A motorized bicycle is a bicycle with an attached motor used to power the vehicle, or to assist with pedaling. Sometimes classified as a motor vehicle, or a class of hybrid vehicle, motorized bicycles may be powered by different types of engines.
Motorized bicycles are distinguished from motorcycles by being capable of being powered by pedals alone if required. The actual usage of the pedals varies widely according to the type of vehicle. Some can be propelled by the motor alone if the rider chooses not to pedal. Those known as mopeds mostly have pedals for emergency use or because of legal requirements and these are not normally used. Those known as power-assist bikes have the pedals as the main form of propulsion with the motor used to give a bit of extra power, especially uphill. Many motorized bicycles are based on standard bicycle frame designs and technologies, although the modifications to the design to support motorization may be extensive.
In countries where there is a strong bicycle culture (notably in Asia), the motorized bicycle is particularly popular; in 1996 Shanghai had 370,000 motorized bicycles and 470,000 other vehicles.
History
The two-wheeled pedal powered bicycle was first conceived in Paris in the 1860s. By 1888 John Dunlop invented pneumatic tires and the chain drive making possible the safety bicycle, giving the bicycle its modern form.
Electric bicycle history
In the 1890s, electric bicycles were documented within various U.S. patents. For example, on 31 December 1895 Ogden Bolton Jr. was granted U.S. Patent 552,271 for a battery-powered bicycle with “6-pole brush-and-commutator direct current (DC) hub motor mounted in the rear wheel.” There were no gears and the motor could draw up to 100 amperes (A) from a 10-V battery.
Two years later, in 1897, Hosea W. Libbey of Boston invented an electric bicycle ( U.S. Patent 596,272 ) that was propelled by a “double electric motor.” The motor was designed within the hub of the crankshaft axle. This model was later re-invented and imitated in the late 1990s by Giant Lafree electric bicycles.
By 1898 a rear wheel drive electric bicycle, which used a driving belt along the outside edge of the wheel was patented by Mathew J. Steffens. Also, the 1899 U.S. Patent 627,066 by John Schnepf depicted a rear wheel friction “roller-wheel” style drive electric bicycle. Schnepf's invention was later re-examined and expanded in 1969 by G.A. Wood Jr. with his U.S. Patent 3,431,994 . Wood’s device used 4 fractional horsepower motors; each rated less than ½ horsepower and connected through a series of gears.
Torque sensors and power controls were developed in the late 1990s. For example, Takada Yutky of Japan filed a patent in 1997 for such a device. In 1992 Vector Services Limited offered and sold an electric bicycle dubbed Zike. The bicycle included Nickel-cadmium batteries that were built into a frame member and included an 850 g permanent-magnet motor. Despite the Zike, in 1992 hardly any commercial electric bicycles were available. It wasn’t until 1998 when there were at least 49 different bikes. Production grew from 1993 to 2004 by an estimated 35%. By Contrast, according to Gardner, in 1995 regular bicycle production decreased from its peak 107 million units. Some of the less expensive electric bicycles used bulky lead acid batteries, whereas newer models generally used NiMH, NiCd and/or Li-ion batteries which offered lighter, denser capacity batteries. The end benefits usually varied from manufacturer; however, in general there was an increase in range and speed. By 2004 electric bicycles where manufactured by Currie Technologies, EV Global, Optibike, Giante Lite, Merida, ZAP.
By 2001 the terms, E-Bikes, power bike, pedelec, assisted bicycle and power-assisted bicycle where commonly used to describe electric bicycles. E-bike, according to Google, is a term that has increased in trend. This term generally referred to an electric bicycle which used a throttle. The terms Electric Motorbike or E-Motorbike have been used to describe more powerful models which attain up to 80 km/h.
In a parallel hybrid motorized bicycle, such as the afformentioned 1897 invention by Hosea W. Libbey, human and motor inputs are mechanically coupled either in the bottom bracket, the rear or the front wheel, whereas in a (mechanical) series hybrid cycle, the human and motor inputs are coupled through differential gearing. In an (electronic) series hybrid cycle, human power is converted into electricity and is fed directly into the motor and mostly additional electricity is supplied from a battery.
Pedelec is a European term that generally referred to an electric bicycle that incorporated a torque and/or a speed sensor and/or a power controller that delivered a proportionate level of assist and only ran when the rider pedaled. On the opposite side, a Noped is a term used by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario for similar type vehicles which do not have pedals or in which the pedals have been removed from their motorized bicycle. Finally, Assist Bicycle is the technical term used to describe such a vehicle and Power-Assisted Bicycle is used in the Canadian Federal Legislation, but is carefully defined to only apply to electric motor assist, and specifically excludes internal combustion engines (though this is not the case in the United States).
Today, China is the world's leading producer of electric bicycles. According to the data of the China Bicycle Association, a government-chartered industry group, in 2004 China's manufacturers sold 7.5 million electric bicycles nationwide, which was almost twice the year 2003 sales; domestic sales reached 10 million in 2005, and 16 to 18 million in 2006. By 2007, electric bicycles were thought to make up 10 to 20 percent of all two-wheeled vehicles on the streets of many major cities. A typical unit requires 8 hours to charge the battery, which provides the range of 25–30 miles (40–50 km), at the speed of around 20 km/h.
A large number of such vehicles is exported from China as well (3 million units, worth 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion), in the year 2006 alone),
Other motorized bicycles
The origins of the motorized bicycle can be traced back to the latter part of the 19th century when experimenters began attaching steam engines to stock tricycles and quadracycles. This moved into attempts to fit the newly-invented internal combustion engine to the bicycle form.
Development diverged into two distinct streams: motorcycles, which are powered solely by their engines, and motorized bicycles as defined above. The closeness of the two forms in early years is demonstrated by Félix Millet's machines of 1892/93 and on. These had both pedals and an ingenious fixed crankshaft radial engine built into the back wheel. Within a few years motorized bicycles and motorcycles were recognisably divergent, with for example early motorcycles being longer, heavier and with a markedly different riding position from that of a contemporary pedal cycle. Later, development forked again with the advent of mopeds, small motorcycles fitted with pedals that can be used as a starting aid but which cannot, practically, be ridden under pedal power alone. This development appears to have been largely in order to exploit ambiguities between the regulatory framework for bicycles, powered bicycles and motorcycles - in jurisdictions where pedals were not required to meet the legal framework they were often simply omitted on otherwise identical models.
In the case of motorized bicycles, too, there were soon two parallel streams of development: motor assistance as an addition to existing machines, and purpose-built motor-assisted bicycles like the Derny and VéloSoleX, with stronger frames and sometimes with only token ability to be wholly human powered. In these cases some assert that the product is more formally a motorcycle or moped than a motorized bicycle, and some jurisdictions also take this view.
The gasoline-powered motorized bicycle gained notable popularity in France during the 1930s, and continued to be widely sold in early postwar years as a means of transportation during a period of gasoline shortages and limited automobile production. British countries in the 1940s and 1950s developed both the “clip-on” motors for bicycles (35 to 49 cc), and the “autocycle” with a purpose-built frame incorporating pedals and a two-stroke engine (often a 98 cc Villiers engine) but without a gearbox (eg the Malvern Star).
Modern motorized bicycles follow both trends, with conversions being applied by hobbyists as well as commercial manufacturers. Hub motors in particular facilitate after market conversion, being built into the wheel and not requiring modifications to the drivetrain or frame, as well as having a low centre of gravity. Converting bicycles or tricycles has proven useful for some people with physical disabilities such as arthritis. The strength of tricycles is that they will balance even while stationary, but some people
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