What is an electric fat bike? The first fat bikes were made in 1986 and were used to ride over the Sahara Desert. But fat E-bikes really started gaining popularity because of the Iditarod race in Alaska. The race consisted of 1000 miles over frozen lakes and ice.
The most significant and apparent difference between a fat bike and a normal bike is the size of the tires. Fat E-bikes are designed to give you big flotation. So, you can ride over things like snow and sand that a normal bike would sink into and actually might be impossible to ride.
1. Motor
The main benefit of an E-bike is a motor that lets you easily ride. An electric bike can help you get up a hill easier, to allows you to go move quickly without much effort. That is what most people are looking for in an electric motor. and you can choose the level of assistance you need. A Dirwin E-bike has 5 levels of Pedal Assist Intelligence.
What are the different types of electric motors? The two common types of motors that we've seen historically. On the specific types of motors, you generally see a direct-drive motor that had been more common historically, but it's becoming less common these days. The direct-drive motor is a little bit simpler in its makeup. But it can usually be a little bit heavier. It doesn't have some of the mechanical advantages of this other type of motor, a geared motor.
The benefit of a geared motor is you can use the mechanical advantage of gears. Electric motors generally like to spin kind of fast. So, adding gears to that direct-drive motor brings a big benefit, allowing the motor to spin faster but changing the ratio of the actual output. Now the electric bike motor can be placed in a variety of different places. One you'll occasionally see maybe not be so common these days, and that sort of thing is a front-wheel hub motor. And basically, what that means is you have the motor inside of the hub of the wheel. And it's placed inside the forks of the bike. This motor placement style had historically been pretty popular, but some downsides encouraged some of the rises of these different motor systems on the market today.
The next motor placement will be in the rear wheel. So, it's like a rear hub motor. This has been very popular, probably one of the most popular motor system placements in history, and this provides a benefit because you have more weight in the back, so you don't have that traction issue. You might have the front hub motor. But it can produce some challenges, and that it makes the back of the bike a little bit heavier, especially if you have a battery on the rear rack. So having all that weight can make the steering a little bit weird on the bike and that sort of thing. It's also inside of the wheel. So, it can potentially put more stress on the wheel. This is why the Dirwin bike’s battery is installed in the front tube of the battery for even weight distribution. Dirwin's motor is a Hub motor, which is directly driving the bike. Dirwin E-bikes also have 750 Watts of power. For Fat bikes, 750 Watts of Power is quite a lot, making climbing hills and pedaling much easier.
The last type is a mid-drive motor. Now, this motor is placed directly where the cranks are, and there are some benefits to putting the motor here. One of the big ones is that it's actually using the bike's gears as mechanical advantage, so this is the only one where you actually have transmission. So, it allows you to be a lot more efficient. Allows the bike to potentially be a little bit lighter if you want to have a decent amount of output. So, you find this on higher performance bikes, particularly mountain bikes and that sort of thing because it allows you to still have a lightweight wheel that can perform well but still delivers a good amount of power, especially when you shift through those gears.
The disadvantages of the mid-drive motors are that they create a lot of stress for the chain and transmission system. Meaning that these systems have to be built from heavier parts and they need to be maintained more often.
All in all, Dirwin has chosen the Hub motor to power its bikes because the whole motor system is contained in the wheel. This means that there is no increased danger of snapping the chain or any other potential issues affecting the motor. The whole package is enclosed in the hub meaning it’s pretty much a bulletproof solution - especially for people who do offroading since there’s no added risk of having to start fixing your motor while you are on track.
2. Battery
E-bikes' batteries are different sizes in terms of physical size, different weights, and obviously different performance output. Good motor needs a good battery. Dirwin E-bikes have a lithium battery. Maintaining lithium batteries is simple and easy. You can check some tips on the article about maintenance in the blog. Here are some simple tips.
- Try not to charge your battery too fast, this may affect the battery lifespan.
- Try not fully discharge your battery, this will decrease the capacity of the battery.
- Don't overheat your battery, this can happen when you ride fast or if it's very hot outside.
- Try to charge it as little as possible.
- Don't drop the battery on the floor
The battery enables you to ride longer time, depends on the assistance level how long it lasts in the end. If you slide the level down, you get more miles cause the motor will not work as hard. And with Dirwin bikes you can carry multiple batteries if you go on an especially long trip.
3. Display
The display provides some very useful information, such as the cadence. And the great thing about cadence is that you actually get the optimum out of your E-bike motor if you pedal at the right cadence. Other things you can see on display: Odometer. Speed, assistance level, etc. So many things you can do with a display on your E-bike. For normal bikes, you usually must buy a separate meter to show this information. One important thing to mention, the display should be bright enough so you can read it in the sun easily. If it's too dark, it is hard to read, and then you are not looking at the road when you drive. Dirwin E-bike provides you 3.5" TFT Color Display, which has great visibility in all kinds of conditions, and it features all the information.
Overall, E-fat bikes are the perfect vehicle for outside. Please take advantage of the E-far bikes because they are so fun to ride!
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