What are the pros and cons of each system?
Nice article. What it lacks for me is to expand the viewpoint to “what is sustainable in the long run?”. So instead of comparing the newest systems and going 'oh this has even fancier performance by a few percent" check out what battery resupply looks like for bikes that are five years old. All of these drives come with their own battery packs, which ones use open standards that allow for aftermarket supply, which suppliers keep replacements available…
In the long run this is what defines a good purchase for me more than the performance difference between a Bosch CX and the dji drive
I’m still sour about the fact that the expensive Bosch electric bike my wife bought 6 years ago is now e waste because the motor stopped working and display an error. Other than that all the mechanical aspect of the bike is still in perfect state. The gravel with a steel frame I bought at the same time is still as good as new.
I brought it to repair but basically every shop told me that they are not allowed to open the Bosch motor, the only thing they can do is send it to Bosch SAV, which they did, the SAV responded that the motor was shot but they could send a new one for 750€.
So I don’t even know what is wrong with the motor but I need to spend 750€ + the cost of assembly by the bike shop and hope that this solves the issue, that the issue is not in the battery.
So we got a new cargo bike to carry our newly arrived kids but this time we got a non-electric bike as a base and our local bike shop added an electric motor to it. The motor is repairable with simple tools, we can replace it with a motor from another brand, the battery is standard and if we want to remove the motor we still have a fully functional bike. This way I know the bike will still be usable in 30 years if needed.
I feel you. Went through with that this year ND had my drive train replaced for over 2k. 900 for the motor and work, another 1400 for the gearless transmission that stopped working. I thought about throwing it out but ultimately I despised the waste too much and same as yours the rest of the bike is in top condition.
So… No easy choices but that’s what made me realize that sustainability and repairability are what ebike comparisons should focus on
I’m literally in the same boat right now. Apparently the motor cover cannot be taken off for service on my specific bike. :/
Are there any established open standards for ebike batteries? I always assumed pretty much everything in commercial bikes was proprietary and once the maker stops providing them your only remaining option would be to have the battery rebuilt once it’s toast.
If there are quality repair focused companies out there, I’d like my next e-bike to be from them for sure.
Seems Yamaha have a semi open standard, with some of the companies that integrate their tech building their own batteries.
I ride a seven year old Bosch CX, the internet says that any battery that fits the mount works, the supplier says it needs to have the same ID or it won’t.
There was an article around a few months back about a startup that builds replacement focused bike batteries. Part of the article was how much of a pain it was to reverse engineer the Bosch battery communication but they claimed they did it and that other brands were far easier. Couldn’t find it anymore unfortunately.
Nice, that’s the one. Anyone got experience with it?
