Electric Bikes DVD
I have received a DVD and info from EVS Electric Vehicles. I will review and report at the next SM meeting. I am trying to arrange a demo here in Maleny.
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EVS quite recommended
Hi - I got as EVS bike in 2001 and it's been my main form of transport since. My partner's got one too. We mainly use them to get around Brisbane, when we're there. The ones we have are old models by now, but they've been really quite good and have never had any trouble with the motor which is pretty good for 7 years. But, unless they've solved some of the problems they are probably mostly suited to people who can tinker with things a bit.
The two main problems are the range (which will probably be better with the lithium battery option) and a problem with the charging system, which EV didn't understand when we tried to get help.
The problem with charging batteries in series is that they get out of balance after a while and one may get overcharged (and ruined) and the other may get undercharged. So the range drops dramatically and you have to replace the batteries. We've had to replace ours about every 6 months, not the 2 years they advertise. So it's more expensive and worse on resource use than they claim.
To try to fix this we rewired the charging system so that the batteries could be charged individually. This seemed to work, but would probably have worked better with smart chargers. But needing 6 of them this was very expensive and we just went with regular chargers and timers. This has performed better than the original charging system. An alternative would have been to stick with the original system and balance the batteries about monthly (charge them individually).
About whether to go with electric bikes or scooters I would choose bikes except for people who can't or don't want to cycle. A rider can output about 200W, about the same as the motor. So you will half your (already poor) range unless you pedal. The other problem is that most scooters are relatively heavy. The heavier the less range you'll get. Eg, the max weight for an unlicenced electric scooter is 50kg whereas a good bike might be 20kg. It takes power to get all that extra weight up hills.
Riding a good electric bike is like riding along the flat even going up hills. So it takes the difficulty out of it for people who aren't very fit (like me!).
Cheers
Rowan