1
00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

2
00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,520
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host

3
00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:18,040
Speaker 1: job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio,

4
00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:20,159
Speaker 1: and I love all things tech and it's time for

5
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:24,200
Speaker 1: a tech Stuff classic. This episode, originally published on February four,

6
00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:29,280
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen, is titled how E Bikes Work.

7
00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:32,760
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy. I remember doing this episode because

8
00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:35,280
Speaker 1: I also remember taking a test drive on an e

9
00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:39,400
Speaker 1: bike and nearly wiping out because it has been so

10
00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:42,040
Speaker 1: long since i'd ridden a bicycle. You know that that phrase,

11
00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:45,720
Speaker 1: it's like riding a bike. Um, well, I guess for me,

12
00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,400
Speaker 1: it just doesn't take like it does for other people. Anyway,

13
00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:52,839
Speaker 1: here's the classic episode, how e Bikes Work. You've been

14
00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,440
Speaker 1: around for a while, and you've talked a lot about cars,

15
00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:57,760
Speaker 1: But this time I thought we'd talked about something a

16
00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:02,040
Speaker 1: little different. We're gonna talk about bikes, which, as you

17
00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:05,319
Speaker 1: mentioned before we started recording. Uh, the E stands for

18
00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:07,800
Speaker 1: the sound you make when you're writing it. That's if

19
00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:12,279
Speaker 1: you're going downhill really fast. I guess I often follow

20
00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:14,440
Speaker 1: that up with a series of other sounds, some of

21
00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:16,560
Speaker 1: which make words that I can't say on this podcast,

22
00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:21,400
Speaker 1: but we were talking about electric bicycles, various types of

23
00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:24,880
Speaker 1: electric bicycles and kind of some of their counterparts that

24
00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:29,440
Speaker 1: are similar to them. And you might have seen stuff

25
00:01:29,480 --> 00:01:33,120
Speaker 1: about e bikes recently. Uh, there's been a couple of

26
00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,600
Speaker 1: products that have been coming out of the prototype stage

27
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:40,480
Speaker 1: that have made it something that is more accessible to

28
00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,440
Speaker 1: the general public. Before I would say there were it

29
00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:48,040
Speaker 1: was like a very niche audience, like bicycle enthusiasts and uh,

30
00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:51,760
Speaker 1: some do it yourselfers who really were into this. But

31
00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:56,120
Speaker 1: now we're actually seeing it where people who are living

32
00:01:56,120 --> 00:01:59,520
Speaker 1: in maybe city environments can get hold of these, especially

33
00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:03,320
Speaker 1: if they're try trying to transition from car ownership to

34
00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:06,720
Speaker 1: something else. I mean, you've probably heard the story about

35
00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:11,080
Speaker 1: millennials not flocking to car ownership the way previous generations have.

36
00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:12,960
Speaker 1: In fact, we talked about that a couple of times

37
00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:17,839
Speaker 1: in previous episodes. So bicycles are becoming more and more

38
00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:21,000
Speaker 1: important in the United States. They've been important in other

39
00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,880
Speaker 1: parts of the world for ages, and electric bikes are

40
00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:27,839
Speaker 1: becoming a big part of that. But here's the interesting thing.

41
00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,120
Speaker 1: A long way to go for this, but they're not

42
00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:33,880
Speaker 1: a new idea. No, no, no, they're far from a

43
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,679
Speaker 1: new idea. In fact, this goes back oh what a

44
00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:40,679
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty some years now, say what Yeah, a

45
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:43,840
Speaker 1: long long time ago. So went back to uh, I

46
00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,280
Speaker 1: want to say, it's in the late eighteen hundreds, right, right, Um,

47
00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,000
Speaker 1: I think my notes say the mid to late eight

48
00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:52,839
Speaker 1: d nineties. But the first one that I've actually got

49
00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,960
Speaker 1: an account for, you know, the actual date that was given,

50
00:02:56,120 --> 00:03:01,120
Speaker 1: it's right around and it had a double electric motor design.

51
00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:02,960
Speaker 1: Now there may have been one prior to that, I'm

52
00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,200
Speaker 1: not sure, but actually had two electric motors. And we've

53
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,200
Speaker 1: talked about the complexity of a two motor design earlier.

54
00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:10,120
Speaker 1: Today it seems like it would be an impossible thing

55
00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:14,000
Speaker 1: to do, really nearly impossible. At least, it would seem impractical.

56
00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:16,639
Speaker 1: That's it. Maybe not impossible, but impractical, that's a better

57
00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:18,239
Speaker 1: way to say it. Because we talked about the pros

58
00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:20,440
Speaker 1: and cons of different types and how they work and

59
00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:23,480
Speaker 1: and the characteristics of each one, and what you would

60
00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:26,000
Speaker 1: have to do to pair two of them together to

61
00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,440
Speaker 1: make them work in tandem. Yeah, what happens if you

62
00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:30,119
Speaker 1: cut the power to one and you forget to cut

63
00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:31,920
Speaker 1: the power to the other and then next thing you know,

64
00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:34,480
Speaker 1: you're doing flips. Well, I have a feeling in it

65
00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:36,520
Speaker 1: wasn't quite as complex as we're making it out to be.

66
00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:39,480
Speaker 1: It's probably a lot simpler. But then in uh In,

67
00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:42,960
Speaker 1: just one year later, there was a drive belt design

68
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,280
Speaker 1: that came around, which is, yeah, it is kind of

69
00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:47,320
Speaker 1: cool because that's different than what we're seeing today, which

70
00:03:47,320 --> 00:03:49,600
Speaker 1: you might think you're seeing that today, but you're seeing

71
00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,200
Speaker 1: probably a version of a moped really or something like that,

72
00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:55,560
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about the difference of that too. And

73
00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:58,360
Speaker 1: then in nine this is one that I really wanted

74
00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,320
Speaker 1: to talk about just for a second, there was a patent,

75
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:05,360
Speaker 1: you know, pulled for a friction roller wheel design, which

76
00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:07,320
Speaker 1: is really unusual, and this is one that we haven't

77
00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:11,680
Speaker 1: seen maybe ever on a bicycle recently. Can I like

78
00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,000
Speaker 1: a guess on what this is? Sure, because I haven't

79
00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:18,120
Speaker 1: read the patent, so why would guesses? This means that

80
00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,040
Speaker 1: there would be an electric motor that would turn a

81
00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:24,880
Speaker 1: small wheel that is actually right up against one of

82
00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:28,240
Speaker 1: the primary wheels in the bicycle, and the rotation of

83
00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:31,279
Speaker 1: the small wheel is translated into the rotation of the

84
00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:35,160
Speaker 1: larger wheel. That's exactly right. Now. It seems very inefficient,

85
00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:36,800
Speaker 1: isn't it to do it that way it was it

86
00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:39,880
Speaker 1: was mounted I guess, would be behind the rider's seat

87
00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:42,919
Speaker 1: above the wheel, and it would it would the pressure

88
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,440
Speaker 1: was a downward force on the wheel, on the surface

89
00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,120
Speaker 1: of the wheel where it would contact the road. And

90
00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,039
Speaker 1: that translated to as you said, the you know, the

91
00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:53,840
Speaker 1: drive the actual drive wheel, which to me, that would

92
00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:57,480
Speaker 1: be not just inefficient because obviously the smaller wheel is

93
00:04:57,480 --> 00:04:59,919
Speaker 1: gonna have to rotate many, many, many more times fast

94
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,920
Speaker 1: er than the large wheel, right, but also it means

95
00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:06,320
Speaker 1: adding more wear and tear on that particular wheel of

96
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:08,840
Speaker 1: your bike. You're exactly right, and it just seems like

97
00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,040
Speaker 1: it seems like a difficult design to make work. But

98
00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:13,159
Speaker 1: I just wanted to tell you that, you know, even

99
00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:16,560
Speaker 1: prior to nine, people are really thinking about this. They're really,

100
00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:18,719
Speaker 1: you know, considering the idea that an electric bike is

101
00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:22,200
Speaker 1: something that is necessary to get around town. And quite honestly,

102
00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:24,159
Speaker 1: you know, where did they have It's not like they

103
00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:26,640
Speaker 1: were in a crowded city at that point. Probably it's

104
00:05:26,640 --> 00:05:29,359
Speaker 1: not likely, uh they might have been, but um, it

105
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:31,200
Speaker 1: would it would be more for you know, like a

106
00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:33,200
Speaker 1: country ride or something like that that they would use

107
00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:35,240
Speaker 1: it for, right, I would imagine. So, I mean, unless

108
00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:39,560
Speaker 1: you're talking about you know, your your when you see

109
00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:41,680
Speaker 1: the rise of the city's really because the rise of

110
00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,040
Speaker 1: the automobile. When you see the rise of the automobile,

111
00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:46,880
Speaker 1: which gave rise to to cities getting larger and larger

112
00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:51,400
Speaker 1: and more sprawl. Perhaps you could argue that the bike

113
00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:53,719
Speaker 1: would have been useful for someone who cannot afford a

114
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:57,200
Speaker 1: full automobile but still needs to make a commute. But

115
00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:00,440
Speaker 1: we often here in the United States in particular, we

116
00:06:00,520 --> 00:06:05,080
Speaker 1: have often thought about bicycles as recreational devices. Right, this

117
00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,279
Speaker 1: is the thing that we use. You want to go

118
00:06:07,320 --> 00:06:09,560
Speaker 1: out and get some exercise, you want the fresh air,

119
00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:13,280
Speaker 1: you want a nice relaxing ride. And uh. In fact,

120
00:06:13,279 --> 00:06:16,400
Speaker 1: when we were first talking about doing this topic, it

121
00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:18,840
Speaker 1: was only when we started talking about the possibility of

122
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:23,560
Speaker 1: using a bike in instead of a car or taking

123
00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:27,200
Speaker 1: public transportation in order to get around regularly. That's something

124
00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:29,400
Speaker 1: like an electric bike really started to make sense, because

125
00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:32,240
Speaker 1: otherwise you kind of want that that exertion, that's part

126
00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:33,880
Speaker 1: of the experience. Let me let me just for one

127
00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:36,560
Speaker 1: second go back and kind of defend my, my, my

128
00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:39,760
Speaker 1: country ride example, because the lay that I I picture

129
00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:42,680
Speaker 1: UM cities right around the turn of the century, you know,

130
00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:45,279
Speaker 1: the turn of the nineteenth century, is that they were

131
00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:48,440
Speaker 1: they were crowded with cars which were relatively new at

132
00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:51,520
Speaker 1: the time, brand new at the time, UM, carriages, lots

133
00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:54,920
Speaker 1: of horses, lots of people walking. But I don't necessarily

134
00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:57,520
Speaker 1: think of seeing a lot of a lot of bicycles

135
00:06:57,560 --> 00:07:00,240
Speaker 1: in city environments. That's start from photos of that day,

136
00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,360
Speaker 1: of that era or depictions of it, you know, whether

137
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:04,919
Speaker 1: it be drawings or whatever, you don't see a lot

138
00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,000
Speaker 1: of bicycle riders. However, today in crowded cities, you do

139
00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:10,360
Speaker 1: see a lot of bicycle riders. I mean, that's that,

140
00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:13,600
Speaker 1: and especially in places like China where it's extremely crowded

141
00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:16,680
Speaker 1: and you know, maybe not everybody can afford a motorcycle,

142
00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:20,560
Speaker 1: right or or a big scooter, um or that's definitely

143
00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:23,240
Speaker 1: not a car. Bicycle is a good option. But as

144
00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,600
Speaker 1: you said, UM, they're not necessarily in it for you know,

145
00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:28,800
Speaker 1: exercise or to get out and you know, to get

146
00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:31,440
Speaker 1: the get the heart pumping or whatever, especially in places

147
00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:33,960
Speaker 1: where pollution might be so bad that you don't necessarily

148
00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:35,880
Speaker 1: want to be breathing are Now this is just like

149
00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:39,480
Speaker 1: an inexpensive method of transportation, way to commute and uh

150
00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:41,760
Speaker 1: and also you know, to take up as little space

151
00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:44,560
Speaker 1: as possible when you're not using that thing, right. Yeah,

152
00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:47,480
Speaker 1: So now we're starting to see this grow in popularity

153
00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,000
Speaker 1: here in the United States, like I said, in some

154
00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:52,440
Speaker 1: parts of the world and in parts of Europe. It's all,

155
00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:55,200
Speaker 1: it's been popular for years and in fact, electric bikes

156
00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:59,040
Speaker 1: have been around for quite some time in in both

157
00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:01,640
Speaker 1: Europe and the units aids as well as Asia. But

158
00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:04,760
Speaker 1: these are uh, you know, we've seen a lot of

159
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:08,200
Speaker 1: development over the last i'd say a couple of decades.

