Russian EBike Goes Everywhere, Possibly Legal

Electric bikes may be taking the world by storm, but the world itself doesn’t have a single way of regulating ebikes’ use on public roads. Whether or not your ebike is legal to ride on the street or sidewalk where you live depends mostly on… where you live. If you’re lucky enough to live in a place where a bicycle is legally defined as having fewer than four wheels and capable of being powered by a human, though, this interesting bike from Russia might be the best homemade ebike we’ve ever seen. (Video embedded below the break.)

While some of the details of this build might be lost on those of us who do not know any Slavic languages, the video itself shows off the features of this electric vehicle build quite well. It has a custom built frame with two wheels up front, each with its own independent suspension, allowing it to traverse extremely rough terrain with ease even a mountain bike might not be able to achieve. It seems to be powered by a relatively simple rear hub in the single rear wheel, and can probably achieve speeds in the 20 km/h range while holding one passenger and possibly some cargo.

The impressive part of this build isn’t so much the electrification, but rather the suspension components. Anyone looking for an offroad vehicle may be able to take a bit of inspiration from this build. If you’re more interested in the drivetrain, there are plenty of other vehicles that use unique electric drivetrains to check out like this electric boat. And, if you happen to know Russian and see some other interesting details in this build that the native English speakers around here may have missed, leave them in the comments for us.

54 thoughts on “Russian EBike Goes Everywhere, Possibly Legal

  1. “Electric bikes may be taking the world by storm, but the world itself doesn’t have a single way of regulating ebikes’ use on public roads.”

    Laws, that’s your “single way”. Uniform laws is what we don’t have.

    1. “Uniform laws is what we don’t have.” …and that’s OK. If the people in Argentina have a different idea of what should be OK for ebikes than San-Francisco does, that’s OK. It may not be standard but it demonstrates cultural diversity, something gets run all over by globalism. Let the people in each region have their own style. It’s diversity like that that make visiting and watching videos of other places interesting instead of the same blandness all over the place. :-)

      1. It creates a mess because you can’t then SELL an e-bike made in one country or state to the other without it being potentially illegal there.

        Which is the point of the EU regulations: to create uniform standards across the member bloc in order to remove boundaries for trade. It’s also used to stop countries from installing protectionist measures and waging trade war against products from other countries by simply outlawing them with some arbitrary “standards”.

  2. Well, he said nothing really important except :
    – As mentioned in the article, this vehicle can handle rough terrain better than a normal (or a mountain) bike.
    – The motor temperature looks fine even after riding on the dirty path.
    – This is more of a test platform, he will replace the wheels (or only the back wheel ?) with a bigger one, the motor with a stronger one, and will add shields to avoid cleaning after every ride.
    – He, may be, will replace the back-lamp with a stronger one to be better visible.

    1. Exactly my concerns!☺️ This bike makes me excited to take it for a torture test. How stable would it on TURNS? I live in Philippines…and want a Electric bike…no problem with crazy laws here. Waiting for specs.

    2. “– As mentioned in the article, this vehicle can handle rough terrain better than a normal (or a mountain) bike.”

      This is utter BS, sure it could handle rough terrain better than a road bike or a cruiser bike, but not a mountain bike. Try to take that thing down some single track and see how far you get. A mountain bike can handle more terrain than this could and an e-mountain bike could handle even more than that.

      1. Does the term “rough terrain” represent anything other than mountain single track? Or should he have spent 15 minutes listing every explicitly defined terrain type and whether his bike could handle them?

        Chill out. He never said his bike handled every possible terrain better than every other bike.

        For the life of me, I can’t understand why people are so quick to loose their sH1t over something some stranger said on the internet. Holy cow!

      1. All of your bikes and motorcycles lean into turns, which significantly decreases the side load. If you take this thing which, aside from a bit of suspension travel, doesn’t lean you will introduce side load on the rear wheel. (Picture in your mind if he were to try to drift it)

        On a totally different subject I’m electing this vid for best music on HaD yet (you can never really have enough squeezebox music)

        1. Here in Huntsville, AL we host a moon buggy race for students to design, build and test a sturdy, collapsible, lightweight vehicle. Similar to solving the original Apollo-era lunar rover development challenges that were had at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

          Re-occurring point of failure is just that, using bicycle wheels with too much side-loading causes the wheel to taco. Bicycle wheels are an attractive option cause their so abundant and cheap, but they do suffer when used improperly.

          Now that I’ve shown my cards and that I hail from Alabama. My inner redneck loves this guy’s build immensely!

        2. Not all of them. There are many trikes (These often use motorcycle wheels) and cars that have spoked wheels and do just fine.
          A properly built spoked wheel should be able to handle side loads just as well as a similarly built steel or aluminum wheel.

