Optibike video by Jamie Johnson

[knoxie]

Hello

We are bordering on getting the post locked here so I will keep this brief, we all have our own opinions on the Opti bike and its suitability in the market place, my point was sure have an opinion but dont express your negative comments towards somebody who was just showing all what he got up to on his ride? start a new thread call it opti bashing? what ever you want, I still think it is unproductive in many ways, market forces will dictate wether the Opti becomes a success, however you would think that the casual observer of this forum would not be put off by negative comments about what I think is the best off the shelf e-bike available.

I never said any of my rides were anything special either? in fact I sid that I would swap them all for an opti bike didnt I ? I have built complete solutions from the ground up (see the Lemco bike) and I am proud of that one and it was projects like that that make me realise just how well the opti has been researched and designed.

I will check your moto x bike out later and again you didnt make your location clear so How was I to know that you were French speaking? In which case except my appologies because your written english is far better than my fench, I know left, right and straight on! does that count?

Looking forward to more videos from Jamie also, I know the opti isnt silent thats for sure so it will be interesting to gauge how loud it is.

Knoxie

 

[Ypedal]

Hm... the joys of a public forum ! it takes/contains all kinds of people !

Different cultures express themselves differently, and it's all good on the long haul. Heck. i'm french (Acadian, i bet Doctorbass would not understand my french lol ) ..

Abou the Opti, like Jamie said, some non-powered bicycles cost WAY more, and some cost way less.. would i have one ? .. sure would.. but canot justify the cost at this time.. tho i have well over 4K in my Norco !

Considering the components on this thing, and the work put into the design, i see how the cost has to be up there, can't put all those hours of work for no return, and some people out there don't flinch at 10K for a fun bike.. Those people as a rule don't much bother with forums like this tho hehe...

Keep up the good work J ! 8)

 

[deecanio]

Hi All,

i think some of the debate was lost in translation to be honest.
Opti simply is a beautiful bike.
in my opinion this is how an ebike should be done, great stealth, great looks, good performance.
I think we have bikes on the forum that could compete with/beat it for performance but as paul said none of us can compare finish or style, we simply don't have the resource to compete.
If opti was available at the start of my build i would have probably bought one (not at the current price though) because it is a complete package wrapped up in drop dead good looks.
There are so many arguments to have regarding opti but imo i think it is the best ebike i have seen, ever.
the cost is not that bad if you compare some of the high range pedal bikes out there but is out of reach for your average casual biker but i think that will change upon increased production.
I think the bikes on the forum are so diverse you simply cannot compare them with opti, apples and oranges as paul said.
opti appeals to me because its super cool looking and your average Joe would have no clue as to its electrical capability - totally perfect for blasting where you wouldn't be allowed normally!!!
Again it's the age old what do you want to use it for? question that defines whether or not Opti is for you but knowing the UK laws and my own personal usage i can say i would absolutely love one - maybe i will get a frame and crankset only -that would be way cool!!!
Jamie, i had a thought whilst readin this thread - do you know how the batteries are held in the frame?? i'm thinking what happens if you kill the pack or you want to upgrade it etc? is it easily dismantled to get access ??
all these questions have yet to be fully explored but imo opti is a massive step in the right direction for ebikes - and when i sya ebikes all i mean is stealth electric cycles with pedals and the ability to fool ppl that its pedal power only - not the mass of varience we are lucky to have on this forum, thats part of the misunderstanding i think - emotos are not ebikes


cheers


D

 

[Ypedal]

Optibike = Pedals
ZeroX = Foot Pegs !

:wink:

 

[deecanio]

Hi Bikeraider,


No test ride yet but bike is ready
will update my own thread later on today hopefully.looking at your thread for an update too???


Cheers


D

 

[knoxie]

Hello

Well bikeraider I checked your build out very nice job indeed!! I kind of see what you were getting at now, very clean build I like the idea of using a Nuvinci as well, I have seen another build using a Nuvinci but I think that was with an Etek? the smaller motor will enjoy the gearing of the Nuvinci when you hit the hills.

Those shocks look very nice indeed, is the swingarm ok? the std bike was a little lighter? do you think its strong enough? just a thought? cant see any issues with the setup, I like the peddles and here in the UK you would need peddle power in order not to get stopped on the road, it may be too much bother to incorperate it, you could certainly run an Etek on it, not sure if the Nuvinci would cope with it, they do look very strong on the inside though so it may be ok.

