wsgts

I am a bicycle commuter with a Surly LHT. Its 23 miles RT, and I commute it at least 4 days a week. I do commute with cargo, about 30 pounds worth and I weigh 242. Been doing this for about 2 years, lose 30 pounds and an insulin pump.

The problem is that while at the office, I often need to go places and in Florida its damn hot and stay in my business-casual attire while doing it. So ideally, I would have a bike I could just commute on, turn ln the e-mode when needed, then turn off for the ride home. Is this possible or are e-bikes too heavy? I do this with the Surly now, or catch a ride with a colleagues.

Thanks,
T

Bizman

I have an ebike I use for commuting with rear rack, fenders, mid drive motor and front hub generator for lights. The bike weighs in at 55 lbs with empty panniers 75 to 80 when fully loaded. I have a 25 mile round trip commute with 1900 ft of climbing round trip. I have often pedaled the round trip not using the motor. The motor is nice for really bad weather or if I want to get somewhere a little quicker by helping me on the hills. I use studded tires on it in the winter, works great! Obviously it will be heavier than your LHT but I have never had trouble not using the motor and pedaling only, just a little slower.

EBikeFL 

It sounds like you could use two separate bikes. One bike to get to and from work that isn't an e-bike. The other, kept and recharged at work which is electric so you can use to go places once at work.

If you plan on using just the Surly LHT for the round-trip to and from work and errands while at work, then you'll need enough battery power to cover the entire distance even with you pedaling 23 miles of the total. You have to ask yourself, "How fast do I want to go and what's the farthest I'd need to ride once at work?".

If you plan on using a 48v 15Ah hub motor setup then you'll be adding another 30 pounds on top of your 30 lbs in cargo.

Even though you don't have any hills there in Panama City, FL; a mid-drive setup on that Surly LHT may be the best way to go. The Surly LHT is a great bicycle for that purpose and setup.

wsgts

I was planning on retiring the LHT, and was looking to purchase a Stromer ST1 Platinum. Anyone has any experience using it as a heavy bicycle?

T

2old

1) Plenty of Stromer owners so you should get some good feedback.
2) A geared motor front hub kit (some individuals will disagree on this choice) will add a total of as little as 17 pounds (36V, 10 ah battery) which is nicely distributed with a mid mount battery; this should allow 14-16 miles of throttle only travel (depending on elevation changes, wind velocity, weight). It's possible to have a lighter kit if you select components judiciously.

profstack

Check out the Faraday Porteur, which at 40# is doable without power assist. My over 50# Ohm Urban 700 is okay on level ground with no headwind and no power assist, but realistically I use boost 1 of 4 most of the time, as it is enough power to negate the extra weight of the motor and battery and beefier frame.

350htrr

Can you pedal an E-Bike without assist? The answer is yes to some and no to others... Check, try, ask, before buying, I can pedal mine a BionX kit on my bike just like a regular bike... I would say if you rode it you couldn't tell the difference rides just like a regular bike... Even under assist, it's so smooth you can't tell it's assisting and you can start to think WOW I sure am getting good, and quiet, no motor or gear noise at all... As for the sweating part you can choose anywhere from no sweat to all sweat while riding...

EDIT; You can also use it as an exercise machine if there are no hills around your area you can set it to re-gen and pedal harder instead of easyer...

InTheRain

I can pedal my bionx without the assist. And it's not too difficult if I don't have to haul the battery. However, I can't think of many instances where you would have your ebike and not have the battery. As far as sweating? In Florida it's hot and humid enough to sweat just by looking outside from an air conditioned office. I don't see how you get around the sweat issue in the summer time in Florida... it's going to happen even if you're riding in throttle mode only.

