Converting a motorcycle to an electric vehicle is not as difficult as you might think. An EV conversion can be done with 100% off the shelf parts with the aid of various build instructions available for free on the internet. Lots of people have built these things before.
You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Future Electric Vehicles.
But that's not to suggest that an EV conversion won't benefit from research & engineering design. College research labs and professional racing teams know all kinds of fascinating information, but they choose to share it in long boring doctoral thesis papers, if they share it at all.
What you never see is the awesome engineering work presented in a conversational tone, let alone an instruction manual. My intention here is to summarize all the good sciency stuff in down to earth terms and share it online for other people like me!
This instructable details the process of physically converting the motorcycle AND the decision making process of optimizing the design.
These are 8 main steps to converting a motorcycle that will guide the structure of this instructable:
1. Initial Planning. (Get a Donor Bike)
2. Gut & Clean Chassis. (The Dirty Part)
3. Design & Planning. (The Nerdy Math Part)
4. Mount Motor, Batteries, Controller, Charger. (The Frustrating Part)
5. Mount Peripherals. (Main Contactor, Throttle, Fuses, Etc)
6. Wire Everything Together. (The Be-Very-Careful Part)
7. Build Body & Paint. (The Other Dirty Part)
8. Drive off into the Sunset. (The Put-On-Your-Cool-Guy-Shades Part)
This is the fun part where you get measure, calculate, and remeasure to figure out which hardware to use and where you will mount it to the bike. The biggest and most expensive things are the motor, controller, batteries, & battery charger.
At first it's difficult to select and size these parts because it seems like you don't have enough information to make any decisions. It turns out that your options are far more constrained than you might think. In theory there are many options but in practice something is only an option if it is attainable. The reasons behind the specific choices made will be discussed in later steps. To make this instructable flow better I have moved these discussions to the end of this instructable and have added '(SCIENCE)' in the step title.
For now know that you want to size the batteries, motor, and controller so that no single component becomes a significant bottleneck in the system. Each component will have its own maximum capacity for power delivery that has to be considered and that all components have to operate at the same voltage.
A huge portion of my time on this project was spent developing an excel document for estimating the finished performance of the bike. Once finished I realized that I could play with individual variables and quantify their effect on the bike's performance. The result is a bunch of really cool graphs in the science section.
I've attached the excel document to this step for your reference.
One big topic I've left out is vehicle dynamics. You can calculate how your bike would perform in various tests of handling, suspension, braking, etc. But your ability to change these things on a conversion bike is very limited unless you are willing to do a major overhaul. The conversion will affect the center of gravity of the bike, but that's about it. If you have a more custom bike project & want to learn about motorcycle dynamics, then I recommend this book: Motorcycle Design & Technology: How and Why
One funny thing I learned is that after having done all that work to figure out the power consumption of the finished bike I could have just used a rule of thumb to estimate it. The back of the envelope calc is that EV motorcycles consume 100 Whr/mi of energy. My actual power consumption ended up being about 110 Whr/mi.
The last thing to note on this step is that making cardboard mock-ups was immensely useful for checking fits. Even though I love 3D modelling, you just can't compare the two methods in this context.
This step is complete when you've done the math, know what you want and where you will put it, and you order all the electronic parts.
This is the most dangerous step. Be careful not to accidentally ground things to the chassis or drop a wrench across the battery terminals!
I made the schematic shown in TinyCAD before I started wiring so I wouldn't get confused. For all the low voltage nodes I used wire nuts because it was cheap, but that turned out to be really messy and unprofessional. I recommend using some sort of terminal blocks mounted inside of a project box.
The sizing of the high voltage wire is important. The bigger you go the less resistance you will have, but thick copper wire can get really expensive.
Everywhere I look the standard operating procedure for safely sizing electrical wires seems to be ‘pick a really big one’. So part of the main excel document has a wire sizing calculator in it that I used to make the graph detailing power loss vs wire gauge above. I ended up using 10' of size (1/0) welding wire from evdrives.com
When thinking about wire size, things like current draw and length are import to consider here but interestingly voltage has no direct effect on the ampacity of electrical wire! Wire ampacity is a function of wire diameter and length. Voltage drop is only a function of wire length!
While voltage has no effect on the ampacity of electrical wire, its still important to consider here. Choosing a higher voltage system (say 72v instead of 48v) allows you to transfer more wattage (power) through a given wire (Watts = Volts * Amps). This allows you to operate with lower current which would reduce the power loss within the wire. This is why you find surprisingly small gauge wires inside large industrial AC electric motors; because high voltage motors draw a relatively small current.
On the low voltage system (12v) you have greater limitations on how long that wire can be run. The resistance of a given length of wire is constant, so the voltage drop through that same wire will be constant for any voltage. The resulting percentage voltage drop is significant for low voltage systems. If you’re not careful and run a low voltage wire too long you can give yourself a brown out. You can read more about this topic and find a more in depth wire sizing calculator here: EngineerDog's Free Electric Wire Size Calculator.
