E Bike Charging From Your Vanagon

[mikemtnbike]

The e bike debate is hotter than all threads about oil types, engine conversions, wheel sizes, gear ratios, and best way to do your own XYZ van project combined. AVOID!

Have fun, PDM.
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1991 Vanagon GL 2.1 AT Westfauxlia. "Frankie" Totaled https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=764510&highlight=carnage
1995 Eurovan Camper "Marzivan"
2020 GTI SE manual

[vwhammer]

The rear motor on my bike does not go unless I am pedaling.
So I am still actually doing something when I ride.
Is it as strenuous as not having a motor?
Nope.

What my ebike does is make me feel like I need to go really fast everywhere.
As such, I am pedaling my butt off and am still huffing and sweating when I get where I am going.
Off road you can not simply sit back and let the motors do all the work.
It really is still a workout.
The power of the motors is limited, well on my bike anyway, so I still have to help out considerably when I get to the steeper sections.

What my ebike does is let me go riding with friends who ride everyday and are obviously more physically fit that I am.
It allows me to keep up so we can carry on without waiting for me.

It simply gets me out on a bike when I might otherwise sit on my butt at home.

It does not scare me now when they ask if I want to ride to a street fest the next town over.

I can and still do ride a regular bike for several miles on occasion but the ebike just makes it that much easier and enjoyable.
I am also usually the pack mule for our group when we go to events.

You can pedal all you want without power if you choose and just kick it in for the hills.
I do this pretty often because is seems silly to waste the battery when I don't need it.
Of course my bike weighs 50 lbs now and only has 7 speeds so its not as easy to ride without power as it used to be.

At the end of a 25 or 30 mile trail ride, to reserve power and to make it hard on myself, I did ride for a couple of miles with no power.
I also did it to ease my guilt for not being as worn out as all my friends after a fast, hard ride session.

Lastly a friend and I have been working on loose plans to do some long distance ride out west somewhere using an electric two seater trike with a trailer.
This would have a bunch of batteries and some solar panels for shade as well as charging.
We would, obviously, have some chargers on board so we might be able to do some gorilla charging (stealing a plug near a soda or vending machine) while we camp or eat.

Anyway I would probably never dream of such a thing on a regular old people powered machine.

Ok I have rambled on and derailed the Vanagon content long enough.
That's all for now.

[Stuartzickefoose]

In not even reading this I will toss out a complaint. I got passed by a fat kid in jeans on a e bike the other day while I was hauling ass up a hill on my real bicycle....wonder why he was fat...



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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[Love My Westy]

[pdm777]

Alright you naysayers...

I have a health condition that results in
very few red blood cells/compromised stamina.

Electric bike lets me get out and keep up with friends.
I ain't got no Spandex, no fancy shoes.

My bike is torque sensing plus pedal assist,
meaning I can set the level of assist.
Level 1 Eco is quite a workout (heavy bike)
Level 5 Sport is blood-doping Superman.

Besides, Electric Bikes are FUN!

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1990 Westy Full Camper

[vwhammer]

Yep they are just plain fun.

I have not seen anyone, including my bike snob friends, get on mine and not get a grin on their face the moment they hit the throttle for the front motor and start pedaling with the rear motor assist set on high.

It's hard to describe the feeling as you are whisked from 0 to 25mph in a couple of seconds with nothing more than the whir of the motors and the scuffs of the front tire as it struggles to maintain traction.

It's fun.

The things you can conquer off road with 2wd are pretty unbelievable as well.

At full charge this thing puts down about 1800 watts.
It's A little overkill and my battery does not care for full power blasts too often but, obviously, it's fun.

[Yellow Rabbit]

E bikes are perfect for couples when one person is an avid cyclist and the other is a casual rider. They are the perfect equalizer of both speed and distance.

[shagginwagon83]

[jackbombay]

Based on my experience with reality I'm going to suggest that the only viable solution to charging Ebikes from a van is a 1000 watt honda generator, they are tiny, very lightweight, and they might make less noise than my sewing machine. If the Ebike will only get ridden once a week it could be charged while driving of course, but to have reliable "access" to the help of the Ebike motor a small generator is the only way to go IMO.
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Gas struts to pop your top easily!
Pop Top strut kits now available for late Bay window Westies

Samba ad here.


DIY artificial rain gutters (ARGs)

[Yellow Rabbit]

You can find quality e bikes with 75-100 miles of range. If you are riding 15-20 miles a day, you could camp several days without worrying about charging. Beyond that, just stay at a place with shore power once a week.

[vwhammer]

I agree with the last two comments.

Get a bigger bike battery or a tiny generator or spend a lot more on house batteries and solar and everything else associated with that.

Those really are the only realistic options.

[dobryan]

X3 the above.
_________________
Dave O
'87 Westy w/ 2002 Subaru EJ25 and Peloquin TBD

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." Robert Louis Stevenson

MD>Canada>AK>WA>OR>CA>AZ>UT>WY>SD
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620646

Building a bus for travel in Europe (euroBus)
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=695371

The Western Syncro build
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=746794

[danfromsyr]

but if I can pull enough BTUs from solar for AC, then I surely can charge our pair of E bikes for a beer run.
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[Love My Westy]

I'll probably be using our Honda 2200 generator to charge the bikes on this trip.
I topped up the two ebikes today with the generator and it only took an hour. The Honda, on eco mode was really quite quiet, I could hardly hear it over the ambient noise. In the future we may purchase a lithium ion power source that we can charge with solar panels. They are pricy, but so were the bikes.

[jackbombay]

[Abscate]

My ebike halves the time to get to ShakeShack, with a stop at FiveGuys for dessert
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.ssS!

[jackbombay]

[dobryan]

[vwhammer]

Too bad Generac's iX 800 was not that great of a generator.
It would have been perfect to lug around for ebike charging.

If one wanted something wicked cheap and are out there alone where some noise won't bother you or your neighbors, you could get one of those 2 stroke harbor freight generators that puts out like 7 or 8 hundred watts or something like that.

I bought mine in 2012 when a derecho blasted across our region and we were without power for 10 days.

Of course the temps were in the low 100s nearly the entire time we were without power.
I hooked a boat tank up to it and ran a 5000btu window ac unit for 7 or 8 days non stop.

I still have the generator and it still works just fine.
I think it cost me $89.

[vwhammer]