Oh, Hi! I didn't see you there. I'm Mikey at Blue Monkey Bicycles and in this
video we're going to talk about Lead-Acid VS Lithium!
Alright, so between the two; Lead-acid and lithium: Lithium Wins.
... OK, Later.
Nah, I'm just kidding! Let me tell you WHY lithium wins. First we're going to talk about
it from a production electric bike standpoint, then we're going to talk about it from a conversion
electric bike stand point. But first!
Consider shopping at Blue Monkey Bicycles.com where you can get an electric bike of your
very own sent straight to your door. We've worked hard to select great bikes at various price points
that we can personally vouch for. OK, let's jump in. Usually for a production
electric bike Lead-acid batteries are found on OLD electric bikes (Like, Lee Iacocca old)
and also poorly made, really low price point electric bikes. From a dollars stand point;
old electric bikes with lead-acid batteries simply aren't worth fixing. Electrically,
if you get replacement batteries (hopefully that's all it needs) then those lead-acid
batteries are going to die out fast again (like really fast in comparison). There's
a good chance that the mechanical parts on that bike are in just as good of condition
as a bike that you would find at Goodwill or a garage sale (which is bad). So if you
fix up the bike mechanically and you get new batteries there's also a chance that the mechan--
sorry-- the electrical components won't work anyway. And if the company is out of business
it's... very difficult (and in many cases impossible) to get replacement electric parts
without just ripping out the entire electric system and starting from scratch. If you're
getting a new electric bike with new lead-acid batteries then hopefully it works right out
of the gate, but believe me when I tell you that that short clock is ticking. If the batteries
don't go first then there's a good change that either the electric or especially the
mechanical parts are going to go shortly before or after that point. The reason for that is
that the bargain basement electric bikes with bargain basement mechanical and electrical
parts simply don't last long and that's the way it is. A lead-acid bike is actually pretty
good for a kid who is goofing around the neighborhood something really non-committal but if you
want to rely on an electric bike for transportation or if you take one half-way up the mountain
then... uh... I... I really wouldn't recommend a lead-acid bike for that. Sorry...
-OK, Switching gears! Let's talk about lead-acid batteries from a conversion standpoint. From
a conversion standpoint lead-acid batteries actually do have a pretty cool use. They are
readily available from hardware stores, battery stores or even Wal-Mart or something like
that. You can get 'em at a moments' notice and they're really cheap, so that's a really
good option if your budget is low at the moment and you want to make something right now to
get started. But still, lithium batteries take the cake: Lithium batteries don't need
to be replaced as often and therefore cost LESS over time. Also, lithium batteries weigh
significantly less than a lead-acid battery. And the difference between the two literally
affords greater range, greater power on account of having less weight (less load) on the bicycle.
Lithium cells used to be hard to come by, quite literally a gamble if you would ever
get them. But that was years ago. Things have changed. Now there's hardly a second thought
when buying electric parts from a reliable, American business like ebikekit.com for example.
So despite these very narrow circumstances of trying to get started on an electric bike
conversion right away, lead-acid really doesn't have a whole lot of use outside of maybe bench
testing. Lithium is just plain better. As to weather that's Lithium-Ion, LiFePo⁴,
Li - Po, LiMn2o4, LiUb, that's a different topic.
Speaking of different topic: If you want to know more about electric bike conversions
you can check out this book: The Ultimate DIY eBike guide by Micah Toll. It has a lot
of really good information in it. You can get it on amazon or something like that. Or
you can check out his YouTube channel; eBike School (by clicking on this little white pop-up
right here). He runs a channel where he does lots of informational videos and also does
giveaways for this book and the other one about batteries.
If you're looking for a really cheap production electric bike using lithium batteries you
can check out bluemonkeybicycles.com where we carry Surface604 electric bikes. Some of
the best value electric bikes in the entire industry. We really like them a lot. We have
personally tested them, ridden them serviced them, done warranty work on them and... yeah,
They're great stuff. So thanks for watching! I guess that's about the end of it. If you
have any other topics you want to see covered, please leave it in the comment section below.
And now is the time where I have to pose. I'll... I should pose with the book. How about that?