This step is complete when your bike looks like a pile of spaghetti and everything works.
I was relieved when I finally finished this thing and it worked...wonderfully! I was actually able to get the bike legally licensed & insured! Of course I failed in my initial project goal of driving to work because it was simply too far, but the bike was great for cruising around town. A lot of people did a double take when I drove by because it was so quiet.
In the end the calculations, design, & build time took 6 months of intermittent work, which was much longer than I originally planned. This isn't due to incompetence, but rather the planning fallacy, which makes projects take longer than expected.
The bike performed almost as well as I'd predicted with the excel calculator. That calculator enabled me to confidently say that I could not have possibly gotten better all around performance than I did for the price that I paid.
The last step of this instructables contains a little video about the bike so you can see it in action!
Final Bike Specs:
(4) 80 Amp-hr AGM Lead Acid Batteries (Werker Brand)
PMDC Brushed Electric Motor ME (10.75 hp continuous)
Alltrax Controller AXE (250 amp continuous.)
Final Bike Curb Weight: 453 lbs
Donor bike: Honda cbr600
Typical Driving Range: ~25 miles (varies with speed)
Top Speed: ~60 Mph
MPG equivalent: 219
Total Operating Cost: <8 cents/mile
Project Cost: $3,200
Where its at now: I actually built this bike in and have been sitting on all this documentation ever since. I've since moved to an apartment without a garage or place to charge it so I had to sell off the bike. I wanted to avoid the liability of selling it whole so I took it entirely apart and sold it piecemeal at a huge financial loss.
That's OK though, I hadn't plannied on this project as being a direct financial gain. The money was more of an investment in myself. To give myself the chance to take on a project that had intimidated me and to learn as much as I could. As an engineer I can also say that this project has helped my career prospects as well.
I want to point out that you cannot justify a DIY electric motorcycle conversion for financial reasons alone. If you want to build one then do it for another reason. Do it to learn something new or for fun. Do it to show you care about the environment. Do it for science. Just don't do it with the intention of saving money, because you won't.
Most people do EV conversions out of environmental concern. They understand that the monetary price of goods doesn't always reflect their true cost to society. The end user's monetary operating cost is not a good measure of the environmental and human health cost of operating that vehicle because it does not account for externalities, subsidies, and the like.
Electric vehicles are better than gas from an efficiency standpoint at the vehicle level and arguably also at the well-to-wheel energy efficiency level. (To be fair, calculating the well-to-wheel efficiency of any fuel is really difficult, so the photos attached have Tesla's calculations for natural gas fueled power plants and the EPA's for everything else.)
The EPA has stated that, in terms of well-to-wheel CO2 emissions, EVs are the best option due to their high system efficiency. You can read it yourself here and while you're at it use this website to see where your electricity comes from.
Because it really matters where you get your electricity from. If your part of the US gets most of its electricity from coal, then your EV could be much less environmentally friendly that you might think it is. Ignoring CO2 emissions, there are many other considerations to be made including the impacts of mining, transportation, other chemicals released, and on and on.
**So which is better, gas or electric?
Clearly this comparison is not as straightforward as it may at first seem, and I'm not qualified to make the final call on the subject. But I have shared some insights and can be a guide for open discussions on the topic.
The only thing I can say for certain to the environmentally concerned among you is to use renewable energy, when possible, to power your EV. Also that you are always better off if you can use a smaller vehicle if doing so allows you to replace the use of a larger vehicle.
For this reason, micro-electric vehicles such as you might make with a FlexPV kit, are within the Goldilocks range of practical DIY vehicle design. Things like EV bicycles are cheap, simple, and efficient enough to make sense environmentally, practically, and financially. If you want to DIY something, stick with vehicles small enough to not need a license or registration to legally drive.
Having said all that, I cannot recommend doing a DIY EV motorcycle project for practical reasons. My bike had such a limited range and had to be plugged in to charge for long periods of time. Also, when you DIY build a vehicle you end up with something that only you know how to work on. You have no warranty, and you can't even sell the thing whole without risking a lawsuit down the road. For less money than I spent on the bike I could have bought a new moped that got 60+ mpg. The moped could then drive all day and is only a 5 min gas fill up away from being able to drive home.
The second question people usually ask me is if the bike has regenerative braking, and they always look disappointed when I say no. The truth is that regen is not always economically viable. Regen's overall value depends on your specific circumstances.
Adding regen to MY bike would have gained me an estimated 1.7 miles of range (a 6% increase), but doing so would have cost me an additional $700! (a 30% in total project cost). I calculated the miles gained per dollar spent of adding regen vs buying larger batteries to see where the money was best spent. I discovered that the money was 25 times better spent on buying bigger batteries than by adding regen!
