RPEV hybrid electric bike and more

eCortina electric bike drive trainRoy Prince designs and builds electric bikes (and other electric vehicles) in Oxnard, California. He chronicles the builds on his website, RPEV.org, where you can find pictures and blog entries for the various bikes. His latest project is the eCortina v2 e-bike, which you can read more about here.

Roy points out that his “hybrid electric bicycle system is designed so that one can pedal only (human power), motor only (electric power), or in hybrid mode both motor and pedal at the same time. Under hybrid running the distance one can ride under one charge is extended.”

As you can see from the picture, the dual drive systems use BMX freewheels and chains “to allow pedaling without driving the motor and motoring without forcing the pedals to rotate.” A 3 speed Shimano Nexus rear hub allows the motor, from the Radio Controlled (RC) hobby business, to run in its efficiency range. Roy explains the concept a bit further on his website. Check out his blog too for more information about the project.

ingsoc electric bicycleA completely different electric bike concept, by Edward Kim and Benny Cemoli, can be seen at Tuvie. The INgSoc bicycle is a rendered design concept that looks more like an insect or an alien than an e-bike. It definitely has an aggressive look for a commuter bike…and of course the hubless wheels that you would expect to see on such a concept.

Another concept bike that has been hitting the design blogs lately is this Audi themed electric bike by Arash Karimi. Like the INgSoc bike though, this one is just a rendering without too many of the details worked out. A prototype would be the next step to figure out how this design would actually ride.



Posted

in

,

by

Comments

10 responses to “RPEV hybrid electric bike and more”

  1. […] thank the  Bicycle Design Blog for another notice of the […]

  2. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    The RPEV looks great. That’s the way all electric bikes should be unless they want to be licensed. I’m a bit concerned with the no-pedal e-bikes that push 30mph, but this is a better design.

    The second bike is so well designed that the front wheel floats. That’s amazing! I’d smack talk the hubless wheels, but I’m sure anyone could just find a previous comment I’ve written about how silly those designs are.

    1. Tiemen Avatar
      Tiemen

      Nice system on the RPEV!

      The 2nd bicycle looks like a bad rip off of the peugot concept bicycle

    2. James Thomas Avatar

      Andy said, “I’d smack talk the hubless wheels, but I’m sure anyone could just find a previous comment I’ve written about how silly those designs are.”

      I didn’t want to rehash my thoughts on hubless wheels either. That’s why I included a link to the official hubless wheel hater thread on the Core 77 discussion boards. Check out this link too. Some of the pictures are pretty funny.

  3. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    It’s not actually called the “Ingsoc” is it? So now people trying to design bikes are not only technically illiterate, but regular illiterate too? Jesus and baby Jesus help us.

    And yes, I know maybe not everyone remembers what Ingsoc is from 9th grade English class right off the top of their heads, but don’t people google their potential product names?

    Note: given that the logo for this bike is a fish biting a hook this may just be an epic troll, but that’s a lot of CAD time for a troll.

    1. Mike Avatar
      Mike

      OK, so digging around on their web site it looks like the reference is intentional, though it’s buried in unreadable text on a jpeg. Christ.

  4. ABQ Steve Avatar
    ABQ Steve

    What’s the Q-factor on that thing? Seems a bit wide to be used for pure biking duties.

    1. art Avatar
      art

      It looks like there’s an extra 3cm on the drive side. It might have made more sense to use a rim brake in the rear and run the motor chain on the left side.

    2. greenobike Avatar
      greenobike

      Q-factor may be normal. I’ve been running a dual freewheel setup on a retrodirect drive for a few years now with a normal q-factor crank.

  5. Joan Avatar

    These are great e-bikes. I would love to sell them on my website- let me know if you are interested. thanks.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *