There’s no time like now, Earth Day 2018, to own the truth of how our combined small efforts can make a BIG difference to help preserve our planet and its resources. Dependency on our four-wheeled vehicles has grown exponentially in the past century but the inception of bike-share programs and improved bike lane infrastructure have been a step in the right direction towards a solution for sustainable mobility.

A recent census revealed that the average commuter travels 5 miles (8 km) one way to their place of work each day. 79.5% of automobile commuters drive to work every day and spend about 24 minutes doing so.

Did you know that the same distance can be quite easily covered while riding a bicycle and in almost the same amount of time even by a person who is not an avid cyclist? Opting to cycle to work even twice a week can reduce your fuel emissions by 40%.  Electric bicycles can also help commuters overcome challenges with their route’s distance, hills  or their personal fitness levels.
Alizeti provides an even more environmentally friendly alternative to investing in a new e-bike. By converting your current bicycle to an e-bike, you can re-purpose your existing bicycle and help keep perfectly usable bicycles out of landfills. The Alizeti 300C is an full-featured, all-in-one e-bike conversion system that fits on most any on-road bike and does not require the disposal of any parts of your existing bicycle. Moreover, the Alizeti 300C’s upgradeable platform and DIY serviceability extends the product’s life. The e-bike system can easily be updated or transferred on to another bike, further shrinking your carbon footprint!

​Riding a bicycle to commute more often is a simple solution available to all of us. Earth Day is a great time to put a plan in place and take that first important step towards a greener and more environmentally conscious lifestyle. 

It is no secret that the main lure drawing more and more cyclists towards modern eBikes is the ability to ride further, faster and with less effort. Manufactures are continually pushing the boundaries of what this new bike technology can do to further entice new customers.
 
As cyclists, we are well aware of the dangers that can arise when cars and bikes are required to share our already congested roadways. Most cyclists have at one time or another experienced or witnessed a close call during their commute on city roads. It is for this reason that most cities now impose mandatory maximum speed limits for electric bikes. Even with these mandatory laws in place cyclists still regularly get into accidents even while traveling well below these speed limits. The big question is how much of an impact does this actually have on rider safety and should more be done? The following issues underscore. 
 
It is unquestionably the responsibility of every cyclist to make sure he or she is following the rules of the road, as well as wearing a helmet when riding at all times. Riding an eBike, however, does require more vigilance to ensure rider safety. More speed and power obviously requires better brakes, longer stopping distances, and quicker reflexes.
 
Data shows that most cycling accidents involving motor vehicles occur when a cyclist is hit from the rear. What this shows us is that more needs to be done to ensure better visibility of cyclists on the road. Unfortunately, few eBike manufacturers have taken steps to include better rider safety features when designing their products.
 
Would you ride a scooter without, headlights, turning lights or a horn? Of course not. Then why are cyclist expected to ride eBikes that can match the speed of a scooter and cost just as much without these features? Ebikes today can cost $3000 or more. At this price would you not expect to see a full featured product that includes all the required safety features to ride safely? Unfortunately, beyond a basic headlight or reflectors, very few manufacturers offer anything more than the bare minimum.
 
There are however a few eBike manufacturers who take rider safety very seriously. Alizeti provides more than just the basic safety features on its 300C eBike kits. As a matter of fact, most of the standard features that come factory installed on its affordable DIY conversion kit are not even available on eBike costing 4 many more times. Alizeti understands the importance of visibility on the roads and has included rear driving lights as well as left and right turning signals and a horn to warn motorists that drive too close if required. Even the Alizeti 300C lettering  that adorns the left and right side of the unit uses reflective material that is highly visible during night driving. Night driving is further enhanced by not one but two front LED lights ensuring cyclist visibility at all times.
 
Occasionally the big push required for a change to happen in the industry can be driven by smaller companies that are often nimbler and can adapt quicker to the new requirements needed for positive change. Optimistically the trend for better rider safety will propagate across the industry as others follow the initial push for additional safety features and shift their focus from sales tactics to rider safety.

By Louis Viglione

Today e-bikes are making a strong comeback after several unsuccessful market attempts. Early e-bikes were plagued by issues such as, limited range, service life of lead-acid batteries, total weight, overall quality, reliability, lack of serviceability and available spare parts. All these factors hindered the general acceptance of e-bikes. 