This is not to suggest that adding regen is always a bad deal. This has to be analyzed on a case by case basis because the amount of energy you can recover with regen varies with many factors. (Including how you drive)
For instance, you can recover more power when you have a larger capacity battery bank, such as a commercial car has. Batteries have a maximum recharge rate (~25% of total 'C/20' capacity, that's the normal rated capacity in Ah). So while there is a lot of potentially recoverable energy from the vehicle's kinetic energy, you can only save what you can cram into the batteries safely.This vastly reduces the total energy you can recover.
On the other hand batteries are consumables and spending money on a regen controller (which is not a consumable) would permanently add to your bike's range. Installing a regen capable motor controller won't add additional weight, whereas bigger batteries will. Plus you can only get bigger batteries up to a limit.
Other Regen Considerations:
1. Your motor controller must be specifically say it is capable of regen. Otherwise it cannot be made to do so.
2. Controllers that can do regen are somewhat more complicated to wire up.
3. Regen causes a reversal in the torque direction on the motor, which could potentially slowly loosen the motor mounting bolts.
4. Regen won't work at very low speeds. The voltage produced by a generator is a function of the load and the RPM. (The current produced is a function only of the load.) The vehicle has to be traveling fast enough to generate a voltage larger than the battery bank voltage to enable charging.
Despite all of this, regenerative braking still makes a lot of sense in certain applications. Electric cars are a great choice. They have huge battery banks which can withstand high charging currents. And the cost of adding regen is small compared to the overall cost of a large vehicle.
Regen makes less sense for a DIYer with a small vehicle like myself. The added cost and complexity combined with hardly noticeable returns make for a bad deal.
**Note that regenerative braking is not the same as plug braking. Plug braking is required for vehicles that reverse the motor to change vehicle direction and/or are designed for the electrical braking to supplement the mechanical braking (some golf carts). For applications where the motor only spins one direction (such as a motorcycle), plug braking is unnecessary.
Different Types of Motors: (TLDR: As I said earlier, in theory there are many choices for these parts, in practice not so much due to price and availability of parts. All things considered, for a DIY motorcycle project you will get the most bang for your buck with a PMDC motor. If you have a pile of cash to burn and you want to show off then splurge for the brushless PMDC.)
DC motors consist of one set of coils that moves called an armature located inside another fixed set of coils or (permanent magnets), called the stator. The armature rotates with the drive shaft and the stator 'stays' put. These are the relevant DC motor types:
Series Wound: The field coils are connected in series with the armature coil. Powerful and efficient at high speed, series wound motors generate the most torque for a given current. Speed varies wildly with load, and can run away under no-load conditions. Tougher to do regen with, but it is possible. A controller capable of going this with a series motor will be expensive)
Shunt Wound: The field coils are connected in parallel with the armature coil. Shunt wound motors generate the least torque for a given current, but speed varies very little with load.
Compound Wound: a combination of series and shunt wound. This is an attempt to make a motor that will not run away under no load or if the field fails, yet is as efficient and powerful as a series wound motor.
Permanent Magnet (PM): Magnets replace the field coils found in other motor types. Permanent magnet motors are either brushed or brushless.
*Brushed Motors: Use mechanical brushes to make electrical contact with the rotor at the right time.
PROS: two wire control, replaceable brushes for extended life, low cost of construction, simple and inexpensive control
CONS: periodic maintenance is required, speed/torque is moderately flat, brush friction increases at higher speeds reducing useful torque, poor heat dissipation due to internal rotor construction, higher rotor inertia which limits the dynamic characteristics, lower speed range due to mechanical limitations on the brushes.
*Brushless Motors: These are essentially stepper motors without the cogs that allow steppers to stop the rotor.
PROS: Less required maintenance due to absence of brushes, Speed/Torque- flat enabling operation at all speeds with rated load, high efficiency, no voltage drop across brushes, high output power/frame size., reduced size due to superior thermal characteristics, improved heat dissipation, higher speed range - no mechanical limitation imposed by brushes/commutator, low electric noise generation.
CONS: Higher cost of construction, Control is complex and expensive.
AC Induction Motors: Rotate at a fixed speed and so require the use of a transmission. While they are super efficient and have a high power output, these are typically used in EV Cars rather than motorcycles.
Permanent Magnet AC (PMAC): Expensive and hard to find, but is capable of variable-speed operation and ultra-high motor efficiency.This type of motor is used on professional Brammo electric motorcycles.
Analyzing Motor Specs: The continuous ratings are what is important. Similarly, the 'loaded speed' is going to be your max output RPM. The Rated HP is typically the torque level at which the motor can be run continuously without exceeding the temperature at which the winding insulation beaks down.
Voltage: Higher voltage systems are better, but they cost more. Running a motor at higher voltage generates less heat for a given power rating because the heat generated is proportional to the current draw and a higher voltage will give a lower current draw for the same power output. However as voltage increases so does the need for higher performance insulation, controllers, switches, etc. It is useful to note that input voltage is proportional to motor speed, and the input current is proportional to the motor torque.
48v & 72v are the most common configurations but just for a frame of reference the 'Kilacycle' racing electric motorcycle runs at 374 Volts.
