Electric Bikes - New to E-Bikes

I bought a HummingBike last week. The motor is 36 Volt and the wheels are 26" It gets a million miles per gallon. :love:

I am totally unfamiliar with this type bike, but figured I would make the plunge and learn first hand. This is a low end bike for sure, but it seems to perform well so far.

If anyone here knows about this brand, or has an educated opinion, I would be interested in hearing it.


Oldbikerider

we'll to reflect the seriousness of an eBike you don't get "million miles per gallon"
it's more you get X amount of miles per X amount of mAh of your battery pack divided by the Watt consumption of your 36v motor,

what i'm trying to say is, you need to plan ahead of time, how far you want to go, double that distance, then you'll know if your bike can handle it

and keep note, year by year, your battery pack will perform poorer & poorer (it's the normal wear of the battery, no much you can do about that)

Yes, I do of course realize all that. My point was that is uses no gasoline, and for that I am glad.

that is indeed true, in fact, it's for the same reason i'm returning to biking again after a long hiatus commuting by car :p

I am retired. My goal each day is to never start a vehicle. I would like for the oil companies to have so much gasoline on hand that they would have to give it away.

If people really cared about gas prices, they would demand the speed limit be lowered back down to 55mph. It saved huge amounts of gas which increases supply which reduces price.

I like the look of that one, though I haven't heard much about that type.

One thing to find out is how easy it is to pedal without the motor. It's a good thing to know in case it blows a fuse or the battery runs out before getting to your destination.

If people really cared about gas prices, they would demand the speed limit be lowered back down to 55mph. It saved huge amounts of gas which increases supply which reduces price.

You would be amazed at the number of people that honestly believe that they get better mileage when they go faster.

This bike has an aluminum alloy frame, and is not "that" heavy. The battery is lithium and I estimate the weight of it at about 6-7 lbs. On level ground I notice very little difference in it and an old steel frame Schwinn. I live in a hilly area and this bike is working out great for my 64 yr old legs. I take the bike now when ordinarily I would've driven a gas burner when moving about my small town.

When I come across ebike I always try to find what are the origins of motor and battery.
When system of ebike is analog /no computerized, no data communication between components/ you can easly use any battery of bike voltage.
So you can exchange battery with any battery of same voltage.
But you cannot really change motor , so it is so important to know reliability of motor drive, namely where is it from.
As I can see this ebike uses common China-brand motor, used on many other China ebikes.
As I can see it uses as a battery meter cheap, analog ,toy like votage-based indicator which is common on China brands pretty much useless for Lithium battery.
Lithiums have quite flat discharge meaning voltage drops very slowely with usage so such indicator is just a toy.
As you can see ebike is a direct import from Shangai.
http://www.importgenius.com/importers/hummingbike

When I come across ebike I always try to find what are the origins of motor and battery.
When system of ebike is analog /no computerized, no data communication between components/ you can easly use any battery of bike voltage.
So you can exchange battery with any battery of same voltage.
But you cannot really change motor , so it is so important to know reliability of motor drive, namely where is it from.
As I can see this ebike uses common China-brand motor, used on many other China ebikes.
As I can see it uses as a battery meter cheap, analog ,toy like votage-based indicator which is common on China brands pretty much useless for Lithium battery.
Lithiums have quite flat discharge meaning voltage drops very slowely with usage so such indicator is just a toy.
As you can see ebike is a direct import from Shangai.
http://www.importgenius.com/importers/hummingbike

I was aware of where it was made before I bought it. I didn't drop a ton of cash for the bike. I wanted it mostly to take to the campgrounds and to ride around my little town. I did climb a much steeper/longer hill than shown on a video I just watched, but I had to pedal. I am perfectly satisfied with the bike, I just don't know how long it will last. Time will tell.

Try to never drain the battery to the point of the bike shutting down, at some point it's good to test this by riding close to home and measuring distance you can get from a full charge but to make the battery last as long ( years ) as possible, charge before every ride ...

if you do run empty, remember to charge right away or at least partially before storing the pack for long periods.. inside the battery box is a BMS ( battery management system ) that requires power from the battery to function, some of these are very lame and can destroy your pack instead of saving it..

Thanks for the tip on charging the battery. I do charge frequently.