Best Buy to Carry A2B

The original Metro (not being sold at Best Buy) is actually more of a moped than a bicycle. It has a twist throttle, smallish wheels like a scooter (which enhances acceleration from a stop), along with front and rear suspension--pedaling optional:

• Maximum road speed under power – 20 mph
• Up to 20 miles* unassisted range (extendable to 40 miles**)
• Battery chemistry: lithium ion
• Nominal voltage: 36 volts
• Continuous power output: 500W
• Real-time state-of-charge indicator
• Frame: TIG welded 6061 aluminum
• Suspension (front): Ultra Motor shock-absorbing front fork (80mm travel)
• Suspension (rear): Ultra Motor shock-absorbing swing arm (30mm travel)
• Tires: 20 x 3.0 Kenda Kraze
• Gears: Shimano Alivio Derailleur with 7-speed twist shift
• Brakes (front and rear): Avid BB5 disc brakes
• Saddle: oversized Ultra Motor comfort saddle
• Weight of A2B Metro with battery: 72lbs

Model 13102 has an unspecified wheel diameter, but appears to be smaller than 26 inches on this photo-shopped image. There is no mention of this model on the A2B website. Front suspension only. Specifications are sketchy but this model may use a throttle instead of a torque sensor to call for power from the motor.

• Front suspension and disc brakes
• Help the bike come to a complete stop safely.
• 400W electric motor
• Helps you power up steep hills.
• 36V lithium-ion battery
• For great performance. Power-on-demand conserves battery power.
• Reaches speeds up to 20 mph
• With a range up to 20 miles (depends on rider weight).
• Minimal assembly required
• Note: The purchaser and rider of this scooter or bike are responsible for knowing and obeying all local, state and federal regulations regarding the riding and use of this bike or scooter.

This is model 13107 (click here for larger view), which appears to be a black version of the model 13108, which is painted blue. On the A2B website it is called the Hybrid. They all have standard 26 inch diameter wheels and you have to pedal to get the motor to help out.

• From our expanded online assortment; not available in all Best Buy stores
• TIG-welded 6061 hydroform-structured aluminum frame
• Provides durability, strength and style.
• Avid BB5 disc brakes
• Provide precise control for coming to a safe stop. Also features a 7-speed derailleur with twist shift.
• Brushless 400-watt direct-drive motor
• For reliably powering up steep hills and variable terrain with on-demand acceleration and responsive torque.
• Sanyo advanced 36V lithium-ion battery
• To efficiently power the bike. Smart charger charges in up to 4 hours to keep you on the go. Charge status indicator near the throttle keeps you aware of charge status.
• Reaches speeds up to 20 mph
• With a range up to 20 miles (depends on rider weight).
• 26" x 2" tires
• Provide comfort and stability while you ride.
• Full front suspension
• Helps reduce impact from road obstacles for a smooth ride.
• Comfort seat
• For ergonomic support during long bike rides.
• Minimal assembly required
• Note: The purchaser and rider of this scooter or bike are responsible for knowing and obeying all local, state and federal regulations regarding the riding and use of this bike or scooter.

The Metro is rated at 500 watts while the others appear to be rated at 400 watts. My guess (by looking at the similar price tags) is that all models use the same motor, controller, and battery, which is good from a maintenance and supply perspective.

Laws vary radically from country to country and from state to state so an electric bike maker has standardization problems.

Best Buy was wise to choose a product made in the USA that uses the same basic electric components because customer support is critical for retail sales, however, they are about to embark on a steep learning curve. Many bikes will be returned because they don't meet the near infinite variety of customer expectations. A 300 pound guy who thinks he is getting a scooter will not be pleased to find his range is only five miles. As with all retailers, a stock of used bikes will begin to pile up and people are going to want some kind of warranty to buy them.

If they don't plan to provide bike servicing this experiment will fail. What will you do when your bike quits working? There are no electric bike repair shops. Are they going to teach the Geek Squad electric bicycle repair, and what will the hourly rate be?

There is also a liability issue to deal with. Electric bikes move and will have electromechanical failures, throttles can get stuck, people will get hurt and they will sue.

I called a store in Portland to see what I could find out. Nobody seems to know what is going on and there does not appear to be any kind of protection plan like you can buy for a computer. These bikes are not cheap. This is an investment you need to protect.

The best marketing strategy for now might be for manufacturers like Ultra Motors to do their own local retailing and repair, eventually transitioning to franchises later on, but I've been wrong before. Time will tell.

Electric Bicycle Lessons Learned

This is the battery pack that I built for my electric bike. It fits into a standard trunk bag behind the seat.

