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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from dot Com.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to Text Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland

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Speaker 1: and I'm joined once again by my esteemed colleague Scott Benjamin. Oh,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much. I appreciate he've asked me back

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Speaker 1: a few times. I know I keep doing it because

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Speaker 1: you keep saying yes. I appreciate the invites. This is

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Speaker 1: always a fun one to do, and it's uh, it's great,

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Speaker 1: you know. I always like to have him on. Usually

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Speaker 1: we have Scott on to talk about things that have

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Speaker 1: to do with cars, because that's the world that's Scots

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Speaker 1: quite familiar with. He's and I mean, I don't even

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Speaker 1: know how many episodes Car Stuff is up to now,

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Speaker 1: but it's got to be in the hundreds and hundreds.

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Speaker 1: It's like six fifty or so. Yeah, So you guys

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Speaker 1: are you know, you've been around for a while and

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Speaker 1: you've talked a lot about cars. But this time I

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Speaker 1: thought we'd talked about something a little different. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: talk about E Mike's which, as you mentioned before we

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Speaker 1: started recording. Uh, the E stands for the sound you

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Speaker 1: make when you're writing it. That's if you're going downhill,

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Speaker 1: really fast. I guess I often follow that up with

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Speaker 1: a series of other sounds, some of which make words

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Speaker 1: that I can't say on this podcast. But we were

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Speaker 1: talking about electric bicycles, various types of electric bicycles and

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Speaker 1: kind of some of their counterparts that are similar to them.

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Speaker 1: And you might have seen stuff about e bikes recently. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's been a couple of products that have been coming

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Speaker 1: out of the prototype stage that have made it something

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Speaker 1: that is more accessible to the general public. Before, I

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Speaker 1: would say there were it was like a very niche audience,

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Speaker 1: like bicycle enthusiasts and uh, some do it yourselfers who

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Speaker 1: really were into this. But now we're actually seeing it

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Speaker 1: where people who are living in maybe city environments can

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Speaker 1: get hold of these, especially if they're trying to transition

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Speaker 1: from car ownership to something else. I mean, you've probably

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Speaker 1: heard the story about millennials not flocking to car ownership

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Speaker 1: the way previous generations have. In fact, we talked about

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Speaker 1: that a couple of times in previous episodes. So bicycles

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Speaker 1: are becoming more and more important in the United States.

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Speaker 1: They've been important in other parts of the world for ages,

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Speaker 1: and electric bikes are becoming a big part of that.

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Speaker 1: But here's the interesting thing. A long way to go

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Speaker 1: for this, But they're not a new idea, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: they're far from a new idea. In fact, this goes

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Speaker 1: back oh what a hundred and twenty some years now,

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Speaker 1: I say, what, Yeah, a long long time ago. So

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Speaker 1: went back to uh, I want to say, it's in

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Speaker 1: the late eighteen hundreds, right, right, Um, I think my

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Speaker 1: notes say the mid to late eighteen nineties. But the

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Speaker 1: first one that I've actually got an account for, you know,

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Speaker 1: the actual the date that was given, it's right around

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Speaker 1: and it had a double electric motor design. Now there

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Speaker 1: may have been one prior to that, I'm not sure,

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Speaker 1: but actually had two electric motors. And we've talked about

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Speaker 1: the complexity of a two motor design earlier. Today it

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Speaker 1: seems like it would be an impossible thing to do,

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Speaker 1: really nearly impossible. At least, it would seem impractically. Oh

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Speaker 1: that's it. Maybe not impossible, but impractical, that's a better

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Speaker 1: way to say it. Because we talked about the pros

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Speaker 1: and cons of different types and how they work and

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Speaker 1: and the characteristics of each one, and what you would

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Speaker 1: have to do to pair two of them together. To

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Speaker 1: make them work in tandem. Yeah, what happens if you

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Speaker 1: cut the power to one and you forget to cut

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Speaker 1: the power to the other, and then next thing you know,

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Speaker 1: you're doing flips. Well, I have a feeling in it

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Speaker 1: wasn't quite as complex as we're making it out to be.

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Speaker 1: It's probably a lot simpler. But then in uh In,

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Speaker 1: just one year later, there was a drive belt design

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Speaker 1: that came around, which is, yeah, it is kind of

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Speaker 1: cool because that's different than what we're seeing today, which

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Speaker 1: you might think you're seeing that today, but you're seeing

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Speaker 1: probably a version of a moped really or something like that,

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Speaker 1: which we'll talk about the difference of that too. And

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Speaker 1: then in this is one that I really wanted to

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Speaker 1: talk about just for a second, there was a patent,

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Speaker 1: you know, pulled for a frick in roller wheel design,

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Speaker 1: which is really unusual, and this is one that we

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Speaker 1: haven't seen maybe ever on a bicycle recently. Can I

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Speaker 1: like a guess on what this is? Sure, because I

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Speaker 1: I haven't read the patent, so why would guesses? This

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Speaker 1: means that there would be an electric motor that would

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Speaker 1: turn a small wheel that is actually right up against

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Speaker 1: one of the primary wheels. In the bicycle, and the

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Speaker 1: rotation of the small wheel is translated into the rotation

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Speaker 1: of the larger wheel. That's exactly right. Now. It seems

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Speaker 1: very inefficient, isn't it to do it that way? It

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Speaker 1: was it was mounted, I guess, would be behind the

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Speaker 1: rider's seat above the wheel, and it would it would

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Speaker 1: the pressure was a downward force on the wheel, on

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Speaker 1: the surface of the wheel where it would contact the road,

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Speaker 1: and that translated to as you said, the you know,

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Speaker 1: the drive the actual drive wheel, which to me, that

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Speaker 1: would be not just inefficient because obviously the smaller wheel

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Speaker 1: is gonna have to rotate many, many, many more times

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Speaker 1: faster than the large wheel, right, but also it means

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Speaker 1: adding more aar and tear on that particular wheel of

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Speaker 1: your bike. You're exactly right, And it just seems like

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Speaker 1: it seems like a difficult design to make work. But

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Speaker 1: I just wanted to tell you that, you know, even

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Speaker 1: prior to nine, people are really thinking about this. They're really,

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Speaker 1: you know, considering the idea that an electric bike is

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Speaker 1: something that is necessary to get around town. And quite honestly,

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Speaker 1: you know, where did they have It's not like they

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Speaker 1: were in a crowd of city at that point, probably

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Speaker 1: it's not likely. Uh they might have been, but um

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Speaker 1: it would it would be more for you know, like

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Speaker 1: a country ride or something like that that they would

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Speaker 1: use it for, right, I would imagine. So, I mean,

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Speaker 1: unless you're talking about you know, your your when you

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Speaker 1: see the rise of the city's really because the rise

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Speaker 1: of the automobile. You see the rise of automobile, which

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Speaker 1: gave rise to two cities getting larger and larger and

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Speaker 1: more sprawl. Perhaps you could argue that the bike would

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Speaker 1: have been useful for someone who cannot afford a full

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Speaker 1: automobile but still needs to make a commute. But we

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Speaker 1: often here in the United States in particular, we have

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Speaker 1: often thought about bicycles as recreational devices. Right, this is

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Speaker 1: the thing that we use. You want to go out

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Speaker 1: and get some exercise, you want the fresh air, you

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Speaker 1: want a nice relaxing ride. And uh, in fact, when

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Speaker 1: we were first talking about doing this topic, it was

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Speaker 1: only when we started talking about the possibility of using

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Speaker 1: a bike in instead of a car or taking public

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Speaker 1: transportation in order to get around regularly. That's something like

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Speaker 1: an electric bike really started to make sense because otherwise

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Speaker 1: you kind of want that that exertion, that's part of

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Speaker 1: the experience. Let me let me just for one second

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Speaker 1: go back and kind of defend my my my country

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Speaker 1: ride example, because the lay that I I picture UM

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Speaker 1: cities right around the turn of the century, you know,

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Speaker 1: the turn of the nineteenth century, is that they were

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Speaker 1: they were crowded with cars which were relatively new at

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Speaker 1: the time, brand new at the time, UM, carriages, lots

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Speaker 1: of horses, lots of people walking. But I don't necessarily

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Speaker 1: think of seeing a lot of a lot of bicycles

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Speaker 1: in city environments. That's from from photos of that day,

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Speaker 1: of that era or depictions of it, you know, whether

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Speaker 1: it be wrongs or whatever. You don't see a lot

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Speaker 1: of bicycle riders. However, today in crowded cities, you do

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Speaker 1: see a lot of bicycle riders. I mean that's that

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Speaker 1: and especially in places like China where it's extremely crowded

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Speaker 1: and you know, maybe not everybody can afford a motorcycle,

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Speaker 1: right or or a big scooter um or definitely not

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Speaker 1: a car. Bicycle is a good option, but as you said, UM,

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Speaker 1: they're not necessarily in it for you know, exercise or

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Speaker 1: to get out and you know, to get the get

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Speaker 1: the heart pumping or whatever, especially in places where pollution

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Speaker 1: might be so bad that you don't necessarily want to

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Speaker 1: be breathing. R Now, this is just like an inexpensive

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Speaker 1: method of transportation, way to commute and uh and also

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Speaker 1: you know, to take up as little space as possible

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Speaker 1: when you're not using that thing, right, Yeah, So now

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Speaker 1: we're starting to see this grow in popularity here in

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Speaker 1: the United States, like I said, in some parts of

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Speaker 1: the world, and in parts of Europe. That's all. It's

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Speaker 1: been popular for years and in fact, electric bikes have

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Speaker 1: been around for quite some time in in both Europe

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Speaker 1: and the United States as well as Asia. But these

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Speaker 1: are uh, you know, we've seen a lot of development

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Speaker 1: over the last i'd say a couple of decades. We've

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Speaker 1: seen really some some interesting development to the point where

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Speaker 1: it's become uh, something that the average consumer can can

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Speaker 1: be aware of, as opposed to you know, the bike enthusiasts.

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Speaker 1: Part of that is battery technology. I mean, I don't

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Speaker 1: know if I'm jumping ahead of you here, but but

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Speaker 1: part of that is battery technology because lead acid batteries,

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Speaker 1: that's the kind of battery that you typically find in

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Speaker 1: an automobile, a typical one, not not one of the

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Speaker 1: newer ones. But um, they're big, they're heavy, they're bulky.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's difficult to carry that kind

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Speaker 1: of weight around on a bike. You're trying to remain

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Speaker 1: as light as possible with this type of setup, as

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about in a moment. But um, you know,

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Speaker 1: with some of the newer battery technology, like lithium ion

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Speaker 1: batteries or even you know, some of the nickel cadmium

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Speaker 1: batteries from you know, or nickel metal hydride batteries, or

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Speaker 1: or even the seal some of these, I guess, the

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Speaker 1: sealed lead acid batteries. Some of them are small enough

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Speaker 1: that couldn't you know, you could potentially use them. But

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Speaker 1: the lead acid batteries tend to be a lot heavier

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Speaker 1: than the batteries. Yeah. The other thing that uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: those batteries have been a challenge, not just from a

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Speaker 1: science perspective, but also safety obviously lithium ion in particular.

