Blog

Since the summer of 2007, Steven Luscher has been organizing a monthly meetup for electric bicycle riders at the Vancouver Central Library. This last ride in October was by far the largest to date, and we hope to see this event continue to flourish as the electric bicycle community expands as well. The video below shows a time-lapse journey of this trip from us leaving our store on Main Street to the final photoshoot just after dark.



The next meetup will be on November 14th, and word is out that it may be more of a social and culinary gathering than a large ebike ride. We'll see, and we hope to see many of you there too. 

Repeat of the Conversion Workshop

Our ebike conversion workshop earlier this summer was a great success, with approximately a dozen people attending, two ebikes fully converted, and a lot of knowledge spread around. We would like to repeat this workshop in November and are sending out feelers to gauge the amount of interest there would be at this time of year. The only difference is that last time we were able to offer the workshop for free, while this time we would have to collect a small participation fee to account for the rental of the shop space from the Pedal Depot. If you think you would participate, please send us an email to workshop@ebikes.ca

We have found a bit of a flaw with all the newer 3-LED Nexcell NiMH/NiCad battery chargers. These chargers use a programmable mircochip for controlling the charging process, but the overvoltage cutoff point was set too low to fully top up and balance Nickle Cadmium battery packs. The image from our testing station below clearly shows the difference between using the old and the new chargers:


The newer chargers terminate early at 61V rather than waiting for either a significant temperature rise or voltage drop that occures when the cells are allowed to overcharge slightly. This means the cells don't get a chance to balance out and causes a greater likelyhood of cell reversals developing over time. It's not a critically serious issue, but we have had more than the regular percentage of batteries coming back to us for which this was identified as the source of the problem. If you have a 3-LED charger and NiCad battery, we should have replacement microchips available soon for upgrading the charger parameters.

This coming Tuesday, Oct 14th, is the end of Canadian thanksgiving as well as voting day in our federal elections, and for us to fulfill these national responsibilities the store will be closed from regular resale activity. We'll be open again as usual on Wednesday from 12-6pm. 

Well he did it. 59 days, 7100 km, and 2700 amp-hours later, Justin finally arrived in the city of Halifax on the east coast of Canada on sunday night, to the wet and windy welcome of Hurricane Kyle. Total electricity bill: $8.57

He has been keeping up to date stories from the adventure on the endless-sphere thread, where some final thoughts on the trip and many photos are posted.

We are now carrying a new '2800 series' of ebike hub motor from Nine Continent. These hubs are of the recent generation of motor design coming out of China, and have noticeably greater power and efficiency for a similar weight and lower cost than the 400 series from Crystalyte. There is a fast 2806 winding for 20" motors, and a 2807 winding for 26" and 700c wheels. At the moment, these are only available for local pickup, in a kit that includes the Crystalyte sensorless motor controller, throttle, and Cycle Analyst.

For a performance comparisons, have a look at these motors with our online simulator.

Unfortunately, after several weeks of testing we have decided to return the batch of auto-ranging 24V-48V NiCad/NiMH chargers to the manufacturer due to several vulnerabilities that can cause them to fail. In order to meet the shortage of suitable chargers to go with our NiCad battery packs, we have a new batch of the High Power brand 3 amp charging units available. 

Route and Stats from Vancouver, BC to Thunder Bay, ON

Justin crossed the border into Saskatchewan on Thursday night. Two provinces down, a tad over $2.00 consumed from the energy budget, and another 4800 km remaining. He will be in Regina on Sunday and is keen to find out if there are any electric bicycle enthusiasts in that area. If you are one or know one, send us an email to info@ebikes.ca.

To clarify the situation, this Sunday Aug 16th at midnight will be the last day this summer that we will accept new orders from our store, shipping all of the existing orders and clearing up any outstanding business. After that we will do some long overdue housekeeping and reorganization.

There are many things you'll be able to look forwards to when the shop re-opens on Sept 3rd:

-High Capacity NiMH battery packs: We should have in stock again both 13Ah and the large 20Ah NiMH battery packs, as well as high current chargers to match them.

-Universal 24-48V NiCad Chargers: It's been over 8 months that we've been waiting for delivery on a new charger option for our NiCad battery packs. These units will be smaller and less expensive than the High Power brand, and are auto-ranging. The same charger will work for 24V, 36V, and 48V batteries.

-Improvements to our Online Store: Our shop website will be made more navigable, with an easier checkout process, more clarity on what parts go with what, a wider kit selection, and automatic shipping quotes.

-Motor Stock: We will have new shipments in from Crystalyte, a fresh supply of eZee motor kits, and possibly some other surprises.

Q. What if something breaks down, I need a new part ASAP...

A. We will continue and try to give over the top email support, so relax, no one is off vacationing on a beach in Bermuda. However, our telephone lines will not be monitored during this period, so please direct everything to our email.