micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

2. Peddling charges the batteries, so in an emergency you can turn on the battery

This is generally not a thing.

5. Generally easier to repair.

Generally no. DIY ebikes from good components are easier to repair but not without spare parts. Good luck with that during an apocalypse. Cheap factory ebikes as well as expensive factory bikes with mid drives aren't repairable. Finding parts is a problem with the former (today, not in an apocalypse), the other can only be repaired by authorised shops due to parts and DRM.

As others mentioned, batteries may not last too long depending on the make and chemistry. A LFP based DIY would likely last the longest. You have to keep a few spares of all parts - controller, motor, computer, and a spare battery.

I like ebikes, but I lean towards the comments promoting plain ol bicycles as the optimal option. Simply put, a bicycle's only requirement is a reasonably-flat surface. If nature had provided roads, it's entirely possible for evolution to have devised wheeled creatures. For the same energy consumption, a human moves roughly four times faster or farther on a bicycle. That's a lot of advantage for zero extra energy.

But getting back to objective requirements, the other thing working in the bicycle's favor is the sheer number of them today: over one billion across the entire Earth, with around 100 million produced per year. If a world calamity happened right now and society collapsed, the estimated 60 million horses would become a luxury, not a utility, where 8 billion people vie for resources.

Obviously, much like a game of Catan, the horses and bicycles of the world are not evenly distributed. So if you're going to acquire something solely to put in the bunker for a doomsday scenario, I'd suggest not putting a horse in there; they won't like the dark.

Bro thinks he's going to build a microcontroller for his battery while hiding in a hole 🤣

Regular ol Tony Stark.

The batteries will wear out eventually and lose capacity. Even if you have an unlimited stock of spares, the cell chemistry will eventually break down a few years after they left the factory.

I agree that bicycles generally are the vehicle of choice for a post-apocalypse scenario, but I'm not convinced an eBike specifically would be the ideal choice.

It's an interesting idea and have some merit to it, but it can never outbest and outlast a normal bicycle. Still, it's significantly better than a car or motorcycle and depend on what sort of apocalypse we're talking about.

2)Peddling charges the batteries, so in an emergency you can turn on the battery

To actually charge the battery you need a voltage higher than the battery itself, and to charge the battery using the motor you will need something with regenerative braking, and to crank these motor you need higher energy than you normally do and put in to overcome the resistance in order to generate enough power to charge the battery. Even with regen braking in normal situation, i don't think it's enough to charge the battery. You'll be pedalling a significantly heavier bike in the end because of all that resistance.

3)The batteries can reasonably be charged by solar panels that a lot of houses have.

This is the true benefit of ebike, but you have to be in an apocalypse in a place with plenty of solar panel.

5)Generally easier to repair.

Compared to car or motorbike, yeah, but compared to a normal bicycle, there's a challenge if the electronics are fried or when battery need replacing.

The distance travelled on a full battery is absurd

This is true on eco mode, and depend on battery capacity, which affect the weight

Batteries are only good for about 5 years.

Dude what, no, pedalling doesn't charge the battery on any single ebike I've heard of: https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/do-electric-bikes-charge-when-you-pedal/

Nah. No offense, but give me a Surly Trucker over any e-bike. If I was not so messed up with my back, I'd still be good for 200 miles plus in one day on a couple of Snickers bars. Even in my rough shape, I can manage 30 miles daily as is and ~50 with consequences after.

Even without roads, I'm nearly as fast on a carbon 29'er hardtail like a Cannondale Flash and if I was in shape, I would want to cut my own trails anyways.

I'd probably look for a way to move to a makeshift belt drive and single speed. I could probably rig up rubber belts from cars and stuff for far longer than I'll be able to source chains. I'd eventually be able to do a leather belt drive to stay running for awhile. The hard part will be what to do about wheels in the long term. Wooden rims were standard long before aluminum. I bet I could still salvage enough heavy canvas, glue, and scrap rubber to make my own tubulars. Yeah, I think I could be riding for many decades.

How are you at reverse engineering circuits and rewinding motors? I've wound my own transformers before, but a stator is a whole different beast, especially with brushless. That ~30 mile range, battery lifespan, and monstrous dead weight without power would drive me mad.

I think you misspelled "Bikes" in your title.

I'm going out on foot. You can get into, out of, over or under, just about anything. And I don't want to draw attention whizzing down the road.

Also want to be able to hide quickly and you can't just bop off the road and into the woods dragging a bike. Even left on the road, that's a clue someone is near.

honestly it depends on how long the apocalypse is. the batteries are eventually going to go to shit, I think I'd rather have a flex fuel bike that can run on vegetable oil or pure ethanol, the latter of which which should either be abundant or easy to make in any apocalyptic situation.

I feel like I could keep a small engine running pretty much indefinitely.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peddle

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedal

In a non-nuclear apocalypse, I think they'd work wonderfully for a while. Some especially well built varieties might last long enough for people to figure out how to make new ones.

For a movie or in a book, I think they'd work best for a mad dash to safety immediately after the collapse of civilization. Whizzing past gridlocked cars on the way out of town, running out of charge half a mile short of the top of a mountain pass, recharging just enough on regen braking down the other side to make it to the destination for the night.

After a few years, any working electric bikes would be highly prized. Bikes drawing power from trailers of lead acid batteries and then diy batteries would be attempted to various degrees of success. Plain bicycles and walking would be the normal ways of getting wherever one might want to go.

In general, yeah. And if it has a decent cargo setup or a trailer you can leave the solar panels out to charge small things while traveling.

On the down side, you’re relatively slow.

Personally, I would probably just stick with a regular bicycle: I don't have enough solar panels to even come close to powering my ebike nor do I have a method to transfer the power. Electricity would probably be reserved for navigation devices if available, lights, etc.

A bicycle will never lose power and if you have a dynamo you can even use it to generate power. In an apocalypse type scenario, that seems pretty ideal unless you're exceptionally well provisioned and have a good understanding of electrical engineering.

Sure, but something will fail within 5 years that likely you will not be able to fix.

Just get a bike. Attach a batter motor to it if you want, but have it be mainly mechanical bike. Also the battery is a consumable, remember that.

Source: I have been preparing for nuclear devastation since the mid 70s.

Electrics are a fun idea but unless it is basic enough you can fix it with random parts, it is not viable long term if society collapses.

Honestly, a horse is probably the best, or several horses for preference.

I half remember reading a post apocalyptic book, space aliens ruined physics or something, steam pressure wouldn't even work! anyway shortly after the fall they were wearing full plate armour and battle charging the enemy on bicycles...