Electric Bikes - Why no hub motor on these? Was just thinking....

It's getting closer to Summer, and that means a return of Dickie Dee sellers ( also others but it's a name I know).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3319/3424565763_8f8bcf540c.jpg

Why wouldn't the companies who sell the Ice Cream and Cold Treats add hub motors?

I ask, because during last summers heat wave the news was warning about being out and about for long periods. However I still saw these younger fella's roaming around the streets.

On 1 day while my son was visiting, we heard the bells, and were glad to buy ( my A/C unit was still being fixed), but I had my son run across the street and buy the guy a 1L bottle of water which he took as an added tip, also made me feel better. As the guy looked to me, in shape, but way over heated.

I am just wondering, if a company wants to say sell more cool treats, and cover more area, would a hub help in this case????

I'm not sure how the coolers/freezers maintain temperature on those bikes, but I think the primary goal of any batteries on them would be to keep the ice cream from melting.

I am wondering how effective a 250W wattage gear motor on those might be if powered by a 36v or 24v solar cell canopy!! Shade for the rider/employee = no sun burn = no heat exhaustion. And just enough power to run the bike without going too fast for the neighborhood kids.

http://www.frankentrikes.com/Specifications.html

And you could still pedal it fast enough to get away from the kids with bats. ( A friend of mine and her youngling friends actually did this to a Good Humor driver to see how he would react. My friends are great!)


EDIT: A quick search finds this 22Lb, $800 100W solar panel, Sunsei Solar Panel se 6000. If I am dividing correctly, a 100W panel, via and voltage converter could provide 2.5amps to 4amps at 36v and 24v respectively.

It is a single speed. It would be more useful and cheaper to add gearing than an electric hub.

It is a single speed. It would be more useful ... to add gearing than an electric hub.

Why?

I have both electric and non-electric bikes in our hilly town and if someone asked me which is more important, the gearing is more useful than electric. To make up for no low gears (or high gears), I would require a very large motor with lots of torque to get up these hills. I would guess that the best use of electric in this case would be to get out to the route. After that you don't have to go fast unless you aren't selling anything. With gears on that trike, one could easily get up to speed unless it was hilly.

Perhaps a mid-drive plus gears...a al Stokemonkey.