160
00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:11,040
Speaker 1: We've seen really some some interesting development to the point

161
00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:16,040
Speaker 1: where it's become uh, something that the average consumer can

162
00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:18,200
Speaker 1: can be aware of as opposed to you know, the

163
00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:21,960
Speaker 1: bike enthusiasts. Part of that is battery technology. I don't

164
00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:23,800
Speaker 1: know if I'm jumping ahead of you here, but but

165
00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:26,840
Speaker 1: part of that is battery technology because lead acid batteries,

166
00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:28,840
Speaker 1: that's the kind of battery that you typically find in

167
00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:31,240
Speaker 1: an automobile, a typical and not not one of the

168
00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:35,000
Speaker 1: newer ones. But um, they're big, they're heavy, they're bulky,

169
00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:37,360
Speaker 1: I mean it's just it's difficult to carry that kind

170
00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:39,560
Speaker 1: of weight around on a bike. You're trying to remain

171
00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:41,679
Speaker 1: as light as possible with this type of setup, as

172
00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:43,960
Speaker 1: we'll talk about in a moment. But um, you know,

173
00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:47,040
Speaker 1: with some of the newer battery technology, like lithium ion

174
00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:50,520
Speaker 1: batteries or even you know, some of the nickel cadmium

175
00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:53,719
Speaker 1: batteries from you know, or nickel metal hydride batteries, or

176
00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:55,719
Speaker 1: or even the seal some of these, I guess the

177
00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:57,800
Speaker 1: sealed lead acid batteries. Some of them are small enough

178
00:08:57,840 --> 00:08:59,920
Speaker 1: that could you know, you could potentially use them, but

179
00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:03,520
Speaker 1: the lead acid batteries tend to be a lot heavier

180
00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:05,560
Speaker 1: than the other types of batteries. Yeah. The other thing

181
00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:09,480
Speaker 1: that uh, you know, those batteries have been a challenge,

182
00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:13,280
Speaker 1: not just from a science perspective, but also safety obviously

183
00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:15,400
Speaker 1: lithium ion in particular. You know, you don't you want

184
00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,240
Speaker 1: to be really uh you don't you don't want to

185
00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:20,560
Speaker 1: overheat your lithium ion batteries. Well, and it's not a

186
00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:22,960
Speaker 1: great idea to also be biking around with a box

187
00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:26,360
Speaker 1: of sulfuric acid. Yeah, that's that's what it is. Yeah,

188
00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:28,200
Speaker 1: that's that can be a bit of a that could

189
00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:29,640
Speaker 1: be a bit of a drag if things go wrong.

190
00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:33,320
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, I mean, like I think of here

191
00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:36,240
Speaker 1: in here, in Atlanta, for example, things can get pretty hot.

192
00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:39,040
Speaker 1: So imagine that you have a really hot day and

193
00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:41,520
Speaker 1: you're taking your electric bike for a ride, and you've

194
00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:45,320
Speaker 1: got your battery or lithium ion battery, and you're you know,

195
00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:48,160
Speaker 1: you have to hit dead Man's Hill. It's the craziest

196
00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:51,400
Speaker 1: hill in Atlanta, which I just made up, and uh you,

197
00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:54,640
Speaker 1: so you kicked the bike into full gear to try

198
00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:57,000
Speaker 1: and help you as much as it can to get

199
00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,560
Speaker 1: up there. I can imagine that lithium ion battery getting

200
00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:04,720
Speaker 1: really kind of deteriorating rapidly due to we're operating at

201
00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:07,360
Speaker 1: such a high temperature. The heat is the worst enemy

202
00:10:07,400 --> 00:10:09,760
Speaker 1: of batteries. I mean, I know that they die often

203
00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:12,960
Speaker 1: in cold weather, but heat is where the real damage occurs.

204
00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:15,600
Speaker 1: And then you don't realize it until it's cold and

205
00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:18,719
Speaker 1: all those chemical reactions are slowing down, and that's when

206
00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:22,000
Speaker 1: you really feel that you feel the pain from you know,

207
00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:24,480
Speaker 1: the damage that was done in the summer months right now.

208
00:10:24,679 --> 00:10:26,800
Speaker 1: Of course, the nice thing is that most of the

209
00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:28,719
Speaker 1: systems we're talking about. In fact, all the ones I'm

210
00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:34,040
Speaker 1: familiar with have replaceable batteries. So worst case scenario as

211
00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:36,400
Speaker 1: you swap out a dead battery for a new one,

212
00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:40,160
Speaker 1: obviously you want to preserve the life of your batteries

213
00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:42,800
Speaker 1: as long as possible for multiple reasons. Financial would be

214
00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:44,679
Speaker 1: a big one, but also just you know, it's more

215
00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:48,040
Speaker 1: environmentally friendly to go easy on your battery so that

216
00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:50,560
Speaker 1: you don't have to have I don't have to worry about, well,

217
00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:53,640
Speaker 1: how do I dispose of this thing now that potentially

218
00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:55,960
Speaker 1: has toxic materials in it. But let's be honest, the

219
00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:57,760
Speaker 1: financial reason is the big one. That's the big one.

220
00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,680
Speaker 1: I mean, it is the big one. I mean. Another

221
00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:02,480
Speaker 1: thing we need to point out is electric bikes can

222
00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:06,079
Speaker 1: be pretty expensive. Even the conversion kits where you can

223
00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:09,360
Speaker 1: turn your existing bike into electric bike, some of those

224
00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:12,120
Speaker 1: can be some of those can dwarf the price of

225
00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:15,880
Speaker 1: your original bike. Absolutely. I've seen kits, just conversion kits

226
00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:17,880
Speaker 1: that that range anywhere from you know, I think it

227
00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:22,120
Speaker 1: was about seven seventy five dollars up to two thousand dollars,

228
00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:24,400
Speaker 1: where you're not getting an entire bike, you're getting the

229
00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,720
Speaker 1: kit to make your existing bike into an e bike.

230
00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:30,000
Speaker 1: And and of course the two thousand dollar kit comes

231
00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:32,439
Speaker 1: with everything you would ever want, all the sensors. The

232
00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:35,720
Speaker 1: seven hundred and seventy five dollar kit doesn't even have

233
00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:38,079
Speaker 1: a battery with it, and I think there's no controller.

234
00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,880
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's it's a very basic, basic

235
00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:42,880
Speaker 1: kit where you're gonna have to add parts to it

236
00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:45,040
Speaker 1: in order to make that even work. So it can

237
00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,800
Speaker 1: be expensive. But maybe maybe it's better just to buy

238
00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:50,040
Speaker 1: a bike right from the manufacturer. Yeah, yeah, there there

239
00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:53,360
Speaker 1: are choices, right, I mean, you can get a bike

240
00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:57,120
Speaker 1: that is designed as an electric bike from the beginning,

241
00:11:57,240 --> 00:11:59,800
Speaker 1: and it's got the systems all integrated into it already,

242
00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:03,360
Speaker 1: so it's going to Those are gonna look the nicest. Obviously,

243
00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:05,200
Speaker 1: they're gonna cost a lot. They're gonna cost a lot.

244
00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:07,960
Speaker 1: If you convert a bike, then depending upon the conversion

245
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:09,800
Speaker 1: kit you have, if it's one of those where it's

246
00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:12,839
Speaker 1: a real d I O Y kind of approach, it'll work,

247
00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:15,760
Speaker 1: but it'll probably also look kind of weird because the

248
00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:18,160
Speaker 1: bike that you have was not originally intended to be

249
00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:20,040
Speaker 1: an electric bike. You had to add all these different

250
00:12:20,040 --> 00:12:22,280
Speaker 1: components on it. You have to put a battery pack

251
00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:26,040
Speaker 1: somewhere on that thing, and sometimes that means that you

252
00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:29,640
Speaker 1: have a big bulky section of the middle of the bike.

253
00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:32,440
Speaker 1: But there are other types of electric bike converter kits

254
00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:35,680
Speaker 1: as well that um incorporate all the elements into the

255
00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:38,520
Speaker 1: hub of either the front wheel or the rear wheel.

256
00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:41,400
Speaker 1: Those are kind of cool. Now, it does mean that

257
00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:44,800
Speaker 1: the hub of that tire is going to look enormous

258
00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:48,440
Speaker 1: compared to a normal bicycle tire. But but all the

259
00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:52,679
Speaker 1: other elements are hidden away, right. You don't have, uh,

260
00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:54,680
Speaker 1: you know, and there're only a couple of examples of this,

261
00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:57,040
Speaker 1: but you don't have like a big external battery pack

262
00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:59,720
Speaker 1: that's hanging off one of the bars of your bicycle

263
00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:02,640
Speaker 1: unless unless you go back to one of those kids

264
00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:04,600
Speaker 1: like we've talked about, where you know that you do

265
00:13:04,679 --> 00:13:07,280
Speaker 1: have a big canvas bag that has a battery attached

266
00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:09,480
Speaker 1: to it, and that's a speed controller and all the

267
00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:11,600
Speaker 1: other electronics that go along with this. And you know,

268
00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:13,800
Speaker 1: I mean that stuff is gonna be zip tied to

269
00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:15,679
Speaker 1: the frame of your bike. I mean it's not it's

270
00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:17,320
Speaker 1: going to look like it's a kid that you added

271
00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:19,120
Speaker 1: onto your bike. It's not going to be as as

272
00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:22,520
Speaker 1: buttoned up as the as the bike that would come

273
00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:24,800
Speaker 1: from the manufacturer. Look, because they you know, they drill

274
00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:26,640
Speaker 1: holes in the frame and they feed the wire through

275
00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:28,679
Speaker 1: there and it only exits where it needs to. It's

276
00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:32,600
Speaker 1: very uh, it's very minimally obtrusive, I guess on the

277
00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:34,760
Speaker 1: on the design of the bike. Yeah, as opposed to

278
00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:38,040
Speaker 1: have zip ties every couple of inches pulled everything in place.

279
00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:40,400
Speaker 1: And there's still kind of is that element of these

280
00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:42,599
Speaker 1: even even with the manufacturer built ones, you know, the

281
00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:44,360
Speaker 1: ones that come from the factory you know where I

282
00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:46,080
Speaker 1: don't know how many they build a day, maybe, you know,

283
00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:48,600
Speaker 1: it depends on the place, I guess, but it would

284
00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:50,080
Speaker 1: I would think it's very few because these are hand

285
00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:53,079
Speaker 1: assembled of course. Um, but yeah, they're they're pretty well

286
00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:56,040
Speaker 1: buttoned up, but they still have a little bit of

287
00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:58,600
Speaker 1: that you know, uh, a little bit of that look

288
00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:00,680
Speaker 1: like it was kind of made it a work bench. Yeah,

289
00:14:00,679 --> 00:14:02,800
Speaker 1: a little jankie, but a little bit, but in a

290
00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,760
Speaker 1: good way, like kind of in that that you know again,

291
00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:08,199
Speaker 1: like that d I Y sort of approach. And they're

292
00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:10,760
Speaker 1: getting better and better. Yeah, and so I guess it's

293
00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:13,280
Speaker 1: good to talk about, you know, the different types of

294
00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:15,960
Speaker 1: electric bikes as well as to compare them against other

295
00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:20,680
Speaker 1: powered bicycles. So the powered bicycle I always thought of

296
00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:23,760
Speaker 1: when I was growing up, it was not electric at all.

297
00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:27,720
Speaker 1: It was it was gas powered. It was the motorized bicycle,

298
00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:31,440
Speaker 1: the moped mo. Yeah, so you've got the motorized and

299
00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:35,280
Speaker 1: pedal p e D the moped or velociped. Some people

300
00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,640
Speaker 1: say that's from the old term for bicycle velocopied, which

301
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:42,560
Speaker 1: dates to even earlier in the uh, you know, the

302
00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:47,040
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. Uh that was my favorite arcade game philosophy. Yeah,

303
00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:48,920
Speaker 1: where you had to, you know, to shoot the little

304
00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:51,760
Speaker 1: Penny Farthings as they came down the screen. Um. Yeah.

