Electric Bikes - Need Help: Going to build cross country Solar charging E-bike

First off, What an awesome forum!


Well my plan here is to build a bike that I will use to travel the country to live out my vagabonding dreams. I want to have both options to charge by plug in or by solar. and would like to have a distance around 50+ miles. I have no problem trying to fit 2 battery packs to make this happen if need be. I don't plan to pull a trailer and will be living with only the bare essentials so weight shouldn't be a big concern. And if I had to camp a few sunshines to gain a full charge that is no problem either. The more I can sloooooow down the better :) I'm just to the breaking point and sick of this rat race we call normal life so off I go, and it would be very nice to get some input from you guys. I have never really considered myself a "bike guy" so please be understanding with my what might seem to be basic questions. And if this has already been discussed a link to that discussion would be nice! thanks guys and I'll leave the floor to hear some of your input, I dont have a bike purchased yet but would like to keep the price down a tad ha ha whatever that means. I'm hoping theres some decent bikes out there without heafty price tags. Thanks in advance!

These guys have built a solar bike that is probably close to what you are thinking. If what they have is bigger than you have in mind, it will at least get you looking in the right direction. http://solarbikeproject.com/index.html

thank man! I've been reading it looks like the Ezee conversion has the best options for me so far...

Wow thats quite the bike, I was hoping more for a fold up solar panel/s that I could store while riding, might have to get creative and mount a few as well.

If it were me I'd just bring enough panels to charge my phone & laptop (not many at all). The rest of the energy would come from my legs :)

Welcome,

Having owned an RV and having installed solar panels on it, let me warn you that thinking you can charge your e-bike batteries via solar panels is probably still too optimistic. The technology still needs to advance to make it more efficient, especially for portable apps. You'd be better off just putting your money in 2 sets of LIFEPO4 battery packs.

As for what it's like to travel by e-bike, much the same as a regular bike but you need to find places to recharge your battery. (You'll also need to carry some spares for your electrical parts or be prepared to have someone help you by being able to get a hold of spare electrical parts and ship them to you.) I'd suggest you take the time to watch this You Tube video about Justin Lemire-Elmore"s (one of the co-owners of e-bikes.ca) trip across Canada on an e-bike. It's long, but it will give you a feel for what you may face.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7678925878624577581#

Since you're going cross country, whatever bike you get, I recommend some kind of canopy for inclimate weather.

http://www.veltop.eu/index.php?produit_veltop_en

Or perhaps you'll just fit your solar panels for a roof.

Oh and speaking of solar bikes, the SUNN car is basically a solar quad bicycle except without the peddles so you may want to investigate that:

http://www.sunnev.com/

If you wanted to make a SUNN-like electric car with peddles, you could look into a Rhoades car and fit it with solar panels:

http://www.rhoadescar.com/rcar/index.shtml

It seems to me that a recumbent would be the best bike to go solar because 'bents have less wind resistance because they are closer to the ground.

Here is a guy that sells a sail powered trike. He has gone coast to coast sourthern route on wind power. He has a solar panel to power phones and other electrics. A bionx to use when out of wind power. Looks interesting to me. http://www.pterosail.com/

Just like the picture in the first link shows. You need lots of panel to get even a small amount of power. This forum can help you with the math.
http://www.solarpowerforum.net/forumVB/

Found another one perhaps more to your requirements!:

http://www.sunzeecar.com/ecotrike/sunzeecar/Home.html

I don't even want to know how much they want for the first solar powered bike mentioned..
The second "solar powered" one is using 90AH+ batteries. And trust me, the batts themselves prolly cost around $2,000.

I don't even want to know how much they want for the first solar powered bike mentioned..
The second "solar powered" one is using 90AH+ batteries. And trust me, the batts themselves prolly cost around $2,000.

not to mention the weight. Most of the "solar" bikes I have seen are all made of lightweight materials as well, increasing both the cost and the complexity of repairing them.

For you, I would say get 12 of the thundersky 40ah batteries for 36v, you would get ~55 miles before you need a recharge (from an outlet). If you get a 10a charger that's 4 hours from dead (or if charging overnight, get a 5a charger)
Solar panels ON any bike is just not pratical because of their weight and basic fragility issues - plus their not the most efficient energy collectors anyways)
Unless your planning on only biking at night and charging during a full sunlit day, solar won't work for recharging much, except maybe cell phone, computer, etc.
(in order to get a decent charge from solar, it has to be rather large, which translates into weight AND time AND sun.)
If solar was a viable option for power generation on an ebike, EVERYONE would use it, and as I'm sure you've seen, almost no one does, which should give you the hint)

Of course that all goes out the window if you want to spend around $15,000 and get a fully carbon fiber bicycle with a small carbon fiber trailer that weighs in at 30lbs. (including the low wattage motor and solar panels) and stop every 1 hr. for a 2 hr solar recharge during the day.
Getting the idea?

I just realized that this thread was started 4 months ago and the OP only has 3 posts and hasn't posted in just as long.