Back in 2000, Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of Chrysler, had a dream of producing e-bikes that would change the way the world thought about electric transportation. He was a brilliant visionary, but perhaps ahead of his time. Today, there are hundreds of e-bike manufactures and many automobile manufactures are now adding e-bikes as part of their product portfolio. 

Current categories of e-bikes include fixed frame and folding, with either front, mid, rear hub or friction drives systems, mainly powered by longer life rechargeable lithium batteries. Although prices in general are becoming more affordable, reliable and serviceable e-bikes are still out of reach for many people. Less expensive retrofit kits are now available that offer environmentally friendly solutions allowing commuters to keep their original bikes. 

There are many health, cost, time and environmental benefits offered by e-bikes including increased range and power. e-bikes also offer a more pleasant and rewarding alternative to commuting or recreational cycling. In the very near future, technology is sure to inject innovation into this market resulting in a more affordable and reliable personal urban transportation solution. 

By Louis Viglione
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For many people, their daily commute has become a source of anxiety, frustration, and loss of time. Roads and highways were not designed to take on today's increased volume and are often congested with rush hour traffic. Public transportation can be long at times, as well as crowded and uncomfortable. Studies show that the average commuting time in the US is 52 minutes or 26 minutes each way. This estimate is often longer when there are accidents, breakdowns or road construction along the way. So what are our options if we wish to end this dilemma that gradually consumes more and more of our valuable time? Can we better manage our commute and save time for more enjoyable things such as our families and friends, leisure, meals, home tasks or fitness?
 
If we consider that more than 51% of US commuters travel less than 10 miles each way daily, an eBike may be the sensible solution to this quagmire. A person of average fitness can easily achieve this commute in less than 40 minutes each way. The added assistance an eBike provides means over exertion or perspiration is minimized. 
 
The financial benefits of commuting by eBike alone are quite impressive. On the average commuting by car costs an estimated $8,220 annually. In comparison, commuting by eBike costs only pennies a day and is by far, the most energy efficient form of transportation. Ebike commuting can also have an immediate, real and positive impact on the environment, air quality, and urban congestion. 
 
There is yet another important and often overlooked benefit to commuting by eBike. This is the health benefits of introducing regular physical activity into your daily routine. Combining commuting and exercise this way can save additional time that would otherwise need to be spent in the gym. A car commuter would have to spend an additional 52 minutes each day, at the gym or elsewhere if he were to get the same daily exercise as an eBike commuter. Commuting by eBike amounts to saving an additional 5 hours a week that can be enjoyed much more productively than sitting in traffic!
 
An eBike can provide a more enjoyable and stress free commute and offers a great healthy way to start and end your work or school day. 

By Doug McClellan
 
MONTRÉAL — The friction drive — a motor-driven pulley or cylinder that powers a bicycle tire — is an idea that has been around since the turn of the century. The 20th Century.
 
In 1899, John Schnepf of New York was granted a patent for an electric-powered pulley that would bear down on the tire and drive it by friction.
 
Friction drives powered by small gasoline engines have been on the market for decades, and are still available on Amazon.
 
Now, a few startups are reimagining the friction drive. One is the Canadian company Alizeti, which is incorporating contemporary e-bike technology in a system that is easy to install and relatively inexpensive.
 
“It’s technology that’s been around for a long time. It’s kind of funny how it’s been overlooked,” said Tony Francischiello, marketing director for Alizeti. “I think the reason is that, until now, nobody’s been able to implement it properly. You can’t just slap a motor on the bike and expect it to do what you want it to do.”
 
The company will debut its first model at Interbike and expects to begin delivering products next spring.
 
Alizeti — the name means “sunflower” in Swahili, Francischiello said — was founded by veterans of another Canadian firm, Viconics Technologies, which makes thermostats and controls for industrial heating and air conditioning systems.
 
Viconics founder Louis Viglione had retired after Schneider Electric, a big French multinational company, acquired his company in 2011. But he soon grew bored and assembled several of his former Viconics colleagues to launch the new company.
 
Most friction drives are essentially a motor connected to a throttle, but Alizeti is focusing as much on the software and the controls as on the motor.
 