305
00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:58,440
Speaker 1: The the moped is similar in many ways to electric bicycles,

306
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:00,920
Speaker 1: except of course it's not running on electric date it's

307
00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:04,240
Speaker 1: got an actual motor tiny gas engine. I should see

308
00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:06,640
Speaker 1: a tiny gasolene engine. Yeah, yeah, that's right. And that's

309
00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:08,120
Speaker 1: what I tend to think of too when I think

310
00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:11,960
Speaker 1: of of a pedal assisted powered vehicle and I think

311
00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:13,720
Speaker 1: of that, That's that's the one I go to. Is

312
00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:15,920
Speaker 1: like that old moped design where you see you would

313
00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:17,960
Speaker 1: see somebody pedaling like crazy to either get it moving,

314
00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:21,240
Speaker 1: or more typically, you would just see the pedals, you know,

315
00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,080
Speaker 1: remaining where they are. People would have their feet on

316
00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:27,120
Speaker 1: the pedals, but it would be all you know, gasoline

317
00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:28,960
Speaker 1: power that they're using. They're using just the engine to

318
00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,680
Speaker 1: propel themselves forward. Yeah, they've got a throttle control, and

319
00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:35,320
Speaker 1: the throttle control provides the power which drives the drive

320
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:38,360
Speaker 1: train and you don't have to do any pedaling at

321
00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:40,560
Speaker 1: all to keep it going. It was very rare to

322
00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:44,280
Speaker 1: see somebody actually pedaling a moped to the point now

323
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:47,880
Speaker 1: where the term moped, by at least some people, is

324
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:52,600
Speaker 1: used as a generic term for any non motorcycle motorized

325
00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:54,920
Speaker 1: two wheel vehicle. Okay, this is where we had a

326
00:15:54,920 --> 00:15:57,320
Speaker 1: little discussion about this at our desks earlier, because we

327
00:15:57,360 --> 00:15:59,280
Speaker 1: sitting next to each other in the office and we

328
00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:00,880
Speaker 1: were kind of throwing the back and forth a little

329
00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:03,680
Speaker 1: bit like, Okay, if if this is a moped, what

330
00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:05,880
Speaker 1: what is a scooter? And then how do you differentiate

331
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:08,600
Speaker 1: between that and a motorcycle? And you know, there's there's

332
00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:11,440
Speaker 1: traditional ways to do that. By engine size. You can

333
00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:13,440
Speaker 1: you can say that you know, a moped is between

334
00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,000
Speaker 1: forty nine ccs and all the way up too ccs.

335
00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:19,240
Speaker 1: But now I think that there's some uh what they

336
00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,120
Speaker 1: call I want to say, they're called like maxi scooters

337
00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:24,360
Speaker 1: that are bigger than that. They're capable of going faster,

338
00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:27,360
Speaker 1: but they're still considered a scooter. But they're allowed on roads,

339
00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:30,000
Speaker 1: but not on highways. And you do sit with your

340
00:16:30,040 --> 00:16:32,200
Speaker 1: feet forward, you know, on a platform in front of

341
00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:34,680
Speaker 1: the chairs, so there's like a pass through between the

342
00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:37,360
Speaker 1: handlebars and where you sit. You're not on you don't

343
00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:39,480
Speaker 1: have your feet on pedals in other words, or pegs

344
00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:41,640
Speaker 1: as you would on a motorcycle. It's on like a

345
00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:43,720
Speaker 1: little just its own little platform. But some of those

346
00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:46,400
Speaker 1: maxi scooters are capable of you know, eighty miles per

347
00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:49,560
Speaker 1: hour seventy five mile pur or something like that. Um,

348
00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:51,480
Speaker 1: that's not the typical scooter that I think of. I

349
00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:53,920
Speaker 1: think of the old vespas, you know, which we're you know,

350
00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:56,440
Speaker 1: the older ones, which are creeping along at about thirty

351
00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,200
Speaker 1: miles per hour max. But they did have that traditional

352
00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:01,320
Speaker 1: seating position where you can you can picture that right

353
00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,480
Speaker 1: with the platform in front, where your your feet are

354
00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:05,960
Speaker 1: side by side in front of you, And that's what

355
00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:08,919
Speaker 1: I think of. They didn't have a pedal mechanism at

356
00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:10,840
Speaker 1: all like a moped does. So that to me was

357
00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:15,520
Speaker 1: the break between scooters and mopeds. But now I guess

358
00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,160
Speaker 1: there's a blurred line between what's a moped and what's

359
00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:20,600
Speaker 1: a scooter. Yeah, I think it's just. I think it's

360
00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:23,640
Speaker 1: just in the use of the term being very casual

361
00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:25,840
Speaker 1: about it, right, I don't think it's I think if

362
00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:28,480
Speaker 1: you were to nail someone down and say no, let's

363
00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:32,080
Speaker 1: let's get to the technical uh distinction between these, they

364
00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:36,560
Speaker 1: would agree. But I think casually people refer to practically

365
00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:39,560
Speaker 1: anything that doesn't look like a motorcycle as a moped

366
00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:41,600
Speaker 1: or a scooter or one of the other. And honestly,

367
00:17:41,640 --> 00:17:44,120
Speaker 1: it really doesn't matter. We're just trying to to segment

368
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:46,600
Speaker 1: these different things into and just find a way to

369
00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,720
Speaker 1: discuss them where everybody can picture the same thing. Now.

370
00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:52,400
Speaker 1: The interesting thing also about mopeds to me is that

371
00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:55,359
Speaker 1: some of them are designed so that, yeah, you could

372
00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:57,919
Speaker 1: pedal and propel them just under pedal power if you

373
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,760
Speaker 1: needed to, like if the engine died or ran gas. Uh,

374
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:05,160
Speaker 1: It's not easy to do. This is a very heavy vehicle.

375
00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:08,440
Speaker 1: Sometimes it looks like you're peddaling like crazy and you're

376
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:11,040
Speaker 1: not really getting anywhere some of them. Really, the pedals

377
00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:14,480
Speaker 1: were more about getting the engine started right, so it

378
00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:17,359
Speaker 1: wasn't about providing any form of propulsion. It was just

379
00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:19,879
Speaker 1: about getting the engine to the point where you could

380
00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:25,000
Speaker 1: get the ignition going and take off. So uh, that

381
00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:28,879
Speaker 1: kind of separates it from electric electric bikes in another way.

382
00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:31,840
Speaker 1: So you've got two big separations. One you're not using

383
00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:34,720
Speaker 1: gas with electric bikes. But the other is that with

384
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:38,040
Speaker 1: a true E bike, you are supposed to be able

385
00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:42,840
Speaker 1: to pedal and power the bike, or you use some

386
00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:46,560
Speaker 1: form of pedal assists. That's where you get the ped

387
00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:50,920
Speaker 1: alex type of bikes, So that's that's often what they're called,

388
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:54,240
Speaker 1: where they are providing some of the power to turn

389
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:58,320
Speaker 1: the wheel of the bicycle so that it offsets some

390
00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:01,159
Speaker 1: of the force needed. And then you have power on

391
00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:06,560
Speaker 1: demand electric bicycles where the electric motor is providing all

392
00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:09,199
Speaker 1: the power you need to propel the bike forward, and

393
00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:11,840
Speaker 1: you can you can cut the motor off and then

394
00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,520
Speaker 1: continue to pedal, or if you just want to have

395
00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:17,600
Speaker 1: a real easy ride of it, you just power the

396
00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:21,600
Speaker 1: throttle and that gives the electric motor the power to

397
00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:24,400
Speaker 1: push the bike board on it, so it's you're using

398
00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:26,560
Speaker 1: it as if it was a scooter. Yeah, not a

399
00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,359
Speaker 1: bicycle at all. Right, for the power on demand systems, okay,

400
00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:30,880
Speaker 1: And the pedal X when you mentioned that, I think

401
00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:32,600
Speaker 1: people might be confused by the term. But that's a

402
00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,920
Speaker 1: combination of three words. It's pedal electric cycle and it's

403
00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:39,600
Speaker 1: pedal X. It's spelled a little weird, but pedal X.

404
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:43,120
Speaker 1: I've also heard elect peds simply to say that it's

405
00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:47,080
Speaker 1: similar to mo peds, so instead of motor pedals, you

406
00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:49,040
Speaker 1: want to think of it that way, it's electric pedals.

407
00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,800
Speaker 1: But pedal X is definitely the more common of the

408
00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:54,000
Speaker 1: two that I've seen. And you know, these are these

409
00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,640
Speaker 1: are pretty popular, I think in um Becaus we said

410
00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:58,480
Speaker 1: in cities, you know, the pedal X systems are the

411
00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:00,919
Speaker 1: ones that we see a lot of, because those are

412
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:02,679
Speaker 1: the ones that if you're peddling, you get like a

413
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:05,080
Speaker 1: and I've watched a few videos of these recently. That's

414
00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:06,960
Speaker 1: why I'm kind of familiar with what's going on here.

415
00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:09,440
Speaker 1: But when you when you get on them and you're pedaling,

416
00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:12,720
Speaker 1: it's like you're feeling something that's pushing you, but it's

417
00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:15,000
Speaker 1: like it's pushing you along because these are rear wheel

418
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,399
Speaker 1: design things mostly. I mean, we've seen them on the

419
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:20,680
Speaker 1: front wheels, but that's more unusual. Usually they're on the

420
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:23,920
Speaker 1: back wheel, so it's pushing you along. And a lot

421
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:25,800
Speaker 1: of times when you watch these videos of people who

422
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:28,320
Speaker 1: are reviewing them or testing them or trying them for

423
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:30,639
Speaker 1: the first time, you know, never tried an ebike before,

424
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:33,639
Speaker 1: this pedal assist type system. When they get on them

425
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,240
Speaker 1: and they start writing, they start to giggle. You know,

426
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,639
Speaker 1: it's like they're laughing because they're they're barely pedaling, but

427
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,119
Speaker 1: their cruising along as if they were really really pumping

428
00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:44,720
Speaker 1: the pedals really fast, and you're passing every other bike

429
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:47,720
Speaker 1: on the bike path. Um, you know, top speed vary

430
00:20:47,800 --> 00:20:51,240
Speaker 1: between you know, different models, but you're going move along

431
00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:53,400
Speaker 1: at a pretty good rate, a pretty rapid rate for

432
00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:55,480
Speaker 1: the limited amount of pedaling that you're doing. And that's

433
00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,600
Speaker 1: really the benefit of these pedal lex systems. That and

434
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,400
Speaker 1: you know, let's say you're writing into a headwind, are

435
00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:04,399
Speaker 1: you're riding up a hill, which would be you know,

436
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:06,600
Speaker 1: pretty important here in Atlanta because it's not a flat

437
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:09,400
Speaker 1: city by any means, um so that would be helpful.

438
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:13,480
Speaker 1: But the pedal systems can be used by law enforcement.

439
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:15,280
Speaker 1: You know, if they're on bikes, it's a great thing

440
00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:17,399
Speaker 1: because it gives them kind of an edge. I guess

441
00:21:17,480 --> 00:21:20,560
Speaker 1: they're trying to I don't know, catch up to somebody

442
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,679
Speaker 1: who's on another bike. Um, it assists them in in

443
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,320
Speaker 1: you know, just having to do less work to get

444
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,800
Speaker 1: speech exactly exactly right. And there's a lot of different

445
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:34,639
Speaker 1: variety of different types of gearings and things that you

446
00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:36,800
Speaker 1: can get with the different types of motors as well,

447
00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:39,120
Speaker 1: so they have their own purpose. Like if you want

448
00:21:39,119 --> 00:21:41,720
Speaker 1: one to go fast, you get this type of of motor.

449
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:43,920
Speaker 1: If you want one that's gonna pull a lot of weight,

450
00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:47,040
Speaker 1: let's say that you're carrying a trailer, small trailer behind

451
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,760
Speaker 1: your bike. Cargo bikes, Yeah, cargo bikes. That's I'm glad

452
00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:51,520
Speaker 1: you said that because I had written down somewhere that

453
00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:53,800
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about that. Uh, there's a different

454
00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:56,639
Speaker 1: type of motor than the ones we've been kind of

455
00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:00,359
Speaker 1: focusing on mostly it's it's a geared motor would be

456
00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:03,160
Speaker 1: more efficient for heavy loads like that if you're pulling

457
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:05,800
Speaker 1: a trailer, if you've got a cargo bike like you said,

458
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,280
Speaker 1: or if you're a bigger writer, you know somebody who's

459
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:11,200
Speaker 1: who's a little heavier on the heavier side, A geared

460
00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:13,240
Speaker 1: motor might be the one that you want. Yeah, mid

461
00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:17,400
Speaker 1: drive motors are also really good about pulling a lot

462
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:21,560
Speaker 1: of weight or kicking into two gear for something like

463
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:24,920
Speaker 1: a real steep climb. So let's say that you live

464
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,240
Speaker 1: in San Francisco and you've decided that you want to

465
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,359
Speaker 1: bike to work because you're crazy. Uh, then you may

466
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:34,560
Speaker 1: want something like a mid drive electric bicycle because it's

467
00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:37,160
Speaker 1: going to give you a lot more when you start

468
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: hitting those really steep hills, those really tall steep hills,

469
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 1: I mean they're not just steep, they go on forever.

470
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,359
Speaker 1: We have more to say about how e bikes work,

471
00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:56,639
Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break. This is a

472
00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:59,000
Speaker 1: long time ago, maybe fifteen years ago. Yeah, when I

473
00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:01,200
Speaker 1: went to the San Francis called had a friend who

474
00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:03,280
Speaker 1: you know, I graduated with this this person and he

475
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,159
Speaker 1: was now working out there with his wife, and I

476
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 1: was in town and I had never been there before,

477
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,159
Speaker 1: was my first time there, and they decided that the

478
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,720
Speaker 1: way we were going to get around town was on bicycles.

