itsmedc65
10 mW
Bought my first brand new ebike on Saturday 10 August. An Aerobic Cruiser, AC for short.
THE PRODUCT BACKGROUND
I first found out about the product while searching around on this forum for ideas on converting my old beach “cruiser”.
The write up I saw on it was here http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30421&p=440660&hilit=aerobic+cruiser#p440660
The company is only a few years old but is backed by Charles McVean who is both very wealthy and, based on some of the interviews I’ve seen on the web, very passionate about the product. This is their first generation e-bike which is promoted as a hybrid cycle and “The Outdoor Exercise Machine”. The bike appears well designed and well built. We will get into the details on it in a moment. Currently they are trying to move some inventory with an eye towards adding a new model and even have some demonstration bikes for sale. So price is variable depending on your selection of new, used or very used. I suggest contacting them and discussing what is available. There have been at least three e-bay auctions for brand new bikes. All three ended without the reserve being met but, the bidding has gone higher each time with the last one I saw ending at just over a thousand dollars.
I paid quite a bit more than that but really wanted this bike because of the large battery pack, full suspension and a desire to explore the benefits I have read about in a foot forward / recumbent style bike.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Website - http://www.aerobiccruiser.com/contact
email - info@aerobiccruiser.com
Call - 1-855-474-3322.
You might catch Blair actually in the office during normal business hours but, most likely he will return your contact within an hour or two. He has been very responsive and easy to deal with; even taking a couple of hours out of his Saturday afternoon to show me around the facility, answer my questions and most importantly insure I was familiar and comfortable with the bike before helping load it into the van. I did not get to see his personal AC but, he told me he has been commuting to the facility on it for a couple of years with no failures or glitches.
DELIVERY
Instead of having mine shipped I decided to drive from the west side of Atlanta, GA to Cordova, TN and pick it up. Even with having to arrange for a van and the gasoline it was slightly cheaper than shipping. More importantly, I wanted to have a test ride and check on the quality first hand before making that final commitment. The ride test was crucial to my decision since I had almost no experience riding a recumbent style bike and the bike is long and somewhat intimidating. When I picked mine up at the build facility near Memphis, TN I saw that they do have about 100 brand new ones fully assembled that appeared ready and waiting for shipment. I also saw several large racks holding bare frames, battery packs, enclosures for the battery and controller, motors and the various parts that go into building these bikes. I also got to see prototypes of a different model and noticed a bike mounted on the Dynojet roller dynometer for testing power output at the wheel.
MY LEVEL
Have been lurking on the forums for a couple of years and made the occasional post. My other ebike experience consists of:
Riding icecube57's Tidal Force S-750 as posted here http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20398&p=645039&hilit=long+ranger#p632697 . That gave me a big EV Grin and a bad case of “I Want One”.
Next came the local purchase of a used GIANT Lafree step thru in nice condition but without any batteries. The idea was to get my wife on an ebike and then have an excuse to build one for myself. After getting the Lafree to work correctly one time I have been struggling to sort out a fault issue and am ready to just replace the factory controller and battery monitor board with a basic controller for the brushed DC motor.
I had bought some lipo to fit in place of the original lead acid on the Lafree but those are currently powering a BladeZ 450 I rescued from the curbside trash early this year. I had Chris make a harness for it to connect the Turnigy 4s1p lipo bricks in an 8s3p configuration. The scooter has been a fun and relatively cheap learning experience. The harness work that Chris did made switching the BladeZ scooter over to lipo a plug and play conversion. It also allows me to run in series at 29.6V nominal but charge the packs in parallel using an old laptop power supply putting out 16.5V. I also have a Tidal Force S-750 built up as pedal only bike that I intend to convert back to an ebike at some point.
But enough with the introduction, lets get to the good stuff.
First the “e” part of the ebike stuff and this is based mainly on what I see. Not much hard data yet; partly because of the rainy weather and partly because of needing to complete the installation of laminate flooring in the master bedroom. That will make my wife happy; and if Moma ain’t happy then nobody’s happy.