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Speaker 1: You know, you don't you want to be really uh

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Speaker 1: you don't you don't want to overheat your lithium ion batteries. Well,

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Speaker 1: and it's not a great idea to also be biking

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Speaker 1: around with a box of sulfuric acid. Yeah, that's that's

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Speaker 1: what it is. Yeah, that's that can be a bit

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Speaker 1: of a that could be a bit of a drag

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Speaker 1: if things go wrong. But yeah, yeah, I mean, like

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Speaker 1: I think of here in here, in Atlanta, for example,

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Speaker 1: things can get pretty hot. So imagine that you have

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Speaker 1: a really hot day and you're taking your electric bike

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Speaker 1: for a ride, and you've got your battery or lithium

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Speaker 1: ion battery, and you're you know, you have to hit

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Speaker 1: dead Man's Hill, It's the craziest hill in Atlanta, which

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Speaker 1: I just made up, and uh you, so you kicked

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Speaker 1: the bike into full gear to try and help you

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Speaker 1: as much as it can to get up there. I

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Speaker 1: can imagine that lithium ion battery getting really kind of

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Speaker 1: deteriorating rapidly due to we're operating at such a high temperature.

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Speaker 1: The heat is the worst enemy of batteries. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I know that they die often in cold weather, but

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Speaker 1: heat is where the real damage occurs. And then you

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Speaker 1: don't realize it until it's cold and all those chemical

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Speaker 1: reactions are slowing down, and that's when you really feel

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Speaker 1: that you feel the pain from you know, the damage

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Speaker 1: that was done in the summer months. Now. Of course,

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Speaker 1: the nice thing is that most of the systems we're

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Speaker 1: talking about, in fact, all the ones I'm familiar with,

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Speaker 1: have replaceable batteries. So worst case scenario as you swap

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Speaker 1: out a dead battery for a new one, obviously you

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Speaker 1: want to preserve the life of your batteries as long

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Speaker 1: as possible for multiple reasons. Financial would be a big one,

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Speaker 1: but also just you know, it's more environmentally friendly to

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Speaker 1: go easy on your battery so that you don't have

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Speaker 1: to have I don't have to worry about, well, how

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Speaker 1: do I dispose of this thing now that potentially has

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Speaker 1: toxic materials in it. But let's be honest, the financial

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Speaker 1: reason is the big one. That's the big one. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it is the big one. I mean. Another thing we

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Speaker 1: need to point out is electric bikes can be pretty expensive.

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Speaker 1: Even the conversion kits where you can turn your existing

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Speaker 1: bike into electric bike, some of those can be some

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Speaker 1: of those can dwarf the price of your original bike. Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: I've seen kids just conversion kits that that range anywhere

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Speaker 1: from you know, I think it was about seven seventy

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Speaker 1: five dollars up to two thousand dollars where you're not

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Speaker 1: getting an entire bike, you're getting the kit to make

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Speaker 1: your existing bike into an e bike. And and of

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Speaker 1: course the two thousand dollar kit comes with everything you

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Speaker 1: would ever want, all the sensors. The seven D and

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Speaker 1: seventy five dollar kit doesn't even have a battery with it,

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Speaker 1: and I think there's no controller. I mean, it's just

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Speaker 1: it's it's a very basic, basic kit where you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to add parts to it in order to make

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Speaker 1: that even work. So it can be expensive, but maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe it's better just to buy a bike right from

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Speaker 1: the manufacturer. Yeah, yeah, there there are choices, right, I mean,

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Speaker 1: you can get a bike that is designed as an

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Speaker 1: electric bike from the beginning, and it's got the systems

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Speaker 1: all integrated into it already, so it's going to Those

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Speaker 1: are gonna look the nicest. Obviously, they're to cost a lot.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna cost a lot if you convert a bike, then,

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Speaker 1: depending upon the conversion kit you have, if it's one

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Speaker 1: of those where it's a real D I O Y

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Speaker 1: kind of approach, it'll work, but it'll probably also look

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Speaker 1: kind of weird because the bike that you have was

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Speaker 1: not originally intended to be an electric bike. You had

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Speaker 1: to add all these different components on it. You have

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Speaker 1: to put a battery pack somewhere on that thing, and

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Speaker 1: sometimes that means that you have a big bulky section

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Speaker 1: of the middle of the bike. But there are other

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Speaker 1: types of electric bike converter kits as well that um

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Speaker 1: incorporate all the elements into the hub of either the

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Speaker 1: front wheel or the rear wheel. Those are kind of cool. Now,

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Speaker 1: it does mean that the hub of that tire is

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Speaker 1: going to look enormous compared to a normal bicycle tire.

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Speaker 1: But but all the other elements are hidden away, right.

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Speaker 1: You don't have, uh, you know, and there're only a

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Speaker 1: couple of examples of this, but you don't have like

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Speaker 1: a big external battery pack that's hanging off one of

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Speaker 1: the bars of your bicycle unless unless you go back

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Speaker 1: to one of those kids like we talked about. You

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Speaker 1: know that you do have a big canvas bag that

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Speaker 1: has a battery attached to it, and that's a speed

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Speaker 1: controller and all the other electronics to go along with this.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I mean that stuff is gonna be

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Speaker 1: zip tied to the frame of your bike. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's not it's going to look like it's a kid

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Speaker 1: that you added onto your bike. It's not going to

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Speaker 1: be as as buttoned up as the as the bike

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Speaker 1: that would come from the manufacturer. Look because they you know,

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Speaker 1: they drill holes in the frame and they feed the

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Speaker 1: wire through there and it only exits where it needs to.

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Speaker 1: It's very uh, it's very minimally obtrusive, I guess on

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Speaker 1: the on the design of the bike. Yeah, as opposed

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Speaker 1: to have zip ties every couple of inches, everything in place,

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Speaker 1: and there's still kind of is that element of these

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Speaker 1: even even with the manufacturer built ones, you know, the

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Speaker 1: ones that come from the factory, you know where I

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Speaker 1: don't know how many they build a day, maybe, you know,

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Speaker 1: it depends on the place, I guess, but it would

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Speaker 1: I would think it's very few because these are hand

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Speaker 1: assembled of course. Um, but yeah, they're they're pretty well

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Speaker 1: buttoned up, but they still have a little bit of

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Speaker 1: that you know, uh, a little bit of that look

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Speaker 1: like it was kind of made it a workbench a

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Speaker 1: little bit, but in a good way, like of in

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Speaker 1: that that you know, again like that d I Y

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Speaker 1: sort of approach. And they're getting better and better. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and so I guess it's good to talk about, you know,

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Speaker 1: the different types of electric bikes as well as to

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Speaker 1: compare them against other powered bicycles. So the powered bicycle

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Speaker 1: I always thought of when I was growing up, it

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Speaker 1: was not electric at all. It was it was gas powered.

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Speaker 1: The motorized bicycle, the moped moped. Yeah, so you've got

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Speaker 1: the motorized and pedal PD the moped or velociped. Some

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Speaker 1: people say that's from the old term for bicycle velocopied,

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Speaker 1: which dates to even earlier in the uh you know,

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Speaker 1: the the nineteenth century. Uh that was my favorite arcade

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Speaker 1: game philosophy. Yeah, where you had to, you know, to

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Speaker 1: shoot the little Penny Farthings as they came down the screen. Um. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The the moped is similar in many ways to electric bicycles,

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Speaker 1: except of course it's not running on electricity. It's got

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Speaker 1: an actual motor engine and I should sea tiny gasoline engine. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's right. And that's what I tend to think of

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Speaker 1: two when I think of of a a pedal assisted

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Speaker 1: powered vehicle and I think of that, that's that's the

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Speaker 1: one I go to. Is like that old moped design

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Speaker 1: where you see you would see somebody pedaling like crazy

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Speaker 1: to either get it moving or more typically, you would

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Speaker 1: just see the pedals, you know, remaining where they are.

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Speaker 1: People would have their feet on the pedals, but it

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Speaker 1: would be all you know, gasoline power that they're using.

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Speaker 1: They're using just the engine to propel themselves forward. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they've got a throttle control, and the throttle control provides

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Speaker 1: the power which drives the drive train and you don't

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Speaker 1: have to do any pedaling at all to keep it going.

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Speaker 1: It was very rare to see somebody actually pedaling a

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Speaker 1: moped to the point now where the term moped, by

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Speaker 1: at least some people is used as a generic term

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Speaker 1: for any non motorcycle motorized two wheel vehicle. Okay, this

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Speaker 1: is where we had a little discussion about this at

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Speaker 1: our desks earlier, because we sitting next to each other

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Speaker 1: in the office and we were kind of throwing this

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Speaker 1: back and forth a little bit like, Okay, if if

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Speaker 1: this is a moped, what what is a scooter? And

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Speaker 1: then how do you differentiate between that and a motorcycle?

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Speaker 1: And you know, there's there's traditional ways to do that

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Speaker 1: by engine size. You can you can say that you know,

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Speaker 1: a moped is between forty nine ccs and all the

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Speaker 1: way up to ccs. But now I think that there's

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Speaker 1: some what they call, I want to say, they're called

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Speaker 1: like maxi scooters that are bigger than that. They're capable

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Speaker 1: of going faster, but they're still considered a scooter. But

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Speaker 1: they're allowed on roads but not on highways. And you

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Speaker 1: do sit with your feet forward, you know, on a

340
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Speaker 1: platform in front of the chair, so there's like a

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Speaker 1: pass through between the handlebars and where you sit. You're

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Speaker 1: not on you don't have your feet on pedals in

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Speaker 1: or pegs as you would on a motorcycle. It's on

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Speaker 1: like a little just its own little platform. But some

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Speaker 1: of those maxi scooters are capable of you know, eighty

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Speaker 1: miles per hour, seventy five miles per or something like that. Um,

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Speaker 1: that's not the typical scooter that I think of. I

348
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Speaker 1: think of the old vespas, you know, which we're you know,

349
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Speaker 1: the older ones, which are creeping along at about thirty

350
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Speaker 1: miles per hour max. But they did have that traditional

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Speaker 1: seating position where you can you can picture that right

352
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Speaker 1: with the platform in front, where your your feet are

353
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Speaker 1: side by side in front of you, And that's what

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Speaker 1: I think of. They didn't have a pedal mechanism at

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Speaker 1: all like a moped does. So that to me was

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Speaker 1: the break between scooters and mopeds. But now I guess

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Speaker 1: there's a blurred line between what's a moped and what's

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Speaker 1: a scooter. Yeah, I think it's just. I think it's

359
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Speaker 1: just in the use of the term being very casual

360
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Speaker 1: about it, right, I don't think it's I think if

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Speaker 1: you were to nail someone down and say no, let's

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Speaker 1: let's get to the technical uh distinction between these, they

363
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Speaker 1: would agree. But I think casually people refer to practically

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Speaker 1: anything that doesn't look like a motorcycle as a moped

365
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Speaker 1: or a scooter, one or the other, And honestly, it

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Speaker 1: really doesn't matter. We're just trying to to segment these

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Speaker 1: different things into and just find a way to discuss

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Speaker 1: them where everybody can picture the same thing. Now. The

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Speaker 1: interesting thing also about mopeds to me is that some

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Speaker 1: of them are designed so that, yeah, you could pedal

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Speaker 1: and propel them just under pedal power if you needed to,

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Speaker 1: like if the engine died or ran all gas. Uh,

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Speaker 1: It's not easy to do. This is a very heavy vehicle.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it looks like you're peddaling like crazy and you're

375
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Speaker 1: not really getting anywhere some of them. Really, the pedals

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Speaker 1: were more about getting the engine started right, so it

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00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:13,679
Speaker 1: wasn't about providing any form of propulsion. It was just

378
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Speaker 1: about getting the engine to the point where you could

379
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Speaker 1: get the ignition going and take off. So uh, that

380
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Speaker 1: kind of separates it from electric electric bikes in another way.

