Ought to E-Bikes Be Extra Standardized & Upgradeable?

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A latest video from Rob Rides EMTB on YouTube reveals us an enormous potential downside with e-bikes: a near-complete lack of standardization. Let’s examine the video out after which get into why that is such an enormous downside for each riders and the atmosphere.

At first of the video, he factors out that with most bikes prior to now, upgrading, repairing, and in any other case holding a motorcycle each useful and related was fairly simple. You can very simply have a motorcycle that’s a Ship of Theseus over time, with the entire components changed one or two at a time till it’s a brand new bike.

However, now, e-bikes aren’t like this in any respect. Not solely does each model have totally different batteries, however bikes throughout the similar model are sometimes too totally different for components to interchange. When a brand new bike comes out, even a battery pack that appears similar generally received’t work with the brand new bike. When a producer get components from one other producer, there are even occasions the place batteries and motors which might be mainly similar received’t work with the opposite bike because of delicate digital variations.

Because of this even shopping for a brand new bike from the identical producer means beginning fully over and never with the ability to recycle or reuse something from the older bike.

The principle factor inflicting the issue is that there are such a lot of totally different proprietary programs on the market. Each firm has totally different concepts, so you possibly can’t swap components, reuse outdated ones, or readily restore a damaged bike with newer components. There’s nobody commonplace that everybody can share, so the businesses couldn’t do that proper now even when they wished to.

Why This Sucks

There are a number of issues that suck about this example.

First off, it’s costly. A high-quality bike can price 1000’s of {dollars}. You can improve issues just like the wheels, tires, and some different very fundamental components, however if you need a barely higher motor, you’re out of luck and want to purchase a complete different bike. Need extra vary? You’re most likely out of luck there, too. When one thing breaks (particularly with mountain bikes), you must get a inventory half to interchange the damaged one and don’t have the chance to do an improve. So, as a substitute of constructing a greater bike over time that may take extra of a thrashing, you’re caught breaking stuff again and again.

It’s additionally the other of proper to restore. In lots of instances, your solely supply of components would be the producer. You’ll have to go to them for the whole lot however essentially the most fundamental components, tubes and tires. Have a degraded battery? You’ll have to go to them. Have a motor that failed? They’re your solely possibility, and also you received’t have the ability to discover an aftermarket half for cheaper in lots of instances.

One other large downside is that new bikes should be constructed whenever you want a serious restore or improve, which will increase the environmental influence. The influence of a motorcycle is small in comparison with constructing a brand new electrical automobile, but it surely’s nonetheless not zero. Should you might preserve one bike for ten years and do plenty of upgrades and repairs over time, you’d be environmentally forward of the individuals who want to purchase 3-5 bikes throughout that point.

Plus, the place will the waste from all of those bikes go? Battery recycling is changing into an increasing number of widespread, however a damaged carbon fiber body isn’t going to be as simple to take care of besides to throw it in a landfill. Or, worse, an in any other case good body with out of date components might find yourself in a landfill as a substitute of being utilized by the proprietor for longer or by a brand new proprietor.

Growing Requirements

The plain reply to that is standardization.

One technique to get to a normal can be for governments to require them, however this might be tougher than it seems on the floor. Regional requirements in a spot just like the European Union work out as a result of there’s a regional authorities that may select a normal and impose it on the trade. However, when so many bikes come from China, there’s actually no manner for the EU to inform them what to do. No one would need to construct a motorcycle only for the EU or the US, so the plan would most likely find yourself being scrapped.

It might be higher for bike producers to develop some commonplace components and electronics improve paths by themselves. In contrast to the federal government mandate mannequin of standardization, this is able to most likely result in some competing requirements, however that’s quite a bit higher than 10,000 requirements. If there have been 2-3 totally different commonplace bike programs, you’d not less than have the ability to discover components for the usual components fitment that your bike was constructed to.

This wouldn’t essentially imply that there would solely be 2-3 sorts of bikes. Even a easy factor, like motor bolt patterns and batteries which might be interchangeable might slot in a broad number of totally different bikes that the businesses might construct and prospects might purchase. In different phrases, standardization wouldn’t be a barrier to innovation and product tailoring.

However, getting there’s going to require e-bike consumers to demand requirements. No commonplace e-bikes are out now that I’m conscious of, however all of us have to be contacting our favourite bike manufacturers and asking them to begin working collectively to develop some requirements and improve paths. As soon as these bikes can be found, we have to reward the businesses doing it by shopping for these bikes as a substitute of cheapie non-standard ones we see in Fb adverts.

Impartial outlets and components producers additionally have to be part of this dialog. If producers construct commonplace components however don’t seek the advice of the individuals who would truly be engaged on the bikes, we might miss out on quite a lot of good design. We’ve seen automobile producers make automobiles that aren’t simple to work on in any respect, regardless of there being a whole lot of 1000’s of copies, when all of that might have been prevented if engineers have been required to run designs by mechanics throughout the improvement course of.

As soon as once more, although, we have to demand all this, or it should by no means occur.

Featured picture by Jennifer Sensiba.