Other Motor Notes:
The physical dimensions will be a significant limitation for a motorcycle project. Making the cardboard mock up was an absolute necessity.
Electric motors have a huge operating speed range, so you don't have to have a transmission. You don't even have to disengage the motor when you are coasting either. The motor won't have any resistance unless it is generating electricity, and it won't generate electricity if it isn't connected to a load. (The controller electrically disconnects the motor for coasting. That is, unless you activate the regen).
There is a devoted section to motors and controllers in the excel document. I used it by plugging in different motors into the calculations to see how they affected the overall performance and required gear ration.
My favorite suppliers for these parts were evdrives.com & electricmotorsport.com. I did NOT like Cloudelectric, who had bad prices and no original documentation.
Hub motor vs Traditional motor
In theory a hub motor does make more sense for energy efficiency, weight distribution, and space saving. Eliminating a roller chain drive could increase efficiency by 2-3%. On the other hand, your hub motor can't take advantage of an optimized transmission system. Oh, and good luck finding one that fits your bike!
I shopped around for a hub motor but there are hardly any options to choose from. Most of the products out there are made for mopeds and would be under powered on a motorcycle. Plus, a wheel is a pretty special part on any vehicle. It is designed to fit within a specific gap in the rear suspension forks and is made for one size of tire. What are the chances of finding a perfect drop in replacement hub motor that matches your specific wheel dimensions?
Controller Considerations:
*There are a lot of EV motor controllers to choose from. Alltrax, Curtis, Kelly are the biggest name brands. Alltrax is easy to use but none of their products have regen.
*All controllers will need programming, but a few controllers will require an expensive special programming device. The Alltrax controllers require a $15 cable that connects to your computer. Programming an Alltrax is easy and involves choosing your throttle input type and how the controller should react to this input.
*My throttle was a variable resistor (0- ohms). You can set the controller so that either the 0 ohm reading or the ohm reading corresponds to standing still (no output). It is important that you choose 0 ohms as the no output setting! If you choose ohms as no output then your bike will accelerate if you disconnect the cable!
*Make sure the motor controller is compatible with your electric motor before buying anything. You'll have to find a motor compatibility chart or list provided with the controller. Controllers use pulse width modulation to efficiently control motor speed. Motor and controller compatibility is determined in part by the acceptable range of pulse frequencies.
*Make sure the operating voltage is the same as the motor.
*Make sure the continuous current rating is at least as big as the motor. Beware getting a significantly oversize controller which can deliver more power to a motor than it is capable of handling. (An undersized controller isn't dangerous but it wont fully utilize the potential of your motor.)
Heat Control:
Both the motor & controller will generate a significant amount of heat in use. I made a scoop on the bottom of the bike from a paint drip tray to duct air onto the motor.
Unless your controller has an integrated heatsink or fan then it will need a heatsink of some sort. You can find one online somewhere or you can make your own and use this one simple equation to estimate its overall effectiveness.
Without question the single biggest limitation on performance of the bike is battery storage. Honestly, what we really need to make a DIY motorcycle conversion more practical is a revolution in battery technology. Here's the low down on making the best use of today's tech.
Lithium vs Lead Acid
Once again, there is much less choice here than there first seems to be. There isn't a good intermediate choice between the really expensive, higher performing, more finicky, lithium based batteries and the tried & true lead acid batteries. (Try finding a Ni-CD or Ni-MH battery large enough for a motorcycle. What are you gonna do, wire up hundreds of AA batteries?)
Here's a rough scale to compare the use of lithium instead of lead acid: Quadruple the battery cost, charger cost, complexity, and performance. You can get a name brand Brammo model for $16,000 so is it worth it to build your own for $10,000?
If you are converting a motorcycle for simple hobby use then lithium batteries are almost certainly going to break your budget. I could not afford the lithium batteries and they scared the heck out of me, so I focused my attention on optimizing the use of lead acid batteries.
Optimizing Lead Acid:
After some research I concluded that Absorbed Glass Matt (AGM) lead acid batteries would provide the best possible performance for this battery chemistry. They are also completely sealed and can be mounted in any position. Unfortunately they are also more expensive than comparable flooded lead acid.
I started by collecting data on every AGM battery I could get my hands on. The result is the chart shown in the photos. This enabled me to make a direct comparison between batteries using the ratio of capacity/weight (Ahr/lbs).
Other considerations:
The company is the world’s best Buy Retro Electric motorcycle 26 mph supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
*Batteries are expensive to ship, so get them in town if possible.
*Lead acid batteries do have a good value in scrap. You can expect to around 15% of their purchase price if you scrap them when your done.
*Pukert Effect- The true capacity of a battery varies with the rate at which you consume power. The faster you discharge a battery, the less capacity it has. This is known as the Puekert effect and is illustrated in the graph above. (I created this graph for a rated 80 amp-hr lead acid battery) The listed capacity of 80 amp-hr is selected because that how much energy the battery has when it is completely discharged in 20 hours, a standardized time interval.