I get a lot of emails from people who want to do the same thing (hook Dewalt 36 volt batteries up in a parallel-series configuration for 72 volts). I put together (but never finished) a website to let people know what they're getting into and to talk them out of it if they're not particularly handy. IMHO, if you have to ask, you probably should not attempt to build your own.

Hopefully, the new Panasonic batteries will be affordable when they arrive next year and people won't have to build their own.

The rules for electric bicycles vary a great deal around the world. In Washington State and California an electric bike is limited to 1000 watts and must be not be capable of going more than 20 mph on level ground without pedaling. In engineering terms, the bike has to have some kind of electronic speed limiting device (most likely based on a speedometer input to the electronic controller) that limits power to the motor once the bike starts to exceed 20 mph.

Some of the most restrictive rules of all, as you might guess, can be found in the European Union, where they are limited to 250 watts, 15 mph, 88 pounds, and to ice the cake, the power has to cut out whenever the rider stops pedaling. Good God. That might explain their high costs and limited popularity. Like the old saying goes, "You can't fight climate change with anal retentiveness." And yes, I just made that up.

In my experience, 1000 watts is a very reasonable number because you need more power on hills and a thousand watts is not enough to break a 20 mph speed limit on level ground without a lot of added effort by the rider. The added restriction that the bike must have an electronic speed limiter is not only unnecessary, but easily bypassed with a few modifications to the system.

A less expensive, and easier to enforce rule would restrict the size of the bike's front gearing (relative to wheel diameter) which would limit the rider's ability to exceed 20 mph by the simple fact that he can only pedal so fast.

Electric bikes are ubiquitous in China, which recently ruled that they must have a license and insurance. Some suspect the move was initiated by scooter manufacturers in a attempt to throttle their main competition.

This law would have doubled the cost of owning an electric bike and was not very popular, to say the least, among the literally tens of millions of electric bike owners.

Much to its credit, the government just reversed itself. Here in America, corporate lobbyists unofficially rule the country alongside our elected officials. China is just starting to get a taste of the power of corporate interests and I suspect this reversal was not so much to appease the cyclists, but to appease the lead industry lobbyists who supply the primitive but cheap batteries for these tens of millions of electric bikes.

In China, many electric bike manufacturers have already abused the definition of an electric bike. Human nature being what it is, you can bet that it will eventually happen here as well. Note the words "electric bicycle" printed on these electric scooters in China.

The bottom line: safety is all that matters. And safety is all about force of impact. Force is mass times deceleration. When you hit a wall (or pedestrian) with a bike, your speed upon impact determines your deceleration. This along with how fat you are, determines the force of impact.

We are not going to ban large people from riding bikes. So, safety all comes down to speed. Picking a safe speed is what it all boils down to. Again, my experience has shown 20 mph to be just right. A bike moving at 20 mph can get from point A to point B in most cities just as fast as a car because bikes can usually bypass long lines of stop and go traffic. It is hard to exceed 20 mph with 1000 watts and low gearing thanks to the exponential nature of wind resistance, and if you are stupid enough to be moving that fast when you hit a pedestrian, it is not likely to cause serious injury.

In theory, using Washington State's rules, you are legal if your machine has "functioning" pedals on it, the motor draws no more than 1000 watts, and will supply less and less power as you exceed 20 mph. There is no requirement to pedal at all and I have to admit, I see nothing unsafe about that.
At some point we will start to see machines that look very much like mopeds with riders not bothering to use the pedals.

Forcing electric bikes that can't keep up with car traffic on to the streets is an unsafe thing to do.

As is happening in China, and thanks to our human nature, conflict is inevitable as the number of people seeking refuge form SUVs and pickup trucks increases congestion on our limited trails. Attempts will be made by one group to shove another group out into the streets.

Car drivers don't like bicyclists on their streets, pedestrians don't like them on their sidewalk. It would be wise for bicyclists of all stripes to cooperate to expand bike lanes and trails, which are going to come at the expense of car parking and lanes. So far, that seems to be the case. Most bicycle organizations (although not all bicyclists) have welcomed electric bikes as allies instead of competitors. It also helps that here in Seattle, our new mayor rides an electric bike.

In a nutshell, it really does not matter much what you call the two wheeled vehicle. As long as the design limits its speed to about 20 mph, one vehicle is about as safe as the other, whether you pedal it or not. If you don't limit its speed by design, and give it a name to differentiate if from scooters and motorcycles, you will get electric versions of scooters sharing the trails with bikes and pedestrians.