All in a nice build and the battery space looks like you can pack in a whole lot of cells for a nice long ride on the trails, looking forward to seeing it in action, I think we have cleared the Opti bike thing which is good we both have our own opinions, you may even get to ride before Deecannio at this rate!! come on DC pull your finger out!! ha ha.

Knoxie

 

[deecanio]

hey all,

i just noticed on bikeraider's link that denise's bike is for sale, probably sold, mmmm wonder how much she wants ???
yes haha i have been slow knoxie but check out my thread, im done. for now .
yes im looking very closely at bikeraiders build - if the nuvinci is good i would consider modding the dc1 for chain drive but we'll have to see how it runs first, i think it may just be fast enough!!


cheers,



D

 

[Dee Jay]

Cheers, Ypedal, gents.

Check out this documentary on Detroit Techno with Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins.

Subtitled in french.

Don't let the world turn ghetto. Take charge and make improvements by DIY.

Happy Friday!

J



part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSX_r0u3uzE&feature=user

part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHsCGRP6dtM&feature=related

part3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sukNJwO94UY&feature=user

EDIT

part ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53BNYvSZKB4&feature=related

 

[knoxie]

Hi Bikeraider

Yes very nice job indeed, I saw her bike a while back on ev album, yours is much more refined I have to say, I think that's going to be a lot of fun indeed, shame you cant get out to try it out, I think the little Scott will be ok, the very first e-bike I ever saw had one of those, there are so many motor options you could put on it brushed or brushless, good to see you have a safety kill switch (very important esp. with a perm) the bike is nice and light as well in relative terms, if you can get some video of it in action that would be great.

DC, nice job on the bike man, at work so cant comment in detail other than to say about blooming time! ha ha, no seriously good luck with the first run, you should be able to get a ride in between the rain clouds and again video video!! make sure you take some spare fuses with you.

Cheers

Knoxie

 

[vanilla ice]

The current craze in repli-racer motorcycles is "mass centralization." I thought it 90% marketing dept. hype, but maybe theres more to it..

 

[Malcolm]

The current craze in repli-racer motorcycles is "mass centralization." I thought it 90% marketing dept. hype, but maybe theres more to it..

I'm sure there is a big marketing element in it, but the idea is sound. If you centralise the mass it means you can change the direction of rotation quicker, which on a bike should mean quicker response to steering input. There's probably a limit beyond which you don't gain any real advantage, in fact in some types of riding I'd guess it's an advantage to have a bike that doesn't react too fast.

 

[miro13car]

Very good points bikerider,
MBB is the only thing out of ordinary on Optibike. It is patented and after some search you can see drawings of MBB on some web sites.
It uses 2 sets of planetary gears coupled to DC motor. All durability of Optibike depends on these gears, there would be very difficult to replace those gears, maybe in all excaitment it is easly to forget that quality of used material of 6 sprockets and whatever meshes with them are essential.
You have to be concerned if you have so many moving parts keep you moving, what's after 10 000km still nice gear buzz???
Other than that I can equip my TidalForce/over 9700km on the clock, hub motor works fine no changes/ with the best components on the planet. Top of the line forks, brakes, etc. can be fitted to many, many bikes.
OB1 Optibike shown is over 10 000 dollars I understand which is mind boggling, physicaly motor is the same as on 600W "regular" Optibike just sofware I guess was modified to squize more power - this is my guess and Optibike company never answered my e-mail about it and previous e-mails also. How they want to sell something if they don't response???
Of course I have a questions if I want to shell out 1000s of $.
mc

 

[bob the builder]

Hi Jamie, I just ordered 2 optibikes 400 with the 600 w motors and 20 amp batteries. Hope to ride our a$$es off in and around Bellingham, Wa. We can take the back roads all the way to Portland and Vancouver, BC. Looking for a June delivery. We looked for over a year and tested just about everything out there and this bike is be far the best one on the market.

 

[BazzaNZ23]

Hello All, First off, I would like to say that this forum is fantastic and a valuable source for anyone keen
on building an ebike, thanks heaps to all that contribute,

Secondly,
Does anyone here know the Patent number that Optibike owns?

I’m just trying to understand why not many people have gone down the track of having the motor
mounted in the bottom bracket, does Optibike have this technique pretty much sewn up,
giving them competitive advantage?

Best Regards From New Zealand

Nick

 

[Miles]

Secondly,
Does anyone here know the Patent number that Optibike owns?