When it comes to selecting a battery size, bigger is almost always better (bigger meaning physical volume and Amp-hr capacity). Here’s why:
1) The larger the capacity of the battery bank, the longer it will take to discharge the batteries, and due to the Peukert Effect as battery discharge rate is increased, the relative usable capacity decreases. This means that an 80 amp-hr battery pack will give you more than twice the range of a 40 amp-hr battery pack.
2) If you were to consume the same amount of power from a large and a small battery, the smaller one will have a lower depth of discharge (DOD) percentage. Using 20 amp-hrs from a 40 amp-hr pack will give you a DOD of 50%, but it would only be a 25% DOD from an 80 amp-hr pack. Battery life is shortened the more deeply it is discharged in each cycle, so increasing the battery bank capacity will increase the usable life of the bank. This is more clearly illustrated in the graph below.
3) As explained in the regenerative braking section, you can only recover as much energy as you can safely cram into the batteries in a short period of time. The larger the battery bank capacity, the higher the safe recharge rate, and the more energy you can recover from regenerative braking.
Interestingly, bigger batteries weren't always more energy dense per unit weight or volume than small batteries. It really varied unpredictably per battery so I guess the variants come from subtle differences in battery design.
Charging: Batteries like to be charged in a certain way, especially when they have been deeply discharged. This type of charging is referred to as multi-step regulated charging, or just 'smart charging'. Make sure you get a smart charger and not a dumb 1 step cram-it-in-there charger. The typical charging profile for a smart charger is as follows:
Step 1. Bulk Charge: up to 80% of the battery energy capacity is replaced by the charger at the max voltage and current rating of the charger. When the battery voltage reaches a 14.6-14.8 volts it jumps to step 2.
Step 2. Absorption Charge: The voltage is held at a constant 14.6-14.8 volts and the current declines until the battery is almost completely charged.
Step 3. Float Charge: This is a regulated voltage and is usually less than 1 amp of current. This will bring the battery to 100% charged or close to it. The float charge will not boil or heat batteries but will maintain the batteries at 100% readiness and prevent cycling and internal discharge issues during extended inactivity.
Selecting a Charger Size: Most battery manufacturers recommend sizing the charger to be at most 25% of the battery capacity (in Ah) or 0.25 C-rate. Thus, a 100 Ahr 48 volt battery pack would take at most about a 25 amp 48 volt charger (or less). Larger chargers may be used to decrease charge time, but risk damaging the battery.
Batteries can be charged across the pack (add up the voltages of each battery connected in series and charge at that voltage) OR you can use 4 chargers or a multiple output charger to connect and charge each battery individually. Battery life can potentially increased by charging them individually vs with a series charger due to the individual attention the batteries get.
Originally I charged all four of my batteries in series with an on-board charger. It may have been too hot or too bumpy though because my charger eventually broke. I ended up replacing it with 4 individual battery chargers from harbor freight. Charging each battery individually gives them more attention and is better for them anyway, but the new charger stack was so big that I had to mount it in my garage instead of on my bike.
Note that charging each of 4 batteries at 12v-10amp simultaneously would take the same amount of time as using a 48v-10amp charger to charge the bank.
Other things to consider:
*Maximum Safe Battery Temperature: 125°F (51.7°C) seems to be the industry standard although some specify 100°F
*To prolong battery life, you should return the energy you use asap after using it. If you don't the battery may sulfate more quickly than it otherwise would have (a gradual and permanent chemical reaction which reduces performance and longevity). Also, when you do start charging the battery, fill it all the way. Undercharging of a battery will still allow sulfation of the battery of the portion not reactivated by the incomplete charging cycle. Note that this is not a 'memory effect'. Lead acid batteries DO NOT have a memory effect. There is no benefit to fully discharging a battery before recharging! In fact, deeper discharges will reduce the number of battery life cycles!
*Batteries are happiest when they are left unused with a trickle charger on them.
*If you can't decide between two great charger options then some cool extra things for a charger to have include: thermal overload protection, thermal compensation (charge differently at different temps), spark proof, waterproof, polarity protection (hooking it up backwards won't break it), and LED indicator lights. I particularly like the 'Battery Tender' line of chargers.
Ebikes are about to change the world, and they are already the best selling electric vehicles in the US.
They will be a big driver of shifting more car trips to other modes. And shifting more families to owning fewer, or even no cars. When we need fewer cars, that means we can build less parking, which lowers prices at grocery stores, restaurants, and other places. It lets us build things closer together, allowing us to build what consumers want — walkable neighborhoods like Culdesac Tempe.
I own over 70 ebikes, so some have called me the Jay Leno of ebikes. I’m still working on the jokes.
Ebikes are a big reason I've been able to go 14 years car-free. Owning so many bikes has also allowed me to understand the differences between them, and I've advised hundreds on their own ebike purchase.