“There has to be some intelligence there, some programming and software capabilities built in, to be able to analyze what you’re doing and react,” Francischiello said.
 
The Alizeti software will allow riders to set a constant speed or a constant torque and adjust automatically.
 
The battery and drive are built into a rear rack that attaches like a conventional rack. When installed, it looks like a typical e-bike with a rear-mounted battery.
 
The 500-watt drive hangs down from the rack so its drive wheel — made of a compound that works well in wet or dry conditions — engages with the tire.
 
The battery compartment houses one or two batteries, and includes a built-in rear brake light and turn signals. There’s even a speaker that serves as a horn and a security alarm. Francischiello said riders can even play music through the speaker via a Bluetooth smartphone link.
 
Thieves can’t simply ride away on the bike, because the motor won’t start until the owner enters a pass code on the controller. The batteries are also linked to a special unit,
so they won’t work with other bikes.
 
The system, including battery and rack, weighs 11 pounds. When not in use, the drive wheel disengages completely from the tire so the cyclist can pedal normally without resistance.
 
“A friction drive motor, if done well, can give you a lot of benefits that you can’t get with a hub motor or a mid-drive motor,” Francischiello said.
 
At Interbike, Alizeti will show its debut model, the 300C, which is a low-end version for commuter bikes. The company expects to sell them at retail for $699 and will be seeking retailers and distributors at the show. Although many components are sourced
from Asia, Francischiello said the Alizeti systems will be manufactured in Canada.
 
Future models will be more sophisticated. Francischiello said the company is working on a system that combines a rear friction drive with a front hub motor.
 
A few other companies are also promoting new friction drive concepts. Rubee, a British company, sells a unit that clamps to the seat tube and sits over the rear wheel like a shoebox.
 
ShareRoller of New York attracted attention for its portable 750-watt friction drive that it originally developed for bike share systems. A rider can attach and detach the unit in seconds and carry it in a briefcase. It also fits scooters and folding bikes. The company raised $88,000 last December on Indiegogo, exceeding its funding goal.

Whether you are a college student, young, or seasoned professional, the method of transportation that you choose to use to navigate your way through the traffic dense urban jungle, can be both costly and time consuming. 

A Forbes article, cites that more than $ 4.6 billion USD in costs associated with commuting in the United States, can be saved yearly by commuting by bike alone.  The estimated total annual cost of traveling by bicycle is just a mere $308 USD (including tune up, adjustments, brakes, tires) as compared to $8,220 USD commuting by car including registration, maintenance and operating costs). Although operational costs may vary from city to city, the difference in cost between these two methods of commuting is huge.

According to a recent US government census, the average commuter spends 50 minutes a day travelling. Living in densely populated and congested areas can dramatically increase the time spent commuting. The average of which is roughly 13 miles or (20 km) each to and from the final destination. Electric bikes can actually reduce travel time and eliminate over-exertion, while supplementing our day with a healthy dose of exercise we often don't have time for in our busy routine. 

​Taking into consideration the costs and duration of our daily commutes, it is well worth exploring some alternative methods of transportation to save time, money, aggravation and the environment!

A primary benefit of an eBike is the ability to extend cycling distance yet.
“How far or how long can I ride with an eBike or e-bike kit?” is one of the first questions a cyclist will ask when selecting and eBike or e-bike kit.
 
Most of us are familiar with automobile EPA fuel economy ratings. The automobile industry imposes controlled conditions in a laboratory setting to measure estimated fuel economy. Specialized measurement tools such as a dynamometer are used when simulating typical city and highway driving conditions. The EPA reviews and confirms the manufacturers’ published rating through its own independent testing.
 
In the case of eBike, the manufacturers provide estimated distance ranges, yet there are no standardized testing criteria to fairly compare one brand of eBike against another. It’s up to the consumer to be able to do the math and understand exactly what they are purchasing.
 
A good indication of the range is the capacity of the battery, rated in watt-hours or Wh for short. The voltage of an e-bike battery alone is not indicative of either power or range. A common misconception is that a 48V system is twice the capacity of a 24V system. This is not the case. 
 
The same is true for the amperage or ampere-hour rating of a battery. The true measure of battery energy capacity is the watt-hour rating (Wh) which is the nominal voltage of a battery or battery pack multiplied by its ampere-hour rating. For example, a 24V, 10Ah battery will provide 240 Wh when fully charged and will be able to deliver 240 watts for 1 hour or 120 watts for 2 hours. Simple enough right?
 
