Autonomous Motion

ElectricBike

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Ebike clearinghouse

One of the least-noticed but fastest-moving sectors of technology is electric bikes. Every week a new innovation is released, altering the field, making it difficult to keep up. By far the keenest intelligence on new ebike stuff is Eric Hicks. Eric attends the bike shows, visits the workshops of the leading inventors, and most impressively, he personally rides and reviews in great depth just about every ebike made. He publishes his very fair and impartial findings and reviews on his blog, ElectricBike.com. He really knows his stuff and is eager to help others decide which ebikes to get. ElectricBike is where I go to find out what’s worth considering at the moment. His archive covers just about any electric bicycle built, including a lot of small-time builders and prototypes.

I used Erick’s suggestions in finding a touring electric bike that would take me 50 miles a day. (I got a Gruber pedal assist, which was perfect for what I wanted.) A year later even better choices were available.

As of 2013, ebikes are huge in China, big in Europe but still only the bleeding edge in the US. An electric bicycle is a great choice for urban commuters, and okay for fanatic mountain trail riders, but not quite prime time for long road touring. What’s the difference between an ebike and an electric motorcycle? Good question. ElectricBike is the place to drill down into this emerging world of cheap electric powered transportation.

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-- KK 05/7/14

Excerpt

The Stromer ST1 is one of the most exciting electric bikes to be released and one of the best production ebikes I have gotten to test so far.

I am not sure if the Stromer Platinum can fairly be considered a 30-MPH bike. I am not even sure if the Platinum would be deemed illegal if put to a speed test. It is serious work to get this bike up to 30-MPH, and without peddling…forget about it. The federal law says theres a 20-MPH limit without pedaling. It feels like the Stromer Platinum would just barely break 20-MPH without any peddling,
On the other hand, the Stromer ST1 Elite hits its claimed 20-MPH top speed with little pedaling effort. These two bikes are a lot closer together performance wise than you would assume from reading claimed speed numbers. My guess is that under “real world” conditions, the Elite is a 25-MPH bike, and the Platinum a 28-MPH bike. Where as Stromer calls the Elite a 20-MPH bike (low balling estimate) and the Platinum a 30-MPH bike (high balling estimate).

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The Stealth Bomber comes from the factory with a jumper-wire on the controller that limits its top-speed to 20-MPH. Remove that jumper, and it puts you in “off road mode” and transforms your bomber into a 50-MPH 5,000-watt beast.

Few electric bike manufacturers have decided to ignore the federal definition of e-bike and make a bike that is fast. The Stealth Bomber is a 50-MPH 120-pound monster capable of going up to 40 miles on single charge (flat ground and moderate riding). It has ample acceleration and performance for most users…meaning this bike will scare the hell out of you. The Stealth Bomber and Fighter are at the forefront of electric bike technology, building a bike that is well respected in the e-bike community for quality construction and great performance. They are top of our list of purpose built e-bikes, meaning they are rare examples of bikes built from the ground up to be an electric bike. If you want a reliable and super fast electric bike, turn key and ready to ride and you have the dough to spend, the Stealth Bomber is among your best options.

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