ELECTRICAL PARTS
Batteries - K2 Energy LiFePo 12s10p as a 36V 29Ah pack
Controller - ASI BAC1000
Battery / Controller Box - The battery pack and controller are housed in a large all aluminum enclosure with removable side panels.
- Enclosure also has the key switch and a 4 pin xlr charge port with a weather resistant cover.
Charger - made by High Power Technology in China and is fused with on/off switch and LED indicators.
- Model HP8204L3 for Li-ion batteries.
- Input 115/230VAC 60/50Hz 2.4/1.3A
- Output 36VDC/4A
Motor - MAC 500 watt, geared with disc brake and single sprocket
Dashboard - large screen CycleAnalyst from the spheres own hero (thanks Justin). The Cycle Analyst also has two cords; one with a male plug that carries pack voltage and the other with a female plug that is a communications cable for pulling data from the CA. http://www.ebikes.ca/drainbrain/CA_Large_V23_Update.pdf
Throttle – thumb throttle FT-21X mounted by the right hand grip but, with standard bike brake levers. So no ebrakes.
Connectors are nice automotive type with good weather tight seals both inside the enclosure and along side the inner edge of the swing arm. The ones along the inner edge of the swing arm are held in place with zip ties on to neat little tabs that I assume are welded on the swing arm.
Wiring – covered in a high quality sheathing and tucked neatly out the way.
ENOUGH FOR NOW ... more later
EDIT - Added a couple of pics that I finally got around to resizing
EDIT - adding a picture showing some of the details of the enclosure for the battery and housing.
My apologies for the poor picture lighting but between the rain clouds, work day+3hours spent commuting and working on the laminate flooring home project I have not been able to get good daylight. Will post more pics and some ride data soon.
Not sure if the information and arrows I edited onto the picture is helpful or just clutters it up since there are 9 items being pointed out in the one picture.
The cover is held on by about a dozen allen head bolts with a captured washer/bushing arrangement. The velcro just helps stabilize the battery pack.
THE PRODUCT BACKGROUND
I first found out about the product while searching around on this forum for ideas on converting my old beach “cruiser”.
The write up I saw on it was here http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30421&p=440660&hilit=aerobic+cruiser#p440660
The company is only a few years old but is backed by Charles McVean who is both very wealthy and, based on some of the interviews I’ve seen on the web, very passionate about the product. This is their first generation e-bike which is promoted as a hybrid cycle and “The Outdoor Exercise Machine”. The bike appears well designed and well built. We will get into the details on it in a moment. Currently they are trying to move some inventory with an eye towards adding a new model and even have some demonstration bikes for sale. So price is variable depending on your selection of new, used or very used. I suggest contacting them and discussing what is available. There have been at least three e-bay auctions for brand new bikes. All three ended without the reserve being met but, the bidding has gone higher each time with the last one I saw ending at just over a thousand dollars.
I paid quite a bit more than that but really wanted this bike because of the large battery pack, full suspension and a desire to explore the benefits I have read about in a foot forward / recumbent style bike.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Website - http://www.aerobiccruiser.com/contact
email - info@aerobiccruiser.com
Call - 1-855-474-3322.
You might catch Blair actually in the office during normal business hours but, most likely he will return your contact within an hour or two. He has been very responsive and easy to deal with; even taking a couple of hours out of his Saturday afternoon to show me around the facility, answer my questions and most importantly insure I was familiar and comfortable with the bike before helping load it into the van. I did not get to see his personal AC but, he told me he has been commuting to the facility on it for a couple of years with no failures or glitches.