479
00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,520
Speaker 1: So this friend doesn't like you I don't know what

480
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:17,919
Speaker 1: was going on, but I was just huffing and puffing

481
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,200
Speaker 1: the whole time and would have to occasionally get off

482
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:22,679
Speaker 1: and walk my bike up the hill. And as it's crazy,

483
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:24,800
Speaker 1: well as would they, and you know, they were even

484
00:23:24,800 --> 00:23:26,399
Speaker 1: accustomed to it. You know, they've been doing this for

485
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:28,199
Speaker 1: a year or two years at that point, so they

486
00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 1: were in a little better shape than then. I wasn't

487
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,240
Speaker 1: that bike. And honestly, even you know, back I lived

488
00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 1: in Michigan at the time, Even there, I wasn't necessarily

489
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,160
Speaker 1: biking all the time, so it wasn't really my thing.

490
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 1: But you know, then we're in the you know, these

491
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:44,000
Speaker 1: extremely hilly areas. Try we we rode up to the

492
00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:47,639
Speaker 1: middle of the Golden Gate Bridge and you don't realize

493
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 1: until you're on that bridge that to the midway point

494
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 1: is uphill. Yeah, exactly. Coming back was fine, unbelievable. I couldn't.

495
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,520
Speaker 1: I just could not keep up with it. Treacherous place

496
00:23:58,560 --> 00:23:59,920
Speaker 1: to ride a bike. And that's that's the sort of

497
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:02,840
Speaker 1: like these bikes are really good to help for folks

498
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:06,359
Speaker 1: who want to uh use a bike more frequently, but

499
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 1: they might encounter these issues or maybe for example, you know,

500
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,120
Speaker 1: one of the Little Behind the Curtain. The episode we're

501
00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:18,159
Speaker 1: recording right now, you guys, is the very last full

502
00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:22,600
Speaker 1: episode of any podcast in How Stuff Works to use

503
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:26,440
Speaker 1: the studio building. Yeah, this studio that we are recording

504
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 1: and right now is going to be broken down as

505
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,160
Speaker 1: soon as we're done, and then moved across town. Now,

506
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:35,720
Speaker 1: when we go to that new place across town, it's

507
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,720
Speaker 1: closer to where I live. And I'm thinking about biking

508
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:44,040
Speaker 1: to work whenever the occasion merits. It's fantastic, idea, fantastic.

509
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 1: I also am really thinking about getting an e bike system,

510
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: a pedal pedal X system to help me if because

511
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:54,320
Speaker 1: I don't want to have the experience of biking to

512
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,639
Speaker 1: work and arriving at work looking like I just biked

513
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: to work in Atlanta, especially in the summer. Yeah, I understand,

514
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,239
Speaker 1: But see, you want a little bit of exercise at

515
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:05,400
Speaker 1: the same time, right, and it's going to there's gonna

516
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,160
Speaker 1: be hills in between you and the office and I'll

517
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 1: pill both ways, I'm sure. And uh with you know

518
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,440
Speaker 1: humidity ranging in the area, you know, you can't get

519
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 1: around the sweating. So yeah, and we're talking about several miles.

520
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:20,879
Speaker 1: It's not it's not like it's around the corner or

521
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 1: anything like that. So it's a good twenty five minute

522
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:25,560
Speaker 1: ride from my house. Okay, so that's a that's a

523
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,520
Speaker 1: reasonable distance. I can completely understand why you would want

524
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:30,680
Speaker 1: something like this now. Now me, I'm not a bike

525
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,040
Speaker 1: rider to begin with. Um, I have one. It's collecting

526
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: dust in the basement. I think, I think I still

527
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:38,479
Speaker 1: have it after the last move. I don't even know.

528
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 1: But it's it's just not my thing. I mean, I

529
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 1: don't live in town, so I don't really have a

530
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 1: use to just quickly grab a vehicle and get somewhere,

531
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 1: you know, five blocks away or whatever. But that would

532
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:50,600
Speaker 1: be a perfect use for somebody, you know, if if

533
00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 1: they did have a need like that, or like you say,

534
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 1: to get to work, you know, on days when it's

535
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:57,919
Speaker 1: sunny and and humid, when you don't necessarily want to,

536
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,879
Speaker 1: uh to you know, fully exert yourself get in there

537
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 1: as well. Right, and uh. We could also differentiate really

538
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 1: quickly between electric bikes and electric motorcycles. There are electric motorcycles. Yeah,

539
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:13,360
Speaker 1: Harley Davidson is touring around with one, showing it off

540
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:17,480
Speaker 1: the kind of a prototype electric motorcycle. Yeah, that's is

541
00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: that the that's live wire is in it. I think

542
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,679
Speaker 1: it's so it's it's very quiet, you know what. I

543
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,159
Speaker 1: have done a podcast about this. I should remember the name,

544
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 1: but I believe it's the Harley Davidson live Wire. It's

545
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 1: it was the concept. They did a tour around the

546
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,960
Speaker 1: nation and they were allowing people to test drive that vehicle,

547
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:35,920
Speaker 1: and people who drove it really or wrote it, I guess,

548
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: really really liked it. And the difference between an electric

549
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 1: motorcycle versus an electric bike is that an electric bike

550
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: has pedals that you can pedal and you know, operate

551
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,639
Speaker 1: under manual power, whereas electric motorcycle does not. That's the

552
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,119
Speaker 1: main desert, and it's extremely powerful. It's as just as

553
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:55,480
Speaker 1: powerful as Harley Davidson motorcycle would be, only an electric forms.

554
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: So you know, all the all the other stuff that

555
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: goes along with motorcycle ownerships still apply and and a

556
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:02,639
Speaker 1: lot of the considerations that you would have to have

557
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 1: for a bicycle are no longer part of the thought process, right,

558
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 1: You don't need to have you don't need to sit

559
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:10,800
Speaker 1: there and say, well, we can't put a motor on

560
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: that's ex powerful because that it adds so much weight

561
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:16,520
Speaker 1: to the bicycle that a bicyclist isn't going to be

562
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 1: able to use it. With a motorcycle, you don't have

563
00:27:18,640 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: to worry about that as much. Now you just worry

564
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,320
Speaker 1: about how fast that things canna go. Yeah, right, So

565
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: let's talk about some of these motors some of the ones. Now,

566
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: keep in mind, like I said, some of these can

567
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:32,120
Speaker 1: be bought, uh completely, like you can buy a whole

568
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: bike that uses this sort of stuff, or you can

569
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,560
Speaker 1: end up buying conversion kits or these in hub systems

570
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 1: where it's really an e bike inside a bicycle wheel.

571
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 1: You literally just replace a wheel with one of these

572
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,240
Speaker 1: and it'll turn it into an e bike, which is

573
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:49,919
Speaker 1: pretty cool. You were talking about direct drive now. The

574
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 1: direct drive are the ones that look like a like

575
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 1: a pie pan in the middle of your wheel. Yes,

576
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: and that's the one that everything is housed within that

577
00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 1: uh that I guess it would be a plastic outer casing, right, Yeah,

578
00:28:00,840 --> 00:28:03,879
Speaker 1: plastic in most cases, I believe. I think, uh, you

579
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 1: might find a couple that do some form of metal

580
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: as the outside, like an aluminum exterior. But again, you

581
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:13,240
Speaker 1: want to have generally speaking, you want to have something

582
00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 1: that's going to be able to vent heat because it

583
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 1: is going to build up heat inside of this thing. Yeah,

584
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,280
Speaker 1: exactly right. Now that the direct drive is just one type,

585
00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 1: there's also the geared systems of geared motors that we'll

586
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:27,880
Speaker 1: talk about as well. But if you I found a

587
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: pretty good article that that describes some of the pros

588
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,400
Speaker 1: and cons of both types of motors. So there's direct drive,

589
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: there's gear drive. There's pros for both. Now that the

590
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 1: pros four direct drive system the piepon type you know

591
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 1: that has everything in cased. Uh, they're they're a lot

592
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,760
Speaker 1: more durable than the geared systems. Uh, they're faster and

593
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 1: they tend to be quieter as well. There's actually more

594
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: pros for the geared systems that we'll talk about in

595
00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: just a second. But they provide less drag, they're smaller,

596
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 1: of course, they're lighter, but they do have more torque

597
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 1: than the than the direct drive systems. Yeah. I thought

598
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: that was kind of strange, I would think, And that

599
00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 1: has to be just based on gearing, of course, I mean,

600
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:07,920
Speaker 1: because you can make that work for you however you like. Right,

601
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:11,760
Speaker 1: But the direct drive motors that we talked about, one

602
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:13,400
Speaker 1: thing we said is that it's got to have a

603
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,600
Speaker 1: lot of torque in order to to work because the

604
00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,560
Speaker 1: way it's mounted on the wheel, every one rotation of

605
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: the wheel is one rotation of the motors right and right.

606
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 1: That has to be an extremely torquy motor in order

607
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: for that to work. So, uh, that's the benefit of

608
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,080
Speaker 1: having gears. Right. You can you can play with how

609
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 1: many times the motor has to rotate to rotate a wheel.

610
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 1: You can you can use the different sizes of gears

611
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:41,080
Speaker 1: to determine the actual speech, so you can you can

612
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 1: get it for speed, or you can get it for

613
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 1: pulling or for power, so kind of like a you know,

614
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 1: like a transmission in a car. Uh. And so you

615
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 1: you use these different things for different purposes, like if

616
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:55,320
Speaker 1: you want to have a bike where it's just going

617
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 1: to be the simplest version. The direct drive makes a

618
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:01,160
Speaker 1: lot of sense. Uh. It is as the fewest moving

619
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,240
Speaker 1: parts of an electric motor compared to the other variations

620
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: that we've seen, and most of the kits that you'll

621
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 1: find or that you'll see have have that direct drive

622
00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: type of sub Now I've seen some that are geared

623
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,120
Speaker 1: that are still all self contained, which is kind of interesting.

624
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 1: But uh, you know it's it's where you see, like essentially,

625
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: there's a gear that the motor turns, then there are

626
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 1: maybe two gears that interlock with that, and then it

627
00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,280
Speaker 1: goes inside a larger casing has a gear mounted teeth

628
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 1: mounted on the internal wall of the the hub, and

629
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: that that's what causes the hub to turn, thus making

630
00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 1: the wheel turn. Um. So all of that can be

631
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 1: completely enclosed too. But you can also have what what

632
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,640
Speaker 1: I call mid drive motors. Where are you have the

633
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 1: external motor. It's not inside the hub of the wheel,

634
00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:59,240
Speaker 1: it's mounted to the exterior of your bike. Um. It

635
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:05,240
Speaker 1: typically uh, it taps directly into your bicycles gear drive train.

636
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:11,400
Speaker 1: So you essentially replace the chain wheel that your pedals

637
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: would attach to. The cranks on your pedals would attach

638
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 1: that I think they call that the crank set. Yeah,

639
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 1: you would replace that with the motor, the electric motor version.

640
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: You know that it has the same sort of wheel

641
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 1: that you would have to mount the chain to, but

642
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: the motor helps drive that wheel so that when you

643
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,280
Speaker 1: start pedaling, the motor drives the actual wheel that you're

644
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:33,760
Speaker 1: their pedal cranks are attached to. This sounds a lot

645
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:38,480
Speaker 1: closer to the like a motorcycle set up, swapping the

646
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 1: gasoline engine for the electric motor, of course, but it's

647
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 1: it's closer in position and the way that it drives

648
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 1: that rear wheel, you know, with a chain or a

649
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 1: belt in some cases. Right, that's interesting. Those are a

650
00:31:49,400 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 1: lot less common then then, would be the direct drive motor,

651
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:55,240
Speaker 1: which is the hub one or the other one that

652
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:58,240
Speaker 1: the more complex geared system that you described. Yeah, and

653
00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 1: and these also tend to get really super expensive. These

654
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 1: are the ones that can be really efficient because they're

655
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:09,760
Speaker 1: already using the ideal gears to turn your bicycle wheel.

656
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:13,120
Speaker 1: They're using the gears that the bicycle wheel uses anyway

657
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 1: they would use under your normal pedal. Yeah, and that's

658
00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:18,240
Speaker 1: one thing that the direct drive motor does not provide

659
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 1: you with. So you know, the one that looks like

660
00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 1: the pie pan again, that really turns any bike that

661
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:26,000
Speaker 1: you're riding into a single speed bike. But that's really

662
00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: all you need. And that was pointed out in one

663
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:29,520
Speaker 1: of the reviews. I know when the guy's right and

664
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 1: he's saying, well, you know, I have the ability to

665
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: switch gears here, but I can't do that now that

666
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 1: this is mounted but I don't even need it because

667
00:32:36,760 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: this kind of adapts to whatever whatever I need to happen.

