Blog

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.

A massive thank you needs to go out to Zev and Alison who have been shouldering the demanding task of running our shop during the busiest season of the year. At some point later this August the shop will be closing down for a 2 week period to give everyone a chance to take time off and recover. We will post the actual dates shortly.

Update: Dates of closure are August 17th - September 3rd.
Shipping will be completed before full shutdown so if you are waiting for your ebike parts, the shutdown will not impact their arrival. We won't be able to accept new orders during the closure by email or through our online store and will reopen on September 4th.

On Friday Justin crossed his first provincial border to enter Alberta on his cross-Canada electric bike journey. The trip statistics to date are shown in the image above, and things are looking more-or-less on track to make it to Halifax within the $10 energy budget.

He is currently staying in Calgary for a few days to catch up on a several things, and is planning to leave on Tuesday at 5:30 from the Power-In-Motion store at the Eau-Claire Market. Anyone wanting to participate in a small group ebike ride out of the city is welcome to join in. 

There is still space available to participate in our first ever electric bicycle conversion course, happening this Wednesday, June 25th at 6pm. This will be a great opportunity for people who want to convert their bike to electric assist but aren't entirely confident about doing the installation all alone. We will step you through the process of fitting all the conversion components on the bicycle, from the hub motor to the battery pack to the controller and throttle wiring. You will end up with properly installed and dependable setup that has a tidy wiring job. Best of all, this first course is free. For more details, see our upcoming events page.

Justin will be giving a presentation on various aspects of ebike technlogy at the monthly VEVA meeting. Topics will include regen motor controllers, ebike lighting systems, and lithium battery management circuits. For more information including directions and a map please see the VEVA homepage.