The Storm electric bike .. what is the draw ?

[notzippy]

Rising upwards of $1,000,000 dollars already yet very little specs, the video is meaningless..

320W recharge in 90 mins
Favorite quote "You can recharge the bike using solar power if you feel extra green"
Love the example at riding at 200W consumption the length of time the battery "should" last.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/storm-electric-bike

[krivx]

Seems to be the usual misuse of units. Are motors ever rated in Wh (Watt-hours)?

[BlueBill]

$500 for a decent eBike? My Stromer ST1's battery costs more than that. Those massive ballon tires are the same as they use on the $3,000 Pedego Trail Tracker. It's pretty much unrideable without motor assist.

My crystal ball says they won't be able to keep the price under $1,000. But if they can sell it for < $800 it'll fly off the shelves.

[tom66]

Well, Li-ion batteries cost about $250/kWh, so it's not impossible to imagine someone could make a 0.38kWh battery and bolt it onto a bike frame + motor for under $1,000.

[theatrus]

Whats with those massive tires 

[chickenHeadKnob]

Its called a FAT bike. Well an electrified fat bike. Those 4 inch wide tires where meant for soft surface off road like a sandy beach. People now want them just because they look "boss". Never over-estimate the intelligence of your target market.

[eas]

The only challenge is the price, and if you look closely, the $500 price is only available for a few more days. After that, it jumps up to $1300.

It looks like you can get a batterypack of that capacity, a ~350W hub motor, a motor controller, and a twist throttle for about $500-600, retail, through mail order, wholesale will be significantly less. Throw in a shitty steel frame and some other mediocre components.  Seems like the $500 price is ~break even to generate buzz, and the $1,300 price is going to be profitable.

I wouldn't buy one, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who will.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Are there any shocks or springs? I can't see them.

Seems like you may as well have them for such a heavy bike.

[rob77]

what's the point of wasting energy to overcome the incredible friction of those giant tires ?

[Corporate666]

$500 for a decent eBike? My Stromer ST1's battery costs more than that. Those massive ballon tires are the same as they use on the $3,000 Pedego Trail Tracker. It's pretty much unrideable without motor assist.

My crystal ball says they won't be able to keep the price under $1,000. But if they can sell it for < $800 it'll fly off the shelves.

Totally agree!

The problem is they are selling these things for $500 and I doubt they can even get the parts cost for that.  Most likely what will happen is they sell a shitload (already have), end up finding their costs abot $500/unit, but they've spent the equivalent of $250/unit traveling back and forth to the factory and on delays and cost overruns.  So when they finally have something ready - they can't cover the cost of the manufacturing run - and pull a Mu Optics and "seek venture funding" to catch up, but which never happens because VC's aren't that dumb

[jahonen]

FWIW, I commute to work and back with Salsa Mukluk equipped with 45NRTH Dillinger spiked 4" tires (on winter), 7 kilometers in each direction. Without any electrical assistance, the road is definitely not just downhill and I am not in a pristine condition myself either My honest opinion is that those fat tires look having much more friction than they really have. It basically is how much pressure you put into them. Using something like 0.8-1 bar makes it pretty much in par with ordinary mountain bike, but when there is much snow I tend to use something like 0.5 bar at rear tire and 0.3 bar at front tire. Of course, accelerating is not so light as wheels have more inertia than skinnier ones but once it is going, it goes easily.

My personal reason for getting that thing was basically that at winter we have this thing called snow here in Finland and quite often the snow hasn't been yet plowed from the road when I do my daily commuting from work and back, and that made it pretty much of a pain in winter riding with skinnier tires as they never tend to go straight in that snow. Typical snow depth in such cases is something like 5-10 cm of fresh snow. Life has been much easier in that respect since I got the fat bike.

I have been thinking that having electrical assistance would be definitely nice but haven't really seriously considered it.

Regards,
Janne

[notzippy]

The creators are getting sued over name

"Earlier this week Storm eBike was hit with a cease-and-desist letter from Prodeco Technologies, a Florida-based maker of electric bikes. The company is claiming trade-name infringement and a lot more.

Prodeco has been selling a $1,300 electric bike named Storm since 2010, says CEO Robert Provost."

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/a-500-ebike-not-so-fast-110086504619.html


you tube video to listen to critiquing campaign by electricbike.com..


Nz

[Yago]

FWIW, I commute to work and back with Salsa Mukluk equipped with 45NRTH Dillinger spiked 4" tires (on winter), 7 kilometers in each direction. Without any electrical assistance, the road is definitely not just downhill and I am not in a pristine condition myself either My honest opinion is that those fat tires look having much more friction than they really have. It basically is how much pressure you put into them. Using something like 0.8-1 bar makes it pretty much in par with ordinary mountain bike, but when there is much snow I tend to use something like 0.5 bar at rear tire and 0.3 bar at front tire. Of course, accelerating is not so light as wheels have more inertia than skinnier ones but once it is going, it goes easily.

My personal reason for getting that thing was basically that at winter we have this thing called snow here in Finland and quite often the snow hasn't been yet plowed from the road when I do my daily commuting from work and back, and that made it pretty much of a pain in winter riding with skinnier tires as they never tend to go straight in that snow. Typical snow depth in such cases is something like 5-10 cm of fresh snow. Life has been much easier in that respect since I got the fat bike.

I have been thinking that having electrical assistance would be definitely nice but haven't really seriously considered it.

Regards,
Janne

For snow and sand I can see some advantage, but anywhere else and it is just wasted energy.
If you pump the tyres harder then the contact patch is shrinking and you are losing grip advantage.

Perhaps they can be used for trials, but then the weight might be a killer.

[Nerull]

Fatbikes are pretty popular, I doubt the rolling resistance is significatly worse than your standard mountain bike tires. A lot of road bikes are going back to larger tires after more recent actual research has shown the old assumption that skinnier, higher pressure tires = less rolling resistance isn't actually true and that a 25 or 28mm tire performs better than the old standard 23 or even 21mm race tires.

[langwadt]

what surprises me about electric bikes is that if you can get near 100% efficiency, ~8kg LiPo could pretty much get you through a
tour de France stage a reasonable pace

http://cat6.trainingpeaks.com/races/tour-de-france.aspx

[mux]

I don't understand this. The only reason it's the most affordable e-bike is because it's being sold at a giant discount. But it's a pretty piece of shit bike otherwise judging from the build and component quality.

We have proper city e-bikes with brand name components for €600-700 in the Netherlands already. All the time, not just for a limited time, including 21% VAT. With comparable range, even. That's much less than their regular price. And if you're not willing to pay that much, you can get barely 1-year-old e-bikes with pretty much as-new battery packs for under €400 refurb.

[zerorisers]

"Its pure electric with the pedals" 0.o wha