My fleet has also allowed me to go on many group rides and lend them to many people. If you want to try some, just dm me and we’ll set you up to come to the Culdesac office in downtown Tempe.
Note: I’ve been keeping this guide updated since . Between this and my work with Culdesac, I’ve met many leaders in the ebike space. In , Culdesac announced a partnership with Lectric, including naming one of our streets Lectric Avenue.
Just buy one. You will be happy with what you bought. Ebikes are a gateway drug to…more ebikes. Most people will spend $1-3k on their first ebike. Just get started and you’ll learn more in time for buying your second. It’s a lot of money for a bike, but you should be comparing it to a car instead.
Gone are the days when the bicycle world was dominated by road and mountainbikers that looked down on ebikes as cheating. a) nobody cares. b) you don’t get as much exercise per mile, but you travel farther and c) this is about commuting and cargo. Even if you want to full throttle your trips like I often do, great. We’re here to shift trips from cars to bikes, not fight about one type of bike versus another.
Don’t buy one on Amazon. They don’t have the best bikes. And many of the bikes on there I wouldn’t recommend. See below for my lowest priced recommendation.
There are two good ways to buy an ebike. Online or from your local bike shop. The local bike store, if it’s a good one (such as Archer’s Bikes at Culdesac Tempe), offers a range of options and does repairs on site. They don’t offer many (any) of the direct to consumer brands, but again, see rule 1. Online, which usually means a direct to consumer brand, gives you the most options across companies. Servicing can be more painful, but the gap is smaller than you might think. The direct to consumer companies have even been developing servicing networks for a van to come to you. Some companies will even bring a test vehicle to you before you buy.
Bike fit matters but fitting it to your needs matters more. Spend more time matching a functional bike to your lifestyle and follow the manufacture’s suggested size chart to find the proper fit.
Safety first. I only recommend bikes that come with integrated headlights and disc brakes (mechanical or hydraulic).
One of the first decisions to make is mid-drive vs. hub-drive (where the motor is located). Mid-drive is more expensive, but feels the most natural. One advertising campaign calls their mid-drive “you, but stronger” and that sums it up. When I want to get more of a workout, I grab one of my mid-drives. But usually I grab one of my hub-drives. Why? A THROTTLEThrottles are magic and give you the option of pedaling as little as zero. Particularly for cargo bikes, a throttle is a major feature. You’ll appreciate it when you’re taking off from a standing stop with groceries or children on the back.
Anti-theft will be THE killer feature for ebikes. Retailers that provide safe bike parking before anti-theft is widespread will be rewarded with customers. Customers that don’t need a 350 sqft parking spot for one vehicle.
You might be surprised how much help you can get for free on Reddit or Facebook groups. Seriously, just post a video of what is wrong with your bike to the right group and people will line up to help you. But ignore them about doing complex modifications unless that is your thing.
Tech can be overrated. For one, it’s more things to go wrong. One example is the VanMoof unlock feature. In most cases, it’s great that the bike unlocks as you walk up. But I’ve also heard instances of someone at a restaurant sitting near their bike and it unlocked the bike.
I’m not the best person for scooters (being 6'5" means that many of them aren’t really tall enough for me), but consider them too. People love scooters. Scooters get a bad rap because most people’s experience is with cheaper shared scooters. The shared scooters suffer from limitations imposed by local governments. Individual scooters do not. Scooters can be an excellent option for people in dense urban environments- they are foldable and light and perfect for multi modal trips.
Note: the below recommendations are for the US market. Check your local laws and regulations.
This is the sort of e-bike that has the potential to coax even more people out of their cars thanks to its combination of power, ease of use and maintenance-free operation.
The Lectric ONE, launched at Culdesac, is the biggest e-bike launch of the decade. At $, it has features that you couldn’t get under $13k before its launch.
Its Pinion transmission is the gold standard, giving both a customizable automatic mode and a push-button semi-automatic mode.
Price: Lectric ONE: $ on 3/12/24 on Lectric’s website.
Price matters, a lot. Especially for first time buyers, a low price brings new riders. And that is why most people that try my bikes get either a Lectric XP 3.0 or a Lectric XP Lite.
Lectric has grown rapidly over the past three years by focusing on low price points. Their flagship XP has remained at $ even despite inflation. That gives you a class 3 bike (up to 28mph), seven gears, and a front suspension.
Then last year they introduced the Lectric XP Lite, at $800. They removed non-essential features such as gears and a suspension, and a smaller motor means it is only a class 2 bike (20 mph).
The immediate sacrifice of the XP and XP Lite is that the battery range is lower than other bikes. But there’s a reason this bike is selling so well. You can also buy these with extended batteries. And for the XP, you can get a comfortable passenger seat.
This Phoenix-based company also has a great reputation for service.
You can go even lower on price, but again I wouldn’t buy the budget bikes on Amazon. There is also a whole category of mini bikes, including some sold at Costco, that are compelling.
Price: Lectric XP 3.0: $ on 3/12/24 on Lectric’s website. Lectric XP Lite: $800 on 3/12/24 on Lectric’s website.
