When the Whole Is Bigger than the Sum of the Parts

Jukka Mäennenä on 2020-08-10

Here at Revonte we’ve wanted to take the big picture view from the beginning. Our goal is to change how ebikes are ridden and thought of which requires more than just building a neat drive unit – although, that certainly is part of the deal. Besides providing a Drive System with unprecedented features, like the automatic & stepless transmission, we wanted to make the whole process of using the ebike easier, more pleasant and seamless, starting from the purchase.  

Let’s call it the Revonte Experience.

Ease of Use Starting from the Registration

Usually, attention is directed only towards the things that can be noted while riding. When it comes to ebikes – or any other product for that matter – the things that happen before that do matter, and often quite a lot. The ebike itself might be a pleasure to ride, but the experience might be dwarfed by a cumbersome process of turning just the power on. 

We’ve put a lot of thought to make the usability of the Revonte ONE Drive System as intuitive and smooth as possible. The process starts with registration, and at the same token claiming the ownership of the ebike. All of this is done via our App in a simple step-by-step manner. All the relevant instructions are clearcut and the amount of needed information is kept to a minimum.

If the registration process requires a PhD in electrical engineering or programming, then something has gone amiss. 

When Ensuing Riding

One of the design drivers of the user-interface and general usability of the Revonte ONE Drive System was that it should be so easy to use that a child could use a Revonte-equipped ebike (and they probably will.) 

Turning the power on and ensuing the ride should not be more complicated than starting a ride on a regular bike. In practical terms, this means that the power switch will be easy to use and no intricate button-pushing sequences are needed. Also, the app connects to the bike without a conscious effort by the user and starts tracking chosen metrics, if chosen from the settings.

Consequently, when the ride has finished or interrupted momentarily (remember, cyclists are big on coffee-breaks), turning the power off or putting the ebike on a stand-by mode should be just as easy as turning the power off. These things should be given but to our experience, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

Controls

Making the human-machine interface – HMI for short – as simple as elegant as possible was high on our priority list. The Revonte Controller reflects this thinking in every way.

First, it simplifies the cockpit by replacing existing controls instead of occupying new space. Second, it’s intuitive to use and highly ergonomic. And third, it’s minimalist to the extent that the difference between a traditional shifter paddle can be hard to tell by a glance. Only the colourful LED’s reveal that there’s more hiding beneath the surface.

Going screenless was an easy decision for us since we wanted to keep the cockpit area as simple as possible, and most importantly leave the choice of having a screen to the rider. Any modern smartphone can be used as a screen with the aid of the Revonte App which has all the features one could ask for. And not only that, it’s continuously updated so that users can benefit from the latest developments.

Ride-experience

We’ve said it before that the ride-experience isn’t only about performance metrics. The goal of this article was to drive the point home that ebikes, and most importantly, the usability and the general feeling of using one is a lot more than just watts or newton metres.  

The user-experience starts from the purchase and besides the riding itself, includes registration, servicing, charging and turning the power on and off countless times.

We feel that the ebike industry has a lot of ground to cover in this area. A lot of the controls, HMI’s and complicated button-pushing choreographies are something that would not fly in any other industry. Starting a drive on one of the leading electric cars is simple; hop on to the driver’s seat with the key in your pocket and start moving. Why should it be more difficult when moving from four wheels to two? 

With this line of thinking, the whole is truly bigger than the sum of the parts. Ebikes should be easy and most importantly enjoyable to use. Could your grandma use one? And how would she find the experience?

Weight Matters – Not Only the Amount But Also Where It’s Located

Jukka Mäennenä on 2020-04-29

Revonte Drive Unit

E-bikes are inherently heavier than their oxygen-powered siblings. There’s no going around the fact that the drive unit and the battery which holds the energy stores for propulsion add weight to the bicycle. When it comes to ride-characteristics, total weight does matter, but how it is placed on the bike is at least as important. 

Bicycling and Kilograms

Bicycling has a long and complex tradition with weight. Almost the moment since the first racing bicycle was brazed together, another race began to make the frames and the rest of the components as light as possible. This led to a century-long diet that produced clever designs, pushed the development and use of new materials and also outright contraptions, like bikes made of “drillium“. UCI, the governing body in road racing, put a limit to the tomfoolery by mandating a weight limit of 6.8kg for the bike to be eligible to be raced on.

