Electric Bicycle (Battery Upgrade)...
Misc details and observations...
How does this shit
make it to market???
Two (2) pieces of sophisticated
electronics, multiple functions, beyond just "cool-to-have", neither
one provides the most basic of utility.
This type of
"Off-shore" merchandise isn't even consumer grade, both are generic
No-Name items.
The left hand unit
will track accurate speeds and Odometer readings for about 2 to 3 minutes and
then randomize for 30 seconds, cycling like that constantly.
The right hand
unit had a sticker applied to the blister pack that superseded the instructions
on tire diameter calibration with choice 3, 4 or 5 (What the fuck does that
mean???) regardless none of those options related to any mileages that were
recorded in my wife's car.
Beyond trying
various wheel diameter options I beefed-up the magnets that trip the sensor to
the units with Rare-Earth hard disk magnets.
This didn't
improve or worsen the situation, so I imagine that the original magnets were
more than adequate.
Which brings me
back to my original question, how does this stuff make it to market?
I'm no more lucky
or unlucky with retail purchasing than my friends and family, and anecdotally I
hear similar complaints of products that simply don't work, or have such a high
out-of-box failure rate that it is a fair assessment that they are simply
eroding the common marketplace of that particular good or service.
Even so, I would
never have thought that I would have to try 3 (three) different makes of bicycle
computers before I found one that works.
This unit by Sigma
had excellent instructions for setting all parameters, ergonomically has only
one large easy access button that does it all in an intuitive fashion.
Offers diameter
variability down to the centimeter, and is accurate to our car over 11.7Km,
(originally calibrated to a 3.9Km section of road 3 times out of 3).
I certainly try
not to get too anal about details but the point of this bike is to provide
reliable transport and the computer is required to track information especially
such important details such as battery capacity vs distance traveled, while
speed and time in transit are just nice to know.
Once I established
that I had a fair base-line against which to measure performance, the first
upgrade was to new tires.
The generic
off-road rubber that came with the bike was swapped out for a pair of smooth
centered boots.
This raised the
top speed from 21Km/h to 27Km/h on flat pavement (no pedaling).
The tire pressure
was set to 50PSI over the 40PSI of the originals.
The improvement of
22%, seems overly optimistic, partially as everything was greased and oiled
while I had the bike apart to replace the tires.
At the same time I
found that the 12Ah batteries that ship with the Currie kit had a very limited
capacity, 7.9Km... I ran the route carefully extending the distance I traveled
incrementally until I hit the point that I had to actually pedal completely
under my own power up the driveway home.
If we lived in a
region of the country that was flat, I'd be less concerned, but pictured to the
right is part of our driveway.
And this is
typical of the roads that I have to travel.
I hadn't thought
about the terrain that I live in, but with places like Mount St. Patrick a few
miles down the road, and the fact that Eastern Ontario's steepest vertical drop
Ski resort is just south of us, the range of the bike starts to become
important.
With the range of
the bike limited to the edge of town to get smokes, pop & chips I looked
into options for replacing the batteries to extend the range.
The highest energy
density in a Lead acid is found using AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) type SLA (Sealed
Lead Acid).
Initially I though
that I'd upgrade to a 17Ah cheap SLA, but was concerned that after one season
these too would be scrap.
Pictured to the
right a a pair of Hawker Odyssey PC-625 cells.
They are just a
couple pounds heavier than the 12Ah units and can still use the original 24V
charger. (Note the unit pictured above is not the 24V Currie unit, it is
providing the initial charge out of the box.)
So finally I can
give power-assist electric bikes an endorsement as a viable option for
fair-weather transport.
As I'm sure, that
there are veteran Electric riders that will scoff at even questioning Electric
as do-able, my experience was not a clear-cut success out of the box and started
rather poorly.
The capital cost
of misc upgrades and minor tweaks may not be what every rider signs up for.
Personally I thought that the market had matured beyond the stage of niche or
"early adopter" technology.
In closing, I have
to thank Scott MacGregor of www.evdeals.com
, as he walked me through what the realistic costs were, what I could expect in
terms of "Required" upgrades to suit my location and typical riding
requirements. I didn't buy my kit from Scott as he unfortunately had no Currie
stock at the time last year (nobody did...) But will place him as my vendor of
choice in the future.