bowlofsalad

Look into hub motors like the Q75, Q100 and Q100h. bmsbattery.com has them. These motors are relatively lightweight as far as electric bicycle motors go, lightest options I know of. The Q75 weighs in at 1.4kg, the Q100h weighs 2.2kg. In addition, these motors include a clutch, what this means is the wheel will turn but the motor won't unless you turn the throttle. All electric bicycles can be pedaled without any input from the electric motor, but there is an idea known as cogging that naturally creates a little resistance as the motor turns, a clutch eliminates this issue. Personally, I've seen -many- people say that they want to pedal their electric bicycle unassisted most of the time, but nearly all end up using the motor at least slightly 100% of the time. You can get a setup that works just on pedal assist(PAS), with it you can set the controller to a certain percentage of assist as you pedal, the levels of PAS are usually something like 1-3 or 1-5 but there is plenty of variation within this concept. You can set the PAS to just 1 whenever you choose to and it'll likely be pretty much barely there, that is how I'd do it if I were you. This is just my opinion though on how to approach the whole idea.

chas58

I have a handful of Q100 motors, and the bikes pedal fine when the motor is off or when the battery is empty.

Q100 + 36v10ah samsung 29e cells = just over 4kg (about 10lb) weight on the bike. On my bikes, that is about a 30lb bike.

wsgts

Thanks all for the advice, I think my thought of having a 65 pound e-bike and not using electricity is kind of silly, no reason I can't put it on the 50% boost. This will be used for commuting only, I'll still ride my road bike for speed and my touring bike for touring. I'm going to ask another thread to see if anyone has the Stromer ST1 Platinum. The Mrs. is in support, that way I can make it between places in enough time.

2old

Chas - if you don't mind me asking, what is the top speed of your Q100h (flat road, no wind)?

chas58

That depends. My builds (documented here somewhere) are designed for a strong rider (where my power output equals that of the motor), and a flat and fast commute.

200 rpm motor = about 15-16mph (I can pedal faster than that with no motor).

300 rpm motor (26" tire) = 22-23mph with strong pedal input
328 motor (28" tire) = 24-26mph with strong pedal input.

That is on 36 volts. The motor by itself can't do much more than 20mph. Many people ride the 200 rpm motor at 48volts which gives 260 rpm or about 20 mph with minimal pedaling.

The above is for the classic Q100.

The Q100H (260rpm version ) is a newer and popular motor that is comfortable doing 20mph on 36v. I know of one guy in the UK who rides one at 48volts and 25mph, but that seems like a heat failure waiting to happen without a lot of rider pedal input.

2old

Chas - Thanks for the information. One of my goals is to assemble a light ebike like yours, which would be an improved version of my 36V, 350w conversion. However, my next goal is a 30 mph system since 20 mph is getting bland.

chas58

In general you can get a 30% speed increase by changing your battery from 36v to 48v assuming you aren't pushing the motor too hard (i.e. long steep hills). Take a look at EM3ev.com. Paul there makes some good kits that should get you to 30mph for about $1000 kit.

Mount Tam

I've been riding my ST1 Platinum for over two years - what would you like to know? The Platinum has four power levels with Eco being the lightest and Power being the 30 mph setting. You can also put it into no assist which I have ridden for five miles once just for the workout - it's not all that bad on a flat road. You can also put it on one of the two recoup modes that will charge the battery back up when you're peddling - although I only use those settings on long downhills. I can get mid to high 40 miles on Eco mode and low to mid-thirties in full power mode. I love my ST1 Platinum and so have all my friends that have ridden it.

Doc_Wui

In my opinion, it depends on the motor technology whether or not you will enjoy pedalling without assist. Geared motors and mid drive motors have the least drag. Some say no drag, but you have added at least 15 pounds of weight. The bigger direct drive motors will slow down faster because of cogging.

Our two ebikes both have small 500W geared motors and they seem to pedal as easily as my non powered bikes. Advertising copy says my wife's bike is 56 pounds, I have not weighed my conversion kit, but I think it's 50 pounds. I ride my own e-bike for an hour unpowered because that's what I do on my exercise rides. I will turn on pedal assist and cool down on the ride home. Lost a few pounds last month.