I I am now the proud owner of my very first Specialized bike, a used Vita that I found as a great steal at a local bike shop. I didn't realize how clunky and impractical my bike was until I saw what this Vita had to offer. It's a step-through frame size that actually fits me instead of a too-small, men's bike. It's about twice as light as my current bike, which is perfect for dragging up multiple flights of stairs in a Boston apartment building.
Purchasing a new (to me) bike has better illuminated my needs for an electric bike. I don't think I'll be using this Specialized Vita for this project. Ideally, I want to find a bike that's:
Another item I need is a large battery. I heard through the grapevine that a particular club at Northeastern has some spare lithium ion batteries that I might be able to borrow for making my e-bike. A peer who has experience using big batteries told me that my battery needs are going to depend on the requirements of the motor I choose. The motor I choose is going to depend on the payload I anticipate (weight of me, the bike, and whatever I carry on it). According to Evelo Electric Bicycles, two commonly used types of motors for electric bikes are mid drive or hub drive. The main distinction between a mid drive and a hub drive motor is that a hub drive motor is attached to the hub and drives the wheel of the bicycle directly, but a mid drive motor is inserted in series with the drive train and drives the crank. I am a student, which means that my most limiting factor in this project is cost. A comparison guide from E-Biking Now claims that hub drive motors are more readily available and cheaper, and that mid drive motors can be proprietary. I'd like to do as much of this project by my own construction as possible, so for that reason, I intend to choose a hub motor, but my mind isn't set on it yet. The website warns that the handling of a bike with a hub motor can be affected due to a raised center of gravity, and I worry that handling is something I need while weaving through pedestrians and cars in Boston. In my next post, I hope to have secured down a battery and reached a final decision on a motor and motor configuration. All logic may fly out the window if it turns out that my cost considerations lock me into one option or another, whether that be the battery capacity or motor cost and availability.
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