Blog

We are looking to hire someone full-time to join our 7-person team at the sales and reception end of our operation. Ideally this is a person who shares our passion about ebikes, and is familiar enough with the technology that they can help guide and support people to choosing the right components to work for them. Before getting TOO excited, it is a tough job that will require working Saturdays and being great at managing a deluge of phone calls, email orders, and walk-in visitors, sometimes all at once. Computer skills, good work ethic, and likability are a must. Lots of other skills are an asset too, as working in small business means wearing many hats. If this sounds like you, or someone you know, then spread the word and feel free to send a resume and cover letter our way at resume@ebikes.ca.

We receive many emails from people sharing us photos of their ebike projects, and quite often these are exceptional pieces of craftsmanship or creative ingenuity, or just humorous pieces that make us all laugh. We'd like to give our support to those out there in the community who are helping reshape how we think about getting around in the 21st century, those who are taking ebike parts and exploring outside the box.

So starting this month, we will be giving away a free Cycle Analyst every 2 weeks to the most interesting and unique ebike contraption that is submitted to us. It must be an original project that is mostly built up (so no concept drawings), and we'd like to hear your story behind it as well. Send your submissions by email to ca.giveaway@ebikes.ca, including photos of you and your homemade electric ride, and a little info about why you think you deserve the prize.



We're going to kick things off with Art Burns, from Seaforth Ontario who has been riding ebikes for several years since suffering an vision impairment in an accident. He had two scooter ebikes, but neither had the range for his planned Ontario to BC trip this summer. So the solution, he had Golectric hack one in half, convert it to a trailer, and load it high and low with batteries!

We're steadily ramping up an official "uni-shop" in the corner of our store. Our hope is to be the first shop in Vancouver to carry all the specialized gear for one-wheelers, and give the local unicycle community a chance to see, feel, and try out the equipment before they buy it. Anne-Sophie is around most days of the week to share her expertise.


On a similar note, we will be resuming the Wednesday evening unicycle gatherings down at Science World on March 31st, starting at 6:30pm then moving it to 7pm when the days get longer. We had a blast doing this all of last summer, and will continue to bring our fleet of spare unis for people to try out and practice on.

Two little updates here, both mosfet related. First is that we have a new 12 mosfet 40 amp Infineon based controller that uses IRFB4110 mosfets and 100V capacitors, making it relatively easy to modify for 72V operation. They also come with regen already enabled. Secondly, we now have our eZee kit controllers available with the same IRFB4110 mosfets. So now it is possible to get an eZee kit with a controller that will run cooler and have no compatibility issues with 48V packs.

Starting on April 1st, we will expand our shop drop-in hours to 11am - 6pm, Tuesday to Friday, and 11am - 4pm on Saturdays. The Saturday opening especially should help with the many locals who difficulty getting out here to pick up parts. Just do keep in mind that we are mostly an engineering / manufacturing operation and online shop, rather than a retail outlet, so things are setup accordingly. 

Time to introduce version 2.2 of the Cycle Analyst, with a few improvements. Though many commented that the 1 button interface was intuitive and clever, it did have limitations as we added more and more features to scroll through. So now there is a second 'back' button which takes you to the previous screen or down a digit, and holding this second button can get you to the setup menu at any point without restarting the device.



The version 2.2 CA also uses a membrane overlay for the buttons and the window, which is better suited to withstanding rain and elements than the previous model with a glued window and a metal push button. As well, we've now moved the wires to exit holes in the back of the box instead of grommets on the side. This permits a tidier wiring job on the bicycle. We've also included extra vent holes in the back plate that serve a) to provide ventilation so that the display window never fogs up, and b) to provide an easy means of feeding wires in and out of the device for those using advanced features such as datalogging, throttle control, etc.

We now have available the custom rear carrier for the 37V 8Ah eZee LiFePO4 battery packs. This is a seat post mounted rack, so it can be installed on full suspension mountain bikes and bikes that don't have mounting eyelets. The rack has a rail system that allows the flat battery to slide on and lock into place. And the clamping mechanism features double bolts for a really tight bind to the seat post tube, to prevent the side to side swaying that often happens when seat post carriers are used with a heavy load. This carrier is now included with the eZee LiFePO4 upgrade kit.

Both the Chinese New Year and the 2010 Olympics got underway on the same day this month. Justin was in Shanghai visiting Mr. Ching at the eZee Bike factory during the start of Spring Festival, and kicked off celebrations there with his two favorite hobbies in one, pyrotechnics and ebikes!









Meanwhile, here in Vancouver the winter Olympic games and festivities are well underway. We're doing our best to keep the shop open and running all the while, but keep in mind that during some events we may be quite short-staffed or have our attention elsewhere. Things will be normal again starting March 2nd.

We've just gone live with a convenient web page to facilitate the process of building hub motor wheels. Our online spoke calculator has all the pertinent details for lacing common hub motors in a single place, so that you don't have to hunt down manufacturer spec sheets or make accurate measurements and deal with overly complicated programs to figure out a spoke length. Just choose your hub, choose your rim (or enter the ERD directly), and out comes the spoke size for your wheel.

We first got involved with torque arm manufacturing a little over a year ago, pioneering a 2-piece design that causes the motor torque to further seat the axle into the dropout. The designs have evolved based on testing and failure analysis, with thicker plate metal and improved geometries. In our original Universal Hose Clamp design it got to the point that the hose clamp itself would be the weak link to give way in the event of a spinout incident, so our latest version has now been released which includes double hose clamps and an elongated slot in the thick axle plate to fit a range of fork types.