Hi Nick,

http://v3.espacenet.com/origdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US2002014366&F=0&QPN=US2002014366

I guess the downside to the concept is that you have to gear the motor down to cadence rpm, which means a 2 stage reduction, only to then gear it back up again to wheel rpm.

More ebike related patents http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=888&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

 

[es2150]

Is the opti noisy? Is the rc motor sound cool? Because some people seem to like it. To me a bike is quiet and that is what you are used to, especially on the street. Any bike that draws alot attention is not that cool to me. My dual crown fork bike seems to draw attention, but sometimes I think the iPhone mount draws attention too. Maybe it's the old niterider dual beam headlight or maybe a combination of all three but I like the idea of quiety pedaling along. Anyway, I starting with another build with single crown fork and well see. I was told the opti from 5 miles away sound like a swarm of bees already so don't go there again. If someone is riding a opti can you tell us?

 

[deecanio]

hi es2150,

opti is fairly quiet imho, the bees from 5 miles is bs.
im neither an opti lover or hater - i think its ok, if a little underpowered, and i wont slate anything that helps the cause.
There is a video here somewhere of the jozzbikes meet from a few years back, that shows an opti running right past the camera and will give you a clear inication of noise, its fairly quiet as i recall.
unfortunately haven't seen Jamie in a while so thats the best i could do with the question.


D

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

the bees from 5 miles is bs.

hey, if that is how even a rabid optibike proponent & long time owner reports it how can it bee ess???

straight from the horse's mouth.
post #4 by cakey.
http://groups.google.com/group/opti...read/thread/af8f4a96dc34dfc0/f623caeb410a35e2



$10K+ for a URT, unfortunately that isn't helping the cause any, although i suppose it's (marginallly) better than a $9K hardtail from grace of germany.
i've nothing against a URT for ebike use, actually i'm hot for an old klein, been trying to score one on c/l for over a year now.
but it's just nuts to pay big $$ for an old skool frame design that was like the first generation baby-step in the evolution of real suspension.
at the time really the only thing available that URT required to improve upon was the suspension seatpost.
plus there's the aforementioned flawed driveline with the down/up gear reduction.
that's alright for a kit or homebrew where it makes sense to offset some costs by tapping into the existing transmission; not the kind of thing u wanna see in a clean-slate professionally engineered product.
guess it's just me but for that kind of money i expect something a lot more innovative if not modern & everything either Ti or CF rather than gold inlay.
at half the price that would make it more in line with what ur getting.



sure, optibikers are xstatic with their purchase, but so were the noobs that lined up around the block overnight who thought windoze95 was so fn shitthott.
they all got suxxored just cuz it was their first lay coming fresh off the boat & didn't have a clue what sort of prime meat was out there.
when u look back on it now it's easy to see the kind of dog they woke up with, old & outdated even b4 it's release.
today they probably won't admit they did that & must feel a little butt-raped by bilbo gates having a good chuckle how blind they were handing over to him their hard earned coin for an overhyped product.


it seems some optibikers have already awoken from their euphoric one night stand & thought to themselves 'what was i smoking?'
there was not one but two optibikes with very low miles both belonging to the same owner for sale on ebay recently.
the auctions were pulled prematurely & within a couple of days of that happening optibike announces a factory buy-back plan in order to keep any used bikes off the market in an attempt to protect the price on the new bikes.

the hemorrhaging has started.

 

[deecanio]

toorbough,

i only comment on what i have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears.

check the jozzbikes vid here.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=s_IYM8xuack

opti at the start, then check 1min 28 secs where opti rides past, the volume on that cam is first class and you hear that opti ( i think thats the 800li version) is quieter than the stinkys old puma hub, which was quiet!!
i stand by my comment that bees from 5 miles is utter bs, or bee ess maybe his bike was running rough?
whilst we're in this thread i must say i really miss jamies vids tis a shame there are no more.

