Gas Bikes vs. Electric Bikes: Pros and Cons List (2008)

[SirJakesus]

Just for the record certain battery chemistries are non toxic and easy to recycle, Nimh and lithium specifically. Even if you did go with a lead acid battery you can always dump your old ones off at a place that installs car batteries and they'll be recycled.
For low cost gas is definitely the way to go, however they do require much more maintenance than an electric system.

 

[loquin]

Doug,

A few other points regarding your comparative cost analysis;

• electric motors produce ozone, especially brushed motors.
• As gasoline rise, electricity costs rise also. A sizable percentage of electricity is produced using oil, and all fuels' transportation costs will increase dramatically.
• Moving fuel burning to a power plant has a beneficial effect, as large fixed installations have MUCH lower pollutants per gallon of fuel than do auto emissions. (with the exception of CO2. That is about equal.)
• I saw estimates that the hidden costs of internal combustion engines are about 25% of fuel costs. At $4 a gallon, the total cost of an I/C engine would add up top about a dollar a gallon more. Unfortunately, I have no information on the hidden costs of electric motors. Their prices tend to fluctuate with the cost of copper, and the cost of energy to produce the motor. As fuel costs increase, the costs to produce EVERY good or service tends to rise.

 

[eljefino]

Doug is right. It's part of the human condition to push an electric bike until its batteries are completely exhausted. This is bad for 'em. Even if you get something with nicad or niMH that theoretically can (should?) be 100% discharged you'll have a dozen cells in series, which backwards charges the weak ones, which you'll never figure out which ones are the duds, which shortens the life of the whole back.

Pro for gas: You can drain the tank or add sta-bil and store it the whole winter and she'll be good to go next year. Electric will need a trickle charge ($$$) or spring prep or worst a new battery. Storing a discharged battery well below freezing can freeze it (lead acid) or otherwise screw it up. If you ride in the cold a gas motor will be slightly harder to start but once warmed up you'll have the same range and speed as summer. Cold slows down batteries substantially.

 

[HoughMade]

Recharge time:

gas- 5 minutes.... if you go into the station for a candy bar, 2 or 3 minutes otherwise.

electric- no expert here, but longer- top off, under an hour- full charge- hours.

However, if your commute is the right length and you have charging at both ends....

 

[eljefino]

A fast charger would be cool, you could find an outside vending machine and borrow its outlet...

Some cities even have christmas lights on their downtown mainstreets... tap in to free juice...

 

[Alaskavan]

Elj. There is no free lunch. They'll raise your taxes to cover the electricity, and to hire extra police to try to catch you at it.

 

[metalzombievi]

with both you do not need the motor running while you ride the bicycle, it is still a bicycle. so you can ride then anywhere a bicycle can be ridden, just not alwayse with the motor on. i think gas is better because where are you going to plug in for a charge? not every building will allow you to use their electricity, yet gas stations are easy to find and way faster. electric is quieter, but gas will take you a lot farther with out a refuel. again you do not need the motor running to use the bicycle. to think other wise is just lazy.

 

[Slogger]

Apples to oranges, IMO.
The customer base for the electrics are different than the typical gas engine guys.
I'm from the motorcycling world, so I am familiar with all the foibles of jetting, ignitions, chains, pipes, gas leaks and everything you have to deal with on gas bikes. I have a garage full of tools and gas cans, I am more comfortable with the gas engine mab's. I like the racket, the smoke and that smell. I'm low budget, too.
The people that gravitate to electric are a wide selection of IT workers, accountants and clerks, live in apartments, clean, professional types.
You need zero mechanical experience to ride an electric. They'll be able to keep it in the apartment or the lobby at the office.
Whirring quietly down those manicured streets, little white tennis shorts on, $300 sunglasses, the whole schmear.
This is an exageration, but there is a difference in the two groups.
Yachtsmen on a trawler forum where I lurk like electric bikes, for instance. They won't drip black goo on the deck.

Anyone that wants to just ride, keep clean and have virtually no tools needs an electric.
The kid without much income is going to bolt on a CG and have a low budget ball.

 

[KCvale]

Things have sure changed since 2008 which was the last post in this topic until the last 2 posts above this one.

The prices are pretty close between a good 4-stroke shifter and a good electric shifter these days, in the $800-$1200 range for parts, and my baseline for what I will personally choice to take for a spin from all my options over any type of 2-stroke, even the kick butt fast ones.
In short I am sick of bump start and manual clutch.

I do like a 4-stroke but you simply can't guess about what the actual real riding experience is on an electric, you have to actually experience it.
The 18ish kid that his mother bought this build for found that out in a hurry.

After repeatedly telling him to 'go easy' on the throttle and don't throttle up until you are like in 2nd or 3rd gear, he left in first and opened the throttle.
That machine gave it all it had and he wheelied back on his butt on the road instantly.
Again, you just can't appreciate how an electric motor is different than a gas engine until you ride one.

1,860W BLDC motor with planetary reduction and 54V 960W 20AH LI Battery.
It was the last of the ones I ordered when I was doing electric shifting trikes.

I used a sickbikes HD freewheel crank system to tie the freewheel electric motor to the 7-speed derailleur on that absurdly light bike.
The result was nothing short of a kick-butt responsive well balanced machine regardless of how plain it looks.

 

[crassius]

I'm curious as to the total weight of the bike in the pic (had to put a ramp on my build bench because I'm just too old to lift a 35# 2-stroke very often during the day).