The obsession with weight – or the lack of it – has had its effects to this day in the bicycle industry. No other single metric can be evaluated as quickly as the number on the scale; the lower the figure, the better. The same simple logic can’t be applied to any other feature or part of the bike, take wheel size or the complex matter bicycle frame geometry for example. Weight has been an easy target that everyone could get a hold of and announce their verdict on.

Make no mistake, the power to weight ratio does matter. In the World Tour level, it is possibly the most accurate factor to predict who is going to stand on the podium. E-bikes are ridden under the same laws of physics, but as one will soon learn there is quite a bit more the matter.

Weight of An E-bike

A regular commuter bike weighs around 13-15kg, depending on the accessories like mudguards, panniers, and so on. A high-end full suspension mountain bike tips the scales at 11-15kg, depending on the riding discipline. A light cross-country racer can be sub 10kg when a gravity-focused rig can weigh as much as 16kg. 

The addition of electric assistance adds approximately 8kg’s to the bike which is divided somewhat equally between the drive unit and the battery. A capacity of 625Wh can be considered as a standard for a high-end battery which usually comes with a weight of just under 4kg. The bigger the battery, the heavier it is. Therefore, batteries with capacities larger than this often weigh more than 4 kg.  

With elementary school level mathematics, the total weight of an e-bike is north of 20kg, with the assumption that a full-sized battery and drive unit are used. Adding a bit of mass to the bike does provide some interesting effects such as a more stable ride behavior and better suspension performance in e-mtb’s to the extent that top times have been ridden with e-bikes in downhill sections which require no pedaling! It goes without saying though, that climbing an uphill is a task which is preferred to be done with the electric assistance turned on.

Weight Distribution

A number on the scale is not all when it comes to weight. How the weight is distributed is a big factor. The mid-drive is the leading solution when it comes to drive unit construction since the weight is placed in the best location possible, low and centered. The Revonte ONE Drive System takes this a big step further by including the gears inside the drive unit as well – a feature no other drive unit on the market currently has.

Derailleur-based gears have been the sole option in performance-focused bicycles for decades. A case can be made that what functions well in traditional bikes might not directly apply to e-bikes. This is especially true when it comes to gears. Derailleurs, cassettes, and the thin chains used to transmit power to the rear wheel are not up to par for the task when an electric drive unit is added to the drivetrain. Premature chain and cog wear is evident in e-bike use, not to even mention the dreaded snapping of a derailleur hanger which can ruin the entire rear wheel; a nightmare scenario which has plagued cyclists of all types since the advent of derailleur. 

The Revonte ONE Drive System removes the derailleur and the heavy cassette from the back and eloquently includes them inside the drive unit, bringing all the weight in the best possible location. The effects can be noticed even by picking the bike up. A back-heavy bike feels as if the rear tire is glued to the ground, no matter how much effort is put into lifting the bike up. The ride-characteristics of such a bike are not much better since it can produce a feeling similar to riding with a trolley. 

A center of gravity which is low and in the middle of the bike produces superior ride characteristics, no matter the type of the bike. Some of the most notable benefits are improved cornering characteristics, even traction on both tires, more stable and even planted feel. A neat side effect is that the suspension qualities are vastly improved in high-end e-mtb’s since part of the designing tuning is minimizing the unsprung mass (the parts that move when suspension moves, e.g. wheels and what is attached to them). Revonte ONE Drive System does just that by eliminating the derailleur and cassette from the rear wheel. 

In Closing

The bicycle industry has been traditionally nearly obsessed with weight. The logic has been that if it is lighter, it surely must be better. The advent of e-bikes has changed this in part by bringing some common sense to the table, but also by changing the nature of how propulsion is produced. 

With e-bikes, the power to weight ratio isn’t nearly as critical as in traditional bikes since there are literally watts to spare. This means that the bike will move swiftly in every situation and terrain and a difference of a couple of kilograms is barely noticeable. The sophisticated control software of the Revonte ONE Drive System further enhances the ride experience with its automatic and stepless operation.

Every type of e-bike will benefit from the supreme weight distribution and robust drivetrain construction of the Revonte ONE Drive System. Our drive system is not only the smartest around when it comes to software, but also in construction and placement of the mechanical parts.