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Speaker 1: So you've got two big separations. One you're not using

382
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Speaker 1: gas with electric bikes. But the other is that with

383
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Speaker 1: a true E bike, you are supposed to be able

384
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Speaker 1: to pedal and power the bike, or you use some

385
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Speaker 1: form of pedal assists. That's where you get the ped

386
00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:47,240
Speaker 1: alex type of bikes, So that's that's often what they're called,

387
00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,560
Speaker 1: where they are providing some of the power to turn

388
00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:54,679
Speaker 1: the wheel of the bicycle so that it offsets some

389
00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:57,480
Speaker 1: of the force needed. And then you have power on

390
00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:02,880
Speaker 1: demand electric bicycles where the electric motor is providing all

391
00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:05,520
Speaker 1: the power you need to propel the bike forward, and

392
00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:08,160
Speaker 1: you can you can cut the motor off and then

393
00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:11,879
Speaker 1: continue to pedal, or if you just want to have

394
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Speaker 1: a real easy ride of it, you just power the

395
00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:17,560
Speaker 1: throttle and that gives the electric motor the power to

396
00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:20,800
Speaker 1: push the bike forward. On, so it's you're using it

397
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Speaker 1: as if it was a scooter, not a bicycle at all.

398
00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:26,080
Speaker 1: For the power on demand systems, okay, and the pedal

399
00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:27,680
Speaker 1: X when you mentioned that, I think people might be

400
00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:30,560
Speaker 1: confused by the term, But that's a combination of three words.

401
00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:34,200
Speaker 1: It's pedal electric cycle and it's pedal X. It's spelled

402
00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:38,040
Speaker 1: a little weird, but PEDALEX. I've also heard elect peds

403
00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:41,159
Speaker 1: simply to say that it's similar to mo peds, so

404
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:43,919
Speaker 1: instead of motor pedals, you want to think of it

405
00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,200
Speaker 1: that way, it's electric pedals. But pedal X is definitely

406
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,359
Speaker 1: the more common of the two that I've seen, and

407
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:51,440
Speaker 1: you know, these are these are pretty popular I think

408
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:53,800
Speaker 1: in Uma, as we said, in cities, you know, the

409
00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:55,560
Speaker 1: pedal X systems are the ones that we see a

410
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Speaker 1: lot of because those are the ones that if you're pedaling,

411
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Speaker 1: you get like A watched a few videos of these recently.

412
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Speaker 1: That's why I'm kind of familiar with what's going on here.

413
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Speaker 1: But when you when you get on them and you're pedaling,

414
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:09,040
Speaker 1: it's like you're feeling something that's pushing you, but it's

415
00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:11,399
Speaker 1: like it's pushing you along because these are rear wheel

416
00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,720
Speaker 1: design things. Mostly. I mean, we've seen them on the

417
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:17,000
Speaker 1: front wheels, but that's more unusual. Usually they're on the

418
00:20:17,040 --> 00:20:20,199
Speaker 1: back wheel, so it's pushing you along. And a lot

419
00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:22,120
Speaker 1: of times when you watch these videos of people who

420
00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:24,639
Speaker 1: are reviewing them or testing them or trying them for

421
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:26,960
Speaker 1: the first time, you know, never tried an ebike before,

422
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:29,959
Speaker 1: this pedal assist type system. When they get on them

423
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:32,560
Speaker 1: and they start riding, they start to giggle. You know,

424
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,960
Speaker 1: it's like they're laughing because they're they're barely pedaling, but

425
00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:38,439
Speaker 1: their cruising along as if they were really really pumping

426
00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 1: the pedals really fast, and you're passing every other bike

427
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:44,040
Speaker 1: on the bike path. Um, you know, top speed vary

428
00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:47,560
Speaker 1: between you know, different models, but you're going move along

429
00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:49,720
Speaker 1: at a pretty good rate, a pretty rapid rate for

430
00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:51,800
Speaker 1: the limited amount of pedaling that you're doing. And that's

431
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:54,919
Speaker 1: really the benefit of these pedal lex systems. That and

432
00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:57,720
Speaker 1: you know, let's say you're riding into a headwind, are

433
00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,720
Speaker 1: you're riding up a hill, which would be you know,

434
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,919
Speaker 1: pretty important here in Atlanta because it's not a flat

435
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:05,720
Speaker 1: city by any means, um, So that would be helpful.

436
00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:09,800
Speaker 1: But the pedal systems can be used by law enforcement.

437
00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:11,639
Speaker 1: You know, if they're on bikes, it's a great thing

438
00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:13,720
Speaker 1: because it gives them kind of an edge, I guess

439
00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:16,560
Speaker 1: if they're trying to I don't know, catch up to

440
00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:19,920
Speaker 1: somebody who's on another bike. Um, it assists them in

441
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:22,320
Speaker 1: in you know, just having to do less work to

442
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:26,720
Speaker 1: get speech exactly exactly right. And there's a lot of

443
00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:30,879
Speaker 1: different variety of different types of gearings and things that

444
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:33,120
Speaker 1: you can get with the different types of motors as well,

445
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 1: so they have their own purpose. Like if you want

446
00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:38,080
Speaker 1: one to go fast, you get this type of of motor.

447
00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:40,240
Speaker 1: If you want one that's gonna pull a lot of weight,

448
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:43,359
Speaker 1: let's say that you're carrying a trailer, small trailer behind

449
00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:46,120
Speaker 1: your bike. Cargo bikes, Yeah, cargo bikes. That's I'm glad

450
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:47,840
Speaker 1: you said that because I have written down somewhere that

451
00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:50,119
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about that. Uh, there's a different

452
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:52,960
Speaker 1: type of motor than the ones we've been kind of

453
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:56,520
Speaker 1: focusing on mostly it's it's a geared motor that would

454
00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:59,200
Speaker 1: be more efficient for happy loads like that if you're

455
00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:01,760
Speaker 1: pulling a trailer, if you've got a cargo bike like

456
00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:03,919
Speaker 1: you said, or if you're a bigger writer, you know

457
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:06,920
Speaker 1: somebody who's who's a little heavier on the heavier side,

458
00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:09,320
Speaker 1: a geared motor might be the one that you want. Yeah,

459
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,560
Speaker 1: mid drive motors are also really good about pulling a

460
00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:17,680
Speaker 1: lot of weight or kicking into two gear for something

461
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,800
Speaker 1: like a real steep climb. So let's say that you

462
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:23,480
Speaker 1: live in San Francisco and you've decided that you want

463
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: to bike to work because you're crazy. Uh, then you

464
00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:30,720
Speaker 1: may want something like a mid drive electric bicycle because

465
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:33,040
Speaker 1: it's going to give you a lot more when you

466
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:38,080
Speaker 1: start hitting those really steep hills, those really tall steep hills.

467
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 1: I mean they're not just steep, they go on forever.

468
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:44,480
Speaker 1: So you need that kind of kind of ruty for sure.

469
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:47,119
Speaker 1: When I went to the San Francisco this is a

470
00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 1: long time ago, maybe fifteen years ago, I had a

471
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:51,760
Speaker 1: friend who, you know, I graduated with this this person,

472
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:53,800
Speaker 1: and he was now working out there with his wife,

473
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 1: and I was in town and I had never been

474
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:58,760
Speaker 1: there before. Was my first time there, and they decided

475
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 1: that the way we're gonna get around on was on bicycles.

476
00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:04,320
Speaker 1: So this friend doesn't like you. I don't know what

477
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:06,719
Speaker 1: was going on, but I was just huffing and puffing

478
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 1: the whole time, and would have to occasionally get off

479
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,520
Speaker 1: and walk my bike up the hill. And as it's crazy,

480
00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:13,600
Speaker 1: well as would they, and you know, they were even

481
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:15,199
Speaker 1: accustomed to it. You know, they've been doing this for

482
00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 1: a year or two years at that point, so they

483
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,000
Speaker 1: were in a little better shape than then. I wasn't

484
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,040
Speaker 1: that bike. And honestly, even you know, back I lived

485
00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,159
Speaker 1: in Michigan the time. Even there, I wasn't necessarily biking

486
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 1: all the time, so it wasn't really my thing. But

487
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,000
Speaker 1: you know, then we're in the you know, these extremely

488
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:33,159
Speaker 1: hilly areas. Try we we rode up to the middle

489
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: of the Golden Gate Bridge and you don't realize until

490
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,640
Speaker 1: you're on that bridge that to the midway point is uphill. Yeah, exactly.

491
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:44,880
Speaker 1: Coming back was fine, unbelievable. I couldn't. I just could

492
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,880
Speaker 1: not keep up with that treacherous place to ride a bike.

493
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:49,560
Speaker 1: And that that's the sort of thing like that. These

494
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 1: bikes are really good to help for folks who want

495
00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:55,800
Speaker 1: to uh use a bike more frequently, but they might

496
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:59,480
Speaker 1: encounter these issues or maybe for example, you know, one

497
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:02,320
Speaker 1: of the little behind the Curtain the episode we're recording

498
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: right now, you guys, is the very last full episode

499
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:12,520
Speaker 1: of any podcast in How Stuff Works. To use the studio, Yeah,

500
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,280
Speaker 1: this building, Yeah, this studio that we are recording and

501
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: right now is going to be broken down as soon

502
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:22,200
Speaker 1: as we're done, and then moved across town. Now, when

503
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,960
Speaker 1: we go to that new place across town, it's closer

504
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,760
Speaker 1: to where I live. And I'm thinking about biking to

505
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:32,840
Speaker 1: work whenever the occasion merits it. That's fantastic, idea, fantastic.

506
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,359
Speaker 1: I also am really thinking about getting an e bike system,

507
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:40,000
Speaker 1: a pedal pedal a system to help me if because

508
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:43,119
Speaker 1: I don't want to have the experience of biking to

509
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:46,439
Speaker 1: work and arriving at work looking like I just biked

510
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 1: to work in Atlanta, especially in the summer. Yeah, I understand,

511
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:52,040
Speaker 1: But see, you want a little bit of exercise at

512
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,200
Speaker 1: the same time, right, and it's going to there's gonna

513
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:56,960
Speaker 1: be hills in between you and the office and I'll

514
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: pill both ways, I'm sure. And uh, the you know,

515
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 1: humidity ranging in the area. You know, you can't get

516
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: around the sweating. So yeah, and we're talking about several miles.

517
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:09,720
Speaker 1: It's not it's not like it's around the corner or

518
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,159
Speaker 1: anything like that. So it's a good twenty five minute

519
00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:14,359
Speaker 1: ride from my house. Okay, so that's a that's a

520
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 1: reasonable distance. I can completely understand why you would want

521
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:19,480
Speaker 1: something like this now. Now me, I'm not a bike

522
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,840
Speaker 1: rider to begin with. Um, I have one. It's collecting

523
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:24,880
Speaker 1: dust in the basement. I think, I think I still

524
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: have it after the last move. I don't even know.

