Electric Motion Systems E+ ebike: great features, high price
Click on the image for more high-resolution shots of the E+
Electric bikes are becoming an increasingly intriguing option for commuters who live relatively close to work or for avid outdoor enthusiasts. As battery and motor technology forges ahead, the speed and range of ebikes surges with it, as evidenced by the new Electric Motion Systems E+. Although DOT requirements force a road-going electric bike to twenty miles per hour, tops, the E+ is actually capable of thirty when traveling off the beaten path. With no pedaling at all, the E+ can manage twenty miles on a single charge of its 36 volt nickel metal hydride pack, which is mounted in the front hub. Pedaling along can more than double the range. A 750 Watt electric motor comes standard, mounted to the rear hub, while a 1000 Watt upgrade is available. The E+ uses its own aluminum frame and comes equipped with a decent SR Suntour front suspension fork.
Other cool details include the ability to dial in resistance to your pedal strokes for fitness reasons and a built-in security system which makes the bike all but impossible to pedal. All of these propriety features and high specifications do not come all that cheap, though, with the E+ starting at $3,495.00, available with either a cruiser or mountainbike frame.
Gallery: Electric Motion Systems E+
[Source: Electric Motion Systems]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
GenWaylaid 7:44PM (4/24/2008)
The price is actually pretty typical for a high-end e-bike. I'm not fond of the batteries in the front wheel. Why should I or the motor expend effort to spin the batteries around and around? This isn't a swap-the-wheels kit, after all, but a complete bike. I could do without the extra helping of rotational inertia and unsprung weight, thank you.
Reply
ebike rider 2:39PM (9/07/2008)
I just got my E+ electric bicycle. I have been riding it for a few days. It is an extraordinary machine. In fact, batteries in the front hub do not rotate. Batteries are in the center of the hub and remain stationary. Only the outer shell rotates.
GoodCheer 7:56PM (4/24/2008)
I agree with GenWaylaid.
If you did just sell a wheel-set with a couple of wires that would be a whole different ball of wax, and a very interesting proposition, but as it is I'm not a huge fan.
Why spend all that money and put on an $80 fork? If I were to spend that much I'd probably opt to _fork_ over another couple hundred and get a better unit.
Reply
Pente 11:51PM (4/24/2008)
Yeah the front wheel is an odd choice. Cyclists always want to minimize rolling weight because a pound of rolling weight is like three or more pounds someplace else. But if you're not pedaling I guess it doesn't matter. I'd be interested to see how it handles. Probably once you get it going the low rolling weight makes it pretty stable.
Hard to see a market for this though... for the price you could buy a good bike and a moped.
Reply
ebike rider 2:41PM (9/07/2008)
Pente - I wish you could be my age. I have ridden bicycles all my life. I can not any longer and I love cycling. I really do not want to ride the horrible, moped looking ebikes. So I bought an E+ mountain bike. Ride one and you will see what I mean.
As I mentioned before, the batteries do not rotate. With little imagination, you can figure that out. Batteries in the front hub are in the center and remain stationary. Get the picture? Only the outer shell rotates.
virgil 8:50AM (4/25/2008)
"The E+ uses its own aluminum frame and comes equipped with a decent SR Suntour front suspension fork"
Seriously, who writes this tosh? It uses its own aluminum frame? I would be surprised if they'd found out a way to make a bike that doesn't use its own frame. THAT would be cool!
Reply
MarkR 11:00AM (4/25/2008)
At that price I have a hard time seeing educated regular buyers opting for something like this over a http://www.spookytoothcycles.com gas engine that you can pick up for under $1000 bucks and still pass an emissions test http://tinyurl.com/2xuunz. It might not be as green as electric, but you get to keep more of your own green.
Personally I own 3 bikes non motorized and would pay over $1500 for another one unless it was a good race bike.
Reply
ebike rider 2:41PM (9/07/2008)
"At that price I have a hard time seeing educated regular buyers opting ... of your own green.
Personally I own ... race bike."
