, via semi-private roads like Greenmeadows/Julia Vargas naman hehe.

Although right now, I'm sticking to Jeep + FX, mura lang eh hehe.

[niky]

Sentra ATs kinda suck... and it'll also depend on your engine and driving habits. If you're used to the pull of a 1.6 manual and you're driving a 1.3 AT, get used to horrible mileage. If you know how to max them out, it's not that bad, but still, a 1.6 AT can get 6-7 km/l in bad traffic. Especially with the super-powerful aircon on those things.