What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?
What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?
I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn't work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.
Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!
It went from stupid purchase to something I'd gladly replace if it broke.
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An ebike: I don't even really drive anymore most of the time and it beats the hell out of being stuck in traffic. Getting around is fun again.
I always enjoyed cycling and still ride my MTB, but for getting around town quickly, ebikes are hard to beat.
Same here with the ebike. I live near Seattle and everything I need is within a few minutes of ebike driving
If I can't ebike, then I uber and it saves me a ton
Feel free to check out !micromobility@lemmy.world
Thank you for the recommendation!
It's great that Lemmy is already growing with niche communities
Nice, this is the type of community I've been trying to find.
can we get some more deets on what you use it for in terms of terrain/altitude/distance/weather?
Seriously considering an ebike to replace a 20 minute car commute (12 miles). There are some 750w used bikes on my local craigslist for ~1-2k USD, but there's also a super cool dual-motor bike with rear suspension for $3k. Any advice?
I have an ebike I use as my daily commuter for a distance of 11 km each way (6.8 miles) over decently hilly terrain in a windy city as a large man. It still only takes 25 minutes and I charge my battery once a week? Maybe twice if I'm tired and using more boost.
Are you mechanically inclined at all? I purchased a motor conversion kit and a battery to convert my regular bike to ebike. It wasn't really a difficult process, the hardest part was removing the bottom bracket as it was quite stuck. Took some thinking to get enough leverage without having the tool head chew out the bracket teeth. The rest was relatively plug and play. I was able to get the 500 W motor and 48 V 18 A hour battery for ~$1200 CAD together. I use it to commute to work so I wanted a longer range, if you don't need as much power or as much range you could do it for cheaper.
I went for a mid drive motor which are more efficient but more expensive than hub drive, if you're budget conscious you could do a hub drive. From my understanding the hub drive can be more difficult for maintenance (the wheel is a special version, so you need to buy another wheel that works with the hub drive if any issues occur) but I'm no expert.
All of that is a moot point if you don't already have a bike to use, but you could find a local bike recycle store to get one cheap? Or you could get a new bike and convert that. I had a marin fairfax 2 that I converted over and it works great, haven't had any issues and I've put on a couple thousand kms on it since converting (the display tracks total distance which is handy). I believe the marin was $700ish new from my local store.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B083J95GJP?geniuslink=true&psc=1
https://www.amazon.ca/10AH-Electric-Bicycle-Lithinum-Battery/dp/B09C1RP9KV
You could search for other options if you don't want to support amazon, there are different sites to source the parts from, those were just the first two that I saw.
Here's a battery from a Canadian company.
https://lunacycle.com/no-drill-battery-mount-kit/
Here's a mounting bracket for the battery if the bracket seems unsteady or the holes don't line up like with mine.
This is what I ended up going with. Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be happy to chat about the process more.
All of this is canadian specific because I reposted the meat of it from an older comment, bug I'm sure you could find local alternatives easily enough.
You don't need much, 500w is enough.
I ride an ENGWE EP-2 Pro, I got it because it was on sale for $700, can fold up into the back of my hatchback, and seemed to have a reasonably well designed battery. It is fun, it looks kinda cool, has lots of features including cruise control, but is by no means the best bike.
It weighs 74 lbs and the range in practice isn't all that great: Part of me wishes I saved up a little more to get a Lectric Xpedition because it has crazy range and more storage. If the battery goes out, this thing is not fun to pedal uphill.
Farthest I've ridden is 12 miles one way, took about 40 minutes. On average I usually ride maybe 1-5 miles a day, not far really but everything is pretty close to me. The only major exception is when I take it joyriding, up to maybe 20 miles. I have only had it for a couple of months so far so I don't know how it'll do in cold weather or snow, but I suspect the thicc tires would do well even without chains.
Speaking of extreme weather, extreme cold and heat are problematic for batteries, so don't expect to go on a big journey in -20 F cold or 110 F heat.
I can tell you that my best advice would be to find your nearest reputable bike shop, get their input based on what they carry, and then do your own research to verify it's a decent brand before you buy. One of the most important and often overlooked things when people buy an ebike is whether they can get it serviced or not.
Another possible consideration if you're handy would be to take a traditional bike you think would be ideal and then use a conversion kit to make it electric. If you are mechanically savvy, you'd get more bang for your buck and would probably do all your own maintenance and repairs anyhow.
Hell many people can get by with just a cheapo e-scooter.
Privately owned ones are illegal in the UK :( you can only use ones owned by rental services and they're only in a few cities
You can it them from Halfords so they can't be that illegal... https://www.halfords.com/scooters/electric-scooters/
I meant illegal on public roads...so effectively illegal if you want to use one as a car alternative for short distances