You don't want that because those machines are also capable of rapid accelerations. A quick twist of the throttle, intentional or not, can easily injure a pedestrian or cyclist in close proximity.

Scooters are differentiated from motorcycles primarily by the fact that their wheels can't be larger than ten inches in diameter. This provides a physical limit to top speed. Imagine trying to spin the wheels on a skateboard fast enough to do 60 mph.

However, smaller wheels also allow faster accelerations from slow speeds or a dead stop. As I mentioned earlier, acceleration is the only variable we have real control over to limit the force of collisions unless we are willing to limit the weight of bicyclists. This is why scooters capable of rapid acceleration should not share trails even if they stay under the speed limit.

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Mass Production of Multi-purpose Large-capacity Lithium-ion Battery Packs Begins Next Year

Just found this press release over on Green Car Congress:

SANYO to Mass Produce
New Large-capacity High-voltage Lithium-ion Battery Systems

This is big. I've been waiting for this announcement. The pack for "light" electric vehicles (the one with the disembodied hand) has twice the amp hours of my electric bike (but about 25% lower voltage). They sell about a million electric bikes a year in China.

Inside each of those plastic boxes are rows of batteries about the size of a C cell along with some sophisticated battery management circuitry including a charging system. Instead of trying to develop big batteries they are saving money by finding ways to effectively string together small ones using sophisticated electronics to make them behave like one big battery, which is exactly what the Dewalt packs that I use on my bike do as well, except the charging system is separate.

The battery is the weak link in all electric vehicles and solar power as well. These packs are the start of what the world has been waiting for. Put one on each motor for each wheel and you have yourself a low speed four person EV worth owning.

Get the storage version (the one on the left) for your solar panels and you can charge your light electric vehicle when you get home.

The next step will be bigger packs for electric car conversions. That will be a paradigm shift. The big car makers will be forced to compete in price with mom and pop shops converting cars to electric.

For those out there waiting for a pack to replace the V-8 in their F-150, don't hold your breath. That may never be cost effective. The cars of tomorrow will barely resemble the tanks we drive today ...IMHO.

I have not been this excited by since Dewalt power tools announced they would be using A123 batteries in their high-end power tool line. I was first in line to buy and adapt them to an electric bike.

Keep in mind that this is not another pie-in-the-sky technological lab experiment. This is nothing but meat and potatoes mass production of existing, commercially viable technology and it is all that's needed to make these modules affordable. Entrepreneurs will take it from there.

Corn Ethanol--Big Power and Big Savings!

Jo Borras posted what is essentially an infomercial in sheep's clothing over on gas2.0 biofuels, oil, a revolution, about a company that soups up cars to get more horsepower. It's just another pro-corn ethanol blog article but it's also an example of what is becoming more and more obvious. People can be amazingly impervious to evidence, not that Obama was actually born in the United States or that global warming is real. I parse out his post below.

We’ve covered the numerous benefits of ethanol-based fuels over and over on this blog,…

I'm hard pressed to find anything that does not have some kind of benefit. Corn ethanol is like deciding to never wear clothes. The negatives overwhelm the benefits (whatever they might be).

If you’ve spoken to this bunch [ignorant, shallow-minded, self-absorbed, NASCAR enthusiasts?], you already [know] that most talk of climate change and Peak Oil concerns fall on deaf ears. What matters is power, everything else is irrelevant.

The irony in the above statement is that corn ethanol is worse than gasoline in almost every respect so it's actually a good thing that these gear heads have been ignoring Jo.

Of course, it’s easier to simply ignore this group, but the (sad?) truth …this group, more than any other, is a group that must be reached for the “green car” movement to really take hold.

Actually, it would probably be best if we did ignore this group. Very few people buy cars based on their drag racing potential. And the sad truth is that a car burning corn ethanol is anything but "green" making this whole article a reality twisting exercise.

In a nutshell, this hot rod shop has, like every other company in the world, jumped on the green wash bandwagon to hawk their products. Their gimmick is to tune turbo-charged car engines to take advantage of the higher octane rating of corn ethanol. This isn't anything new. This isn't rocket science. A higher octane rating simply means that the fuel can be compressed harder before it explodes. By monkeying around with the engine timing and turbocharger boost pressure, you can increase a car's power output by staving off the ignition spark until later in the compression cycle, allowing more fuel and air to get jammed in above the cylinder. Big whoop. But now try to put regular gas into this tuned engine and watch what happens. The fuel will pre-ignite (knock) to beat hell.

