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General Discussion / Re: Braking Solutions for 2000 ft Hill
« on: June 16, 2022, 01:54:11 AM »In that case you’ve got plenty of options below $6k. As long as you go with a reputable brand, you should be able to get more than 20k mi out of it, and I doubt a moped and battery would entail more GHG emissions in manufacturing than 20k miles driven in a gas truck. By pessimistic studies, it takes an electric car 70-90k miles to break even with a gas car (not a gas truck) and e-car batteries are absolutely massive by comparison. I would have to look at the actual numbers to be sure, but I think you would break even in terms of environmental sustainability well before the 20k mi mark.
Niu’s might be OK, but I’ve heard some mixed feedback (although the issues might have been with a particular model). I believe that Super Soco has a pretty good rep. Most of their models are a motorcycle form factor, but I think they have some mopeds as well. There’s also CSC. I’m not the best person to ask about this segment of the market, though, as I use my bikes as freeway machines so I don’t actively research the smaller ones.
Do you know anyone or maybe a different forum that specializes in brands under 6K? Maybe I'll talk to some local moped salesmen.
Be very careful about relying on regen going downhill. There are many conditions that can cancel or limit regen on a Zero, so you may be forced to pull over and let the brakes cool down occasionally if you were suddenly without regen. For instance: imagine if you charged up to 100% at home in which case it wouldn't regen at all going downhill... any brake can overheat and suffer severe fade.
Couldn't I just turn back uphill and ride for a few minutes? It shouldn't take much time to use up 5% of my battery on such steep hill and regen braking is so inneficient that going down the whole 13 mile hill would probably recharge it less than 5%. Or maybe a more convenient fix would be to splice a high- voltage shutoff to the charger so it only charges to 95%. Even better is to find a bike with motor-braking that can be activated independently of the regen but since Zeros are high-end and even they don't have it I'm doubtful they exist.