668
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:40,720
Speaker 1: You know. If I need to go faster, I just

669
00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:42,960
Speaker 1: pedal a little faster. If I need to slow down,

670
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 1: I back it down. And you know, that's one thing

671
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: that we should mention too, is that, um some of

672
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 1: the reviewers were saying that there's that that instant where

673
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:52,840
Speaker 1: you need to stop, you know, and this thing is

674
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: still powering, and it's there's a signal that's that's sent

675
00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:59,000
Speaker 1: to that that that motor, that direct drive motor, and

676
00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 1: it's usually by slightly back pedaling, like you know on

677
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 1: a tent speed where you can kind of freewheel, you

678
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: can back backpedal without having to you know, hit a

679
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:10,120
Speaker 1: coaster break like you went on an older bike, as

680
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 1: long as you're not either on a yeah, like an

681
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:15,080
Speaker 1: old single speed bike where you would you would use

682
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 1: the pedal brakes and that didn't have any handbrakes, just

683
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 1: pedal brakes, or or even a fixed gear bike where

684
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 1: you could pedal backwards and that would actually cause the

685
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:29,240
Speaker 1: wheels to go. Oh yeah, you know the fixies as

686
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:34,440
Speaker 1: the bike bicycle enthusiasts like Dixies that never so, so

687
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:36,120
Speaker 1: that's so that's what's going on with this is that

688
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 1: when you want to stop, when you want the assist

689
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 1: part of this to stop, you back pedal slightly and

690
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:44,280
Speaker 1: then you use the handbrakes to bring yourself to complete stop.

691
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:46,360
Speaker 1: But there's that the one moment, you know, where it

692
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 1: depends on how fast you're going, if it's you know,

693
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 1: five ft or ten feet that you travel in that time, Uh,

694
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 1: there's that moment where it's pushing you along you would

695
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:56,240
Speaker 1: rather be stopping, or you're you're you're trying to you

696
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 1: have to kind of plan ahead. I guess a little

697
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 1: more with this type of setup Bright and now they

698
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:04,200
Speaker 1: haven't quite got it exactly right where it immediately responds

699
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 1: to the need. Well, yeah, because when they're cutting power,

700
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:08,880
Speaker 1: what you're doing is well, well I'll talk more about

701
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:11,359
Speaker 1: what's actually going on inside the motors here. When you're

702
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:16,319
Speaker 1: cutting power, you're essentially cutting electricity to electromagnets. But you know,

703
00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:20,359
Speaker 1: it takes it takes a moment for that that attraction

704
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,480
Speaker 1: between your the magnets, the permanent magnets or potentially another

705
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:30,360
Speaker 1: electromagnets inside the hub of your wheel two um stop

706
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 1: being attracted in that circular motion stopp being driven forward.

707
00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:36,239
Speaker 1: And this isn't so bad by any means that you know,

708
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:38,239
Speaker 1: it's not worth buying it or anything like that. It's

709
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:40,799
Speaker 1: just it's it's something that everybody noted, like, oh that's

710
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:43,760
Speaker 1: a little strange. But once I adjust to that, everything

711
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: works out fine. Right. So you know, let me talk

712
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,720
Speaker 1: a little bit about how those electric motors are working

713
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:54,920
Speaker 1: and the basis on the electromagnetism. So I've talked about

714
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 1: this so many times on tech stuff, and I know

715
00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:00,759
Speaker 1: you long term fans who have heard the electro magnetic

716
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 1: lecture a billion times, so um, you know, go ahead

717
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:07,480
Speaker 1: and put this on two time speed and you can

718
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:09,600
Speaker 1: get through it. But I gotta I gotta cover it.

719
00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: So the basics of electromagnetism, if you have a coil

720
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 1: of a conducting material, if you if you coil that

721
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:20,320
Speaker 1: conducting material around a core, like you know, the classic

722
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,319
Speaker 1: classroom example is you taken an iron nail and you

723
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:27,399
Speaker 1: wrap some copper wire around the iron nail, and then

724
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:31,200
Speaker 1: you run an electrical current through that wire. Uh, that

725
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 1: electrical current will create a magnetic field and it will

726
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:38,520
Speaker 1: turn into an electro magnet. You can react with ferress materials,

727
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:41,840
Speaker 1: fairest metals, and uh so you can pick up iron

728
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:44,320
Speaker 1: filings with this thing. Because now you've got a magnet.

729
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 1: If you put alternating current through it, then you've created

730
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 1: a fluctuating magnetic field, which gets pretty interesting and is

731
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:59,280
Speaker 1: the basis of a lot of important technology. But anyway,

732
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:02,879
Speaker 1: if you've got these electromagnets, it creates this magnetic field.

733
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:08,440
Speaker 1: It will attract other opposite polled magnet materials. So if

734
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:11,399
Speaker 1: you have permanent magnets, let's say you've got a whole

735
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 1: bunch of neodymium magnets. Those are very popular for a

736
00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: lot of applications these days, and you set them up

737
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 1: around let's say a wheel, a free rotating wheel, and

738
00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:26,320
Speaker 1: then you've got stationary electro magnets, and you can control

739
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:30,839
Speaker 1: which electrode magnets are turning on and off at any

740
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,759
Speaker 1: given moment, and you turn them on and off in

741
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:38,320
Speaker 1: a pattern so that it's constantly attracting and repelling the magnets,

742
00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,400
Speaker 1: so that it creates a rotational force that will cause

743
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:45,040
Speaker 1: the wheel to rotate. Now this isn't free energy, because

744
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:49,480
Speaker 1: you're pouring electricity into those electro magnets. This is often

745
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:52,839
Speaker 1: one of the basics of You'll see people who are

746
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:55,799
Speaker 1: peddling something they're calling a perpetual motion machine, but in

747
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 1: reality it's using electro magnets, which means that it has

748
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:01,040
Speaker 1: to get power from somewhere, which means it's not truly

749
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,719
Speaker 1: perpetual motion. It means it's perpetual motion as long as

750
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:08,360
Speaker 1: the electricity doesn't run out. It's funny you said pedaling, Yeah, exactly,

751
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 1: so uh. You know, sometimes the pun is unintended, as

752
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:16,359
Speaker 1: in this case, and sometimes it is intended. So with

753
00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 1: this rotational force, that's what provides the basics of the

754
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,280
Speaker 1: electric motor. By the way, the reverse is also true.

755
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:25,840
Speaker 1: If you put a conductor into a fluctuating magnetic field,

756
00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:30,080
Speaker 1: then it will induce electricity to flow through that conductor.

757
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:33,280
Speaker 1: So in other words, if I have an uh, if

758
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 1: I take that wire and I move it to something

759
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:39,080
Speaker 1: where there's a fluctuating magnetic field, meaning I'm I've got

760
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:42,480
Speaker 1: this polarity reversing over and over and over again, electricity

761
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 1: will flow through that copper wire. So the first version

762
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:49,279
Speaker 1: I mentioned, that's the basics of the electric motor. The

763
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 1: second one is the basics of dynamos and magnetos and

764
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 1: even alternators. So uh, with all that in mind, that

765
00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:59,160
Speaker 1: direct drive system we were talking about is the easiest

766
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:05,400
Speaker 1: to imagine. Think of the electro magnets as a a

767
00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 1: circle of these coils of wire. So the coils of

768
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:13,000
Speaker 1: wire are kind of if you're thinking of it in

769
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: that pie shape. You turn the bicycle wheel on its side,

770
00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,319
Speaker 1: and you you were to pull off the cover, you

771
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,440
Speaker 1: look at essentially a little columns of of coils of

772
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 1: electric wire set up in a circle. Uh. And these

773
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 1: would be stationary relative to the rotation of the wheel.

774
00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:33,800
Speaker 1: They are mounted to the axle, they do not rotate, Okay,

775
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:36,680
Speaker 1: so they are they they're going to remain stationary compared

776
00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:40,960
Speaker 1: to the rotation of the wheel. Around this, you would

777
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 1: have a rotating uh wheel rotating or rotating chamber that

778
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:49,839
Speaker 1: has permanent magnets mounted on it. All right, Now, these

779
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:51,600
Speaker 1: are the magnets that are going to be attracted and

780
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:54,960
Speaker 1: repelled by the electro magnets in the center. And because

781
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:59,359
Speaker 1: these can rotate, that change in electromagnetism is what's going

782
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 1: to make it move and make the wheel turn, whether

783
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:06,839
Speaker 1: it's to assist you or to completely take over and

784
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:10,200
Speaker 1: act as an electric throttle. So that's where your direct

785
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 1: drive system comes in exactly. And there are some that

786
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,479
Speaker 1: I've seen that connect as both, like the mid drive.

787
00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:19,840
Speaker 1: Some of the mid drives cann act as pedal assist

788
00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:22,400
Speaker 1: or then you can switch it to throttle control and

789
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,600
Speaker 1: then it just completely takes over for you. Um. So

790
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 1: this is, uh, this is the very basic version, the

791
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:33,759
Speaker 1: easiest one to understand with the electric motors, and that

792
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:37,840
Speaker 1: that chamber of permanent magnets when it does one full rotation,

793
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,800
Speaker 1: that's the full rotation of the wheel, right. And uh,

794
00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 1: usually you have a multiple phase electric motor, and that

795
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: sounds really complicated, but it's actually really easy. In fact,

796
00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: I'll give you a very simple example. Let's imagine that

797
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:59,920
Speaker 1: we have a clock, an analog clock, round clock, regular

798
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 1: old thing you've seen a billion times. Now, imagine that

799
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:06,680
Speaker 1: instead of a number at each space where there normally

800
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 1: would be one, you've got one of those coils of

801
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 1: electric or a copper wire. So you've got an electro

802
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: magnet at each of the number spots. If you have

803
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:21,319
Speaker 1: a phase three motor, that means that one third of

804
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:25,160
Speaker 1: those numbers are all going to essentially switch on and

805
00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:29,160
Speaker 1: switch off. Simultaneously. The other two thirds will do the

806
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:33,440
Speaker 1: same with their respective groups. So with the twelve number

807
00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:37,680
Speaker 1: version for a standard clock, your twelve o'clock, three o'clock,

808
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 1: six o'clock, and nine o'clock positions would all turn on

809
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:44,080
Speaker 1: and off simultaneously. Then you would have the one o'clock,

810
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:46,400
Speaker 1: four o'clock, seven o'clock, and ten o'clock one's doing the

811
00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:49,720
Speaker 1: same and the two, five, eight, and eleven o'clock one's

812
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:52,960
Speaker 1: doing the same. And by switching between these you can

813
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:56,280
Speaker 1: have a smoother transition. To keep the bike wheel moving

814
00:40:56,480 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 1: as smoothly as possible, it's not being up, slowing down,

815
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:02,480
Speaker 1: speeding up slowly, right right, It's to try and keep

816
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:04,880
Speaker 1: that nice and smooth. And obviously the more phases you

817
00:41:04,920 --> 00:41:08,880
Speaker 1: have than at least to some point, the smoother the

818
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:11,719
Speaker 1: the experience will be. Oh you made that very easy

819
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,959
Speaker 1: to understand. Yeah, so, uh, you know, I I looked

820
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:16,239
Speaker 1: at this a lot to try and figure out how

821
00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:18,759
Speaker 1: I was going to explain it worked. Well, thank you,

822
00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. So, yeah, that's that makes the direct

823
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: drive really easy to understand. The geared ones are a

824
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:29,200
Speaker 1: little a little more complicated, but not by a whole

825
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:31,399
Speaker 1: lot Yeah, they're they're different and they've got some parts

826
00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 1: that wear as well because they've got nylon gears and

827
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,280
Speaker 1: as you can imagine those those uh, you know, grinding

828
00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:40,680
Speaker 1: on each other. Um, they're going to show signs of

829
00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:42,880
Speaker 1: wear over time and you have to replace parts in them.

830
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:44,719
Speaker 1: So they're a little bit more complex than that. There's

831
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:47,120
Speaker 1: a there's actually quite a few different things. You know,

832
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:50,080
Speaker 1: they're a little bit noisier. Um, they have a lower

833
00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:52,800
Speaker 1: top speed typically. Now that again, we can talk about

834
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:54,760
Speaker 1: gearing again if you want, but I think that everybody

835
00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:56,880
Speaker 1: kind of understands that that you can play with it

836
00:41:56,960 --> 00:41:59,200
Speaker 1: gearing however you want for for an increased top speed

837
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:01,799
Speaker 1: if you need to, but typically they have a lower

838
00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:03,360
Speaker 1: top speed. If you buy a bike that has a

839
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:05,719
Speaker 1: set up with a geared system, it's more for um

840
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: the heavy duty applications like the pulling or the towing

841
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:12,920
Speaker 1: and um, as we mentioned, durability, right, that's that's one

842
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,439
Speaker 1: thing that the you know, getting in there to service them,

843
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:17,480
Speaker 1: if you have to do this yourself or you know,

844
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 1: it could be expensive. I guess probably more expensive in

845
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:23,000
Speaker 1: the long run because of because of maintenance. And you're

846
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:26,840
Speaker 1: probably talking like bucks at least to bring it into

847
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:30,480
Speaker 1: a bike shop to have a service. And honestly, the prices,

848
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:32,080
Speaker 1: I mean from the kits that I was looking at.

