In the last few weeks, I have been building an electric bike, to use for
commuting to work. What this means is less reliance on a car and should
also mean lower running costs for the car.
I've used the bike for getting to work over the last three days. While
it does take longer, it shouldn't add much of a burden once I get more
of a routine set up for it. Currently I am allowing an hour and a half
before work, as opposed to one hour with the car. I think that I will be
able to get it to an hour with the bike, once I am more comfortable with
it.
I have a 48v 10a battery, which I am charging at each end of
the trip. I should have
got a 15a battery, which would reasonably comfortably, have made the
return trip, on a single charge. And would require less pedalling too.
The one penalty of the bigger battery would have been an extra three
kilo's and a slightly higher cost, but ultimately would have been worth
it. Never the less, what I have now is still plenty satisfactory.
This is the bike that I started with. It is a Giant Boulder
with disk brakes.
This is it, when converted to a commuting
For riding when it is dark I have a 2,000 lumen LED headlight and a 85
lumen LED tail-light which easily does a return trip, on a single
charge.
These lights make me very visible at night and allow me to see where I
am going.
