It’s not a project for most people, but watching someone ride up to 20 miles, and up to 30 mph, on tossed-out vape batteries is transfixing.

Disposable vapes are indefensible. Many, or maybe most, of them contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but manufacturers prefer to sell new ones.

To make a point about how wasteful this practice is—and to also make a pretty rad project and video—Chris Doel took 130 disposable vape batteries (the bigger “3,500 puff” types with model 20400 cells) found littered at a music festival and converted them into a 48-volt, 1,500-watt e-bike battery, one that powered an e-bike with almost no pedaling more than 20 miles. You can see the whole build and watch Doel zoom along trails on his YouTube video.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    I’m going to build one. Total cost will be >$1k for the mid drive motor and battery (not counting the bike itself), but it’ll be way faster than the street legal stuff they sell at stores. They’re dead simple since they’re just bikes with a motor and battery pack, so any shop could work on it.

    If you want something cheaper, there are other simple retrofit options as well.