525
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 1: But it's it's just not my thing. I mean, I

526
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 1: don't live in town, so I don't really have a

527
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 1: use to just quickly grab a vehicle and get somewhere,

528
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,120
Speaker 1: you know, five blocks away or whatever. But that would

529
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:39,400
Speaker 1: be a perfect use for somebody, you know, if if

530
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,399
Speaker 1: they did have a need like that or like you say,

531
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:43,640
Speaker 1: to get to work, you know, on days when it's

532
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 1: sunny and uh and humid, when you don't necessarily want

533
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: to uh to you know, fully exert yourself get in

534
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 1: there as well. And uh. We could also differentiate really

535
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:58,959
Speaker 1: quickly between electric bikes and electric motorcycles. There are electric motorcycles. Yeah,

536
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:02,160
Speaker 1: Harley Davidson is touring around with one, showing it off

537
00:26:02,200 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: the kind of a prototype electric motorcycle. Yeah, that's is

538
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:08,120
Speaker 1: that the that's live wire is in it. I think

539
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,479
Speaker 1: it's so it's it's very quiet. You know what, I

540
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:13,959
Speaker 1: have done a podcast about this. I should remember the name,

541
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,120
Speaker 1: but I believe it's the Harley Davidson Live Wire. It's

542
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:18,600
Speaker 1: it was the concept. They did a tour around the

543
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 1: nation and they were allowing people to test drive that vehicle,

544
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,720
Speaker 1: and people who drove it really or wrote it, I guess,

545
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:28,080
Speaker 1: really really liked it. And the difference between an electric

546
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 1: motorcycle versus an electric bike is that an electric bike

547
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:35,040
Speaker 1: has pedals that you can pedal and you operate under

548
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 1: manual power, whereas electric motorcycle does not. That's the main desert,

549
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,479
Speaker 1: and it's extremely powerful. It's as just as powerful as

550
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,240
Speaker 1: a Harley Davidson motorcycle would be, only an electric form.

551
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: So you know, all the all the other stuff that

552
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: goes along with motorcycle ownerships still apply, and and a

553
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,399
Speaker 1: lot of the considerations that you would have to have

554
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 1: for a bicycle are no longer part of the thought process, right,

555
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 1: You don't need to have You don't need to sit

556
00:26:57,600 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 1: there and say, well, we can't put a motor on

557
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 1: that's X powerful because that it adds so much weight

558
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 1: to the bicycle that a bicyclist isn't going to be

559
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 1: able to use it. With a motorcycle, you don't have

560
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,120
Speaker 1: to worry about that as much. Now. You just worry

561
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,119
Speaker 1: about how fast that things canna go. Yeah, right, So

562
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of these motors. Some of the ones. Now,

563
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,119
Speaker 1: keep in mind, like I said, some of these can

564
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,960
Speaker 1: be bought, uh completely, like you can buy a whole

565
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 1: bike that uses this sort of stuff, or you can

566
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,360
Speaker 1: end up buying conversion kits or these in hub systems

567
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 1: where it's really an e bike inside a bicycle wheel.

568
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,400
Speaker 1: You literally just replace a wheel with one of these

569
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,040
Speaker 1: and it'll turn it into an e bike, which is

570
00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,720
Speaker 1: pretty cool. You were talking about direct drive now. The

571
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:40,879
Speaker 1: direct drive are the ones that look like a like

572
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,000
Speaker 1: a pie pan in the middle of your wheel. Yes,

573
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 1: and that's the one that everything is housed within that

574
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:49,520
Speaker 1: uh that I guess it would be a plastic outer casing, right, Yeah,

575
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:53,359
Speaker 1: plastic in most cases, I think, Uh, you might find

576
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,360
Speaker 1: a couple that do some form of metal as the outside,

577
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:59,520
Speaker 1: like an aluminum exterior. But again, you want to have

578
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: generally speaking, you want to have something that's going to

579
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,159
Speaker 1: be able to vent heat because it is going to

580
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,879
Speaker 1: build up heat inside of this thing. Yeah, exactly right.

581
00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: Now that the direct drive is just one type, there's

582
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,440
Speaker 1: also the geared systems of geared motors that we'll talk

583
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,080
Speaker 1: about as well. But if you I found a pretty

584
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,719
Speaker 1: good article that that describes some of the pros and

585
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: cons of both types of motors. So there's direct drive,

586
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:26,439
Speaker 1: there's gear drive. There's pros for both. Now that the

587
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,679
Speaker 1: pros four direct drive system the pipean type you know

588
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 1: that has everything in case. Uh, they're they're a lot

589
00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:35,560
Speaker 1: more durable than the geared systems. Uh, they're faster and

590
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 1: they tend to be quieter as well. There's actually more

591
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 1: pros for the geared systems that we'll talk about in

592
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:44,520
Speaker 1: just a second. But they provide less drag, they're smaller,

593
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 1: of course, they're lighter, but they do have more torque

594
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 1: than the than the direct drive systems. Yeah. I thought

595
00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: that was kind of strange, I would think, and that

596
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:54,560
Speaker 1: has to be just based on gearing, of course, I mean,

597
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:56,719
Speaker 1: because you can make that work for you however you like. Right,

598
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 1: But the direct drive motors that we talked to about,

599
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: one thing we said is that it's got to have

600
00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,959
Speaker 1: a lot of torque in order to to work because

601
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 1: the way it's mounted on the wheel, every one rotation

602
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:10,880
Speaker 1: of the wheel is one rotation of the motors, right

603
00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 1: and right. That has to be an extremely torquey motor

604
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 1: in order for that to work. Yeah. So, uh, that's

605
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 1: the benefit of having gears. Right. You can you can

606
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:21,640
Speaker 1: play with how many times the motor has to rotate

607
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: to rotate a wheel. You can you can use the

608
00:29:25,920 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: different sizes of gears to determine the actual speech. So

609
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: you can you can get it for speed, or you

610
00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 1: can get it for pulling or for power. Right, so

611
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 1: kind of like a you know, like a transmission in

612
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 1: a car. Uh. And so you you use these different

613
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 1: things for different purposes, Like if you want to have

614
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: a bike where it's just going to be the simplest version,

615
00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: the direct drive makes a lot of sense. Uh. It

616
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:51,959
Speaker 1: is as the fewest moving parts of an electric motor

617
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 1: compared to the other variations that we've seen, and most

618
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: of the kids that you'll find that you'll see have

619
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 1: have that direct drive TI stop. Now, I've seen some

620
00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:05,000
Speaker 1: that are geared that are still all self contained, which

621
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: is kind of interesting, but uh, you know, it's it's

622
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,280
Speaker 1: where you see like Essentially, there's a gear that the

623
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: motor turns, then there are maybe two gears that interlock

624
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: with that, and then it goes inside a larger casing

625
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 1: has a gear mounted teeth mounted on the internal wall

626
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: of the the hub, and that that's what causes the

627
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: hub to turn, thus making the wheel turn. UM. So

628
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:35,640
Speaker 1: all of that can be completely enclosed too. But you

629
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:40,480
Speaker 1: can also have what what I call mid drive motors.

630
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,680
Speaker 1: Where are you have the external motor. It's not inside

631
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:46,040
Speaker 1: the hub of the wheel, it's mounted to the exterior

632
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 1: of your bike. UM. It typically uh, it taps directly

633
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,640
Speaker 1: into your bicycles gear drive train. So you essentially replace

634
00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 1: the chain wheel that your petals would attach to the

635
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: cranks on your pedals at that I think they call

636
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: that the crank set. Yeah, you would replace that with

637
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:09,880
Speaker 1: the motor, the electric motor version. You know that it

638
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:11,680
Speaker 1: has the same sort of wheel that you would have

639
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:15,040
Speaker 1: to mount the chain too, but the motor helps drive

640
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,160
Speaker 1: that wheel so that when you start pedaling, the motor

641
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: drives the actual wheel that you're their pedal cranks are

642
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: attached to. This sounds a lot closer to the like

643
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: a motorcycle set up. Swapping the gasoline engine for the

644
00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 1: electric motor, of course, but it's it's closer in position

645
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 1: and the way that it drives that rear wheel, you know,

646
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 1: with a chain or a belt in some cases. Right,

647
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 1: that's interesting. Those are a lot less common then then

648
00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: would be the direct drive motor, which is the hub

649
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:45,360
Speaker 1: one or the other one that the more complex geared

650
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 1: system that you described. Yeah, and and these also tend

651
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 1: to get really super expensive. These are the ones that

652
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:55,880
Speaker 1: can be really efficient because they're already using the ideal

653
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 1: gears to turn your bicycle wheel. They're using the gear

654
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,800
Speaker 1: is that the bicycle wheel uses anyway they would use

655
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 1: under your normal pel. Yeah, and that's one thing that

656
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,520
Speaker 1: the direct drive motor does not provide you with. So

657
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 1: you know, the one that looks like the pie pan again,

658
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 1: that really turns any bike that you're riding into a

659
00:32:12,800 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: single speed bike. But that's really all you need. And

660
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:17,400
Speaker 1: that was pointed out in one of the reviews. I

661
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 1: know when the guys right and he's saying, well, you know,

662
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:22,120
Speaker 1: I have the ability to switch gears here, but I

663
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: can't do that now that this is mounted. But I

664
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,520
Speaker 1: don't even need it because this kind of adapts to

665
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 1: whatever whatever I need to happen. You know, if I

666
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 1: need to go faster, I just pedal a little faster.

667
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:32,520
Speaker 1: If I need to slow down, I back it down.

668
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: And you know, that's one thing that we should mention too,

669
00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 1: is that, um some of the reviewers were saying that

670
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 1: there's that that instant where you need to stop, you know,

671
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 1: and this thing is still powering, and it's there's a

672
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 1: signal that's that's sent to that that that motor, that

673
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 1: direct drive motor, and it's usually by slightly backpedaling, like

674
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:53,479
Speaker 1: you know, on a tent speed where you can kind

675
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:56,640
Speaker 1: of freewheel, you can back backpedal without having to you know,

676
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:58,560
Speaker 1: hit a coaster break like you went on an older bike,

677
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: as long as you're not either on a yeah, like

678
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 1: an old single speed bike where you would you would

679
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 1: use the pedal brakes and that didn't have any handbrakes,

680
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:10,040
Speaker 1: just pedal brakes, or or even a fixed gear bike

681
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 1: where you could pedal backwards and that would actually cause

682
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 1: the wheels to go oh yeah, because you know the fixies,

683
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:22,440
Speaker 1: as the bike bicycle enthusiasts like Dixies, that never So

684
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:24,920
Speaker 1: that's so that's what's going on with this is that

685
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 1: when you want to stop, when you want the assist

686
00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 1: part of this to stop, you back pedal slightly and

687
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 1: then you use the handbrakes to bring yourself to complete stop.

688
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 1: But there's that there's the one moment, you know where

689
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 1: it depends on how fast you're going, if it's you know,

690
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:40,000
Speaker 1: five ft or ten feet that you travel in that time. Uh,

691
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,560
Speaker 1: there's that moment where it's pushing you along you would

692
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: rather be stopping or you you're you're trying to you

693
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:46,880
Speaker 1: have to kind of plan ahead. I guess a little

694
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:49,680
Speaker 1: more with this type of setup right now, they haven't

695
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,080
Speaker 1: quite got it exactly right where it immediately responds to

696
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 1: the need. Well yeah, because when they're cutting power, what

697
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: you're doing is well, well i'll talk more about what's

698
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 1: actually going on inside the motors here. When you're cutting power,

699
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: you're essentially cutting electricity to electromagnets. But you know, it

700
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:10,240
Speaker 1: takes it takes a moment for that that attraction between

701
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 1: your the magnets, the permanent magnets or potentially another electromagnets

702
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:19,319
Speaker 1: inside the hub of your wheel. Two um, stop being

703
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:23,040
Speaker 1: attracted in that circular motion, stop being driven forward, And

704
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 1: this isn't so bad by any means that you know,

705
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 1: it's not worth buying it or anything like that. It's

706
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 1: just it's it's something that everybody noted like, oh that's

707
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 1: a little strange. But once I adjust to that, everything

708
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,439
Speaker 1: works out fine. Right. So you know, let me talk

709
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 1: a little bit about how those electric motors are working

710
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:43,799
Speaker 1: and the basis on electromagnetism. So I've talked about this

711
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 1: so many times on tech stuff, and I know you

712
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: long term fans who have have heard the electro magnetic

713
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,959
Speaker 1: lecture a billion times. So um, you know, go ahead

714
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 1: and put this on two time speed and you can

715
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 1: get through it. But I gotta I gotta cover it.