DELIVERY
Instead of having mine shipped I decided to drive from the west side of Atlanta, GA to Cordova, TN and pick it up. Even with having to arrange for a van and the gasoline it was slightly cheaper than shipping. More importantly, I wanted to have a test ride and check on the quality first hand before making that final commitment. The ride test was crucial to my decision since I had almost no experience riding a recumbent style bike and the bike is long and somewhat intimidating. When I picked mine up at the build facility near Memphis, TN I saw that they do have about 100 brand new ones fully assembled that appeared ready and waiting for shipment. I also saw several large racks holding bare frames, battery packs, enclosures for the battery and controller, motors and the various parts that go into building these bikes. I also got to see prototypes of a different model and noticed a bike mounted on the Dynojet roller dynometer for testing power output at the wheel.
MY LEVEL
Have been lurking on the forums for a couple of years and made the occasional post. My other ebike experience consists of:
Riding icecube57's Tidal Force S-750 as posted here http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20398&p=645039&hilit=long+ranger#p632697 . That gave me a big EV Grin and a bad case of “I Want One”.
Next came the local purchase of a used GIANT Lafree step thru in nice condition but without any batteries. The idea was to get my wife on an ebike and then have an excuse to build one for myself. After getting the Lafree to work correctly one time I have been struggling to sort out a fault issue and am ready to just replace the factory controller and battery monitor board with a basic controller for the brushed DC motor.
I had bought some lipo to fit in place of the original lead acid on the Lafree but those are currently powering a BladeZ 450 I rescued from the curbside trash early this year. I had Chris make a harness for it to connect the Turnigy 4s1p lipo bricks in an 8s3p configuration. The scooter has been a fun and relatively cheap learning experience. The harness work that Chris did made switching the BladeZ scooter over to lipo a plug and play conversion. It also allows me to run in series at 29.6V nominal but charge the packs in parallel using an old laptop power supply putting out 16.5V. I also have a Tidal Force S-750 built up as pedal only bike that I intend to convert back to an ebike at some point.
But enough with the introduction, lets get to the good stuff.
First the “e” part of the ebike stuff and this is based mainly on what I see. Not much hard data yet; partly because of the rainy weather and partly because of needing to complete the installation of laminate flooring in the master bedroom. That will make my wife happy; and if Moma ain’t happy then nobody’s happy.
ELECTRICAL PARTS
Batteries - K2 Energy LiFePo 12s10p as a 36V 29Ah pack
Controller - ASI BAC1000
Battery / Controller Box - The battery pack and controller are housed in a large all aluminum enclosure with removable side panels.
- Enclosure also has the key switch and a 4 pin xlr charge port with a weather resistant cover.
Charger - made by High Power Technology in China and is fused with on/off switch and LED indicators.
- Model HP8204L3 for Li-ion batteries.
- Input 115/230VAC 60/50Hz 2.4/1.3A
- Output 36VDC/4A
Motor - MAC 500 watt, geared with disc brake and single sprocket
Dashboard - large screen CycleAnalyst from the spheres own hero (thanks Justin). The Cycle Analyst also has two cords; one with a male plug that carries pack voltage and the other with a female plug that is a communications cable for pulling data from the CA. http://www.ebikes.ca/drainbrain/CA_Large_V23_Update.pdf
Throttle – thumb throttle FT-21X mounted by the right hand grip but, with standard bike brake levers. So no ebrakes.
Connectors are nice automotive type with good weather tight seals both inside the enclosure and along side the inner edge of the swing arm. The ones along the inner edge of the swing arm are held in place with zip ties on to neat little tabs that I assume are welded on the swing arm.
Wiring – covered in a high quality sheathing and tucked neatly out the way.
ENOUGH FOR NOW ... more later
EDIT - Added a couple of pics that I finally got around to resizing
EDIT - adding a picture showing some of the details of the enclosure for the battery and housing.
My apologies for the poor picture lighting but between the rain clouds, work day+3hours spent commuting and working on the laminate flooring home project I have not been able to get good daylight. Will post more pics and some ride data soon.
Not sure if the information and arrows I edited onto the picture is helpful or just clutters it up since there are 9 items being pointed out in the one picture.
The cover is held on by about a dozen allen head bolts with a captured washer/bushing arrangement. The velcro just helps stabilize the battery pack.