installing safer throttles

[Sanfrancisco]

A few days ago I was working on my bike and touch the thumb throttle. The bike moved so instinctively I held on to it causing the throttle to go full speed. The carpet was covered with rubber and a small hole in the wall added to the post take off... Things could have gone much worse though.

I started thinking if the following might be a viable solution. Any comments would be great. Rather than a moving throttle, there would be two momentarily buttons (acceleration and deceleration), one for going faster and one (maybe on the other side of the handle bar) going slower.
The longer the acceleration button is pressed for the higher the speed. When no buttons are pressed, the speed of the bike remains constant. The sensitivity of such buttons could be fine tuned with some algorithms if need be.

What would be possible shortcomings for such a solution? Is there anything good about it?
thanks
arek

[Morgen 3Eman]

Just my opinion, but if you were able to find a way to improperly operate a single controlling element, what do you think the chances are the someone else will find a way to improperly operate two controlling elements?

TTFN,
Dennis

[Bikemad]

I started thinking if the following might be a viable solution. Any comments would be great. Rather than a moving throttle, there would be two momentarily buttons (acceleration and deceleration), one for going faster and one (maybe on the other side of the handle bar) going slower.
The longer the acceleration button is pressed for the higher the speed. When no buttons are pressed, the speed of the bike remains constant. The sensitivity of such buttons could be fine tuned with some algorithms if need be.

Arek, the system you describe is already being used as a cruise control by other ebike manufacturers:


If you don't have a horn, you could divert the throttle signal wire through the horn switch so that the throttle would only work while the horn button was held pressed in, but this would make it virtually impossible to operate the gears, press the cruise button or use hand signals without losing motor assistance.

Alan
 

[Morgen 3Eman]

Slightly sideways to the subject;

In the early 20th century there was a motorcycle manufacturer  (whose name escapes me at the moment) that had a very interesting throttle arrangement.  The carb  throttle was  kept wide open, and the spark was turned on and off by the rider to control the speed.  Can you imagine trying to accelerate out of a wet corner with such an arrangement?

TTFN,
Dennis

[Leslie]

I think it can get to the point where we need to wrap the Ebike and its rider in bubble wrap and store them in a safe 200 ft underground away from all harm and each other.  Just some things you can not make safe like crossing a road.

One thing I use is the off switch, that limits the motor to 0km/h, and the other is the on switch, this allows the throttle to operate at full power..  The off switch is the safest thing a person can learn to operate.

Sometimes walking the bike is dangerous with a full hand throttle.  Some rule applies with the off switch being off when walking the bike around on or a half hand throttle is cool,

You can even use the motor to assist the bike when walking it with a half hand throttle.   It wont take off on ya.

Had soooo many less issues with the half hand throttles.  Only one or two bumps on the thumb throttle nothing major but it's ok.   

People who ride motor bikes may have the issue of thinking an "on bike" is in neutral or a "quiet bike" is off, and make the mistake of reving the throttle.  Ooops.

[Cornelius]

You sure you guys really should ride a bike?!

The only mishap I had, was to wire up the reverse switch; jumpin' on the bike and giving full throttle at the same time (intentionally), without noticing that the reverse switch was in... Guess where I ended up?!

Yup; over the steering bar, and in the front of the bike, while the bike disappeared behind me into the ditch...