Rich cites another benefit to the E85:

100 octane race gas costs about $7.99 a gallon here. Even 91 octane costs over $3.00, easily, while the E85 averages about $2.79. Over time, this is a huge savings…

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that we can also safely ignore all of the people out there paying $7.99 a gallon for racing fuel when looking for alternative fuels and solutions to global warming. And look, he forgot to add 84 cents to the cost of that ethanol to account for the lower mileage and the 45 cent blending subsidy as well, making the real cost per gallon of the ethanol about $3.90 equivalent.

You won't get better mileage than gasoline with this tune up kit, but that fact is glossed over as well. You should get more miles out of your E85 however, not that these guys give a hoot about mileage.

Like it or not, the enthusiasts need to be reached for a universal change to happen (whether that change is to cleaner-burning bio-fuels, fuel cells, or full electric) and offering them more of what they want (power) in a more environmentally responsible package that doesn’t punish their pocketbooks is a great way to start

He made that all up. Enthusiasts are few and far between. They can safely be left out of the loop. They will compete with each other with whatever technology is handed to them, like these guys setting land speed records in a Prius and this guy with the 72 Datsun running A123 batteries (like the ones on my bike) thumping every high octane car that crosses its path. It's all relative, which is why there are so many classes of racing and types of fuel. Corn ethanol is not more environmentally responsible. This whole article is a fairy tale.

Down in the comments Jo praised some goofball a concerned commenter for parroting the standard Renewable Fuels Association talking points his unique insights on ethanol:

AWESOME stuff, Dan! Thanks for reading through and posting the thoughtful response - I’d love to read more!!

If you want to read what Dan said that Jo thought was so AWESOME go here

And if you want to see this AWESOME stuff debunked, go here, paying particular attention to myths 7, 12, and 13.

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Cool kids wear bike helmets

Got some more riding tips to share. I've learned that nothing catches people's attention like a hand wave. It has been hypothesized that our brains have literally evolved the ability to detect hand waves against a cluttered background. I always wave at drivers before crossing in front of them. Try it. They can't seem to ignore you no matter how much they would like to.

I have also discovered an excellent bike light. I use rechargeable batteries and mounted it on my helmet. I turn it on superflash mode night and day. It is amazingly bright. By mounting it on your helmet you can direct the beam away from oncoming bike traffic, or, ah, into the window of a car itching to pull out in front of you.

I finally started wearing a bike helmet about four years ago after riding my whole life without one. I just realized one day that not only may a bike helmet save my life, but they're pretty cool looking. They also keep the sun out of my eyes and the rain off my head. The above photo is with a rain cover over the helmet, and no, those are not my real eyes. The lights reflected in my sunglasses make me look like a terminator. You could say that when riding my hybrid electric bike I become a kind of cyborg (cue Schwarzenegger's accent), "Human flesh on an aluminum alloy frame."

It is appalling what guys will do to impress each other and especially the ladies. When I watch young men risk their precious spinal columns (especially the top part of it) doing bike, snow, and skateboard tricks or worst of all, cage fighting on television, I just have to cringe. Maybe this is nature's new way of weeding the garden.



Took the above picture with my cell phone the other day. I don't know how badly the biker was injured but she was taken away on a stretcher. Last month a Seattle woman had a fatal accident while riding an electric assist bike and no car was involved.

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Pimp My Ride

That's a picture of my Hybrid Electric parked next to an especially stupid looking Hummer. Dark tinted windows make it impossible for cyclists to make eye contact with drivers. You're playing Russian roulette when you cross in front of a car that has them. I noticed that this particular Hummer would not move for days at a time when gas prices were high last summer.

A commenter wanted me to post an update on my Hybrid Electric bike. Specifically, he wanted to know how the cheap mountain bike frame was holding out. The answer is just fine. My only complaint is that that the cargo rack has to cantilever from the seat post because it can't connect to the rear wheel axle on a loose tail mountain bike. This minimizes shocks to the controller but puts a lot of stress at the base of the cantilever.



There isn't much to update. I have not made any improvements to the bike for some time, which is a sign that the design is pretty mature. I thought I'd include a picture of my charging station. It normally hangs on the garage wall but I occasionally take it with me on long trips. It is designed so two chargers can fit in each pannier bag. With the flip of a switch I can charge the batteries or draw power from them.

I rode too far on a trip last week and had to limp home without using my batteries. That's the beauty of a hybrid system. I'm not sure how the all-electric car thing will work out because people will over-extend now and then. I suspect companies will spring up to assist electric car drivers with quick charges or cheap tows--part of the new green economy.

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