433 Bike and Battery #3

Did you hear? Ford finally put a battery into the F150. The new electric version is called the "Lightning" which isn't confusing at all, because they had a non-electric version called the same thing.

It's due in 2022, just in time to compete with Tesla's Cybertruck, and totally ready for global climate destabilizion, which it's non-electric version will continue to promote. 

Ta da! This isn't it. This is a Chinese knock-off, that's already available. But the styling sure says F150, huh?

Except when you look from the side you realize it might be smaller. Why? Because Chinese people haven't gone completely crazy yet.

Here's some more Ford styling, but matched with lead acid batteries. Pretty cute!

I promise I'll talk about bikes in a minute. But at least we're on topic with batteries. How fun does this little guy look?

I'm not sure how it's going to happen, but if we want to be competitive in the future, we need to allow the future to happen to us.

At top is a shared electric scooter, and this Wallke ebike. Like most ebikes in the US, the Wallke is a rebadged Chinese bike. I was surprised how much better this looked in person versus on the internet. In general, I think these massive upper tube bikes look weird, but this actually looked not bad. It's pricey for a hub motor, $2k for 750watts with a 48v 14amp hour battery.

Here's another one I'd never heard of, the Zoomo Pathfinder. It is apparently part of a bike share? (I think that's what Zoomo's model is, although their website says something about couriers and different tiers of service.)

Anyway, it's the same bike as this:

And since they all come from China, let's take a look at Alibaba the same way every importer does.

The makers say this 12kilowatt beast is the fastest ebike made in China.

Look at the size of that motor! It sure looks capable.

The suspension looks straight off a motorcycle. But those are cranks for pedals, it's a bike.

When I first saw this design, I thought it was pretty ugly. But it's kinda growing on me.

What do you think? By the time it makes it on Indiegogo, it will be twice as much.

For instance, I think these Sur-rons are branded Segway in the US.

Pretty sweet looking. I'm not sure I'd want a bicycle that I can't adjust the seat height, but I get it, stylistically. 3500watt mid-drive? Is that a typo? That's a sick amount of power.

Raw power is only part of the equation, of course. America is going down the V8 road again, favoring power over efficiency.

There's a reason I called this blog-let "Bike and Battery," the battery is the most expensive component on an ebike, and most owners will, I predict, begin to have a real relationship with their batteries. 

We're all learning the new theories of lithium battery management. One I know is to not leave your junk on the charger after it's full. We fetishize 100%, but your battery actually feels healthier with a lighter meal, like 80%. If you don't anticipate fully draining the battery, don't bother to fully charge it, and it will be happier.

And be prepared to buy a new or reconditioned one after 2-3 years. Most of these batteries, they know precisely how many charge cycles it will take before the performance is degraded significantly. It's usually about 800, or 2-3 years of daily riding.