Post B6IFPv3h2i37ZCmBVo by quad@akko.quad.moe
(DIR) More posts by quad@akko.quad.moe
(DIR) Post #B6Hv211nCPCS2zDBB2 by quad@akko.quad.moe
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Man, charging the e-bike's battery takes ages.It's a 37V 480Wh battery, which the 250W motor can drain in less than 2 hours. And its charger is only 2A.Even assuming a theoretical 100% efficiency, that makes for a charge time of like 6+ hours.
(DIR) Post #B6Hv3zctNhMmHNVWwS by quad@akko.quad.moe
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Yesterday it got almost empty, not quite, but almost, the motor output was weak af. So I plugged it in to charge for like 3 hours. But I didn't trust the chinesium to charge overnight, so I unplugged it.Then I plugged it back in around 4 hours ago this morning. So the battery has been charging for like 7 hours total already and still isn't done.
(DIR) Post #B6Hv8Ol9sVBrO4TUEC by kura@hai.z0ne.social
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@quad@akko.quad.moe lesson learned : charge over night
(DIR) Post #B6HvJ1ldhe8pGOlfyC by quad@akko.quad.moe
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Compare that to my kickscooter which has a ~600Wh battery @ 48V and and a built-in 4A charger.That thing will do 20-80% in under 2 hours. About 2.5-3 hours if I want to do 0-100%.To get around town I'd typically charge that thing every two days or so. But this bike is rough. If I end up buying a better one later, I'm definitely at least making sure it can charge faster.
(DIR) Post #B6HvQUurj7czh5e58C by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@kura I dunno man. It's a phylion battery, I've heard they're one of the less explosion-prone e-bike battery manufacturers. But the 2A charger still gets really uncomfortably warm when charging.
(DIR) Post #B6HvaLanFNcLflxBAm by kura@hai.z0ne.social
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@quad@akko.quad.moe I wasn't 100% serious, dont worry. i killed batteries once by charging over night. seemed they didn't have over charge protection. it was a cordless vacuum with a station that was also a charger.
(DIR) Post #B6Hw24gvg6vRMb2qtU by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@kura Well, the charging is still rough. So I might end up having to do it. Currently I haven't been using it that much, today is a holiday in Norway even.But when I actually start using this daily it might be a problem, because I suspect I regularly might end up draining the battery in a single day, and that's one royal pain in the ass if it needs like 10 friggin hours to charge.Imagine if your phone needed 10 hours to charge. Even if you could do it overnight, do you even necessarily sleep for 10 hours every night? And if you forget to plug it in a single night, congrats, you're doing to work with a dead phone and you have to start juggling stuff like bringing a charger to try and get some hours of charge at work, then charge more when you're home before you go on a grocery run.
(DIR) Post #B6HwsVSpNqKhSIRzlY by quad@akko.quad.moe
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Also on that note, it's apparently a royal pain in the ass to find out how many Watts a charger for most e-bikes actually is.Most bike manufacturers only list Wh for the battery, and only Amps for the charger.I've found that generally speaking I have to find out what drive unit the bike uses, then do a search engine dive to find out what input voltage that drive unit is designed for.A 36V battery typically has a 42V charger, and a 48V battery typically has a 56V charger.
(DIR) Post #B6Hx6uyFLZ4OcL1CDY by michal@toot.kottman.xyz
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@quad https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/07/ebike-escooter-fires-uk-rise-record-highs the article does not claim fast charging, but I'm fine with charging my ebike overnight at slow speed.
(DIR) Post #B6Hx6vOpkiKxwnSQeu by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@michal I don't mind slow. I just don't want it to be at a snail's pace.Except for the first day, my e-bike use has been pretty light recently. But I can definitely see myself regularly draining its entire battery in a single day.The battery can be emptied so quickly, and charges so slowly that it's definitely the kind of thing where if I forget to plug it in one night, it's going to be a huge pain the next day and I'll need to plan around stuff like bringing my charger with me so hopefully I can at least get half a charge at work or something.
(DIR) Post #B6HxTGiv9QLcSAVWkq by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@michal And also, the risk of fire is sort of the exact reason I don't want to leave mine unattended overnight. Especially a cheap chinese e-bike like I currently have, along with its charger that gets eerily warm
(DIR) Post #B6HziqxKvBvz4voEhU by fedops@fosstodon.org
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@quad well, you really need the Ah of the battery. Then since Bosch are the only drive units worth looking at you get to chose between 2A, 4A, or 12A.https://www.bosch-ebike.com/de/produkte/charger/
(DIR) Post #B6Hzir9OCNZjgJRrUG by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@fedops Are Bosch the only ones worth looking at? I've heard Shimano is decent enough at least.And also, good lord, 12A for a bike seems pretty insane.
