Sachin Wagle
New Member
The bus was so crowded, even the driver was standing.
And that made me walk down the memory lane just to rediscover I had been a cyclist in the remote past. The very next morning, I found myself embracing & dusting my old TATA Dazzler bicycle. Although L&T wasn’t that far from Vile-Parle, it used to be a sweat bath till I reach & that’s when I felt it should have been power assisted; rather battery operated. However I hadn’t seen any such bicycle ever on road. I recollect, in my childhood in 80’s, a geared cycle used to be an exception & the electric one was decades away.
I thought Google was my friend but to my disappointment, my search was unrewarded due to the socio-economic classification occurred in the intervening years passed by & ‘cycle’ had become quite an old fashioned word. Google told me, the contemporary word was ‘bike’. The E-bike; the electric one! The moment I typed ‘bike’, google was more than excited to help me out & even went ahead to the extent of advising that I could have had 2 motorcycles at the cost of an imported electric bike & with accessories too. Unfortunately, that was true. The Indian market had hardly considered the electric option. Yet there were 2 products, one from the north & one from the south of India with appearance little more than a first prototype ever made & unknown reliability figures. More so, I had never seen any on Mumbai roads. To add to, Amazon was selling the electric kits to be integrated with bikes but there wasn’t any literature on the feasibility, integration on a particular size of bike, maintenance aspects, life of the kit & reliability. Soon I realized I was barking up the wrong tree.
Nevertheless I was possessed by the desire now. I started referring research papers & learnt there is a Li-ion battery with a drive, a BLDC (Brushless DC) motor & an encoder (Torque Sensor) which constitutes this kit. This technology is called ‘Pedal Assist’ wherein the encoder measures the pedal revolutions & accordingly the motor is instructed to deliver torque. Meanwhile I came across a Pune based start-up who manufactures & integrates this kit with bikes. The kit was fully compliant to ‘Make in India’, with all major parts having been assembled in-house. Exceptionally, the reality measured up to the fantasy when I requested for a demo drive. The ride I experienced was one of my most memorable moments. As soon as I started pedaling, the motor provided a boost & I was fast forwarded to couple of meters ahead of where I otherwise would have been. The control panel had levels of motor assistance which can be set to exchange the motor torque. There was a ‘walk’ feature as well which enables the rider to drive at walking speed. The safety interlocks include the brake sensor which acts as an inhibitor to the motor power whenever the brake is applied & the speed sensor which cuts the motor power after a designated max ground speed. The integration was seamless, not crude & the brand name was encapsulating the brand, “EADICCT”. So the addicted me decided to buy myself the gift & my e-bike was ready to hit the road.
That was my first day of e-biking to L&T. To a technology driven company, I was ‘being driven’ with a new technology & the excitement was at its best. As such, hardly anybody on road happened to notice the battery pack & motor & if anybody really did, they perhaps took the battery pack as a stylish water bottle. The real fun part started at signals & speed beakers where the bike could sprint at much higher spurts & motorcyclists blushed in confusion. They hadn’t seen any cycle accelerating so fast. One curious biker got aghast when I told him this is a CNG kit.
Being a mechanical designer myself & powertrain being my core domain, I had some academic interest to validate this on slopes. There is this ~20º ascent in L&T at the hill which I tried & the bike negotiated without any excessive load on the pedals.
Although clean energy & increasing fuel prices were not on my agenda, the e-bike brought to me some complimentary health benefits which cannot be overlooked. It’s a unique luxury at disposal to put the electric assist ON or OFF at will.
Yes, the price is little high but the value added is significant. While I once felt dejected by not being able to justify the cost to myself & the break-even appeared a distant prospect, my clever friends in order to restore my happiness just replaced my 2 wheeler by the 4 wheeler in the denominator and everything in my world was right.
I now bring it to office 50% of the time, use it elsewhere as well & it has now become quite emblematic of my lifestyle.
Nevertheless, the e-bike continues to keep the riding experience exclusive to the last e.
