An analysis from Upway found that an e-bike is 68 times cheaper than driving a car.

  • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    A minor point, but my e-bike has a usb [port…] . I owned mine for like a year before realizing it was tucked under a rubberized cover below the front panel

    You got my hopes up there, but no dice. So annoying to not have this, it’s basically a necessity if you want to use satnav for more than a couple of hours at a time. I considered hotwiring a USB port onto my battery, but thought better of it and bought a powerbank instead. More wires, more weight, more waste. Put USB ports on your batteries dammit.

    • 🇨🇦 tunetardis@piefed.ca
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      4 days ago

      Yeah I guess the big issue there is the voltage on the main battery is pretty high. Too high for USB. But it has to be brought down anyway for the electronics, so why not let people tap into it at that point? It’s petty not to offer the option.

      Mine was a USB-A connector hidden under the display. Once I realized where it was, it was easy enough to get to. On my wife’s bike, it was trickier to find/use. I had to crane my neck and look carefully under where the finger controls were and there was a tiny panel with a USB-C connector behind it.

      This all reminds a bit of what happened when we got a hybrid car and my coworker needed a boost. I had jumper cables on me but it was a real head-scratcher to figure out where to attach them on a hybrid? Like in the bike case, the battery is plenty powerful but the voltage is way too high. Eventually, I found a positive 12V terminal hidden in the fuse box! You remove the cover and there’s this U-shaped piece of metal sticking out you can attach the positive clip to.

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        So I’m now gonna go hunting again! But alas it’s not on the specs sheet and this is very much a budget bike straight out of China. No regrets about that, the quality’s otherwise fine and it was a great deal.