Mitch's Btown Blog

This week brought these two bikes past the workbench, one is heading out, the other just coming in.

On the way out is the black A2B Galvani, it came out in 2015, so it is old as far as ebikes go. Here is Electric Bike Review’s take on the Galvani. A quality ebike for the day, it has a gearless 350Watt motor (think longevity), front shocks, fenders, hydraulic disk brakes, build-in lights and rack. It needed a new inner tube, some chain lubrication, a brake adjustment, and shift indexing, and the deraileur was stuck/rusted in place. Its battery was dead, but I was able to find a factory original that was used, but in good shape, and now it is ready to ride again!

The orange RadWagon just came into the shop, it after 3 years, something went wrong on the electrical side of things. I tested the battery, it was putting out plenty of volts. Then I disconnected the motor, and reconnected it to my RadWagon, and the motor worked fine. As the display had been recently replaced, it seems most logical that the controller went bad (the display gave a variety of errors, then just turned off). So it has been ordered, and is on the way, I am confidant that it will cure the problem, but I am not sure. There can be mulitiple points of failure in any system, and the best way to figure it out is to fix one after the other till it works!

About Ebike Warranty Service I’ve found that many support techs at the major brands want you to start with the cheapest possibility, then work from there, company policy, even when the solution seems obvious to me (I’m looking at you Lectric). I did the full monty with the great folks at Vela (Brazilian commuter style), all the diaganostics were for naught, and after several internationl work sessions, they sent a new bike, and paid for all my labor besides, a good company!

I now judge ebike brands not so much on their level of quality, but rather on how they fix their problems when they occur. Different quality levels are needed as many folks have budget constraints, so no judgement on $1000 ebikes. So an inexpensive brand with good service can be preferable to a more expensive brand with poor or non-exitant service except in major cities, (I am looking at you Van Moof)!

Ryan Van Duzer loves his ebike, and can tell you why in this well crafted video (well, he is a tv star). Of course, he has an extra fancy mid drive model ($3000), but he hits all the major points to be made for riding an ebike. He explains why ebikes are great for exercise as well as for day to day errands.

This RadMini had a electrical problem, a bad connection led to a fire, no one hurt. But that spark that ignited the problem fried not only the wiriong harness, but the alao controller. Once those were replaced, it was possible to ride, but rode intermittantly wacky. So I replaced the LCD, and voila, it worked! All three parts were damaged by the voltage surge caused by the faulty connection.

But wait, there is more! For some strange reason, the wired-in headlight stays on unless the battery is turned off, not just the display! This seems to be a well known glitch with the upgraded RadRunner/Mini controllers. Fortunately, my well informed client understands the conundrum (she pointed it out), and is happy that her flaming RadMini is back on the road!

This is a great ebike, unfortunately, it was discontinued by RadPower in favor of the RadExpand, and/or the RadRunner, (which is not foldable), but I think this one at least will live on for a number of years.

I was impressed with this Aventon Aventure, a 26″ fat tire mountain bike style that checks all the boxes for sturdy, well designed and good looking. It has an SUV vibe for sure, you feel really secure when riding. Unfortunately, none of that helps if the a fall happens, which was the case for this beast.

After the fall, it just would not shift worth a darn, and it was easy to see on quick inspection that while the derailleur itself was just scratched, the hanger was bent several degrees out of true.

So I removed the derailleur, took a ride to the hardware shop and got a long fine thread bolt of the correct diameter, and screwed it into the bent hanger. I applied some weight and leverage to the bolt, eyeballed it once, applied some more pressure, and voila, as close to perfect as I could get.

I reattached the derailleur, tightened the cable, set the high and low limit screws, and then (to my surprise) indexed the gears so that there was smooth shifting from top to bottom. I felt good that I was able to repair with having to replace anything.

But, if this were to happen again, I would want to replace the hanger, as it is softer metal, and will break with sufficient stress. But getting the right replacement is often a hassle, as each manufacturer has their own design, and with the supply chain issues we have, it can be a long wait for parts. So I think I did the right thing for now!

Last week the City hosted the Ebike Curious Event on Kirkwood in front of People’s Park and the Bike Garage, and we had nearly a dozen different brands (and one home-crafted) ebikes on display. There were two recumbents, two folding fat tires, three cargo,  and three commuter style ebikes. Quite a wide range, showing the various uses there are for ebikes in our city!

 

I never expected this from Bloomberg, but here it is, How to Make Cities Safer for E-Bikes by Ira Boudway really makes the case for the use of ebikes (my preferred spelling) in the city:

“With battery-powered motors that assist riders as they pedal, e-bikes enable a broader range of people to make more and longer trips than traditional bikes. And they are cheaper, more efficient, and less resource-intensive to manufacture than electric cars.”

So there are real economic and environmental benefits to ebike travel, as cited in the article, like ~60% of car rides in US are less than 6 miles/round trip (2017), meaning that a majority of our trips could be done easily by ebike.

But most importantly, Boudway emphasizes that safety is the main concern blocking wider adoption, and that this is best addressed through infrastructure choices that allow mixed use of our public spaces.

A 2018 poll from People for Bikes found that people “said that roads are not safe enough for families to bike and, of those, 63% said they would ride if they felt safer. The best way to make riders safer is to protect them from cars.”

So count me in, paint is not enough to stop aggressive drivers from making the streets feel unsafe!

Lots of folks want to take their ebikes with them when traveling, and there are a number of racks out there. I can’t recommend any of them from experience, but here are a few racks I see mentioned frequently online. The ones built specifically for ebikes can be a bit pricey, but are elegant. The ones built for dirt bikes are sturdier, but maybe a bit clunkier, but definately cheaper.

The most expensive is the Thule at $900
Thule EasyFold XT 2: https://www.amazon.com/hule-Easyfold-Hitch-Mount-Carrier/dp/B07954CY49/

1Up is a brand many folks seem to like it at $700
Super Duty Double
https://www.1up-usa.com/product/2in-super-duty-double-bike-rack/

The Hollywood rack is often most recommended on many of the ebike groups on FB, at $500
Hollywood Racks Sport Rider 2 bike https://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Racks-Sport-Rider-

Here is a typical dirt bike rack that will easily carry two ebikes for $400.
Rage Powersports Black Widow AMC-600-2 https://www.amazon.com/Black-Widow-AMC-600-2-Aluminum-Motorcycle/dp/B004HL5SF0/