This might be a stupid question, but can e-bikes be ridden without their battery? Say if you were flying on a bike holiday but all you have is an ebike with a big removable battery.
Yes they can.
Yes , but I wouldn’t buy an ebike based on the ability to take a battery out to use once a year
Yes but it will have extra drag . You are not turning the motor but will be turning some extra drive gears
Fazua is about the only system which essentially makes it like a normal bike without the battery/motor installed
Yes you can, but somemotors are better at it than others.
The tq hpr 50 motor is pretty good, no noticeable drag at all.
I don't think you'd choose an ebike based on how it rides with no battery.
I do take my ebike abroad and leave the main battery at home though, but I take the range extender battery as it's small enough to be allowed on the plane in hand luggage.
Fazua is about the only system which essentially makes it like a normal bike without the battery/motor installed
There’s very little drag on a Gen 2 Levo - pedalling it on the flat it’s so similar in speed to my hardtail that it doesn’t bother me at all having the power off. If you run faster tyres you might notice more difference, but I’m not on super tacky dual plies, just pretty knobbly tyres.
I’ve ridden it without the battery too and the change in weight was surprisingly noticeable - more lively feeling, even though it’s such a small change to the total weight of me and the bike. Next time I take it on an uplift I might go without the battery.
I got a 3D printed battery hole cover thing that makes it look like the battery is there and holds the battery connector in place with a magnetic socket so nothing flaps about getting damaged.
Ride my KSL with the motor off loads. Barely noticeable drag...until you use the motor and turn it off again. Then it feels like pedalling through syrup.
This might be a stupid question, but can e-bikes be ridden without their battery? Say if you were flying on a bike holiday but all you have is an ebike with a big removable battery.
Yes no maybe. It wasn't likely designed to. The hole may or may not be strong enough without a battery, depends on how it was engineered. While the battery is unlikely to be totally structural, it may well contribute to the bikes ability to withstand front on impacts.
Ride my KSL with the motor off loads. Barely noticeable drag...until you use the motor and turn it off again. Then it feels like pedalling through syrup.
This, I think a lot of perceived drag is actually the feeling you get when you run off power when you've been on it. There's better and worse motors but even some of those that do have drag are perfectly fine to ride once you get used to it. Like having a slightly draggy brake.
Ride my KSL with the motor off loads. Barely noticeable drag...until you use the motor and turn it off again. Then it feels like pedalling through syrup.
Yes exactly right, motor drag is mostly psychological in the more recent (since 2020?) mainstream motors. You can check for your self by putting the bike in a workstand, take the chain off, battery out (or just off), and then turn the cranks by hand, they'll probably feel a bit harder to turn than regular bike cranks, but it's hardly anything extra.
I’ve ridden my Mondraker Neat in the Alps without the battery. The TQ system makes removing the battery easy. The bike rode just like a normal bike without the battery.
There's a guy on YouTube who's not only removed the battery from his Kenevo - I think that's what it is/was maybe an SL, I wasn't that interested tbh - and gutted a donor motor and rebuilt it so it's basically a glorified dummy de facto BB. He had an alternative e-mtb and wanted to be able to use the Kenevo as a non-assisted one. The rationale is that by swapping the motor casing and re-installing the battery, it's back to normal. It seems a little excessive, but each to their own.
Fwiw, I weighed my antique Levo without battery and motor and it was, from memory, around 16kg, so not insanely heavy.
Get a bike while you're over there
Whats a set of bolt croppers weigh ?
I do take my ebike abroad and leave the main battery at home though, but I take the range extender battery as it's small enough to be allowed on the plane in hand luggage.
I'm surprised manufacturers haven't cottoned on to the way camera batteries have been made modular to get around this restriction. They split apart so each individual battery is below the limit.
I do take my ebike abroad and leave the main battery at home though, but I take the range extender battery as it's small enough to be allowed on the plane in hand luggage.
I'm surprised manufacturers haven't cottoned on to the way camera batteries have been made modular to get around this restriction. They split apart so each individual battery is below the limit.
That's a neat solution, I guess it's just not an in demand feature for ebikes. And maybe even when split apart the number of batteries you would need is in excess of the air line regs? I think you're allowed 2 x 160wh batteries per person.
Fazua battery and motor can be removed on Boardman ADV 8.9 ebike. The replacment downtube cover is ~£90 iirc!
I've used my Bosch Gen 4 in the Alps minus the battery without any problems.
Although not ridden it up any big hills it was ok on the flatish stuff back to the uplift.
Each individual battery would need a cover and all that extra weight would add up - cyclists are (mostly) pretty sensitive to weight
Thanks for the replies. Basically we’re heading out to Morzine for mainly lift assisted downhill and as I will be buying an ebike in the next few months (probably something like a YT Decoy) it made more sense to take that without a battery than ride my hardtail or spend $600 on bike hire and leave a perfectly good 170/160 bike at home, especially as the wife will most likely be hiring a bike anyway.
If we end up driving out then it doesn’t matter about the battery.
I see YT sell a battery cover separately so figured I could get that and then fill the area with some moto foam to stop the cables from rattling and make the bike less echoey and hollow