716
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:03,840
Speaker 1: So the basic of electromagnetism if you have a coil

717
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: of a conducting material, if you if you coil that

718
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:09,120
Speaker 1: conducting material around a core, like you know, the classic

719
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: classroom example is you taken an iron nail and you

720
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,200
Speaker 1: wrap some copper wire around the iron nail, and then

721
00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:20,000
Speaker 1: you run an electrical current through that wire. Uh that

722
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,839
Speaker 1: electrical current will create a magnetic field and it will

723
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:27,320
Speaker 1: turn into an electro magnet. You can react with Ferreross materials,

724
00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:30,640
Speaker 1: Fairest metals, and uh so you can pick up iron

725
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 1: filings with this thing, because now you've got a magnet.

726
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:37,400
Speaker 1: If you put alternating current through it, then you've created

727
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:43,800
Speaker 1: a fluctuating magnetic field, which gets pretty interesting and is

728
00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 1: the basis of a lot of important technology. But anyway,

729
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 1: if you've got these electromagnets, it creates this magnetic field.

730
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:57,239
Speaker 1: It will attract other opposite polled magnet materials. So if

731
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,239
Speaker 1: you have permanent magnets, let's say you've got a whole

732
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: bunch of neodymium magnets. Those are very popular for a

733
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,839
Speaker 1: lot of applications these days, and you set them up

734
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:10,400
Speaker 1: around let's say a wheel, a free rotating wheel, and

735
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 1: then you've got stationary electro magnets, and you can control

736
00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 1: which electrode magnets are turning on and off at any

737
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:22,560
Speaker 1: given moment, and you turn them on and off in

738
00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 1: a pattern so that it's constantly attracting and repelling the magnets,

739
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 1: so that it creates a rotational force that will cause

740
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:33,839
Speaker 1: the wheel to rotate. Now, this isn't free energy, because

741
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:38,280
Speaker 1: you're pouring electricity into those electro magnets. This is often

742
00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: one of the basics of you'll see people who are

743
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:44,600
Speaker 1: peddling something they're calling a perpetual motion machine, but in

744
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:47,480
Speaker 1: reality it's using electro magnets, which means that it has

745
00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:49,840
Speaker 1: to get power from somewhere, which means it's not truly

746
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:53,520
Speaker 1: perpetual motion. It means it's perpetual motion as long as

747
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:58,960
Speaker 1: the electricity doesn't run out. It's funny you said peddaling, Yeah, exactly, so, uh,

748
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes pun is unintended, as in this case,

749
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:06,200
Speaker 1: and sometimes it is intended. So with this rotational force,

750
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 1: that's what provides the basics of the electric motor. By

751
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:11,560
Speaker 1: the way, the reverse is also true. If you put

752
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:16,400
Speaker 1: a conductor into a fluctuating magnetic field, then it will

753
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:20,400
Speaker 1: induce electricity to flow through that conductor. So in other words,

754
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,240
Speaker 1: if I have an uh, if I take that wire

755
00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:25,880
Speaker 1: and I move it to something where there's a fluctuating

756
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:29,399
Speaker 1: magnetic field, meaning I'm I've got this polarity reversing over

757
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:32,120
Speaker 1: and over and over again, electricity will flow through that

758
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:36,640
Speaker 1: copper wire. So the first version I mentioned, that's the

759
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:38,800
Speaker 1: basics of the electric motor. The second one is the

760
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 1: basics of dynamos and magnetos and even alternators. So uh,

761
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,680
Speaker 1: with all that in mind, that direct drive system we

762
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:50,719
Speaker 1: were talking about. Is the easiest to imagine. Think of

763
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:57,360
Speaker 1: the electro magnets as a a circle of these coils

764
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,359
Speaker 1: of wire. So the coils of wire are kind of

765
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: if you're thinking of it in that pie shape. You

766
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:04,920
Speaker 1: turn the bicycle wheel on its side, and you you

767
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:09,040
Speaker 1: were to pull off the cover, you look at essentially

768
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 1: little columns of a of coils of electric wire set

769
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 1: up in a circle. Uh. And these would be stationary

770
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:19,320
Speaker 1: relative to the rotation of the wheel. They are mounted

771
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 1: to the axle, They do not rotate, Okay, so they

772
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: are they they're going to remain stationary compared to the

773
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 1: rotation of the wheel. Around this, you would have a

774
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: rotating uh wheel, rotating or rotating chamber that has permanent

775
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,840
Speaker 1: magnets mounted on it. All right, Now, these are the

776
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,239
Speaker 1: magnets that are going to be attracted and repelled by

777
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:44,720
Speaker 1: the electro magnets in the center. And because these can rotate,

778
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:48,799
Speaker 1: that change in electromagnetism is what's going to make it

779
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:52,960
Speaker 1: move and make the wheel turn, whether it's to assist

780
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:56,200
Speaker 1: you or to completely take over and act as an

781
00:38:56,200 --> 00:39:00,279
Speaker 1: electric throttle. So that's where your direct drive just comes

782
00:39:00,280 --> 00:39:04,279
Speaker 1: in exactly. And there are some that I've seen that

783
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:06,719
Speaker 1: connect as both like the mid drive. Some of the

784
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:09,239
Speaker 1: mid drives connect as pedal assist or then you can

785
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:12,280
Speaker 1: switch it to throttle control and then it just completely

786
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:16,759
Speaker 1: takes over for you. Um. So this is, uh, this

787
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,880
Speaker 1: is the very basic version, the easiest one to understand.

788
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:24,760
Speaker 1: With the electric motors, and that that chamber of permanent

789
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:27,319
Speaker 1: magnets when it does one full rotation, that's the full

790
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:32,239
Speaker 1: rotation of the wheel, right And uh, usually you have

791
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:37,800
Speaker 1: a multiple phase electric motor, and that sounds really complicated,

792
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:40,360
Speaker 1: but it's actually really easy. In fact, I'll give you

793
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 1: a very simple example. Let's imagine that we have a clock,

794
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:49,520
Speaker 1: an analog clock, round clock, regular old thing you've seen

795
00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 1: a billion times. Now, imagine that instead of a number

796
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:56,160
Speaker 1: at each space where there normally would be one, you've

797
00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:59,919
Speaker 1: got one of those coils of electric are copper wire,

798
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:02,239
Speaker 1: So you've got an electro magnet at each of the

799
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:06,839
Speaker 1: number spots. If you have a phase three motor, that

800
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 1: means that one third of those numbers are all going

801
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:16,279
Speaker 1: to essentially switch on and switch off simultaneously. The other

802
00:40:16,719 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: two thirds will do the same with their respective groups.

803
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 1: So with the twelve number version, for a standard clock.

804
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:27,760
Speaker 1: Your twelve o'clock, three o'clock, six o'clock, and nine o'clock

805
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:31,759
Speaker 1: positions would all turn on and off simultaneously. Then you

806
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:34,080
Speaker 1: would have the one o'clock, four o'clock, seven o'clock, and

807
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 1: ten o'clock one's doing the same and the two, five, eight,

808
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:40,200
Speaker 1: and eleven o'clock one is doing the same. And by

809
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,480
Speaker 1: switching between these you can have a smoother transition. To

810
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:46,880
Speaker 1: keep the bike wheel moving as smoothly as possible. It's

811
00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:51,040
Speaker 1: not speeding up, slowing down, right, it's to try and

812
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,560
Speaker 1: keep that nice and smooth. And obviously the more phases

813
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 1: you have, then at least to some point, the smoother

814
00:40:57,640 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 1: the the the experience will be. You may that very

815
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,480
Speaker 1: easy to understand. Yeah, so, uh, you know, I I

816
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:04,960
Speaker 1: looked at this a lot to try and figure out

817
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 1: how I was going to explain worked. Well, thank you,

818
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. So, yeah, that's that makes the direct

819
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:15,400
Speaker 1: drive really easy to understand. The geared ones are a

820
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: little a little more complicated, but not by a whole lot. Yeah,

821
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 1: they're they're different, and they've got some parts that wear

822
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 1: as well because they've got nylon gears and as you

823
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:27,200
Speaker 1: can imagine those those uh, you know, grinding on each other. Um,

824
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:30,400
Speaker 1: they're going to show signs of wear for time and

825
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:32,000
Speaker 1: you have to replace parts in them. So they're a

826
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:34,320
Speaker 1: little bit more complex than that. There's a there's actually

827
00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:36,600
Speaker 1: quite a few different things. You know, they're a little

828
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:40,040
Speaker 1: bit noisier. Um, they have a lower top speed typically.

829
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: Now that again, we can talk about gearing again if

830
00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:44,360
Speaker 1: you want, but I think that everybody kind of understands

831
00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:46,560
Speaker 1: that you can play with that gearing however you want

832
00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:48,520
Speaker 1: for for an increased top speed if you need to.

833
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:51,319
Speaker 1: But typically they have a lower top speed. If you

834
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:52,680
Speaker 1: buy a bike that has a set up with a

835
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:55,799
Speaker 1: geared system, it's more for um, the heavy duty applications

836
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:59,520
Speaker 1: like the pulling or the throwing and um as we

837
00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:01,960
Speaker 1: mentioned ability, right, I mean, that's that's one thing that

838
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,440
Speaker 1: the you know, getting in there to service them, if

839
00:42:04,480 --> 00:42:06,320
Speaker 1: you have to do this yourself or you know, it

840
00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:09,400
Speaker 1: could be expensive, I guess probably more expensive in the

841
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:12,319
Speaker 1: long run because of because of maintenance. You're probably talking

842
00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:16,120
Speaker 1: like bucks at least to bring it into a bike

843
00:42:16,200 --> 00:42:19,400
Speaker 1: shop to have a service. And honestly, the prices I

844
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 1: mean from the kids that I was looking at, you

845
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:23,759
Speaker 1: know the difference between buying a kit to add to

846
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 1: your bike. You know, the difference between a geared motor

847
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:29,719
Speaker 1: and a direct drive motor. It was just about identical.

848
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:33,359
Speaker 1: So you know, the the added expense that you're gonna

849
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:35,760
Speaker 1: have with a geared motor is something you have to consider,

850
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:37,640
Speaker 1: you know, somewhere down the road, you know, whether it

851
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: be a year down the road or I don't know

852
00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 1: how often it would have to be serviced. I think

853
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:43,279
Speaker 1: it depends on youths really well. One other thing I

854
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:46,840
Speaker 1: would mention about the direct drive systems that is a drawback,

855
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:53,040
Speaker 1: small one. It's something called cogging. Cogging. I saw a

856
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:56,839
Speaker 1: someone trying to, uh, trying to depict this on one

857
00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 1: of the reviews, and I didn't quite see what it was.

858
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:03,280
Speaker 1: What's so so cogging is where you've got these magnets

859
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:07,160
Speaker 1: right inside inside the direct drive. They're constantly rotating because

860
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:10,320
Speaker 1: they're in the part that moves along with the rotation

861
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:14,040
Speaker 1: force of the wheel. If you have your system unpowered,

862
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:16,960
Speaker 1: so you don't have any pedal like going, that's the

863
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:21,360
Speaker 1: electro magnets are off. Those magnets are somewhat attracted to

864
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:24,879
Speaker 1: the materials at the core of that wheel the stationary part,

865
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:28,240
Speaker 1: So that part of stationary with respect to the ground,

866
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:29,759
Speaker 1: like with respect to the rest of the bike, and

867
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,200
Speaker 1: who wouldn't be that's a good looking part, yeah, exactly.