(DIR) Post #B6IFPukYBsjkbpotfs by fedops@fosstodon.org
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@quad no idea really. The majority of bikes around here all come with some variant of Bosch and two persons in the store individually recommended them. We're happy with them so far.Yeah 12A is a lot. We have the 800 Wh batteries (which I think are the largest for normal bikes) and even they only come with the 4A charger. Maybe there are bigger ones for the cargo bikes (or they have multiple batteries).
(DIR) Post #B6IFPv3h2i37ZCmBVo by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@fedops I unfortunately live in the boonies, so I do not have easy access to any bike shop. The closest bike shop is about 60km away. (60km there's a town with three bike shops as far as I can tell online)Problem is that every single store wants to sell store-brand bikes, usually with Ananda drive units. There's three brands with Bosch systems that I know exist in Norway: Trek, Scott and Diamant. But all of these seem unwilling to ship a bike, their websites just list models (typically without any pricing) and a "Find a distributor" button, of which all three say "Sorry, there's no distributor within 100km of your location"In the town 60km away there's one local store which is not listed on Scott's site as a seller. But their Facebook page shows photos of their store where Scott bikes are on display. So it seems that this one non-chain location 60km away which might go bankrupt lord-knows-when is the only place to get anything equipped with a non-chinese drive unit.
(DIR) Post #B6IFkFWeejsypu16aO by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@fedops This is yet another reason I've been on-the-fence about investing in an e-bike for so long.There's no store nearby where I can try one, especially not one equipped with Bosch or Shimano. Everyone in this town seems to drive around mostly on online order store-brand bikes (typically from e-wheels.no), and even if I did buy a bike, there's nowhere for me to get it serviced if I need to, I'd have to do all maintenance and parts replacements on the bike myself and be able to order the parts online.I'd also prefer to be able to buy the actual bike online as well, but it seems like all bikes with Shimano/Bosch drive units utterly refuse to ship their bikes and I can only buy one via their distributors, which do not exist near me.
(DIR) Post #B6IFvCbPrg90xISzmC by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@fedops Well actually, I found one exception. https://www.ecoride.com/en-no/ uses Shimano and will let you buy a bike online.But all the Ecoride bikes look a bit too "tech-bro" for me. Seems like they're trying to be the Apple of bikes or something, their bikes tend to feature much weaker drive units than typical in their price class and their bikes do stupid stuff like requiring activation via a smartphone app. So Ecoride is one I really don't want to touch unless it ends up being my only option.
(DIR) Post #B6II8wfG7PXLUFwePo by fedops@fosstodon.org
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@quad yeah that sucks. We have KTM frames with the usual Shimano and Bosch gubbins. There are decently many stores around here, anything from chain outlets to boutiques.I wouldn't buy a bike online without having tried it first. We tested a few and looked at many more. With all adjustability a suitable geometry still matters.For the drive it was Bosch all the way, either CX or PX, 4th or 5th gen., with a choice of display units. The Purion 200 is perfectly fine and works without an app.
(DIR) Post #B6II8wqbREbw3RFi64 by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@fedops Yeah. My current e-bike is awful with some Bewo drive. I only have it because I found it cheap on the used market here in Town.I'll use it for as long as it lasts, but I'll probably save up to get a better bike later. I suspect that when it's time to get a bike, my best option is to head all the way to Bergen (230km drive, or a couple hours by boat) and look around there.I haven't heard of KTM before, but it doesn't seem like they're available in Norway after a quick search
(DIR) Post #B6IIyHcpwhslGUIA3E by benis_redux@cawfee.club
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@fedops @quad KTM? The dirtbike brand?
(DIR) Post #B6IIyHotDtWVrrvmq0 by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@benis_redux @fedops Seems that way: https://www.ktm-bikes.at/
(DIR) Post #B6IJjzyOsaisPx89Kq by fedops@fosstodon.org
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@benis_redux until 1992: yes. The bicycle part was split off into an independent company from the road and dirt bike part. They continue to use the same logo and brand name though.@quad
(DIR) Post #B6IJk07GLdoOrRHE9I by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@fedops @benis_redux They're not independent as far as I can tell. Both the founder and owner are listed as being the same on Wikipedia (Bajaj Auto).Seems like they're just split for corporate structure purposes.
(DIR) Post #B6INBa6kwHZUAWsnoG by fedops@fosstodon.org
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@quad the bicycle part is privately owned by Carol Urkauf-Chen who, as far as I can tell, has no relation to Bajaj.Bajaj is also selling ebikes and had used the KTM brand name for them, but was ordered by a court to stop that.@benis_redux
(DIR) Post #B6INBaH2K3nKgPh0pk by quad@akko.quad.moe
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@fedops @benis_redux huh, sounds like there's a pretty strange story behind the split in which case.