E-Bikes Are Free

Are e-bikes expensive, or are they free?

I have been commuting via e-bike for more than six years, so I have some experience with them. Since I like to have the latest, I generally trade up every couple years (even though I don’t technically have to).

Notice: e-bikes are not for everyone. Riding an e-bike requires good reflexes and physical skill. I ride with a full-face motorcycle helmet, crashing at 30kph would not be fun.

How are e-bikes free when they actually cost a grand or two, or more? When you ride instead of drive, a lot of things happen that save you money.

1. You save on gas.
2. You save on car maintenance.
3. You save on bus passes.
4. You can save on car insurance (in BC a person can get a break on car insurance if they drive to work less often).
5. You save on parking.
6. Your car is used less — so it lasts longer. This saves you a ton of money.
7. Fewer miles on your current car means it has a higher resell value.
8. You get more exercise, so you spend less on health care.
9. You pollute less, so everyone else spends less on health care.
10. You are less stressed — you don’t have to deal with driver stupidity as often. Biker stupidity is still a problem though.
11. You can save time. This obviously depends on your own situation. For me (12kms to the office) riding to work is faster than driving during rush hour. Even outside of rush hour taking my bike only means an extra 10 or 15 minutes.

My Current Bike: GT Karakoram

Over the winter Luna Cycle had Bafang mid-drives on sale, so I picked up a BBS02 kit and did the install myself. [Six months later the kits are still on “sale”. Perhaps Luna is confused about the meaning of the term.] I also bought the “optimal”(?) sockets and toolkit to help with the install, and recommend you get all the helpful tools you can. Tools are very important for jobs like this.

The install generally went well. The bottle mounts on the bike were too low, so I needed to take apart the battery case and drill a hole in it, plus find a low-head screw that fit the bikes thread. This wasn’t a big deal, it only required getting into the “easy” part of the battery case behind a couple screws, nothing major. But it would be nice if these battery mounts were more flexible to begin with. Every frame is different.

I have an Abacus AI account cause it’s awesome, click the image and start your free trial

Side note: why do I have knobby tires on my commute bike? My theory is less road contact means less spray when it rains. It has only rained (hard) once since I got these tires, and the theory held — barely any spray at all! But the tires are wearing down and I will need a new rear tire every four months or so, unless I can find something tougher.

The “optional” (my ass) sensors for the hydraulic breaks were a pain. I had to make a custom bracket to mount the sensor on, because beyond the brake handle there is nothing but air, and it is hard to mount stuff to air.

(Unfinished but working) custom bracket in blue, seen from above

Nobody will tell you how far to mount the magnet from the sensor, they will just give you some well it depends bull shit. I will tell you. One-eighth of an inch. Gee that was hard.

Custom bracket (black), seen from below

Generally, the bike is awesome. One problem is changing gears. You must disengage the motor to change gears. You can try any of the following:

1. Get a shift-sensor built specifically for this kit and available from Luna. I have one of these sensors and I recommend them, although it helps to have your bike shifting very well.
2. Set the assist to 0, turn throttle to 0, and then shift
3. Stop peddling, wait about 1 second for the motor to disengage, and then shift
4. Engage the brake(s) to disengage the motor (if you have the right setup), and then shift
5. Build-your-own custom kill switch. Why TF this option isn’t available for all I do not know, this is a good option.

Lucky for me I work with a hardware engineer who built a kill switch for me. You can get the part from Digi-Key here. I gave him one of my magnet based sensor switches, and he spliced in the push button. He just tried the different wiring combinations until it worked (and he taped it up so I can’t see what color wire connects to what, sorry). Only two of the three wires is necessary for it to work.

Final issue: at 100% output the system has too much torque and causes the chain to “bind”, for lack of a better word.

Update, final issue is fixed. I got a new sprocket thing for the back wheel, got the shifting tuned-up and all is good.

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