D

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

hmm, well, i know optibike has continually worked towards reducing the noise level.
reportedly successive model years are incrementally quieter, with rumour that this years model is even quieter yet (amongst many other exciting enhancements!)
cakey not too long ago posted reaching 10K miles on his opti, so it's not a stretch to believe his is likely one of the older models.

even the oldest/noisiest of the lot were never all that loud but the issue isn't really one dB, is it?
it's all a matter of one's perception of noise.
for those from a motorcycle background then the noise is next to nothing.
to the casual bystander cuz it's an uncommon sort of sound out of curiousity will automatically be drawn to it to find out wtf's producing it.
even if it were a hell of a lot louder but instead sounded like a harley then i doubt most would so much as bat an eyelash.

whereas if u come at ebikes from the pure cycling side of things where ur accustomed to the tranquility of a relaxing ride, then even if it's not all that annoying any noise whatsoever kills the magic.
and what magic is that u axe?
the illusion/delusion of a childhood thrill subconciously pretending ur superman or what it must feel like to be lance armstrong.
for a short time kid urself into believing that it's all me baby, even tho u know it's not.
with that constant audible reminder the spell is broken & totally precludes any possible momentary xcape into fantasy.

i think that's the real drawback & objection to a noisy bike & nothing to do with sensitive ears.
the noise robs u of an added dimension of enjoyment.
that a quiet refuge in an increasingly noisy urban world is important.
why silence matters.

 

[es2150]

Perception of noise? What kind of giberish is that. When your going up a hill full throttle and motor is loud what do you mean perception. Is it really 1db? What are you talking about. A regular bike doesnt make alot of noise with slicks on them. geared motors make some noise but not that much, directs are really quiet, rc setups are loud period. end of story. IMHO i think the only way to have a good all around commuter is to build cause a built bike is conforming to someone elses definition. IMHO building a mtb for off road is another can of worms and not sure how clear that is becoming yet. I do like the fact that others have entered the game bosch cannondale, panasonic, flyer and so forth cause I am not sold on the options that exist yet. Maybe I just need a big dummy with dual motors and everything will be ok!

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

toorbough,

i only comment on what i have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears.

check the jozzbikes vid here.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=s_IYM8xuack

opti at the start, then check 1min 28 secs where opti rides past, the volume on that cam is first class and you hear that opti ( i think thats the 800li version) is quieter than the stinkys old puma hub, which was quiet!!
i stand by my comment that bees from 5 miles is utter bs, or bee ess maybe his bike was running rough?
whilst we're in this thread i must say i really miss jamies vids tis a shame there are no more.

D

here's another 'gripe'(?) regarding the noise level.
pls remember that it isn't me saying this, i don't make this stuf up.
it all comes from supposedly satisfied customers & long time owners & it can't be spelled out any clearer.

I was wondering if its possible to sell us the parts or a new motor kit to let us upgrade to the new plastic gear quiet motor?

I HATE the noise and am tired of people yelling cheater as I pass them.

Paul G

When I first got my 850R in August, the first thing I noticed was how loud it was. It was a turn-off, but the bike itself was so amazing that I learned to live with it. However, I still don't like throttling around others. That's not really Optibike's fault, but I would prefer a quiet ride and I don't like drawing attention to myself. Keep in mind that I ride on a lot of trails with signs that say "no motorized vehicles" and while the bike is allowed others don't understand that.

...

So, was the new Oct 2010 motor announced somewhere here? I only heard talk of the new motor that I have - and it is NOT quiet.

Thanks,
TMonkey

http://groups.google.com/group/optibike-owners-group/browse_thread/thread/9019e2948b27660a#

Perception of noise? What kind of giberish is that. When your going up a hill full throttle and motor is loud what do you mean perception. Is it really 1db? What are you talking about. A regular bike doesnt make alot of noise with slicks on them. geared motors make some noise but not that much, directs are really quiet, rc setups are loud period. end of story. IMHO i think the only way to have a good all around commuter is to build cause a built bike is conforming to someone elses definition. IMHO building a mtb for off road is another can of worms and not sure how clear that is becoming yet. I do like the fact that others have entered the game bosch cannondale, panasonic, flyer and so forth cause I am not sold on the options that exist yet. Maybe I just need a big dummy with dual motors and everything will be ok!

i'm not saying that the sound is at 1 dB.
perhaps writ this way might be clearer;
'...the issue isn't really one of dB,'

meaning that it isn't about any specific dB level (up to a certain point anyways).
dB don't measure the annoying or irritating factor of a given noise.
the perception of noise is subjective & ur gonna havta judge 4 urself.

 

[es2150]

I do agree. Perception of noise is true. Lets use a gas powered cruiser for example, people have seen them before and no big deal. The looks you get on ebikes in the US is priceless. People don't know what to make of this contraption, and I am talking about fairly clean stuff.