Unfortunately, the X factor in the mathematical calculations of the actual driving ranges also must include things like total weight of the bike, weight of the rider, cargo, riding speed, wind and wind direction, riding position, frontal area of the rider, road grade or incline, type of tires, inflation pressure, start-stop patterns, traffic conditions, battery capacity, efficiency of the motor and drive system, and also the effort provided by the rider.
 
Riders can get some relief from range anxiety in the fact that their e-bike will ride almost like a regular bike if the battery is discharged, only slightly heavier. Some better e-bike systems will completely disengage when the battery is drained offering zero resistance and a natural bike feel or offer regenerative braking that can help recharge the batteries when coming to a stop.
 
New smaller more compact batteries reduce weight, and can be easily removed and recharged at work or school for convenience and a secondary battery that can effectively double the range of the e-bike.
 
Although e-bikes typically allow cyclists to significantly increase riding range while reducing travel time and exertion when compared to a regular bike, it is important to consider all these important factors when selecting an eBike or eBike kit.

By Tony Francischiello

In most of today’s cities, the dense city centers are being forced to spread out due to the ever increasing demand for more housing, and development of more commercial spaces. Free time is becoming more and more of a rare commodity. Our daily hustle and bustle often requires us to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Cars and busses are often our first choice when it comes to commuting however, these popular forms of transportation only add to the ever increasing pollution problem, gridlock traffic and frustrating and costly parking hunt many of us are forced to live with on a daily basis.
 
By now most of us acknowledge that in today’s society, we all must encourage re-cycling to offset the negative environmental impact caused by urban living and to sustain our future generations. We commonly associate re-cycling with placing paper, plastic, glass and some metals such as tin and aluminum in the blue recycling bin however, we often overlook the positive environmental potential of our bicycles that often lay dormant in our garages while we drive our large vehicles to the corner store to buy milk and bread.
 
Unfortunately, today we’ve grown to be very dependent on our cars for even the shortest commute which is often less than 5 miles. Conventional bicycles are an ideal alternative for short trips but few Americans commute regularly by bicycle. Statistics show that while 73% of adult cyclists ride for recreation, only 10% used a bicycle for their regular commute. The common misconception that commuting by bike will take too long or will require too much effort.
 
Other parts of the world such as Asia, has a long legacy of bicycle use due to relatively low incomes, dense urban development, and short trip distances. But because of tremendous recent economic growth resulting in increased motorization and spatial expansion of cities, trips made by bicycle are becoming longer and more difficult. Fortunately, the challenges of cycling longer commuting distances, tighter schedules, and an aging population are being offset by the growing popularity of e-bike.
 
Today, eBike have the potential to deliver enormous environmental benefits. They produce 100 times fewer emissions per mile than the average car. In fact, if those of us living less than 5 miles from work commuted by eBike instead of a car, it would save 3.9 million tons of carbon dioxide each year with financial savings in the billions of dollars.
 
With all the positive environmental benefits offered by e-bike, there is still one major negative trend which is quickly growing each year. E-bike manufacturers are more often than not selling e-bike which aim to replace your existing traditional bike. This trend can have very negative implications by encouraging perfectly good bikes to end up in the trash. Fortunately, as the e-bike technology matures, we are seeing more and more environmentally friendly retrofit solutions becoming available. Cyclists who wish to convert regular bikes into e-bike and keep their existing bike out of the landfills now have a choice. E-bike retrofit solutions are becoming more and more sophisticated, affordable, and reliable. The added advantage some of these newer solutions is that they are easily installed on most any bike which in many cases are better quality and lighter in weight than the complete e-bike on the market. These retrofit solutions are also more economical, costing substantially less than e-bike commonly being sold for well over $2500.
 
With over 100 million bikes sold each year, the environmental impact of repurposing older largely unused bikes and converting them to e-bike makes great sense from a re-cycling standpoint. We now have a cost-effective alternative to cars that can take us further than ever before, save us money, and make us healthier! If we can keep perfectly usable bicycles out of landfills, we can further multiply the positive environmental benefits we all can produce and benefit from for years to come.