| Re: electric bikes on centuries
In rec.bicycles.misc Bill Baka <bbaka@comcast.net> wrote:
> I took a look and can say that the bike looks less than ideal. If it has
> a motorized bottom bracket then there is no possibility for regenerative
> braking, which is a big NO-NO in the electric world.
Regenerative braking is overrated. The best implementations of regenerative
braking occur on electric bikes with hub motors, and even then there are limits
on the current that can be dumped into a battery. If one rides in hills, the
overall efficiency is higher when running a smaller, lighter motor through the
bicycle's gears.
Below is a link to a white paper that discusses why regenerative braking is
generally not practical on electric bikes.
http://ecospeed.net/regenbraking.pdf
--
Bill Bushnell
http://pobox.com/~bushnell/
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