When I think of what an ebike is, I think of the RadRunner. It’s one of the most influential bikes in the history of the space, and is still a stalwart. It looks nothing like a traditional bicycle, and it smashed the notion that an ebike should.
Some call the RadRunner a utility bike, and people use it for a wide variety of uses, aided by Rad’s extensive accessory options.
The RadRunner has a number of features that make it great. The 20 x 3.3" tires are wide enough for a range of scenarios and short enough to make turning easy and fun. It has a step-through design. Thirty years ago, a step-through might have been called a “girls bike” in the US. But now even the tall men that try my bikes usually want a step-through. This bike also has a quite good set of upgrades available, showing its flexibility.
Rad Power Bikes was the early gorilla in the ebikes space. I often tell people to look at their full line and that shows them a range of different bikes and they can choose what they want. Rad’s bikes are basically all good. When I started this guide they also were all affordable and toward the lowest priced in the market. These days, that’s not always the case. For example, they released the RadRunner 3 Plus this year, and it is priced at $. That’s 2.3x the Lectric XP 3.0. It wasn’t long ago the most common choice for people testing my bikes was a $ Lectric XP vs a $ RadRunner. And most people picked the RadRunner. But at $ vs. $, or $ vs $, it’s a whole different comparison.
Price: $ on 3/12/24 on Rad’s website. $ for Plus Version with front suspension, a passenger seat, hydraulic brakes and some other upgrades.
Perhaps the most important categories of all, bakfiets and cargo bikes (next category) are car replacement at its finest. People are always surprised how much you can carry #carryshitolympics. There are many options.
Bakfiets, which is Dutch for box bike, are a force of nature in the Netherlands, which is the world’s best example of how bikes can transform a city into something much more pleasant. The box is in front, giving the bike a large carrying capacity, plus a bench for children, or a Belgian Malinois if you’re a certain someone on my team.
Two excellent examples are the Riese & Muller Load, and the Urban Arrow Family. Both are easier to drive than they look, and they are frequently the favorites of all bikes anyone tries once they get used to how they drive.
There are other good options in this category. the Butchers & Bicycles MK-1 is a cargo tricycle that leans as you turn, countering the balance concerns that usually come with a trike. And the unique steering style of my Bunch Bikes Coupe is polarizing but might be for you.
These bikes are pricey, partly because they’re so rare in the US. As more are built, prices will come down. And a bakfiets with a throttle is going to be the next great American ebike.
Prices: Urban Arrow Family Performance Line: $-$ from Urban Arrow’s website on 3/12/24. Riese & Muller Load 75: $9,659 from Propel’s website on 3/12/24.
I call this category the most important category because these bikes can fulfill duties as both a regular bike and a cargo bike, and can carry up to 2 child seats.
That makes the Lectric XPedition the most important bike in America, because it comes in at a staggeringly affordable price of $1,400, vs over $2k for the others.
The Aventon Abound is a entry to the space and quickly established itself as a strong option.
Similar in shape to those two but much upgraded (if you can get over losing the throttle of the prior two), the Tern GSD (pictured) or HSD are higher end cargo bikes. Above is the R14 which has a Rohloff hub that lets you push a button to shift gears, and downshifts automatically.
Prices: Lectric XPedition $ on Lectric’s website, 3/12/24. Aventon Abound $ on Aventon’s website, 3/12/24. Tern GSD starting at $4,999, HSD $4,299 on Tern’s website, 3/12/24.
The definition of what an ebike is is getting blurred. And that’s before we even start talking about electric motorcycles.
One bike right on the line of what an ebike is the Super 73 RX. It has a powerful motor and counts as a class 3 ebikes, but it also has an off-road setting that allows full throttle up to around 30mph.
That flexibility and power is quite compelling. For example, people that have used motorcycles in the past gravitate to this one.
Price: $ for Super 73 RX on Juiced and Super 73 websites, 3/12/.
Regular bike tires are nice when the roads are smooth, but when the sidewalks turn rough and the roads become cracked, look to the RadRover. This bike has huge 26 x 4" tires. And that’s a 26" wheel, with the tire 4" tall on top of it. Large tires act as a natural suspension (on top of the actual front suspension), absorbing bumps in the road. Tire pressure can be set anywhere from 5 to 30PSI to tune the comfort to your liking.
The tires are not easy to turn (but not as hard as, say, the very fun Phat Scooter). Also, you’re not carrying it up the stairs.
But there’s a reason this bike is Rad’s second most popular bike after the RadRunner. You’ll love the comfort of this ride.
Another option is the Ride1Up Cafe Cruiser. It has swept back handlebars, a comfy seat, and a built in rear rack.
Price: Starting at $ for the RadRover Plus or RadRover Plus Step-Thru (pictured) on 3/12/24. The older generation RadRover and RadRover Step-Thru are $. On Rad’s website. Ride1Up Cafe Cruiser, $ on their website on 3/12/24.
