By Forbes Black
When I attempted to build my first electric bicycle (ebike) in 1990, I had to invent all the components of the motorized drivetrain myself, or at least repurpose them from equipment designed for other purposes.
I used an electric trolling motor and a deep-cycle lead acid battery. I fabricated all the sheetmetal myself. Unfortunately, after putting many hours into the project I had to give up.
Between going to engineering school full-time and working at a local bike shop to pay the rent, I just didn’t have the time or funding I needed to design and build everything from the ground up.
My-oh-my how things have changed. That first ebike project lit a fire in me that never died. Since then, I have been the lead engineer at two of the largest electric bicycle companies in North America, Charger Electric Bicycles and Currie Technologies. [Read more…] about The State of the Electric Bicycle Market