849
00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:34,879
Speaker 1: You know, the difference between buying a kit to add

850
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:37,040
Speaker 1: to your bike. You know, the difference between a geared

851
00:42:37,040 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 1: motor and a direct drive motor. It was just about identical.

852
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:44,520
Speaker 1: So you know, the the added expense that you're gonna

853
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:47,000
Speaker 1: have with a geared motor is something you have to consider,

854
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:48,840
Speaker 1: you know, somewhere down the road, you know, whether it

855
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:50,239
Speaker 1: be a year down the road or I don't know

856
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:51,799
Speaker 1: how often it would have to be serviced. I think

857
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:54,319
Speaker 1: it depends on use. Really, we've got a little bit

858
00:42:54,320 --> 00:43:06,359
Speaker 1: more about how e bikes work after these quick messages. Well,

859
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:08,799
Speaker 1: one other thing I would mention about the direct drive

860
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:15,760
Speaker 1: systems that is a drawback, small one. It's something called cogging. Cogging.

861
00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:20,160
Speaker 1: I saw a someone trying to, uh, trying to depict

862
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:22,600
Speaker 1: this on one of the reviews and I didn't quite

863
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:26,319
Speaker 1: see what it was. So, so cogging is where you've

864
00:43:26,320 --> 00:43:29,439
Speaker 1: got these magnets right inside inside the direct drive. They're

865
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:33,400
Speaker 1: constantly rotating because they're in the part that moves along

866
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:36,040
Speaker 1: with the rotation force of the wheel. Yeah, if you

867
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:39,560
Speaker 1: have your system unpowered, so you don't have any pedal

868
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 1: like going, that's the electro magnets are off. Those magnets

869
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:47,120
Speaker 1: are somewhat attracted to the materials at the core of

870
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 1: that wheel, the stationary part. So that part of stationary

871
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 1: with respect to the ground, like with respect to the

872
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:54,440
Speaker 1: rest of the bike, and who wouldn't be that's a

873
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:58,680
Speaker 1: good looking part, yeah, exactly. So when you're trying to pedal,

874
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,520
Speaker 1: that means that these magnets are slightly attracted to that

875
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:05,360
Speaker 1: stationary part the resisting moving, So you have to overcome

876
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,520
Speaker 1: that magnetic resistance to get them to move. It's not

877
00:44:08,719 --> 00:44:12,799
Speaker 1: necessarily a significant like, it's not it's not like you're

878
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: gonna be like straining to move forward a few inches,

879
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:19,080
Speaker 1: but it means you have to work a little harder initially, yeah,

880
00:44:19,120 --> 00:44:23,840
Speaker 1: to to get it moving because it has this drag effect.

881
00:44:24,320 --> 00:44:26,200
Speaker 1: So it's called cogging, but really you can think of

882
00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 1: it as drag in the sense that it's a magnetic

883
00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:30,880
Speaker 1: drag that is listed as one of the cons on

884
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:32,839
Speaker 1: this in this article that I'm kind of following along

885
00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:36,280
Speaker 1: with here and the the article I mean, it's from

886
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,879
Speaker 1: a site called e Bite kit dot com, so that's

887
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 1: where you can also buy a kit. But it was

888
00:44:40,239 --> 00:44:43,439
Speaker 1: a review blog post was done by somebody and um,

889
00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:45,399
Speaker 1: one of the cons that they mentioned for direct drive

890
00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:48,799
Speaker 1: is drag, drag when you when you pedal. Um. Now,

891
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:50,719
Speaker 1: the other ones, you know, the geared systems, I guess

892
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:53,240
Speaker 1: don't have that kind of drag, but there's more noise

893
00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:56,319
Speaker 1: because those gears are constantly spining in there. Um. The

894
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 1: other thing, the other cons I guess we should want

895
00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,000
Speaker 1: to just list them now for the DIRECTORIZ system are

896
00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:03,920
Speaker 1: that it has typically has less range. Uh there are

897
00:45:03,920 --> 00:45:06,400
Speaker 1: a lot you know, a lot bigger, and they're heavier

898
00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:08,880
Speaker 1: than the geared systems would because the geared systems can

899
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:12,000
Speaker 1: be much smaller. They're they're again it's just based on gearing,

900
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:14,959
Speaker 1: how efficient you want to make them. And we've talked

901
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:17,320
Speaker 1: about batteries. We've talked and I felt like I missed

902
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 1: my chance to mention this, but the size of the

903
00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 1: battery matters as well. Uh So you want a big,

904
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:23,880
Speaker 1: powerful battery, you're gonna go a little bit fatter. It's

905
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:26,880
Speaker 1: gonna be able to power that. You know, that that motor,

906
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,280
Speaker 1: whether it's a direct drive or whether it's a geared system,

907
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:33,040
Speaker 1: it's gonna be able to to I guess expel expend

908
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:36,080
Speaker 1: more juice to make that thing go a little faster. UM.

909
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:38,160
Speaker 1: It's it's very similar to if you think about the

910
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:41,239
Speaker 1: like the Tesla cars. UM. You know, there's the version

911
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:43,600
Speaker 1: I think it has a sixty kill a lot. Uh.

912
00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:45,440
Speaker 1: I think I'm getting these numbers right, I hope I am.

913
00:45:45,719 --> 00:45:47,400
Speaker 1: Uh sixty kill a lot battery, and then there's an

914
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 1: eight five kill a lot battery and it's the the

915
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 1: higher performance version. So it depends on the battery size

916
00:45:53,640 --> 00:45:56,040
Speaker 1: and the output of that battery, how fast you're gonna go,

917
00:45:56,080 --> 00:45:58,480
Speaker 1: Also the size of the motor, the output of the motor.

918
00:45:58,520 --> 00:46:00,080
Speaker 1: You know, you need to get the right pairing. And

919
00:46:00,280 --> 00:46:02,960
Speaker 1: there's some other really cool things that we're starting to

920
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:07,480
Speaker 1: see paired with these electric bytes bikes, especially the wheel

921
00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:10,319
Speaker 1: systems that are coming out there too, in particular that

922
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:12,120
Speaker 1: I was really interested in. But there's more than that.

923
00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:14,600
Speaker 1: You actually mentioned another one when we were talking before

924
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 1: we came in here, but the Copenhagen or Copenhagen wheel

925
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:22,959
Speaker 1: from m I T and the fly Cli wheel, which

926
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:28,000
Speaker 1: UH some have suggested might have taken more than a

927
00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:31,200
Speaker 1: little bit of inspiration from the Copenhagen wheel. But the

928
00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 1: truth is, these direct drive motors all look the same.

929
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:37,040
Speaker 1: It's all the same ideas, so that's hard to say.

930
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:39,680
Speaker 1: The implementation is really what's important here because it also

931
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:43,160
Speaker 1: depends on the sensors that you include, and that's where

932
00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:46,439
Speaker 1: we were starting to see more complexity like that. When

933
00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:49,760
Speaker 1: you break it down, a direct drive in hub system

934
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:52,799
Speaker 1: is one of the simplest electric motors that you can have,

935
00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:57,319
Speaker 1: But the complexity comes in these other sensors that come

936
00:46:57,360 --> 00:47:00,680
Speaker 1: to play, Like some of these kits you uh, you know,

937
00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:03,160
Speaker 1: how do they know when to kick in and help

938
00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:06,799
Speaker 1: give you pedal assystem? For example, some of them, you

939
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:10,480
Speaker 1: mount a small magnet on one of the spokes of

940
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:13,920
Speaker 1: your wheel, and mounted to a stationary part of the

941
00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 1: bicycle is a sensor and every time the magnet passes

942
00:47:17,600 --> 00:47:21,120
Speaker 1: the sensor, it it uh clocks it so it knows,

943
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:25,120
Speaker 1: all right, the wheels having this many rotations per minute,

944
00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:29,120
Speaker 1: therefore they're pedaling this amount. Therefore I will kick in

945
00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:32,520
Speaker 1: this much assistance. Yeah, you know, about thirty years ago,

946
00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:34,920
Speaker 1: I had a spedometer on a bicycle that worked the

947
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 1: same way. It's it's really simple. It's really basic and

948
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:40,200
Speaker 1: a lot of there's a lot of sensors in automobiles

949
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:41,640
Speaker 1: that work that same way as well. It's just a

950
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:44,560
Speaker 1: counter it's just counting one, two, three's well, it's just

951
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 1: more like one one, one, But but it's just every

952
00:47:47,600 --> 00:47:51,200
Speaker 1: rotation is saying, it's just registering that right as movement.

953
00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:54,160
Speaker 1: And then there are other ones that are torque sensors, right,

954
00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:58,759
Speaker 1: These are these are calculating how much force the bicyclist

955
00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:02,319
Speaker 1: is applying to the pedal and it kicks in the

956
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 1: electric motor to help counteract that force to keep it

957
00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:10,160
Speaker 1: either very smooth or to just say, like, all right,

958
00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:13,080
Speaker 1: we have a threshold here, and anything beyond this threshold

959
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:15,640
Speaker 1: we need to kick in the electronic assess so that

960
00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:19,960
Speaker 1: way we're not making the bicyclist pedal too hard. And

961
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:22,400
Speaker 1: it's a bit more complex, yeah, obviously. Yeah, And then

962
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 1: it also means that it tends to be more expensive,

963
00:48:25,200 --> 00:48:27,480
Speaker 1: Like the systems that have that version of sensor are

964
00:48:27,480 --> 00:48:30,680
Speaker 1: more expensive than the the ones that just count rotations.

965
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:32,799
Speaker 1: And some of these are wired systems and some are

966
00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:37,080
Speaker 1: wireless systems. And we talked about earlier, We talked about

967
00:48:37,440 --> 00:48:40,440
Speaker 1: the control of these these systems and some of the readouts,

968
00:48:40,440 --> 00:48:42,000
Speaker 1: you know, because a lot of the kids come with

969
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:45,200
Speaker 1: an LCD dashboard and it'll tell you all the information

970
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 1: you need to need to know about you know, the

971
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:50,239
Speaker 1: range that you know what you have left, battery power, etcetera.

972
00:48:50,239 --> 00:48:53,360
Speaker 1: You know just how much help you're getting, like whether

973
00:48:53,520 --> 00:48:56,719
Speaker 1: it's uh, you know, a little bit of help or

974
00:48:56,760 --> 00:48:58,480
Speaker 1: a lot of help, that kind of stuff. You can

975
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:00,600
Speaker 1: put it in different modes like Eco mode, which is

976
00:49:00,719 --> 00:49:03,120
Speaker 1: you know, less help and it's it saves the battery

977
00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: I guess you have an extended amount of range, or

978
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:06,960
Speaker 1: you can put it in performance mode or whatever they

979
00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:10,600
Speaker 1: call it by the manufacturer. But some of them are

980
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:14,680
Speaker 1: controlled with your smartphone and how this is one of

981
00:49:14,719 --> 00:49:16,399
Speaker 1: the downsides of this though. I mean, it's really cool

982
00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:17,719
Speaker 1: that you can do that, and you can mount it

983
00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:19,719
Speaker 1: right in the center of your of your handlebars, you know,

984
00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:22,000
Speaker 1: right where you can see it, But you still have

985
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:24,239
Speaker 1: to avert your eyes from the traffic or wherever you

986
00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:26,239
Speaker 1: are in order to look down at that smartphone, and

987
00:49:26,239 --> 00:49:28,359
Speaker 1: then you have to interact with it. So it's sort

988
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,760
Speaker 1: of akin to texting and driving or texting and biking

989
00:49:32,480 --> 00:49:34,600
Speaker 1: in a way. I know, they make the controls very easy.

990
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's large buttons. You just touched and

991
00:49:37,200 --> 00:49:39,400
Speaker 1: swipe and once you get accustomed to where that is,

992
00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:43,240
Speaker 1: you might be able to do that, you know, relatively quickly.

993
00:49:43,280 --> 00:49:44,680
Speaker 1: You know, you don't have to stare at stare at

994
00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:46,080
Speaker 1: it for quite as long as you will when it's

995
00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:48,719
Speaker 1: new to you. But you know, the more options you have,

996
00:49:49,080 --> 00:49:52,440
Speaker 1: the more the more complex the interface is going to be.

