electric bikes: more than just a different type of 'fuel' - small lithium ion battery

Electric bike: not just a different type of "fuel", you also have a bike, maybe a full stable, as a member of two cars
Wheel world, you are completely in the comfort zone around it/them.
You know your service schedule and over the years you 've perfected the list of upgrades and modifications you like to make your bike yours. Tail tidies.
Oil changes are more frequent than manual requirements. ECU re-maps.
Aftermarket, air filters and fastshifters.
But did you stop and think about how many of the "fuel" types your bike is driving are fixed?
Probably more than you think.
In addition, for electric bike manufacturers, life on the other side of the fence may be very different from the life of traditional motorcycle manufacturers.
You notice a rattle that comes from somewhere under the tank.
Don't worry, you will say to yourself that next time you lift the tank up, you will have a bit of a root because it can be a difficult problem --to-
Reach the bolt on the air side-
The box you can never tighten correctly.
The reason you are confident to put the tank up and down to find it is because, for an internal combustion engine bike, the danger of poking it under the well-known hood is quite obvious: if the bike has been running recently, please be careful of hot spots;
Do not smoke nearby (
Or fireworks); and so on.
With electric bikes, many familiar precautions become irrelevant or change in a way that is no longer familiar.
The electric bike is not hot, the electricity can't smell, and the sound in the tank can't be heard. the battery has never really "fallen off.
To make things more interesting, "always store amazing energy in" batteries, which is DC power-the most dangerous type around.
Jump to YouTube and see what happens when a small lithium-ion battery on your smartphone is pierced, and you'll understand.
This new spike electric bike material can be very dangerous in the wrong hands-by contrast, it seems relatively sensible to ride around with a can of explosive liquid.
All of this has the potential to change the way you and I behave when I own an electric bike.
You might start thinking twice and poke the tank quickly with a flashlight and a screwdriver because you know that the charged electricity is lurking inside.
All of a sudden, those cold winter weekends, you fiddling with your bike in the shed, browsing through the upgrade list, and when you realize that you can't fiddle with an electric bike like a gas-driven bike, it may look slightly different.
Of course, I am sure that without turning myself into potato chips, I can still make simple changes to the electric bike myself-such as installing the tail neatly on the electric bike,, it is almost certain that the electric future means the end of all the maintenance and maintenance work you have done yourself.
However, some people would argue that it would not change the service, just to eliminate some unpleasant work.
All the consumables you maintain on gasoline-
Maintenance is still needed for electric bikes: tires, brake pads, suspension, brake fluid.
Transmission fluid (in some cases)
There may also be some chain or belt adjustments.
But that's all.
There is no valve gap, air filter, Cam chain tension, piston and all other issues to worry about.
Of course, it will change where you go by e-bike for service or repair.
Say goodbye-it-all garage.
Electric bike manufacturers are producing completely different bikes with custom parts and technology.
For example, Energica's bike runs under 300 V and runs under 110 V.
Knowing how these bikes work doesn't necessarily shift between manufacturers, so putting your electric bikes in your local garage for some imp to take care of may no longer be possible.
Instead, it may have to go back to the dealer's shop-a garage of a mechanic trained by the manufacturer to work safely on the manufacturer's bike-which could take two states.
According to Energica's CTO Giampiero Testoni, the standard is extracted from the world of electric vehicles and used in the world of electric bicycles, but the live wires in Energica bicycles may say, zero.
The life of electric bicycle manufacturers is also completely different.
When launching the new model Esse 9 for Energica, after I had a detailed conversation with Testoni, I came to the conclusion that when it came down to this, electric bicycle manufacturers are actually between software companies and technology companies. He agreed.
70% of Energica's R & D budget goes directly to software engineering.
The remaining 30% is for chassis development.
All hardware and knowledge except batteries are purchased from outside companies.
"There are a lot of companies here that can make chassis, and a lot of companies can make motors," explains Testoni . ".
"Why do we do it ourselves when they have solved the problem?
Testoni says the biggest problem for electric bike manufacturers is to make the bike safe.
This means that there is a lot of time, a lot of hours, to test the software in the bike's "brain" to make sure it can't and won't accidentally apply 100-
When you do something strange, for example, hold down the start button to try to change the ride mode.
We 've all had software errors on our phones and computers-usually they're more fun than annoying.
But in the case of an electric car, bed bugs can be the cause of serious injury or worse.
Most electric bikes don't even have a clutch lever, which can be used to get out of the final drive in case of an emergency.
You have been putting your beliefs into the right work.
In addition, we need to think differently about how to treat the power supply.
In many ways, batteries are alive and breathe different things according to atmospheric conditions, their age and how they are used and charged.
Interestingly, each of them performs slightly differently.
In addition, they must be made from flat cells instead of cylindrical cells due to the packaging on the bike.
These flat batteries are almost entirely hand-made because it is difficult to automate their construction;
There are hundreds of things in each bicycle battery.
At the same time, electric bicycles do not have challenges in other electric vehicles.
Take Tesla Motor as an example: the AC system is used to keep the battery at a constant temperature, so the performance of the car is as predictable as possible.
There is no such system on the bike, so the software in the ECU must constantly evaluate the current atmospheric conditions and determine the current performance of the battery.
Spend an hour or two riding an electric bike, then walk away and think about the only difference is whether you later plug in the wall socket or fill it up with gasoline --
I admit I made this mistake.
The truth is that these changes go further and deeper.
Compared with traditional engineering companies, electric car manufacturers have different goals and different problems to solve.
I agree with the mantra that electricity will almost certainly be an important part of the future, but in the process the motorcycle will turn upside down, change in more ways than we think.
Think that something as simple as changing "fuel" can lead to so many changes that are both interesting and interesting.