    1. It’s 3 wheels, a compromise between the advantages of 2 vs 4 wheels. Lateral traversal of inclines or excessive speed in a turn will have your focus on not flipping it long before any concern with the rear spokes. And that relaxed seating position means you won’t have any ability to shift your center of gravity to counteract it.
      A single, rear drive wheel also leaves you with a third or less contact patch with the rear wheel always having to overcome the resistance of the front wheels when accelerating. A very fine line between inefficient power delivery vs inefficient control/stability.
      3 wheels has always been a questionable decision in my book. I spent 15 years in the powersports industry, and a big chunk of that was spent with yearly reviews of the “ATV consent decree” media mandated by the major manufacturers followed by a written test. This was all in reaction to the 1984 CPSCs decleration that the All Terrain Cycles that were sold beginning in 1969/70, were hazardous consumer products (injuries had tripled from 1982 to 1983). Although there is arguably a very close correlation between injuries and units sold, the media fed momentum pushed it into lawsuit in 1987 by the DOJ against the manufacturers and distributors. Manufacturing of three wheelers stopped that year and four wheelers replaced them.
      However, it has been my observation that the 4 wheelers were in fact no less dangerous than the 3 wheelers when given to an inexperienced rider with no training. Motorcycles with 2 wheels always had the advantage that you could at least expect that the new rider had plenty of experience with bicycles, but 3 and 4 wheelers had no direct training analog. Unless, that is, you were a complete dare devil kid who was prone to mixing tricycles and pedal cars with large hills and rough terrain, and had no propensity for learning your lesson the first time. Darwin kind of takes over and removes such variables from the equation.
      The major cause of the inordinate number of injuries was always the illusion by the parents that more wheels made it safer. “Little Jimmy never really stuck to his guns and got the hang of it when we took off the training wheels, so this four wheel thing should be good for him.”
      The misunderstanding of the dynamics coupled with parents who figured they could get away with not wearing helmets or any other safety gear lead to countless injuries and death, some that still haunt me to this day. But these are all factors that contribute equally into 2 wheel motorcycle and even automobile injury and fatality. Proper training and safety gear has always been the solution.
      But I digress, 3 wheels has it’s place among the older motorcyclists with bad knees, hips, and reduced balance and reaction time. They are well past their wheelie and smoky burnout days, and their canyon carving is now at a reduced speed. They know of the compromise they make with handling and performance and are fine with it.
      Whether leaning low, and accelerating out of an apex, or whipping your dirt bike as an extension of your body through rough terrain, there is no match for the experience of 2 wheels. You can’t do any of that on 3 wheels, and you lose the stability and control of not having the fourth wheel. Your better off with a go cart, UTV, or how about a nice sporty convertible?
      3 wheels is best left for a leisurely pace on even terrain.
      That being said, a well done build, nonetheless! If you’ve got a wrecked ATV, dirt bike, a car seat, and some welding and electrical skills, your imagination’s the limit! I would probably add some fenders if your not sticking to dry pavement, though.

      1. Reverse trikes such as CanAm Spyder is a different animal than the scary trikes you offer in your example.
        Lots of body english needed for canyon carving, I agree. Forget that recumbent throne for a saddle.

      2. Reverse three wheeled vehicles are more stable than their counterparts. That’s why you see more and more three wheeled motorcycles with the two in front, instead of rear. As far as drive wheel traction, you can see that the battery pack, which is very heavy, lead to the need for three coil over shocks to support the weight over the rear tire. The front tires also have low resistance on hard surfaces, due to their narrow rim width. With a relatively slow top speed and a single hub motor, acceleration and stopping probably isn’t much of an issue, unless your driving on icy roads. The lateral forces while turning may contribute to under steer during acceleration, but releasing the throttle would eleviate that problem. It’s a good design and build, only I would have plus’d it but powering all the wheels, building a bigger battery pack, and putting the driver lower.

  3. Creepy. I have been collecting parts for pretty much that exact build. My plans feature US street legal hub motors in front instead of in back, skinnier wheels & tires all around, and some kid seating – but otherwise, scarily similar. He bought the front suspension in a kit from AliExpress.

    I obviously need some overalls to make this work.

  4. Nice build.

    The first world needs to get out of their SUVs and start to engage with the utility bikes, cargo bikes, pedicabs and rickshaws that have proven so practical in the rest of the world. And regulations, particularly in big cities, need to catch up.