997
00:49:52,520 --> 00:49:55,600
Speaker 1: So for example, if you have the Copenhangen wheel, it's

998
00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:58,040
Speaker 1: got a lot of different options, right, and you have

999
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 1: an app that connects to the wheel, and it's using

1000
00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 1: low energy Bluetooth, so it's not sipping a whole lot

1001
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:05,759
Speaker 1: of power, although in fact, I would say that for

1002
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:08,680
Speaker 1: your smartphone the most power that's been consumed is just

1003
00:50:08,760 --> 00:50:11,399
Speaker 1: powering the display, like that display is going to suck

1004
00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:14,240
Speaker 1: up more battery power than the low energy bluetooth. However,

1005
00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:16,720
Speaker 1: all that being said, if you've got lots and lots

1006
00:50:16,719 --> 00:50:19,399
Speaker 1: of options, that means you've got to swipe through stuff too,

1007
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:21,839
Speaker 1: and that makes it even more complicated because your your

1008
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:25,479
Speaker 1: attention is taken away from your surroundings in the road

1009
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:29,600
Speaker 1: even more so that you can switch. Uh. They also

1010
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:33,680
Speaker 1: have options for things like regenerative breaking or regenerating some

1011
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 1: of that electricity by putting it into exercise mode, which

1012
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:41,400
Speaker 1: is where you're you're kind of working against the motor.

1013
00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:44,640
Speaker 1: The idea being that, uh, it's it's sort of reversing

1014
00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:49,319
Speaker 1: this this trend. Instead of uh, the electricity causing the

1015
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:53,120
Speaker 1: motor to turn and thus giving you help, you are

1016
00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:56,279
Speaker 1: pushing the motor, which is causing electricity to flow the

1017
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:58,560
Speaker 1: other direction and recharge of the battery. It's turning a

1018
00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:00,879
Speaker 1: motor into a dynamo in the words. Yeah, and now

1019
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:03,240
Speaker 1: one of the one of the models that I saw, um,

1020
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:05,520
Speaker 1: you know, demode I think it was maybe the Copenhagen

1021
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:08,040
Speaker 1: wheel is the one that if you're backpedaling as you're

1022
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:10,319
Speaker 1: in motion, if you're so so the motor, you're you're

1023
00:51:10,360 --> 00:51:11,960
Speaker 1: saying to the motor you don't want it to assist

1024
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:15,120
Speaker 1: you in pedaling at this point, and you backpedal. That's

1025
00:51:15,160 --> 00:51:19,319
Speaker 1: the regenerative mode. That's what it's. It's you're gaining battery power,

1026
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:21,719
Speaker 1: I guess by doing that. And you can also make

1027
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:23,719
Speaker 1: a hill work for you in the same way. Right, Yeah,

1028
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:26,280
Speaker 1: when you're going down the hill, you put an exercise mode,

1029
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:28,640
Speaker 1: which normally would mean you'd have to pedal harder to

1030
00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:30,719
Speaker 1: get to wherever you were going. Let's say you're on

1031
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:34,759
Speaker 1: a totally flat surface. You've got everything turned off and

1032
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:37,960
Speaker 1: you and you ride across this flat surface. You're using

1033
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:40,640
Speaker 1: a certain amount of energy in order to do that.

1034
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:42,879
Speaker 1: If you turned on exercise mode, you'd have to put

1035
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:45,560
Speaker 1: in a little extra energy because now you're working against

1036
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:48,120
Speaker 1: that motor to kind of regenerate electricity. If you're going

1037
00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:50,479
Speaker 1: down the hill, you let gravity do that extra work

1038
00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:54,800
Speaker 1: for you. So you switch from pedal assist to exercise

1039
00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:57,719
Speaker 1: and you can regenerate some of the electricity, giving your

1040
00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:00,200
Speaker 1: battery a little bit extra juice that you can make

1041
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:02,279
Speaker 1: it all the way to work. But that means having

1042
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:05,440
Speaker 1: to switch modes in mid ride. And that's where we're

1043
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:07,880
Speaker 1: getting into this, like how do you do that in

1044
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:10,880
Speaker 1: a way that's not distracting the bicycle. We'll see what

1045
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:12,680
Speaker 1: that one. You're not looking down at the screen and

1046
00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:15,960
Speaker 1: swiping through. You're just physically doing something. And I thought

1047
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:17,919
Speaker 1: that was a great way to handle that. And then

1048
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:20,480
Speaker 1: you know, you just slightly backpedal. Everybody can remember that,

1049
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 1: and you don't have to look down to do that.

1050
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 1: And I was thinking, why don't they start to incorporate

1051
00:52:25,040 --> 00:52:27,440
Speaker 1: some of these controls in the handlebars as if it

1052
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:30,640
Speaker 1: would be a game controller. Because once you learn a

1053
00:52:30,680 --> 00:52:32,960
Speaker 1: game controller, and you know what, it takes you ten

1054
00:52:33,000 --> 00:52:35,319
Speaker 1: minutes or if it takes you ten weeks to learn

1055
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:37,360
Speaker 1: that game controller, you know, maybe not ten weeks, but

1056
00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:39,839
Speaker 1: you understand where it is. You don't have to look down,

1057
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:42,000
Speaker 1: you know, find out where the X button is or

1058
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:44,440
Speaker 1: where the A button is. It becomes natural. It's a

1059
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:47,799
Speaker 1: it's a you know, um memory, muscle memory. That's the term.

1060
00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 1: So once if you if you were to have a

1061
00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:54,200
Speaker 1: system that was universal, you know that all design all

1062
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:56,960
Speaker 1: e bike designers used it, you know, that used the

1063
00:52:56,960 --> 00:53:01,040
Speaker 1: same hand controls on the on the not the pegs

1064
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:04,840
Speaker 1: on the handlebars, handle grips. It would be something that

1065
00:53:05,040 --> 00:53:07,120
Speaker 1: I think everybody could benefit from because you know, you

1066
00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:08,879
Speaker 1: could sure you can still have your your phone there

1067
00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:10,279
Speaker 1: and you could have that you know, set up so

1068
00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:11,840
Speaker 1: that yeah, I'm gonna I'm just gonna put it in

1069
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:14,120
Speaker 1: eco mode and I'm gonna leave it there, but every

1070
00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:16,600
Speaker 1: other control, you know, from that point on, I can

1071
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:19,239
Speaker 1: use hand controls without looking down. I think that would

1072
00:53:19,239 --> 00:53:22,320
Speaker 1: be great for somebody who's in traffic and crowded cities

1073
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:24,800
Speaker 1: like what we're talking about now, most of them aren't

1074
00:53:24,840 --> 00:53:27,560
Speaker 1: as advanced as that we were talking about. That's that's

1075
00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:31,320
Speaker 1: the top end, really expensive ones. The ones that I'm

1076
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:34,000
Speaker 1: sure that you know most of you know, the people

1077
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:36,240
Speaker 1: in these crowded cities that have these kind of early

1078
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:39,239
Speaker 1: versions of e bikes, they're not that complex. They they

1079
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:42,160
Speaker 1: respond more to the physical commands like what we were

1080
00:53:42,160 --> 00:53:44,360
Speaker 1: talking about with the back pedaling for the generation and

1081
00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:46,040
Speaker 1: things like that. And some of them do have things

1082
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:49,320
Speaker 1: like thumb throttles or thumb controls to either said on

1083
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:52,840
Speaker 1: uh you know, pedal assist, or they might have a

1084
00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:57,600
Speaker 1: twist throttle for the fully powered electric bikes sure like

1085
00:53:57,640 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 1: a mini biker a motorbike would have. Yeah, so there

1086
00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:03,520
Speaker 1: there are those versions. But the ones that I've seen,

1087
00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:05,560
Speaker 1: like the fly Lie in the Copenhagen both of those

1088
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:11,080
Speaker 1: are completely one wheel systems that then hook up like

1089
00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:15,359
Speaker 1: once you once you detach your existing rear wheel and

1090
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:20,160
Speaker 1: then install the the Copenhagen wheel or the fly Lie wheel. Uh,

1091
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:22,279
Speaker 1: then all you do is you hook it up to

1092
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:25,960
Speaker 1: your smartphone and then that's what it activates. It. So

1093
00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:29,319
Speaker 1: it also has some interesting safety features, like you can

1094
00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:32,600
Speaker 1: deactivate it so that if someone were to take your wheel,

1095
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:34,799
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be of any use to them because they

1096
00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:37,960
Speaker 1: couldn't turn it back on again. You mentioned theft, right,

1097
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:39,839
Speaker 1: because that's uh, that's something that a lot of people

1098
00:54:39,880 --> 00:54:42,040
Speaker 1: would be concerned with if their back wheel of their

1099
00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:44,719
Speaker 1: bike is where is now worth two thousand dollars just

1100
00:54:44,840 --> 00:54:46,680
Speaker 1: one wheel? Right? I mean it's just a matter of

1101
00:54:46,719 --> 00:54:48,399
Speaker 1: two bolts to get that thing off of there, right,

1102
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:50,680
Speaker 1: So you park your bike and it's worth two thousand

1103
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:53,000
Speaker 1: dollars the back end and then whatever else the rest

1104
00:54:53,040 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 1: of the bike costs probably an expensive bike, I guess.

1105
00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:59,879
Speaker 1: So what what prevents somebody from just either walking away

1106
00:54:59,880 --> 00:55:01,880
Speaker 1: with your bike, which I guess they could do anyways,

1107
00:55:02,520 --> 00:55:05,239
Speaker 1: or just taking that that that wheel off. I mean,

1108
00:55:05,560 --> 00:55:07,399
Speaker 1: you have to be very creative about how you chain

1109
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:09,319
Speaker 1: this thing up or or what you do with it.

1110
00:55:09,360 --> 00:55:12,000
Speaker 1: But there's there's a safety in place, I guess if

1111
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,759
Speaker 1: it does walk away, right. Yeah, there's a couple of them, right.

1112
00:55:14,800 --> 00:55:17,880
Speaker 1: There's one that has the electric motor turn off and

1113
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:20,560
Speaker 1: it doesn't turn on again until it recognizes the handshake

1114
00:55:20,640 --> 00:55:23,960
Speaker 1: with your particular smartphone because you've paired it. Uh. There's

1115
00:55:24,040 --> 00:55:27,840
Speaker 1: also some that have GPS in them, so that should

1116
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:30,040
Speaker 1: the wheel go wandering, you can track down where it

1117
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:33,160
Speaker 1: is kind of similar to like where's my iPhone? That

1118
00:55:33,200 --> 00:55:35,919
Speaker 1: sort of stuff will alert you if it's moving when

1119
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:38,600
Speaker 1: you're not near it. Yeah, which is interesting like that,

1120
00:55:38,640 --> 00:55:41,600
Speaker 1: and it's a useful feature. Uh. The Copenhagen one, I

1121
00:55:41,600 --> 00:55:45,160
Speaker 1: think is seven and I think the fly Cli is

1122
00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:48,560
Speaker 1: something like six hundred. Uh they're they're about a hundred

1123
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:51,319
Speaker 1: dollars off, I remember that. And uh so they're both

1124
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:53,759
Speaker 1: pretty expensive. I mean, if you're looking at a brand

1125
00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:56,759
Speaker 1: new bicycle, depending upon what market you're in, it could

1126
00:55:56,800 --> 00:55:58,960
Speaker 1: be the same price as your bike, and that's just

1127
00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:01,880
Speaker 1: a wheel. So and and the e bike Kits that

1128
00:56:01,920 --> 00:56:03,719
Speaker 1: I was I was mentioning, you know, that's that that

1129
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:05,399
Speaker 1: I keep saying that side. I hope you don't mind.

1130
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:07,120
Speaker 1: But it's the bike kit dot com because they have

1131
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:09,200
Speaker 1: a lot of good information there as well. And again

1132
00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:11,640
Speaker 1: they range from about seven d and seventy five dollars

1133
00:56:11,680 --> 00:56:14,200
Speaker 1: up to about two thousand. Was the top one I saw.

1134
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:18,360
Speaker 1: But you're talking about different um completely different packages like

1135
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:20,960
Speaker 1: that seven seventy five kid, it doesn't. It has no

1136
00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:24,160
Speaker 1: battery and it has no charger. Um, so you're gonna

1137
00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:25,799
Speaker 1: have to add on to that thing, right. The other

1138
00:56:25,840 --> 00:56:28,799
Speaker 1: one has everything as I mentioned. But the difference, one

1139
00:56:28,800 --> 00:56:31,400
Speaker 1: of the biggest differences is in the top speed and

1140
00:56:31,440 --> 00:56:33,960
Speaker 1: the range of these things. So you know, the lower

1141
00:56:34,040 --> 00:56:36,880
Speaker 1: kids tend to have a lower top speed and in

1142
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:39,640
Speaker 1: a slightly less range you know, or lower range, I guess.

