Aside from that, there’s no way that pedaling to generate electricity that drives an electric motor comes even close to the energy output of pedaling to directly generate physical force.
Converting human physical energy into electricity seems like it would only be beneficial for times when that electricity was being stored for later use, or put into a device that is not immediately using that electricity to generate physical force as an output, like a light or a phone.
Downhill could be used for energy recovery in theory - when the gyroscope registers the rider is going down hill it could kick in a low-level regenerative mode that needs to be pedaled through to keep momentum. Would tire the rider out though!
Regenerative braking is not what they are talking about. The cranks on this bike are not physically connected to the wheels. Turning the cranks generates electricity which is used to power the electric motors. This is much less efficient than having the cranks physically turn the wheels.
Ebike motors are roughly 75% efficient, so we’re losing about 25% just on the output. Assuming the same number on input, this bike would produce 56% output for the energy put into it by the rider.
But yes, regenerative braking would be great. I wish my ebike had it.
Aside from that, there’s no way that pedaling to generate electricity that drives an electric motor comes even close to the energy output of pedaling to directly generate physical force.
Converting human physical energy into electricity seems like it would only be beneficial for times when that electricity was being stored for later use, or put into a device that is not immediately using that electricity to generate physical force as an output, like a light or a phone.
Downhill could be used for energy recovery in theory - when the gyroscope registers the rider is going down hill it could kick in a low-level regenerative mode that needs to be pedaled through to keep momentum. Would tire the rider out though!
Regenerative braking is not what they are talking about. The cranks on this bike are not physically connected to the wheels. Turning the cranks generates electricity which is used to power the electric motors. This is much less efficient than having the cranks physically turn the wheels.
Ebike motors are roughly 75% efficient, so we’re losing about 25% just on the output. Assuming the same number on input, this bike would produce 56% output for the energy put into it by the rider.
But yes, regenerative braking would be great. I wish my ebike had it.