… Sachin G Wagle
Mumbai, INDIA
([email protected])
And that made me walk down the memory lane just to rediscover I had been a cyclist in the remote past. The very next morning, I found myself embracing & dusting my old TATA Dazzler bicycle. Although L&T wasn’t that far from Vile-Parle, it used to be a sweat bath till I reach & that’s when I felt it should have been power assisted; rather battery operated. However I hadn’t seen any such bicycle ever on road. I recollect, in my childhood in 80’s, a geared cycle used to be an exception & the electric one was decades away.
I thought Google was my friend but to my disappointment, my search was unrewarded due to the socio-economic classification occurred in the intervening years passed by & ‘cycle’ had become quite an old fashioned word. Google told me, the contemporary word was ‘bike’. The E-bike; the electric one! The moment I typed ‘bike’, google was more than excited to help me out & even went ahead to the extent of advising that I could have had 2 motorcycles at the cost of an imported electric bike & with accessories too. Unfortunately, that was true. The Indian market had hardly considered the electric option. Yet there were 2 products, one from the north & one from the south of India with appearance little more than a first prototype ever made & unknown reliability figures. More so, I had never seen any on Mumbai roads. To add to, Amazon was selling the electric kits to be integrated with bikes but there wasn’t any literature on the feasibility, integration on a particular size of bike, maintenance aspects, life of the kit & reliability. Soon I realized I was barking up the wrong tree.
Nevertheless I was possessed by the desire now. I started referring research papers & learnt there is a Li-ion battery with a drive, a BLDC (Brushless DC) motor & an encoder (Torque Sensor) which constitutes this kit. This technology is called ‘Pedal Assist’ wherein the encoder measures the pedal revolutions & accordingly the motor is instructed to deliver torque. Meanwhile I came across a Pune based start-up who manufactures & integrates this kit with bikes. The kit was fully compliant to ‘Make in India’, with all major parts having been assembled in-house. Exceptionally, the reality measured up to the fantasy when I requested for a demo drive. The ride I experienced was one of my most memorable moments. As soon as I started pedaling, the motor provided a boost & I was fast forwarded to couple of meters ahead of where I otherwise would have been. The control panel had levels of motor assistance which can be set to exchange the motor torque. There was a ‘walk’ feature as well which enables the rider to drive at walking speed. The safety interlocks include the brake sensor which acts as an inhibitor to the motor power whenever the brake is applied & the speed sensor which cuts the motor power after a designated max ground speed. The integration was seamless, not crude & the brand name was encapsulating the brand, “EADICCT”. So the addicted me decided to buy myself the gift & my e-bike was ready to hit the road.
That was my first day of e-biking to L&T. To a technology driven company, I was ‘being driven’ with a new technology & the excitement was at its best. As such, hardly anybody on road happened to notice the battery pack & motor & if anybody really did, they perhaps took the battery pack as a stylish water bottle. The real fun part started at signals & speed beakers where the bike could sprint at much higher spurts & motorcyclists blushed in confusion. They hadn’t seen any cycle accelerating so fast. One curious biker got aghast when I told him this is a CNG kit.
Being a mechanical designer myself & powertrain being my core domain, I had some academic interest to validate this on slopes. There is this ~20º ascent in L&T at the hill which I tried & the bike negotiated without any excessive load on the pedals.
Although clean energy & increasing fuel prices were not on my agenda, the e-bike brought to me some complimentary health benefits which cannot be overlooked. It’s a unique luxury at disposal to put the electric assist ON or OFF at will.
Yes, the price is little high but the value added is significant. While I once felt dejected by not being able to justify the cost to myself & the break-even appeared a distant prospect, my clever friends in order to restore my happiness just replaced my 2 wheeler by the 4 wheeler in the denominator and everything in my world was right.
I now bring it to office 50% of the time, use it elsewhere as well & it has now become quite emblematic of my lifestyle.
Nevertheless, the e-bike continues to keep the riding experience exclusive to the last e.
… Sachin G Wagle
Mumbai, INDIA
([email protected])