1143
00:56:39,640 --> 00:56:42,160
Speaker 1: And as far as the distance you can travel, um,

1144
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:44,839
Speaker 1: you know, maybe maybe the low end one is like,

1145
00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 1: you know, twelve to fifteen miles with power assist, and

1146
00:56:48,760 --> 00:56:51,400
Speaker 1: the upper arrange one can go all the way up

1147
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:54,279
Speaker 1: to about fifty four miles. So a fifty four mile

1148
00:56:54,400 --> 00:56:57,200
Speaker 1: bike ride on one charge. That's pretty good, I mean.

1149
00:56:57,600 --> 00:56:59,520
Speaker 1: And you know, top speed of about twenty eight miles

1150
00:56:59,560 --> 00:57:02,040
Speaker 1: per hour. Now you might be limited in some cities

1151
00:57:02,080 --> 00:57:05,120
Speaker 1: to what speed you're allowed to travel because there are

1152
00:57:05,120 --> 00:57:08,880
Speaker 1: restrictions on some of these things. And the UK it's

1153
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:11,560
Speaker 1: an hour, which is about fifteen yeah, and here it's

1154
00:57:11,600 --> 00:57:13,319
Speaker 1: a little bit faster in the States here I think

1155
00:57:13,360 --> 00:57:16,320
Speaker 1: it was what twenty is. And then there's that odd

1156
00:57:16,840 --> 00:57:18,880
Speaker 1: strange thing. It's not it's not so odd really when

1157
00:57:18,920 --> 00:57:20,480
Speaker 1: you really think about it, because everyboy's gonna want to

1158
00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:22,240
Speaker 1: go a little bit faster, right, There's it's gonna be

1159
00:57:22,280 --> 00:57:25,040
Speaker 1: the group that wants the sport version, right. So there's

1160
00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:27,400
Speaker 1: the s pedal X for those people, and that stands

1161
00:57:27,400 --> 00:57:30,960
Speaker 1: for Speedy Pedal X. And the difference is there they

1162
00:57:30,960 --> 00:57:33,320
Speaker 1: have a more powerful motor. Um. You know, of course

1163
00:57:33,840 --> 00:57:36,120
Speaker 1: you can do unlimited pedal assists if you want, so

1164
00:57:36,120 --> 00:57:37,560
Speaker 1: it can be kind of like a power on demand

1165
00:57:37,560 --> 00:57:40,080
Speaker 1: type system. Um, oh, you know what, I'm going to

1166
00:57:40,160 --> 00:57:42,080
Speaker 1: take that back again. I don't know if it will

1167
00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:45,960
Speaker 1: do that, but it has unlimited what I'm saying it now,

1168
00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:49,040
Speaker 1: I'm understand it. It's a it's unlimited pedal assists. So

1169
00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:51,160
Speaker 1: you know, once you reach that twenty miles per hour,

1170
00:57:51,200 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 1: it doesn't kind of cut out like the ones that

1171
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:56,880
Speaker 1: are limited, so you're capable of powering it further. It

1172
00:57:56,960 --> 00:58:00,280
Speaker 1: will continue to assist, and you would be because it's

1173
00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:02,400
Speaker 1: one of those things where like you, because it's a

1174
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:04,720
Speaker 1: pedal assist system, you would be able to get up

1175
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:07,080
Speaker 1: to twenty miles per hour no problem. And then once

1176
00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:09,640
Speaker 1: you continue, it's like you're putting out less energy to

1177
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:11,560
Speaker 1: go faster, and then you put out just a little

1178
00:58:11,560 --> 00:58:13,720
Speaker 1: bit more and you can go way faster and it

1179
00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:15,600
Speaker 1: just carries on. And I'm sure there's got to be

1180
00:58:15,640 --> 00:58:18,640
Speaker 1: an upper limit. There has to be a a top limit,

1181
00:58:18,680 --> 00:58:22,760
Speaker 1: but really the speed cutout is set far far higher.

1182
00:58:22,800 --> 00:58:25,320
Speaker 1: And for this type of system, uh, you know, things

1183
00:58:25,360 --> 00:58:28,320
Speaker 1: like um, you know, helmets and protective gear are required

1184
00:58:28,360 --> 00:58:32,240
Speaker 1: because they realize that it's closer to a scooter or

1185
00:58:32,320 --> 00:58:34,760
Speaker 1: a motorcycle even in some phases depends on how fast

1186
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,640
Speaker 1: you can go. But the speedy pedal X or something

1187
00:58:37,680 --> 00:58:39,200
Speaker 1: for you know, the people that want to kind of

1188
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:41,200
Speaker 1: take it to the next level, right, I don't think

1189
00:58:41,200 --> 00:58:43,880
Speaker 1: I'm gonna need anything quite at that level if I

1190
00:58:43,880 --> 00:58:46,760
Speaker 1: if I do invest in one of these, uh, And

1191
00:58:46,840 --> 00:58:49,680
Speaker 1: I gotta say that something else we should mention is

1192
00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:53,560
Speaker 1: that the in hub systems do have other other things.

1193
00:58:53,560 --> 00:58:56,680
Speaker 1: You gotta remember. For one, it's going to offset the

1194
00:58:56,720 --> 00:58:58,800
Speaker 1: weight of your bicycle, like it's going to put a

1195
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:01,560
Speaker 1: lot more weight on whatever wheel you're replacing. Yes, and

1196
00:59:01,600 --> 00:59:05,240
Speaker 1: we're talking like ballpark ten pounds. I mean that's right

1197
00:59:05,240 --> 00:59:06,880
Speaker 1: around where it is. It's that you know, I've seen

1198
00:59:07,440 --> 00:59:10,200
Speaker 1: nine pound systems and I've seen thirteen pound systems, So

1199
00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:13,320
Speaker 1: somewhere in there. Yeah, so that's gonna be something to

1200
00:59:13,400 --> 00:59:15,280
Speaker 1: keep in mind. The as opposed to some of the

1201
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:18,320
Speaker 1: other like the mid drive systems, they kind of balance

1202
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:21,160
Speaker 1: the weight out across the frame of the bicycle, so

1203
00:59:21,200 --> 00:59:23,400
Speaker 1: you don't have one section of the bike that is,

1204
00:59:23,640 --> 00:59:27,760
Speaker 1: uh is heavier than it otherwise would be. But you know,

1205
00:59:27,840 --> 00:59:30,160
Speaker 1: it's it's well, it's important for riding, you know, for

1206
00:59:30,280 --> 00:59:32,440
Speaker 1: the the way it feels on the road, but it's

1207
00:59:32,440 --> 00:59:34,400
Speaker 1: even more important when you're trying to carry it up

1208
00:59:34,400 --> 00:59:37,160
Speaker 1: the stairs and put it in your house at night. Yeah,

1209
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:40,040
Speaker 1: so I'll be I'll be sure to keep all of

1210
00:59:40,080 --> 00:59:43,720
Speaker 1: my listeners posted if I if I invest in one

1211
00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:45,360
Speaker 1: of these things, I would love to see it if

1212
00:59:45,360 --> 00:59:46,840
Speaker 1: you were if you ride that into work, I would

1213
00:59:46,840 --> 00:59:49,080
Speaker 1: love to come down to the parking structure or whatever

1214
00:59:49,200 --> 00:59:52,360
Speaker 1: and maybe even take it for a quick sure. Yeah,

1215
00:59:52,440 --> 00:59:54,880
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Yeah, it's funny because it will mean that

1216
00:59:54,960 --> 00:59:58,000
Speaker 1: my wheel will be much more valuable, or at least

1217
00:59:58,280 --> 01:00:00,000
Speaker 1: cost a lot more than my bike did because I

1218
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:04,000
Speaker 1: got my bike for free, so so automatically the wheel

1219
01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:07,240
Speaker 1: will be more expensive a free bike. Yeah, that's nice.

1220
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:10,200
Speaker 1: There's a thing called free cycle Atlanta where people give

1221
01:00:10,200 --> 01:00:13,760
Speaker 1: away stuff when they don't have space for it anymore.

1222
01:00:14,000 --> 01:00:16,360
Speaker 1: And you found a bike and the guy was given

1223
01:00:16,360 --> 01:00:18,680
Speaker 1: away his bike. Wow, so I got a bike. It's

1224
01:00:18,720 --> 01:00:21,760
Speaker 1: not it's not fancy, it's not it's not a super

1225
01:00:21,760 --> 01:00:23,640
Speaker 1: fancy bike, but it's it's a bike. Do they have

1226
01:00:23,640 --> 01:00:26,920
Speaker 1: any boats there? You know? I like a boat, but

1227
01:00:26,960 --> 01:00:29,440
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily want to buy a boat. The second

1228
01:00:29,440 --> 01:00:31,600
Speaker 1: happiest day of my life was when I bought my boat.

1229
01:00:31,960 --> 01:00:33,760
Speaker 1: Happiest day of my life was when I sold it.

1230
01:00:34,640 --> 01:00:38,120
Speaker 1: All right, Well, Scott, thank you for coming on the show.

1231
01:00:38,200 --> 01:00:41,320
Speaker 1: Of course, my pleasure and and in in addition to

1232
01:00:41,360 --> 01:00:44,120
Speaker 1: the website you mentioned, I also want to mention electric

1233
01:00:44,160 --> 01:00:47,360
Speaker 1: bike review dot com which has some great articles and

1234
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:50,800
Speaker 1: some great videos. If you are interested in buying an

1235
01:00:50,800 --> 01:00:54,600
Speaker 1: electric bike or buying a conversion kit, they have everything

1236
01:00:54,760 --> 01:00:57,360
Speaker 1: you would need to know, and they also review them

1237
01:00:57,400 --> 01:00:59,520
Speaker 1: so you can actually look and see if they've reviewed

1238
01:00:59,560 --> 01:01:01,640
Speaker 1: the system you're interested in and see what they have

1239
01:01:01,720 --> 01:01:04,240
Speaker 1: to say about it. Always helpful. Yeah. They had like

1240
01:01:04,280 --> 01:01:08,520
Speaker 1: a fifteen minute long review of the Copenhagen Wheel for example,

1241
01:01:08,520 --> 01:01:11,200
Speaker 1: which was very interesting. They went into great to tail

1242
01:01:11,200 --> 01:01:13,840
Speaker 1: about it. I hope you enjoyed that classic episode on

1243
01:01:13,880 --> 01:01:17,560
Speaker 1: how e bikes work and maintain your balance all the

1244
01:01:17,560 --> 01:01:20,600
Speaker 1: way through. Um, I would love to get an e bike.

1245
01:01:20,640 --> 01:01:22,960
Speaker 1: I've talked about it a couple of times about about

1246
01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:26,200
Speaker 1: picking one up, just haven't done it. Back when I

1247
01:01:26,240 --> 01:01:29,520
Speaker 1: was making regular trips into the office, I thought man

1248
01:01:29,560 --> 01:01:32,920
Speaker 1: an e bike would really make things a lot easier

1249
01:01:32,960 --> 01:01:35,240
Speaker 1: for me to get to and from work because it's

1250
01:01:35,240 --> 01:01:38,240
Speaker 1: an hour long walk, which you know, I often took

1251
01:01:38,280 --> 01:01:41,200
Speaker 1: as a way to catch up on podcasts and sort of,

1252
01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:44,560
Speaker 1: you know, get into the right mindset. But it would

1253
01:01:44,640 --> 01:01:47,280
Speaker 1: be like a twenty minute bike ride, and just getting

1254
01:01:47,320 --> 01:01:50,360
Speaker 1: those forty minutes back would be really nice. However, I've

1255
01:01:50,360 --> 01:01:52,800
Speaker 1: been working from home for the last like two years,

1256
01:01:52,880 --> 01:01:56,440
Speaker 1: so I guess it really doesn't matter now, though I

1257
01:01:56,480 --> 01:01:58,760
Speaker 1: still kind of would like one. So maybe one of

1258
01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:01,440
Speaker 1: these days I'll pick one up. If you have suggestions

1259
01:02:01,440 --> 01:02:03,800
Speaker 1: for topics I should cover on future episodes of tech Stuff,

1260
01:02:03,800 --> 01:02:06,080
Speaker 1: please reach out to me. The handle for the show

1261
01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:09,520
Speaker 1: is tech Stuff h s W on Twitter, and I

1262
01:02:09,600 --> 01:02:11,880
Speaker 1: look forward to hearing from you. You'll hear from me

1263
01:02:12,120 --> 01:02:20,720
Speaker 1: because I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff

1264
01:02:20,800 --> 01:02:23,920
Speaker 1: is an I Heart radio production for more podcasts from

1265
01:02:23,960 --> 01:02:27,760
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,

1266
01:02:27,880 --> 01:02:29,840
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.