868
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:35,759
Speaker 1: So when you're trying to pedal, that means that these

869
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:39,880
Speaker 1: magnets are slightly attracted to that stationary part, the resisting moving,

870
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:43,200
Speaker 1: So you have to overcome that magnetic resistance to get

871
00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 1: them to move. It's not necessarily a significant like, it's

872
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:50,480
Speaker 1: not it's not like you're gonna be like straining to

873
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:52,319
Speaker 1: move forward a few inches, but it means you have

874
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:55,960
Speaker 1: to work a little harder initially, yeah, to to get

875
00:43:55,960 --> 00:44:00,719
Speaker 1: it moving because it has this drag effect. So it's

876
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 1: called cogging, but really you can think of it as

877
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 1: drag in the sense that it's a magnetic drag. That

878
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:07,440
Speaker 1: is listed as one of the cons on this in

879
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:09,279
Speaker 1: this article that I'm kind of following along with here

880
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:12,480
Speaker 1: and the uh the article, I mean, it's from a

881
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:15,120
Speaker 1: site called e bite kit dot com, so that's where

882
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:16,400
Speaker 1: you can also buy a kit, but it was a

883
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:19,719
Speaker 1: review blog post was done by somebody and um one

884
00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 1: of the cons that they mentioned for direct drive is drag.

885
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:25,520
Speaker 1: Drag when you when you pedal um. Now the other ones,

886
00:44:25,680 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 1: you know, the geared systems I guess don't have that

887
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:30,080
Speaker 1: kind of drag, but there's more noise because those gears

888
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:32,879
Speaker 1: are constantly spitting in there as well. Um. The other thing,

889
00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:34,840
Speaker 1: the other cons I guess we should want to just

890
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:37,400
Speaker 1: list them now for the directory system are that it

891
00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:40,279
Speaker 1: has typically has less range. Uh, there are a lot

892
00:44:40,640 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 1: you know, a lot bigger, and they're heavier than the

893
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:45,760
Speaker 1: geared systems would because the gear systems can be much smaller.

894
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 1: They're they're again it's just based on gearing, how efficient

895
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:51,760
Speaker 1: you want to make them. And we've talked about batteries.

896
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:53,880
Speaker 1: We've talked and I felt I missed my chance to

897
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 1: mention this, but the size of the battery matters as well.

898
00:44:57,480 --> 00:44:59,279
Speaker 1: So you want a big, powerful battery, you're gonna go

899
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:00,800
Speaker 1: a little bit fat. It's gonna be able to power

900
00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:03,719
Speaker 1: that you know, that that motor, whether it's a direct

901
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:05,960
Speaker 1: drive or whether it's a geared system, it's gonna be

902
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:09,960
Speaker 1: able to to I guess expel expend more juice to

903
00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:12,640
Speaker 1: make that thing go a little faster. Um. It's it's

904
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 1: very similar to if you think about the like the

905
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,560
Speaker 1: Tesla cars, um you know, there's the version I think

906
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:20,080
Speaker 1: it has a sixty kill a lot. Uh. I think

907
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:22,240
Speaker 1: I'm getting these numbers right. I hope I am sixty

908
00:45:22,320 --> 00:45:24,040
Speaker 1: kill a lot battery. And then there's an eight five

909
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:26,760
Speaker 1: kill a lot battery and it's the the higher performance version.

910
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:30,400
Speaker 1: So it depends on the battery size and the output

911
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:32,560
Speaker 1: of that battery, how fast you're gonna go, Also the

912
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:34,759
Speaker 1: size of the motor, the output of the motor. You know,

913
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:36,680
Speaker 1: you need to get the right pairing. And there's some

914
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:39,960
Speaker 1: other really cool things that we're starting to see paired

915
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:44,239
Speaker 1: with these electric bytes bikes, especially the wheel systems that

916
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:46,680
Speaker 1: are coming out there too, in particular that I was

917
00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:48,720
Speaker 1: really interested in. But there's more than that. You actually

918
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:51,600
Speaker 1: mentioned another one when we were talking before we came

919
00:45:51,640 --> 00:45:55,719
Speaker 1: in here, but the Copenhagen or Copenhagen wheel from M

920
00:45:55,719 --> 00:46:01,080
Speaker 1: I T and the fly Cli wheel, which uh some

921
00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 1: have suggested might have taken more than a little bit

922
00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:07,840
Speaker 1: of inspiration from the Copenhagen wheel. But the truth is,

923
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:11,000
Speaker 1: these direct drive motors all look the same, it's all

924
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:13,919
Speaker 1: the same ideas, so that's hard to say. The implementation

925
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:16,279
Speaker 1: is really what's important here because it also depends on

926
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:19,800
Speaker 1: the sensors that you include, and that's where we're starting

927
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:23,360
Speaker 1: to see more complexity like that when you break it down,

928
00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 1: a direct drive in hub system is one of the

929
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:31,160
Speaker 1: simplest electric motors that you can have. But the complexity

930
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:33,920
Speaker 1: comes in these other sensors that come to play. Like

931
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:37,040
Speaker 1: some of these kits use uh you know, how do

932
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 1: they know when to kick in and help give you

933
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 1: pedal assystem For example, some of them, you mount a

934
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 1: small magnet on one of the spokes of your wheel

935
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 1: and mounted to a stationary part of the bicycle is

936
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:54,160
Speaker 1: a sensor and every time the magnet passes the sensor,

937
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:57,600
Speaker 1: it it uh clocks it so it knows, all right,

938
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:02,279
Speaker 1: the wheels having this many rotations per minute, therefore they're

939
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:06,759
Speaker 1: pedaling this amount. Therefore I will kick in this much assistance. Yeah,

940
00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:09,680
Speaker 1: you know, about thirty years ago, I had a spedometer

941
00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:12,239
Speaker 1: on a bicycle that worked the same way. It's it's

942
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,759
Speaker 1: really simple, it's really basic, and a lot of there's

943
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:16,920
Speaker 1: a lot of sensors and automobiles that work that same

944
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:19,600
Speaker 1: way as well. It's just a counter. It's just counting one, two,

945
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:22,880
Speaker 1: three's well, it's just more like one one one, But

946
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:25,799
Speaker 1: but it's just every rotation is saying it's just registering

947
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:28,759
Speaker 1: that right as movement. And then there are other ones

948
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:32,239
Speaker 1: that are torque sensors, right, These are these are calculating

949
00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:36,520
Speaker 1: how much force the bicyclist is applying to the pedals,

950
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:40,560
Speaker 1: and it kicks in the electric motor to help counteract

951
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 1: that force to keep it either very smooth or to

952
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,680
Speaker 1: just say like, all right, we have a threshold here,

953
00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:50,120
Speaker 1: and anything beyond this threshold we need to kick in

954
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:53,719
Speaker 1: the electronic assess so that way we're not making the

955
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:58,279
Speaker 1: bicyclist pedal too hard. And it's a bit more complex, yeah, obviously, Yeah,

956
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:00,360
Speaker 1: And then it also means that it tends to be

957
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,040
Speaker 1: more expensive, Like the systems that have that version of

958
00:48:03,120 --> 00:48:06,799
Speaker 1: sensor are more expensive than the ones that just count rotations.

959
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:08,880
Speaker 1: And some of these are wired systems and some are

960
00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 1: wireless systems. And we talked about earlier. We talked about

961
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:16,520
Speaker 1: the control of these these systems and some of the readouts.

962
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:18,080
Speaker 1: You know, because a lot of the kids come with

963
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:21,320
Speaker 1: an LCD dashboard and it'll tell you all the information

964
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:22,759
Speaker 1: you need to need to know about, you know, the

965
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:26,320
Speaker 1: range that you know, what you have left battery power, etcetera.

966
00:48:26,320 --> 00:48:29,440
Speaker 1: You know just how much help you're getting, like whether

967
00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 1: it's uh, you know, a little bit of help or

968
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:34,560
Speaker 1: a lot of help, that kind of stuff. You can

969
00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:36,680
Speaker 1: put it in different modes like Eco mode, which is,

970
00:48:36,800 --> 00:48:39,200
Speaker 1: you know, less help and it's it saves the battery,

971
00:48:39,239 --> 00:48:41,120
Speaker 1: I guess you have an extended amount of range, or

972
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:43,040
Speaker 1: you can put it in performance mode or whatever they

973
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 1: call it by the manufacturer. But some of them are

974
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:50,759
Speaker 1: controlled with your smartphone and how this is one of

975
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: the downsides of this though. I mean, it's really cool

976
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:53,799
Speaker 1: that you can do that, and you can mount it

977
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:55,799
Speaker 1: right in the center of your of your handlebars, you know,

978
00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:58,120
Speaker 1: right where you can see it. But you still have

979
00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:00,360
Speaker 1: to avert your eyes from the traffic or wherever you

980
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:02,280
Speaker 1: are right in order to look down at that smartphone.

981
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:04,200
Speaker 1: And then you have to interact with it. So it's

982
00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:07,440
Speaker 1: sort of akin to texting and driving or texting and

983
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:09,680
Speaker 1: biking right in a way. I know, they make the

984
00:49:09,719 --> 00:49:12,520
Speaker 1: controls very easy. You know, it's it's large buttons. You

985
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:14,840
Speaker 1: just touched and swipe, and once you get accustomed to

986
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,239
Speaker 1: where that is, you might be able to do that,

987
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:20,040
Speaker 1: you know, relatively quickly. You know, you won't have to

988
00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:21,600
Speaker 1: stare at stare at it for quite as long as

989
00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:23,400
Speaker 1: you will when it's new to you. But you know,

990
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:27,239
Speaker 1: the more options you have, the more the more complex

991
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:29,520
Speaker 1: the interface is going to be. So for example, if

992
00:49:29,560 --> 00:49:32,160
Speaker 1: you have the Copenhangen wheel, it's got a lot of

993
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 1: different options, right, and you have an app that connects

994
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,080
Speaker 1: to the wheel, and it's using low energy Bluetooth, so

995
00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:40,879
Speaker 1: it's not sipping a whole lot of power, although in fact,

996
00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:43,680
Speaker 1: I would say that for your smartphone, the most power

997
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:46,520
Speaker 1: that's been consumed is just powering the display, Like that

998
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:48,640
Speaker 1: display is going to suck up more battery power than

999
00:49:48,680 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 1: the low energy bluetooth. However, all that being said, if

1000
00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:53,960
Speaker 1: you've got lots and lots of options, that means you've

1001
00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:56,440
Speaker 1: got to swipe through stuff too, and that makes it

1002
00:49:56,480 --> 00:49:59,160
Speaker 1: even more complicated because your your attention is taken away

1003
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:03,000
Speaker 1: from your surroundings in the road even more so that

1004
00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:07,200
Speaker 1: you can switch. Uh. They also have options for things

1005
00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:12,319
Speaker 1: like regenerative breaking or regenerating some of that electricity by

1006
00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:15,399
Speaker 1: putting it into exercise mode, which is where you're you're

1007
00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:19,400
Speaker 1: kind of working against the motor. The idea being that, uh,

1008
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:22,839
Speaker 1: it's it's sort of reversing this this trend. Instead of uh,

1009
00:50:22,880 --> 00:50:27,720
Speaker 1: the electricity causing the motor to turn and thus giving

1010
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:31,240
Speaker 1: you help, you are pushing the motor, which is causing

1011
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:34,080
Speaker 1: electricity to flow the other direction and recharge the battery.