A frequent ask is for a lighter bike. The ask usually comes from someone that lives in a place like New York. But it also comes from someone in a second floor walkup in other cities. In addition to stairs, a common use case is to take it onto a train/bus.
Weight is the most important for this, and there are a proliferating number of options in the sub 30 lbs space.
The LeMond Dutch is a newer bike from the famous Tour de France winner. You have to lift it with your own eyes to believe it’s only 27lbs.
Folding also matters, and the GoCycle excels at both weight and folding. It’s not cheap, but this is a bike I recommend when it matters.
And when you really need to fold, like say to put a bike in an overhead bin on an airplane, a Brompton is your best bet. Their ebike doesn’t feel like it was engineered to be an ebike, but it gets a mention here until something else fits in an overhead bin.
Price: $ for the GoCycle G4 on Gocycle’s website. $5,495 for the LeMond Dutch on LeMond’s website. On 3/12/24. Brompton Electric P, $ on Brompton’s website on 3/12/24.
While all bikes are customizable, some bikes give more personality out of the box. Nobody does this better than Electric Bike Company. While buying one of their base models in all white is an excellent value, I challenge you to actually buy it as such. Instead, they have the ability to customize the color of almost every component of the bike.
I’d probably color mine differently in hindsight after hearing people say it looks like it belongs on the Google campus. But either way, picking the colors is the most exciting part.
They can do this because they build their bikes in the US. You can even visit one of their design centers if you’re lucky enough to live near one.
Of course, there are also other bikes that each individually have lots of style, even if they don’t allow full custom paint. The Blix Aveny is a notable example. Bikes by Super73 are another.
Price: Various models. Mine is the Model Y at $ before the $400 optional (and outstanding) paint upgrade. From Electric Bike Company’s website. 3/12/24.
One of our investors once asked which bike he should get for his wife. I said, your wife is one of the greatest athletes of all time. You should get Serena a Specialized.
If budget is no obstacle and you’re looking to transition from a traditional bike to an electric bike, the bike snobs will be happiest with a bike like a Specialized. You can spend up to $16k.
They also have lower priced models aimed at a wider audience. I bought a Vado and it gets heavy use from the Culdesac team.
But this section is here mostly to say these aren’t what ebikes are about. Ebikes that are used for commuting and cargo are going to change the world, so the rest of the list focuses on those.
Price: Sold out on Specialized’s website on 11/24/21, but you can go there to check local dealers. List is $ for Turbo Vado 5.0 Step-Through.
Whichever one suits your fancy. Going back to rule 1, just buy one. As long as you get one that fits you, and you don’t go too low on price point, you’re going to be happy with your bike.
Amid a trying time for electric bike and electric car companies alike (some, but not all), it appears the industry has lost an innovator. Here’s my take what we learned.
Subsidies
The government doesn’t subsidize bikes nearly as much as it subsidizes cars, but there are still some subsidies nonetheless. The infrastructure bill had a provision to subsidize ebikes nationwide. The IRA tragically didn’t include any ebike subsidy even though it subsidized electric cars to the tune of $7,500/ea. So I’m monitoring if there is something included in future legislation. Here is a tracker for ebike incentives
Accessories
The Loud Bicycle horn gives bikes a horn as loud as a car horn.
Helmets, obviously, but put a camera on it such as a GoPro or the Insta360. Drivers will respect you more knowing you’re filming, and it is particularly invaluable if there is a road safety incident. People used to say “were you wearing a helmet?”, but soon they’ll ask “were you wearing a camera?”
Get a rear view mirror, so you can see behind you with less effort than turning. Also consider a Garmin safety radar such as a Garmin Varia.
Especially if you live in a state with goathead thorns like Arizona, get tire slime or a similar product/solution.
Insurance
Bike theft is a reality, but there are ways to combat it. No lock can defeat an angle grinder. But you can prioritize retailers that have convenient and secure bike parking.
You can check with your home/renters insurance for if ebikes are covered. Kudos to Lemonade for making strides recently. A tailor made option for cyclists is Velosurance.
Get an AirTag or Tile and hide it in your bike.
Legal
I hope to find a list of attorneys that specialize in bicycle safety in each state. If you have one, let me know!
Other Links
Electric Bike Review has in depth reviews of many bikes.
Check out Lava’s suggestions for accessories.
Bike Shop Girl is a longtime mechanic who focuses on cargo bikes.
Black Friday deals from Micromobility Industries Micromobility Industries.
I’m always looking to learn more, so send me your thoughts. Or if you want more specific thoughts on your purchase, send me a dm/tweet. Ebikes are more than a hobby for me. They are a big reason we’re able to build walkable neighborhoods at Culdesac. Check out Culdesac Tempe! Our first residents moved in May , and we’re leasing out another 30 buildings now! Even if moving to Culdesac Tempe isn’t in the cards for you, come do a tour and grab dinner at Cocina Chiwas! Or check out our weekly market, Little Cholla.
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