I built a pair of electric bikes, and sold my car!

[chas58]

I built a pair of electric bikes, and sold my car!

I used to drive a convertible about 5000 miles each season. I used it mostly for shorter trips in the 10-15 mile range (one way). But since building some e-bikes, I hardly drove the car. I was having so much fun on the ebikes, it was getting hard for me to to drive the car 250 miles a year – the amount I had to drive to get a fresh tank of gas in the car.

The e-bikes are so much fun, I would just take them for these trips instead. My average speed in the car is 34mph, and on the ebike 21mph. So the ebike takes maybe 10 minutes longer – but with door to door service, and no parking issues, that 10 minutes is easily made up. Besides, riding my 25^3 bike is just fun (25lbs, 25mph, 25 mile range).

Big win for e-bikes, one less car on the road.

(my e-bike builds are in my signature)

 

[nutnspecial]

Nice job, the ebikes really are useful indeed. I haven't sold any vehicles because I still need them (need meaning the ebike cannot offer certain requirements that they can), but at least use them less.

 

[Eteck]

I sold my car, then built a pair of electric bikes!

 

[Nelsjourney]

Georgeanna R. Crystal. Great introduction as your first post. Do your reports have the teachers approval?

 

[chas58]

Well, I had two donor bikes that were begging to be converted. I had the vendor toss in a second motor into my package for $79 (no extra shipping charge). So, the first bike was about $500, and the second one was $79 (plus the cost to build the wheel and a throttle & controller). The battery is the major expense, and I just share that between the two. The mountain bike is good for slower relaxed cruising, and carrying cargo on the racks. The road bike I use for longer distance higher speed communing. The road bike is about 10% faster, and has about a 25% increased range compared to the mountain bike.

 

[wineboyrider]

I think two is the magic number as it takes two ebikes to compensate for a car. I always have at least 2 running at all times. Just the other day I as wanting to take one and it had a flat tire so I just hopped on my other one and took off. 8)