Sorry, Mark - Get to my age and you will know what it means to have an E+. I have loved bicycling and E+ is the only true option which can keep me on the road. I am willing to pay more than $3500 for a good ebike. Nothing comes close.
Karkus 12:29PM (4/25/2008)
The hub mounted motor/generator on the rear wheel is prettty neat and makes sense. However, putting the battery on the front hub seems like a bad choice.
Putting it there
1) makes it much harder to accelerate
2) makes your steering much slower
3) reduces the ability of the (already not so great) suspension fork to do it's job.
All of those problems would be solved with a frame mounted battery.
Also, it seems like a great application for a cruiser/city bike, but for real mountain biking this is useless.
Reply
ebike rider 2:42PM (9/07/2008)
"The hub mounted motor/generator on the rear wheel is prettty neat and makes sense. However, putting the battery on the front hub seems like a bad choice... a great application for a cruiser/city bike, but for real mountain biking this is useless."
Karkus - Now I have one so I can answer your question. I would not like to get caught dead on the frame mounted battery ebikes. They look motorized and look like a moped.
I do not see any issue with front installation of the batteries. The acceleration is extremely good (It has a very powerful motor - 1000W). The front forks are great and the handling is wonderful with no issues for an avid bicycle rider like myself.
rgseidl 1:30PM (4/25/2008)
What's interesting is that so far, very few bicycle designers have had the courage to fundamentally re-think the frame such that it could contain a battery pack - for weatherproofiong and theft prevention, if nothing else. I've seen monocoque frames on indoor racing bikes, e.g.
http://www.lotusespritworld.com/images/Lotusmodels/Lotus_Bike.jpg
but the welded tubular frame is still the dominant concept for everything else. As a result, current electric bicycles are almost always conventional designs with the electric bits more or less clumsily tacked on. I have yet to see a design that was conceived from the ground up purely as a pedelec, much like Toyota never intended its Prius to be anything other than a hybrid car.
Except for folding types, a pedelec should be recumbent to keep the center of gravity low and reduce aerodynamic drag - even more so with a cowling. Low rotating mass will improve acceleration. Low unsprung mass will improve comfort, as will adding springs and dampers for both wheels. Use a DC motor plus continuously variable transmission hub and, let a small computer figure out how to let the rider maintain both pedaling speed and torque at a user-defined level - irrespective of terrain, headwind etc. and, through a wide range of vehicle speeds.
Now all that would actually be worth $3500. Too bad the Aerorider costs so much more and doesn't even offer Li-ion batteries yet:
http://www.aerorider.com/
Reply
eddy 1:55PM (4/25/2008)
O.K., as a mountain bike freak I'm no fan of that electric bicycles, but 3500$ isn't really that much. Thats just 2300 €. For that money you can get a good conventional mountain bike: F.e. you could buy a Cube Sting K24 for just the same money. So this seems to be good offer for the lazy bikers.
Reply
renmimby 4:49PM (4/25/2008)
I'm pretty into my biking (I work in a bike shop too!), and it bothers me that for $3500, you get no good parts. I'd want a rigid carbon fork, decent frame and at least Shimano Deore/LX or SRAM X.5/X.7 transmission, and a set of hydraulic brakes (Avid Juicy Threes or similar), or at the very least Avid BB5s. But no. A superfluous suspension fork (how useless would this bike be off road? I'm guessing very), as well as frame and components you'd find on a sub-$150 Toys'R'Us bike. I'd say V-brakes are unsuitable, as I imagine those wheels are not light at all, and would require a fair bit of power to slow them down effectively.
Note to Electric Motion Systems: don't bother selling this as a full bike. Sell a kit that you retrofit to an existing bike, in 26" and 700c wheel sizes (and those wretched 29" wheels as well, if you must...). Fitted to a Specialized Sirrus/Globe or similar, this stuff might make sense.
Just my two cents.
Reply
ebike rider 2:53PM (9/07/2008)
"I'm pretty into my biking (I work in a bike shop too!), and it
bothers me that for $3500, you get no good parts."
