Too heavy? You just run the motor in reverse which turns it into a generator and adds friction to do generative braking. There really isn’t any added weight.
Bikes normally have freehubs, a ratchet on the cassette (sprockets) of the rear wheel, when you stop pedalling the bike freewheels, without that the pedals would keep turning.
This makes driving a motor from the wheel impossible without heavily modifying the normal bike mechanics. That’s why regenerative braking on e bikes is rare.
Why would it need a direct drive? A mid drive can do the same thing they just don’t usually since you’d need to gear for it. direct drives are the most efficient at regenerative braking but they aren’t the only type.
Could be done, perhaps, with significant added complexity (and hence maintenance). In practice it is not, to my knowledge there are no mid-mount regenerative system on the market. It is worth noting that mid-mounts are significantly more efficient than hub mount, enough so that even compared to hub mounts with regeneration, mid-mounts have more range for a given battery / wattage. The vast majority of hub mounts also do not implement regeneration.
Generators = put in rotational movement to get power
You already have the heaviest parts on the ebike - motor and battery, just need some capacitors and charging circuit board which are light and not too big.
Cheap electric bikes I’ve ridden with regen breaking slow you down quite a bit.
But do e-bikes have regenerative braking? I haven’t seen that. I’ve been thinking that it would just be too heavy and clunky to be worth it.
Too heavy? You just run the motor in reverse which turns it into a generator and adds friction to do generative braking. There really isn’t any added weight.
Bikes normally have freehubs, a ratchet on the cassette (sprockets) of the rear wheel, when you stop pedalling the bike freewheels, without that the pedals would keep turning.
This makes driving a motor from the wheel impossible without heavily modifying the normal bike mechanics. That’s why regenerative braking on e bikes is rare.
Not if you have a hub motor. Those don’t interact with the gear system at all.
Yup, which is also why they’re really hard to pedal if the battery dies.
It needs a direct drive which is more weight than the other systems
Why would it need a direct drive? A mid drive can do the same thing they just don’t usually since you’d need to gear for it. direct drives are the most efficient at regenerative braking but they aren’t the only type.
Freewheel hub would prevent it.
You would need to put the freewheel between the motor and the pedals, and have an always-spinning chain/shaft
Could be done, perhaps, with significant added complexity (and hence maintenance). In practice it is not, to my knowledge there are no mid-mount regenerative system on the market. It is worth noting that mid-mounts are significantly more efficient than hub mount, enough so that even compared to hub mounts with regeneration, mid-mounts have more range for a given battery / wattage. The vast majority of hub mounts also do not implement regeneration.
You can find YouTube videos of people experimenting with flywheel-based regenerative braking. They’re completely impractical but pretty funny to see.
Motors are generators when run inversely:
Motors = put in power to get rotational movement
Generators = put in rotational movement to get power
You already have the heaviest parts on the ebike - motor and battery, just need some capacitors and charging circuit board which are light and not too big.
Cheap electric bikes I’ve ridden with regen breaking slow you down quite a bit.
It’s like 3-15% energy reclaimed, not efficient