1012
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 1: It's turning a motor into a dynamo in other words. Yeah,

1013
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:38,320
Speaker 1: and now one of the one of the models that

1014
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:40,759
Speaker 1: I saw, um, you know, Demode, I think it was

1015
00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:42,799
Speaker 1: maybe the Copenhagen wheel is the one that if you're

1016
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 1: backpedaling as you're in motion, if you're so so the motor,

1017
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:47,560
Speaker 1: you're you're saying to the motor, you don't want it

1018
00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:50,560
Speaker 1: to assist you in pedaling at this point, and you backpedal.

1019
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:55,399
Speaker 1: That's the regenerative mode. That's it's it's you're gaining battery power,

1020
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:57,799
Speaker 1: I guess by doing that. And you can also make

1021
00:50:57,840 --> 00:50:59,759
Speaker 1: a hill work for you in the same way. Right, Yeah,

1022
00:50:59,760 --> 00:51:02,319
Speaker 1: when going down the hill, you put an exercise mode,

1023
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:04,719
Speaker 1: which normally would mean you have to pedal harder to

1024
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:06,840
Speaker 1: get to wherever you were going. Let's say you're on

1025
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:10,840
Speaker 1: a totally flat surface, You've got everything turned off and

1026
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:14,040
Speaker 1: you and you ride across this flat surface. You're using

1027
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:16,719
Speaker 1: a certain amount of energy. In order to do that,

1028
00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 1: if you turned on exercise mode, you'd have to put

1029
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:21,600
Speaker 1: in a little extra energy because now you're working against

1030
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:24,200
Speaker 1: that motor to kind of regenerate electricity. If you're going

1031
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:26,560
Speaker 1: down the hill, you let gravity do that extra work

1032
00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:30,880
Speaker 1: for you. So you switch from pedal assisted to exercise

1033
00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:33,799
Speaker 1: and you can regenerate some of the electricity, giving your

1034
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:36,279
Speaker 1: battery a little bit extra juice that you can make

1035
00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:38,399
Speaker 1: it all the way to work. But that means having

1036
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 1: to switch modes in mid ride, and that's where we're

1037
00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:43,960
Speaker 1: getting into this, like how do you do that in

1038
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:47,279
Speaker 1: a way that's not distracting the bicycle. See with that one,

1039
00:51:47,320 --> 00:51:49,919
Speaker 1: you're not looking down at the screen and swiping through.

1040
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:52,319
Speaker 1: You're just physically doing something. And I thought that was

1041
00:51:52,480 --> 00:51:54,200
Speaker 1: a great way to handle that. And then you know,

1042
00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:56,759
Speaker 1: you just slightly backpedal. Everybody can remember that and you

1043
00:51:56,760 --> 00:51:58,600
Speaker 1: don't have to look down to do that. And I

1044
00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:01,440
Speaker 1: was thinking, why don't start to incorporate some of these

1045
00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:04,200
Speaker 1: controls in the handlebars as if it would be a

1046
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:07,520
Speaker 1: game controller, Because once you learn a game controller, and

1047
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:09,600
Speaker 1: you know what, it takes you ten minutes or if

1048
00:52:09,600 --> 00:52:12,240
Speaker 1: it takes you ten weeks to learn that game controller.

1049
00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:14,879
Speaker 1: You know, maybe not ten weeks, but you understand where

1050
00:52:14,920 --> 00:52:16,239
Speaker 1: it is. You don't have to look down, you know,

1051
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 1: find out where the X button is or where the

1052
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:20,920
Speaker 1: A button is. It becomes natural. It's a it's a

1053
00:52:21,200 --> 00:52:24,600
Speaker 1: you know, um memory, muscle memory, that's the term. So

1054
00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:26,640
Speaker 1: once if you if you were to have a system

1055
00:52:26,680 --> 00:52:30,480
Speaker 1: that was universal, you know that all design all e

1056
00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:33,279
Speaker 1: bike designers used it, you know, that used the same

1057
00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:37,200
Speaker 1: hand controls on the on the not the pegs on

1058
00:52:37,239 --> 00:52:41,200
Speaker 1: the handlebars, handle grips, it would be something that I

1059
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:43,439
Speaker 1: think everybody could benefit from because you know, you could

1060
00:52:43,440 --> 00:52:45,080
Speaker 1: sure you can still have your your phone there and

1061
00:52:45,080 --> 00:52:46,719
Speaker 1: you could have that you know, set up so that yeah,

1062
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:48,440
Speaker 1: i'm gonna I'm just gonna put it in eco mode

1063
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:50,840
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna leave it there, but every other control,

1064
00:52:50,960 --> 00:52:53,319
Speaker 1: you know, from that point on, I can use hand

1065
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:55,760
Speaker 1: controls without looking down. I think that would be great

1066
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:58,640
Speaker 1: for somebody who's in traffic and crowded cities like what

1067
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:01,640
Speaker 1: we're talking about now. Most of them aren't as advanced

1068
00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:04,839
Speaker 1: as that we were talking about. That's that's the top end,

1069
00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:08,359
Speaker 1: really expensive ones, the ones that I'm sure that you

1070
00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:10,640
Speaker 1: know most of you know, the people in these crowded

1071
00:53:10,680 --> 00:53:13,520
Speaker 1: cities that have these kind of early versions of e bikes,

1072
00:53:13,960 --> 00:53:16,440
Speaker 1: they're not that complex. They they respond more to the

1073
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:18,800
Speaker 1: physical commands like what we were talking about with the

1074
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:21,200
Speaker 1: backpedaling for the generation and things like that. And some

1075
00:53:21,239 --> 00:53:24,160
Speaker 1: of them do have things like thumb throttles or thumb

1076
00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:27,520
Speaker 1: controls to either said on uh you know, pedal assist,

1077
00:53:27,719 --> 00:53:31,960
Speaker 1: or they might have a twist throttle for the fully

1078
00:53:32,000 --> 00:53:35,240
Speaker 1: powered electric bikes sure like a mini biker a motorbike

1079
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:37,800
Speaker 1: would have. Yeah. Yeah, so there there are those versions.

1080
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:40,359
Speaker 1: But the ones that I've seen, like the fly Line

1081
00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: and the Copenhagen both of those are completely one wheel

1082
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:48,480
Speaker 1: systems that then hook up like once you once you

1083
00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:53,600
Speaker 1: detach your existing rear wheel and then install the the

1084
00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:56,799
Speaker 1: Copenhagen wheel or the fly lie wheel. Uh, then all

1085
00:53:56,840 --> 00:53:58,560
Speaker 1: you do is you you hook it up to your

1086
00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:03,319
Speaker 1: smartphone and then that's what activates it's it also has

1087
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:06,680
Speaker 1: some interesting safety features, like you can deactivate it so

1088
00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:09,680
Speaker 1: that if someone were to take your wheel, it wouldn't

1089
00:54:09,719 --> 00:54:11,400
Speaker 1: be of any use to them because they couldn't turn

1090
00:54:11,440 --> 00:54:14,600
Speaker 1: it back on again. You mentioned theft, right, because that's

1091
00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:16,720
Speaker 1: that's something that a lot of people would be concerned

1092
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:18,719
Speaker 1: with if their back wheel of their bike is where

1093
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:21,600
Speaker 1: is now worth two thousand dollars just one wheel? Right?

1094
00:54:21,640 --> 00:54:23,400
Speaker 1: I mean it's just a matter of two bolts to

1095
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:25,319
Speaker 1: get that thing off of there. Right, So you park

1096
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:27,560
Speaker 1: your bike and it's worth two thousand dollars the back

1097
00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:30,120
Speaker 1: end and then whatever else the rest of the bike costs.

1098
00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:34,120
Speaker 1: Probably an expensive bike, I guess. So what what prevents

1099
00:54:34,120 --> 00:54:36,680
Speaker 1: somebody from just either walking away with your bike, which

1100
00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:39,560
Speaker 1: I guess they could do anyways, or just taking that

1101
00:54:39,560 --> 00:54:42,080
Speaker 1: that that wheel off. I mean, you have to be

1102
00:54:42,200 --> 00:54:44,399
Speaker 1: very creative about how you chain this thing up or

1103
00:54:44,680 --> 00:54:46,719
Speaker 1: or what you do with it. But there's there's a

1104
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:49,799
Speaker 1: safety in place, I guess if it does walk away, right. Yeah,

1105
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:52,200
Speaker 1: there's a couple of them, right. There's one that has

1106
00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:54,680
Speaker 1: the electric motor turn off and it doesn't turn on

1107
00:54:54,719 --> 00:54:58,040
Speaker 1: again until it recognizes the handshake with your particular smartphone

1108
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:01,319
Speaker 1: because you're paired it. Uh. There's also some that have

1109
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:05,040
Speaker 1: GPS in them, so that should the wheel go wandering,

1110
00:55:05,120 --> 00:55:06,920
Speaker 1: you can track down where it is, kind of similar

1111
00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:10,080
Speaker 1: to like where's my iPhone? That sort of stuff will

1112
00:55:10,120 --> 00:55:12,719
Speaker 1: alert you if it's moving when you're not near it,

1113
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:16,480
Speaker 1: which is interesting like that, and it's a useful feature. Uh.

1114
00:55:16,680 --> 00:55:20,000
Speaker 1: The Copenhagen one, I think is seven nine, and I

1115
00:55:20,040 --> 00:55:23,560
Speaker 1: think the fly Cli is something like six hundred. Uh

1116
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:25,879
Speaker 1: they're they're about a hundred dollars off. I remember that.

1117
00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:28,719
Speaker 1: And uh so they're both pretty expensive. I mean, if

1118
00:55:28,719 --> 00:55:31,520
Speaker 1: you're looking at a brand new bicycle, depending upon what

1119
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:33,960
Speaker 1: market you're in, it could be the same price as

1120
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:36,719
Speaker 1: your bike. And that's just a wheel. So and and

1121
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:38,880
Speaker 1: the e bike kits that I was I was mentioning you,

1122
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:41,080
Speaker 1: that's that I keep saying that, so I hope you

1123
00:55:41,080 --> 00:55:43,000
Speaker 1: don't mind. But it's the bike kit dot com because

1124
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:44,600
Speaker 1: they have a lot of good information there as well.

1125
00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:47,200
Speaker 1: And again they ranged from about seven hundred and seventy

1126
00:55:47,200 --> 00:55:49,839
Speaker 1: five dollars up to about two thousand. Was the top

1127
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:53,680
Speaker 1: one I saw. But you're talking about different um completely

1128
00:55:53,680 --> 00:55:56,160
Speaker 1: different packages. Like that seven seventy five kid, it doesn't

1129
00:55:56,239 --> 00:55:59,040
Speaker 1: it It has no battery and it has no charger.

1130
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:01,560
Speaker 1: UM so you're gonna have to add on to that thing, right.

1131
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:04,440
Speaker 1: The other one has everything, as I mentioned. But the difference,

1132
00:56:04,760 --> 00:56:07,240
Speaker 1: one of the biggest differences is in the top speed

1133
00:56:07,360 --> 00:56:09,520
Speaker 1: and the range of these things. So you know, the

1134
00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:12,759
Speaker 1: lower kids tend to have a lower top speed and

1135
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:15,319
Speaker 1: a and a slightly less range you know, or lower range,

1136
00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:18,239
Speaker 1: I guess. And as far as the distance you can travel, um,

1137
00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:20,920
Speaker 1: you know, maybe maybe the low end one is like,

1138
00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:24,680
Speaker 1: you know, twelve to fifteen miles with power assist, and

1139
00:56:24,840 --> 00:56:27,480
Speaker 1: the upper arrange one can go all the way up

1140
00:56:27,520 --> 00:56:30,399
Speaker 1: to about fifty four miles. So a fifty four mile

1141
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:33,279
Speaker 1: bike ride on one charge. That's pretty good, I mean.

