ChainlessRev

Looks like Dahon is expanding its product line this time with an electric bike!


https://www.bikebiz.com/news/31047/Da...-electric-bike

Dahon unveils electric bike

Jonathon Harker Aug 27 2009, 11:16am

The Boost – an ultra-light folding e-bike – enters the market

Dahon has today revealed details of a folding electric bicycle – the Boost.

Set to be showcased at the forthcoming Eurobike show, the Boost has been two years in the making with a Japanese technology partner and boasts sophisticated motor and torque sensors that add power proportionally to what the rider applies to the pedals.

With a 250W motor with a top speed of 25 km per hour, the Boost uses a 3x3 gearing system that allows for nine different riding modes for variable electric assistance and can also be used as a standard bike when the electric drive system is turned off.

With a folding process of just 15 seconds, the fully equipped weight of the Boost is 19.6kgs, making it one of the lightest electric bikes on the market.

Dahon vice president Joshua Hon said: “There are some very good electric bikes on the market already but there aren’t many good ‘portable’ electric bikes.”

“Electric bikes are a really compelling product for urban mobility with excellent growth potential but most are really heavy and difficult to transport. A truly portable electric bike can be rolled onto trains and buses and will really help to expand the usefulness of the category. In the cities of the future, we believe that most inner city transport will be a combination of personal transport (walking, bikes) and trains and buses.”

StridaHope

I'd love this if they made it chainfree (or at least gave it a full chaincase). Every chained bike I had in the past got chain grease on something. Stained my pants, my car, angry passers by.

EvilV

re chaingrease:

To be honest, the advent of cheap, light and strong plastics and their ease of moulding makes the lack of chain guards on single speeds and hub geared bikes seem silly. These kinds of bikes could easily have totally enclosed chain drives for pennies. This would not only increase their practical utility, but would make them mechanically more durable since the chains would remain clean and water free. The only reason this doesn't happen must be a perception of the kind of 'style' the customers want. Cycles owe at least some of their form to fashion issues.

In the early 1950s my dad was a rent collector for about three years. He rode his Raleigh Superbe (with complete chain enclosure) to his place of work and all around the city and outlying villages where he collected rents. He must have rode that bike 25 miles a day at least for five days a week for about three years. I asked him and he has no recollection of ever having to do anything with the chain except occasionally oiling it and removing it to mend punctures.

brakemeister

there are pros and cons about enclosed chains
maintenance is still there , just cause you dont see it doesnt mean you can forget it...
people fold the bike and than slamm it into the trunk and than the chain may rub somewhere ....
dito the plastic chainguard cracks after it has been abused and somebody is yelling warranty replacement
oiled chains are not supposed to sling the crap all over the place, if that is the case one need to take apropiate oil, and much less of it.
chainging a flat becomes more and more difficult with an fully enclosed chainguard

its not available for pennies . ... a custom chaingurd would need a horrendeous expensive mold ( a mold that size would usually be done for several hunderthousands units.... we however talk about a couple thousands instead. the mold cost alone would add quite a chunk to the bike. Plus it would be a truly propierty item , which folks go off on all the time.

available more universal chaincovers have problems with larger than usual chainring diameters and shorter than usual chainstays ... most of them dont fit right

and the list goes on


still i like them too on the apropiate bike
Thor

EvilV

Thanks for your thoughts on that Thor. Yes - I see what you are saying. I was though thinking of those polythene type flexible plastics. A woman friend of mine has a Raleigh folder with a polythene chain guard. It isn't a fully enclosed one, but it can take the strain if you push it around or were to bang it. It isn't at all brittle, which as you point out would be a problem.

I can't deny the issues you mention re changing inner tubes - hard to get around the extra difficulty there. And the mould cost thing, I had not thought of. I'd have thought it wouldn't be a big deal, but then I'm not a plastic parts manufacturer. making them out of steel would be at least as costly in the old days, but I suppose we did pay lots more for bikes way back in relation to our earnings.

ChainlessRev

Some more pics of the Boost from Eurobike...

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/articl...hon-more-23011

StridaHope

My thoughts on the fender/chainguard/skirtguard issue are pretty much mirrored by this blog entry:

https://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/2...ulture_04.html

A good design will let someone bike in high heels and a skirt. =)