Ebike Research: Conversion of Existing Bicycle

I've been researching electric bicycles obsessively lately and I'm showing the top four contenders in today's blog entries. This is a picture of the Bike Friday New World Tourist, which is the type of bike that I own (except mine is red and has a back rack). It's a folder and I love it. It's about a foot shorter than a regular bicycle. Despite the small wheels, it's geared to go as fast as a larger bicycle. It has 27 gears. It fits in the trunk of my car with very little hassle. Although I'm loathe to mess with it, I think that converting my beloved Bike Friday is the best way to go.

If I put the motor on the front wheel (I pasted a picture of the motor on the wheel in the picture above) then I could simply change the wheel back to a normal wheel and take the battery off when I wanted it to be a regular bicycle again. I've been talking to the John and Tim (the owners) and Forest (their young assistant) at Scoot On This on Foster Road in Portland. They are willing and able to help install the system while I'm recovering from surgery.

I'm quite adamant about using an NiMH battery and may go with the one I've pasted on this bicycle. Its a 10Ah 36V battery from ATIV Solutions. The range on it is 10-15 miles (but with pedaling one can go further). The wheels are 20" which go slower than larger wheels, about 15 miles per hour. I could also go with a battery from Cleverchimp (see next blog entry for more about them because they are very cool). John at Scoot on This is helping me research NiMH batteries. Normally customers at his shop go with SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries, since they are cheaper, but NiMH are more environmentally friendly so I prefer going that way. I still don't have an estimate on this system, but I think we are looking at the $800 range. Since it uses my existing bicycle, it's the cheapest of the possiblities that I'm considering. The other advantage is that it's one less bicycle in our garage, which is already quite crowded, with around 12 bicycles, a trailer, and assorted bicycle gear. Our cars live on the street, however. We have our priorities in order.

I tried out a normal sized bicycle the other day to see if I wanted to convert that, but it just felt huge and weird to me. I'm a true Bike Friday convert and I don't see the point of ever riding anything else. However, the entries that follow are the other ideas that I have been considering.