    1. How would you ̶s̶t̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶p̶h̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶e̶e̶n̶,̶ ̶e̶n̶d̶a̶n̶g̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶o̶n̶e̶’̶s̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶t̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶i̶s̶t̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶s̶o̶c̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶m̶e̶d̶i̶a̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶s̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ drive in air conditioned comfort that way?

  5. Looks close to street legal in Norway too, a bit too long and I’m not sure about how heavy it is. But if he shortened it to 120cm and made sure the weight of the trike was below 70kg (without drive naturally) it would be perfectly legal to drive using the same rules as a pedal bike.

    1. I have something similar from Nav. It’s called a hpveloteknik scorpion. It’s legal to use as it doesn’t exceed 28kmh on the electric power. (EU rules).
      Mine has actually a much better suspension setup that that, as it has a stabiliser bar and a few other cool bits.

    1. The vehicle that will go almost anywhere Will you be a motocross bike anything similar to America’s Best similar and abilities inherited but that would go in some trails but obviously any trails are only a motocross bike could get online that would not be avoided on so yes I totally agree with you that it mountain bike would be more about to go anywhere, especially with a motor a mountain bike with an engine on it would be able to go almost anywhere

  6. This is a new type of bike in the middle of a development process. There were several earlier prototypes(I assume) and this clever man is developing the next prototype(or 3) in this progression.
    Idealy he should get some sort of financial and engineering backers to allow faster development of new prototypes. We saw comments about stability when they see huge sideloads (they collapse and fail from repeated stress-fatigue failure as each rotation flexs the whole wheel back and forth until it breaks) I have see trikes that resist side forces by massive strength and they can also tilt to left/right – both types are out there.
    This is to be a fun vehicle or a cargo vehicle. We have 2, 3 and 4 wheeled cargo carts/bikes already developed and the gains of these earlier vehicles can be extracted and used in the follo-on vehicles.
    This is why I suggest a financed team or join an already financed team and merge your ideas into their concept stream and get better.
    His ideas are good, he has solved many complex problems – but no man can encompass all aspects, a team will always defeat the solitary man once the types fan our from the first prototype because they have the man power as well as the money power to beat the other teams. Yes, other teams will analyze this and make their own prototypes and the race will be ON.
    Better to be part of a winning team than lost in the dust as a one-man=band.
    And from Google Translate.

    Это новый тип велосипеда в середине процесса разработки. Было несколько более ранних прототипов (я полагаю), и этот умный человек разрабатывает следующий прототип (или 3) в этой прогрессии.
    В идеале он должен получить какую-то финансовую и техническую поддержку, чтобы ускорить разработку новых прототипов. Мы видели комментарии о стабильности, когда они видят огромные боковые нагрузки (они разрушаются и терпят неудачу из-за повторяющегося отказа от усталости от напряжения, когда каждое вращение сгибает все колесо назад и вперед, пока оно не сломается). Я вижу триаки, которые противостоят боковым силам благодаря огромной силе, и они также могут наклон влево / вправо – оба типа там.
    Это должно быть забавное транспортное средство или грузовое транспортное средство. У нас уже есть 2, 3 и 4 колесные грузовые тележки / велосипеды, и выгода этих более ранних транспортных средств может быть извлечена и использована в следующих транспортных средствах.
    Вот почему я предлагаю финансируемую команду или присоединяюсь к уже профинансированной команде и объединяю ваши идеи в их концептуальный поток и становлюсь лучше.
    Его идеи хороши, он решил много сложных проблем, но ни один человек не может охватить все аспекты, команда всегда победит одинокого человека, как только типы раздувают нас с первого прототипа, потому что у них есть сила человека, а также деньги, чтобы обыграть другие команды. Да, другие команды проанализируют это и сделают свои собственные прототипы, и гонка будет включена.
    Лучше быть частью команды-победителя, чем потеряться в пыли как группа из одного человека.

  7. hello friends! thanks you for good words and comments, my subscribers give me link for this article. Its about 35mph at clean road and i can make english version of my electric trike video, if you want to see more. This car full legal in Russia if have 25KPH limit, or you need to have any driver license to drive faster. I put my email if site admin want to contact me he found a way how to do it. Sorry for my english, i don’t use google translation because its doing it bad
    Ask me if u have any questions about my build.

  8. You can buy these, only way more advanced
    Regenerative breaking, folding, ergonomic.
    I have one called scorpion FS26 by a German company called HP veloteknikk. They do an off road one called the scorpion enduro.

  9. I had a three wheeler human powered vehicle. They have three wheel tracks instead of one, making it 3 times harder to avoid potholes and hard to ride on 2 track dirt roads. Mine had 406mm rims and never had any rim sideload problems. I still prefer 2 wheels but I know my future decline will change that.

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