Bionx

I am test riding a Bionx electric motor system.  Our shop is now carrying the product and electric bike technology has come a long way the past couple years.  The entire system, including the motor and battery only adds about 14-17lbs to your bike.

I, actually Alex,  hooks up the Bionx PL-250 to my Xtracycle.  I also have to carry a kettler trike home for a customer as well as my mobile office bag.  The total weight of the bike plus cargo was around 90lbs.  The 250 motor is the less powerful of the systems from Bionx so I was curious to see how it would do.  I decided to take the longer 9 mile route home and Tim decided to join me.  He was on his Surly Cross Check.  Tim is fairly fit so it did not take long for us to be cruising at 20mph.  I think I had a smile on my face the whole ride.   Riding 20mph with a trike hanging off the back of my Xtracycle was awesome.   Bionx must build a little lag or stepdown power output into the controller so the power delivery was really smooth and extremely quiet.  The only two times I heard the motor was using the regenerative braking and on hard accelerations.

I have been trying to figure out in my mind if I had one of these systems would I use a car less?   At this point I think the answer would be yes.  I could have all the conveniences of using the Xtracycle while traveling at road bike speed.  Not that it would substitute for every car trip but I can envision many scenarios that it could be a substitute.  Maybe that is all the reason I need. 

 

Drill then tap part 2

“Aggressively simple” is actually a little complicated.  The Plan for this commuter bike is to allow for fenders and a rack.  It involves a special “through” bolt that is threaded inside so it can accept another bolt.  These fancy bolts are not ready yet so we just have to wait…

First Drill, then tap

We received a special order bike for a customer today.  It is manufactured by one of the big 3 USA bike companies.  The company name starts with an S.  They design very high tech bikes.  They use complex sounding names describing various carbon construction methods. 

Here is a description from the company’s website of the bike we sold today: “is a totally new breed of commuter bike. One that’s both aggressive and simple. That kind of versatility requires certain design details, such as super low standover height and light weight for maximum maneuverability in stop-and-go traffic”.

The  “kind of versatility” that ”requires certain design details” and “commuter” must mean that the bike can not accept fenders or a rack.  Because this design detailed commuter bike does not accept fenders and a rack.  I called the company that starts with an S and say “I must be missing something really simple and stupid because your xxxxx commuter bike does not accept fenders and a rack”.  They say “It really is not a commuter bike”.  I say “it says commuter in your product description”.  They say “We are working on something”.   We have a great inside sales guy and he is contacting the product designer.

One would think that a company that has products that have won almost every race on earth could figure out how to drill and tap a hole in an aluminum dropout for a commuter bike.  Or maybe I just don’t understand aggressively simple.