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recharging the battery on descents?

Old 01-19-17, 11:16 AM
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dbg
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recharging the battery on descents?

I came here from a thread in 50+...
Are there any systems that engage the drive motor to recharge the battery on descents (or whenever braking is desired)?
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Old 01-19-17, 11:20 AM
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What an interesting concept. I wonder where you got the idea.
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Old 01-19-17, 11:30 AM
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https://www.electricbike.com/regenerative-brakes/
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Old 01-19-17, 11:57 AM
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Originally Posted by FBinNY
What an interesting concept. I wonder where you got the idea.
See how much I liked your idea.. I had to pursue it.
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Old 01-19-17, 12:50 PM
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Would you believe there are people who poo poo the idea of re-gen on bicycles as a waste of effort... Not me, I have the BionX system and it's well worth it as I live in a hilly area so there is/can be huge gains available as long as you do it and do it conscientiously. I have tested my set up and have managed up to a 28% re-gen capacity, tho I must say that is a max average and you would actually NEED to pedal down most hills to keep up your speed if you have it on the max re-gen setting. My real average is probably 15% and most people who don't live in a hilly area would be lucky to get 5%. IMO

I could even use it as an exerciser and increase my pedaling effort for normal riding, but that is not what most people would buy it for.
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Old 01-20-17, 12:09 AM
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While there are models that have regen, most of the time it is useless to rely on, except in cases like the post above. Typically the regen efficiency is low so even on that long hill you dont get much charge back.

-SP
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Old 01-26-17, 11:02 PM
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Originally Posted by 350htrr
Would you believe there are people who poo poo the idea of re-gen on bicycles as a waste of effort... Not me, I have the BionX system and it's well worth it as I live in a hilly area so there is/can be huge gains available as long as you do it and do it conscientiously. I have tested my set up and have managed up to a 28% re-gen capacity, tho I must say that is a max average and you would actually NEED to pedal down most hills to keep up your speed if you have it on the max re-gen setting. My real average is probably 15% and most people who don't live in a hilly area would be lucky to get 5%. IMO

I could even use it as an exerciser and increase my pedaling effort for normal riding, but that is not what most people would buy it for.
It seems that most who buy/build ebikes do so for the assist that the electric motor and battery provide them. Pedaling down hill for the sake of getting better regen numbers seems counter to this objective. But no doubt, pedaling more and harder will improve the range of any ebike, regen or not.
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Old 01-28-17, 01:48 PM
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Originally Posted by DoubleDiamonDog
It seems that most who buy/build ebikes do so for the assist that the electric motor and battery provide them. Pedaling down hill for the sake of getting better regen numbers seems counter to this objective. But no doubt, pedaling more and harder will improve the range of any ebike, regen or not.
Yes pedaling down hills is probably counter productive to most people who want to ride E-Bikes. And you don't have to, on the lower settings, it's when you want to re-gen the max, then unless it's a 23% downhill light pedaling would still be needed. That's for MAX I am talking about not "normal"...

I only do that when I know I want to go a longer distance and want to make sure I have power at the end without taking the battery down too far, as not less than 20% remaining is my dead battery mark in general, I may have taken it down to "0" 2X in 5 years... and many many times I have gone over 100Km per charge.
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Old 01-28-17, 02:34 PM
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Originally Posted by speedy25
While there are models that have regen, most of the time it is useless to rely on, except in cases like the post above. Typically the regen efficiency is low so even on that long hill you dont get much charge back.

-SP
The reasons I think re-gen is useful even if you only get 5% is...

1; You can go 5% farther if you are always close to a dead battery.
2: you can save/extend your battery life by not taking it down as far if you go below less than 20% or even if you do 15% left is better than 10% left for battery recharge life, maybe get years longer out of that battery...
3: Braking efficiency is increased as re-gen braking is/can be, just like normal braking but not actually using the brake pads.
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Old 01-30-17, 11:07 AM
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in general virtue of any electric vehicle is regen braking.
Fossil fuel vehicle grinds pads wasting energy.
I cannot imagine ebike with no regen - all my ebikes has regen,
first it safe pads, rotors secondly it returns part of el. energy to battery - simply as that.
on all my bikes I pull lever a bit I got regen, I pull farther I start to grind pads - very simple.
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Old 01-30-17, 05:20 PM
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Originally Posted by powell
in general virtue of any electric vehicle is regen braking.
Fossil fuel vehicle grinds pads wasting energy.
I cannot imagine ebike with no regen - all my ebikes has regen,
first it safe pads, rotors secondly it returns part of el. energy to battery - simply as that.
on all my bikes I pull lever a bit I got regen, I pull farther I start to grind pads - very simple.
Me neither... Although I do live in a hilly area so it's way more useful than if you live in a flat area, but even just the re-gen braking is worth it in my book. As it can make the difference of not taking the battery as low (free energy) as without and or going farther on the same amount of battery. Works for me. And it's not like there's any extra wear and tear going on having it, in fact it saves wear and tear on basically everything.
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