1142
00:56:33,600 --> 00:56:35,640
Speaker 1: And you know, top speed if about twenty eight miles

1143
00:56:35,640 --> 00:56:38,120
Speaker 1: per hour. Now you might be limited in some cities

1144
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:41,200
Speaker 1: to what speed you're allowed to travel because there are

1145
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:44,960
Speaker 1: restrictions on some of these things. And the UK it's

1146
00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:47,680
Speaker 1: an hour, which is about fifteen yeah, and here it's

1147
00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:49,440
Speaker 1: a little bit faster in the States here I think

1148
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:53,520
Speaker 1: it was what twenties. And then there's that odd strange thing.

1149
00:56:53,640 --> 00:56:55,200
Speaker 1: It's not it's not so odd really when you really

1150
00:56:55,239 --> 00:56:56,680
Speaker 1: think about it, because everybodys gonna want to go a

1151
00:56:56,719 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 1: little bit faster, right, there's it's gonna be the group

1152
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:01,600
Speaker 1: that wants the sport version, right, So there's the s

1153
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:04,120
Speaker 1: pedal X for those people, and that stands for Speedy

1154
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 1: Pedal X. And the difference is there they have a

1155
00:57:07,239 --> 00:57:10,160
Speaker 1: more powerful motor. Um you know, of course you can

1156
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:12,400
Speaker 1: do unlimited pedal assists if you want, so it can

1157
00:57:12,440 --> 00:57:15,520
Speaker 1: be kind of like a power on demand type system. Um, oh,

1158
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:17,000
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to take that back again.

1159
00:57:17,080 --> 00:57:19,520
Speaker 1: I don't know if it will do that, but it

1160
00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:22,760
Speaker 1: has unlimited When I'm saying it now, I've understand it.

1161
00:57:22,760 --> 00:57:25,920
Speaker 1: It's a it's unlimited pedal assists. So you know, once

1162
00:57:25,960 --> 00:57:27,840
Speaker 1: you reach that twenty miles per hour, it doesn't kind

1163
00:57:27,840 --> 00:57:30,040
Speaker 1: of cut out like the ones that are limited. So

1164
00:57:30,120 --> 00:57:33,960
Speaker 1: if you're capable of powering it further, it will continue

1165
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:36,440
Speaker 1: to assist, and you would be because see it's one

1166
00:57:36,480 --> 00:57:38,800
Speaker 1: of those things where like you, because it's a pedal

1167
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:40,880
Speaker 1: assist system, you would be able to get up to

1168
00:57:40,920 --> 00:57:43,880
Speaker 1: twenty miles per hour no problem. And then once you continue,

1169
00:57:44,080 --> 00:57:46,280
Speaker 1: it's like you're putting out less energy to go faster,

1170
00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:47,920
Speaker 1: and then you put out just a little bit more

1171
00:57:47,960 --> 00:57:50,520
Speaker 1: and you can go way faster and it just carries on.

1172
00:57:50,600 --> 00:57:52,440
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there's got to be an upper limit.

1173
00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:56,080
Speaker 1: There has to be a a top limit, but really

1174
00:57:56,160 --> 00:57:59,200
Speaker 1: the speed cutout is set far far higher, and for

1175
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:02,080
Speaker 1: this type of sis them. Uh, you know, things like um,

1176
00:58:02,120 --> 00:58:04,760
Speaker 1: you know, helmets and protective gear are required because they

1177
00:58:04,840 --> 00:58:09,200
Speaker 1: realize that it's closer to a scooter or a motorcycle

1178
00:58:09,240 --> 00:58:11,200
Speaker 1: even in some phases depends on how fast you can go,

1179
00:58:11,320 --> 00:58:14,120
Speaker 1: but the speedy pedal X or something for you know,

1180
00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:15,600
Speaker 1: the people that want to kind of take it to

1181
00:58:15,640 --> 00:58:17,880
Speaker 1: the next level. Right, I don't think I'm gonna need

1182
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:20,360
Speaker 1: anything quite at that level if I if I do

1183
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:23,600
Speaker 1: invest in one of these, uh, And I gotta say

1184
00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:26,240
Speaker 1: that something else we should mention is that the in

1185
00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:30,680
Speaker 1: hub systems do have other other things you gotta remember.

1186
00:58:30,680 --> 00:58:33,840
Speaker 1: For one, it's going to offset the weight of your bicycle,

1187
00:58:34,040 --> 00:58:35,560
Speaker 1: like it's going to put a lot more weight on

1188
00:58:35,600 --> 00:58:39,280
Speaker 1: whatever wheel you're replacing. Yes, and we're talking like ballpark

1189
00:58:39,600 --> 00:58:41,960
Speaker 1: ten pounds. I mean that's right around where it is.

1190
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:44,520
Speaker 1: It's that you know, I've seen nine pound systems and

1191
00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:47,680
Speaker 1: I've seen thirteen pound systems, so somewhere in there. Yeah,

1192
00:58:47,760 --> 00:58:50,120
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be something to keep in mind. The

1193
00:58:50,440 --> 00:58:52,440
Speaker 1: as opposed to some of the other like the mid

1194
00:58:52,520 --> 00:58:55,800
Speaker 1: drive systems, they kind of balance the weight out across

1195
00:58:55,920 --> 00:58:58,400
Speaker 1: the frame of the bicycle, so you don't have one

1196
00:58:58,440 --> 00:59:01,440
Speaker 1: section of the bike that is is heavier than it

1197
00:59:01,600 --> 00:59:04,920
Speaker 1: otherwise would be. But you know, it's it's well, it's

1198
00:59:04,960 --> 00:59:07,360
Speaker 1: important for riding, you know, for the way it feels

1199
00:59:07,360 --> 00:59:09,720
Speaker 1: on the road, but it's even more important when you're

1200
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:11,160
Speaker 1: trying to carry it up the stairs and put it

1201
00:59:11,200 --> 00:59:14,840
Speaker 1: in your house at night. Yeah, so I'll be I'll

1202
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:18,240
Speaker 1: be sure to keep all of my listeners posted if

1203
00:59:18,280 --> 00:59:20,560
Speaker 1: I if I invest in one of these things, I

1204
00:59:20,560 --> 00:59:21,840
Speaker 1: would love to see it if you were if you

1205
00:59:21,920 --> 00:59:23,520
Speaker 1: ride that into work, I would love to come down

1206
00:59:23,560 --> 00:59:26,640
Speaker 1: to the parking structure or whatever and maybe even take

1207
00:59:26,640 --> 00:59:29,760
Speaker 1: it for a quick sure. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, it's

1208
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:32,320
Speaker 1: funny because it will mean that my wheel will be

1209
00:59:32,440 --> 00:59:35,160
Speaker 1: much more valuable, or at least cost a lot more

1210
00:59:35,160 --> 00:59:37,040
Speaker 1: than my bike did because I got my bike for free,

1211
00:59:37,320 --> 00:59:41,280
Speaker 1: so so automatically the wheel will be more expensive a

1212
00:59:41,360 --> 00:59:44,520
Speaker 1: free bike. Yeah, that's nice. There's a thing called free

1213
00:59:44,520 --> 00:59:47,760
Speaker 1: cycle Atlanta where people give away stuff. Would they don't

1214
00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:50,959
Speaker 1: have space for it anymore? And you found a bike

1215
00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:53,840
Speaker 1: and the guy was given away his bike, Wow, I

1216
00:59:53,920 --> 00:59:56,920
Speaker 1: got a bike. It's not it's not fancy, it's not

1217
00:59:57,080 --> 00:59:59,360
Speaker 1: it's not a super fancy bike, but it's it's a bike.

1218
00:59:59,400 --> 01:00:02,520
Speaker 1: Do they have any boats there? You know, I like

1219
01:00:02,560 --> 01:00:04,880
Speaker 1: a boat, but I don't necessarily want to buy a boat.

1220
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:06,960
Speaker 1: The second happiest day of my life was when I

1221
01:00:07,000 --> 01:00:09,280
Speaker 1: bought my boat. Happiest day of my life was when

1222
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:12,680
Speaker 1: I sold it. All right, Well, Scott, thank you for

1223
01:00:12,760 --> 01:00:16,320
Speaker 1: coming on the show. Of course, my pleasure. And and

1224
01:00:16,320 --> 01:00:19,160
Speaker 1: in in addition to the website you mentioned, I also

1225
01:00:19,160 --> 01:00:22,200
Speaker 1: want to mention electric bike review dot com, which has

1226
01:00:22,240 --> 01:00:25,240
Speaker 1: some great articles and some great videos. If you are

1227
01:00:25,360 --> 01:00:28,840
Speaker 1: interested in buying an electric bike or buying a conversion kit,

1228
01:00:29,240 --> 01:00:32,520
Speaker 1: they have everything you would need to know, and they

1229
01:00:32,560 --> 01:00:34,880
Speaker 1: also review them so you can actually look and see

1230
01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:37,200
Speaker 1: if they've reviewed the system you're interested in, and see

1231
01:00:37,240 --> 01:00:39,600
Speaker 1: what they have to say about it. Always helpful. Yeah,

1232
01:00:39,600 --> 01:00:43,240
Speaker 1: they had like a fifteen minute long review of the

1233
01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:46,520
Speaker 1: Copenhagen Wheel for example, which was very interesting. They went

1234
01:00:46,520 --> 01:00:49,560
Speaker 1: into great detail about it. So uh and Scott, if

1235
01:00:49,640 --> 01:00:53,560
Speaker 1: people want to find your stuff, where do they go? Oh? Sure, yeah,

1236
01:00:53,600 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 1: we have our own website which is car Stuff Show

1237
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:58,640
Speaker 1: dot com and you know Facebook, Twitter, all that stuff.

1238
01:00:58,680 --> 01:01:01,520
Speaker 1: We are car stuff HS of you yep, and same

1239
01:01:01,560 --> 01:01:04,560
Speaker 1: here for tech stuff we're tech stuff HSW on Facebook

1240
01:01:04,600 --> 01:01:07,440
Speaker 1: and Twitter and over on Tumbler, and you can also

1241
01:01:07,560 --> 01:01:11,040
Speaker 1: send me an email tech stuff at how stuff works

1242
01:01:11,080 --> 01:01:14,360
Speaker 1: dot com. Uh, following this episode, we're gonna have a

1243
01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:17,200
Speaker 1: couple of rerun episodes. That's just so that we have

1244
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:20,840
Speaker 1: enough buffer between when we break this studio down and

1245
01:01:20,840 --> 01:01:23,360
Speaker 1: when our next studio is ready to go. And I

1246
01:01:23,400 --> 01:01:25,920
Speaker 1: didn't want you guys to go a single week without

1247
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:30,960
Speaker 1: any episodes, So don't be frightened if you hear some reruns,

1248
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:34,680
Speaker 1: just temporary, I promise, and you will hear new stuff

1249
01:01:34,720 --> 01:01:41,240
Speaker 1: from me. Release for more on this and basons of

1250
01:01:41,280 --> 01:01:53,240
Speaker 1: other topics because it has staff works dot com