You get a 1000W hub Motor, a 10Amp Hour Nickel Metal Hydride Battery, an LCD display all designed and developed in the US and a $200 RST OMEGA fork. The othercomponents seem pretty good quality to me. I am
into bicycling as well and I think the components are very well picked.
"I'd want a rigid carbon fork, decent frame and at least Shimano Deore/LX or SRAM X.5/X.7 transmission, and a set of hydraulic brakes (Avid Juicy Threes or similar), or at the very least Avid BB5s. But no. A superfluous suspension fork (how useless would this bike be off road? I'm guessing very), as well as frame and components you'd find on a sub-$150 Toys'R'Us bike. I'd say V-brakes are unsuitable, as I
imagine those wheels are not light at all, and would require a fair bit of power to slow them down effectively."
I got an E+. Personally, I do not like a carbon fork. I think it is a waste of money. Suspension fork is RST OMEGA which is about $200 retail. The bike frame is sleek to make it look like a normal bicycle which I prefer. V-brakes are sufficient on E+ because it uses electromagnetic braking with regeneration. Neither disc brakes nor hydraulic brakes can match the
performance of electromagnetic brakes. They are quite powerful and adjustable. Additionally there is no wear and tear of mechanical brake parts.
"Note to Electric Motion Systems: don't bother selling this as a full bike. Sell a kit that you retrofit to an existing bike, in 26" and 700c wheel sizes (and those wretched 29" wheels as well, if you must...). Fitted to a Specialized Sirrus/Globe or similar, this stuff might make sense."
I prefer a complete vehicle which is well integrated and well thought out. I have tried bicycles with BionX kits and Chinese kits. They are OK. They are like PCs made from off the shelf parts. There is a difference between DELL and those PCs made from PC kits and those PC Kit sellers are out of business today and DELL is not.
kelly carmichael 3:33PM (4/26/2008)
I have a tidalforce electric bike which was the original company selling the electric bikes using this technology, and the batteries in the front hub is actually fantastic. The batteries do not spin they are mounted stationary to the front forks. The low center of gravity of the batteries makes it very easy to balance on the bike, and take no additional energy to get the wheels moving as previous posters were eager to say without any real knowledge about this bike. The other common locations to put the batteries are in the triangle (loosing your bottle holder etc..) or on a rack on the back of the bike, making it overly top heavy and very tippy.
The motor was designed by wavecrest labs.
Reply
ebike rider 2:58PM (9/07/2008)
Kelly -
As I am told, this is not the TidalForce Motor. No doubt, the same guys were involved in designing the TidalForce bicycle. However, these guys have gone a step further and designed a motor which is more powerful and weighs about 5 lbs. less. It feels pretty spiffy on the E+ I own and ride everyday.
GenWaylaid 12:45AM (4/27/2008)
rgseidl,
I've seen a few e-bike designs that pack the batteries into an enlarged frame tube. Probably the best overall is the Optibike: http://www.optibike.com/
Their prices range from $5k all the way up to $13k, so not cheap by any means, but a well-integrated design.
Reply
ebike rider 2:44PM (9/07/2008)
GenWayLaid - Optibike is not very impressive. Not much of a technology there except for a frame design, a standard 3-phase DC controller and an oil filled geared motor mounted with the pedals. Try starting in the highest gear and you would almost get yourself hurt. I tried one and it an expensive collection of components and that is about it. It also makes hell of a noise. Takes the fun out of cycling.
cwj 2:55PM (6/13/2008)
In fact, the motor is brushless, so that's good.
And I agree with the above. If this things can get up that much momentum going, hydros would be beneficial.
Reply
Andy 11:42PM (6/27/2008)
Electric Motions Systems is infringing upon an name, Electrik Motion, that has been used in electric bike industry for several years. Why couldn't they have thought of something unique rather than trying to piggy back on a reputative company. WOld you do business with a company with such morals and values? Think twice!!
Reply