Design of power assisted bicycle kit

Design of power assisted bicycle kit

Dichabeng, P.

Christiaans, H.H.C.M. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

Master of Science Integrated Product Design

2011-02-21

This project was to design a bicycle power-assist conversion kit for the Dutch market, in collaboration with Bandito Enterprise; a bicycle manufacturing company based in Taiwan. A large number of people in the Netherlands commute to work and school using conventional bicycles, as well as for recreational use, and often face opposing strong winds. A smaller number use petroleum fuelled mopeds (Snorfietsen) that travel at a maximum speed of 25km/h. Although these mopeds are more affordable than electric bicycles, and indeed electric mopeds, they boast significantly higher usage costs. On average, a cyclist travels 2.5km per day, while moped users cover a mere 0.15km per day. This limitation of use can be ascribed to higher usage costs for mopeds. The demand for low effort two wheeler transports can easily be met by electric bicycles as they provide the benefit of increased mobility at negligible running costs. However, a number of factors such as price still limit their adoption within the Netherlands. Although this market is growing, it is still overshadowed by the conventional bicycle market. There is a need to identify the bottlenecks that caused the late adoption of electric bicycles in the Netherlands (and indeed in Europe) and continues to stunt the growth of this market.

power-assist conversion

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1602ac87-73a9-4bd9-bf1c-8bdfd0f3f28e

2012-02-21

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Dichabeng, P.