Can you use an electric bike in the winter? Of course! But follow these tips
Have you been riding an e-bike all year and now are wondering if you can keep it up even into the cold and dark months? Don’t worry, it’s certainly possible to ride an e-bike all year round. But since the winter months throw extra challenges our way, you’ll want to take a few extra steps to be prepared. We checked in with several leading electric bicycle manufacturers to get the best tips for riding e-bikes in the winter.
Winter e-bike tips
The most important component on your e-bike is the battery. It’s also the most expensive and the part the requires the most care. That care is especially critical in cold temperatures.
The most important thing to remember is to not leave your battery outside in the cold for lengthy periods of time. One night sitting outside won’t kill your battery, so don’t freak out if you forget it. But it’s not good for its long-term life cycle to make a habit out of letting it sit in cold, wet environments.
It’s also critical to note that you should never charge the battery when its temperature is below freezing (32ºF or 0ºC).
Electric bike company VanMoof explained that a “battery can’t charge below 32ºF or 0ºC. That’s why it’s even better to store your bike inside at room temperature when temperatures outside hit an extreme low — it’ll charge better and take you farther on those winter rides.”
Of course if your e-bike has a removable battery, you can just bring the battery inside. If there’s space though, your entire e-bike will appreciate coming in from the cold, harsh winter weather. If you’ve got an e-bike with a built-in battery that isn’t quickly removable, it’s extra important that you bring the entire bike inside.
If you’re one of those people that end up riding less in winter (or not at all), you’ll definitely want to store your battery inside during those long winter months. You should avoid storing it with a full charge though, as it’s not as healthy for the battery.
Experts still debate the optimal storage voltage for batteries (usually claiming something in the 40-80% state-of-charge range), but it is generally accepted that a half charge is a good storage level. That’s exactly what e-bike manufacturer Juiced Bikes recommends.
As the company explained:
Ideally, you want to keep your charge at about 50% capacity when storing. Now, the battery will self-discharge over time – so if you’re not riding for two months or more, be sure to check the charge every so often and charge back up to 50% when needed.
VanMoof also says that it’s important to wipe down your e-bike after riding to remove salty mud or snow. Most e-bikes use rust-resistant components, but there are still many areas that can corrode if left with a salty glaze.
Again, you don’t have to go crazy with your routine. But occasionally adding some soap into the mix can help better remove the nasty things that winter likes to stick to your bike. As VanMoof explained, “If you ride every day, give your bike a weekly wipe-down with some water and soap.”
I’ve been testing out the Muc-Off “Clean – Protect – Lube” kit for e-bikes, and it’s got a nice set of cleaning and lubrication products to keep your bike looking good and lasting through those rough winter months. I even included it in my e-bike lover’s stocking stuffer gift guide yesterday.
Juiced Bikes also recommends starting slow with rides, especially if this is your first winter on an e-bike.
As the company continued:
Riding in the winter is NOT like riding during other seasons. When you go out on your first winter ride, it’s essential to start off slow and acknowledge your experience level. Newbies should take a test ride without the motor on at first, just to get a feel for the terrain. No matter what, drive more slowly than you would in the summer and always give yourself more time for braking. You never know when you may hit a patch of black ice!
Ice can be a serious issue for e-bikes. While cars simply spin, e-bikes don’t have the advantage of four-wheel stability. Losing traction on ice usually means going down hard.
To avoid that, Juiced Bikes recommends choosing winter tires based on the type of riding you do:
Change your tires to studded models for hard-packed snow and ice or fat knobby tires for softer snow. You may even want to heat-shrink your cable connections and LCD screen for extra protection from rain and snow.
Canadian-based electric bicycle company Biktrix’s founder Roshan Thomas described to Electrek how fat tires are probably your best option when riding in loose snow.
The increased air volume allows riders to run lower tire pressure, which work better for loose terrain like snow, sand, and loose dirt.
As he explained:
A common 26″x4″, or 26″x4.8″, or 27.5″x4″ fat tire works amazing in the snow because you can run these at very low pressures. I find that 5-20 PSI makes the rubber just float on the snow. For riding conditions where there is underlying ice, it’s best to get these tires studded.
Rad Power Bikes described how the short days and limited visibility in winter can mean that bike lighting is more important than ever.
As the company explained:
In high traffic areas or roadways that require boosted lighting – such as trails absent of lampposts – additional brightness may help you navigate the winter months.
Most e-bikes come with LED lighting that runs off the main battery, but adding stronger lights can be a good idea.
Rad offers more powerful e-bike lights with twice the lumens that can be swapped out for the basic lights that come with each bike.
Other companies also offer higher-power light upgrades, so it’s worth checking if your e-bike has that option. If not, some powerful mountain bike lights are a good idea. I’ve also tested the RedShift Arclight pedals as well and those are amazing for good lighting at night, winter or summer. They’re pricer at $140 but 100% worth it.
Rad Power Bikes also points out how important it is to dress for the weather:
Ever biked in cold temperatures without gloves? Pro tip: don’t. Frostbite is a real condition that can happily be avoided with water-resistant gloves, apparel, and shoes.
Your hands are exposed to the air rushing around the handlebars, quickly chilling fingers to the bone. Even good gloves can get chilly after a while. When I ride a bike with a thumb throttle in the winter, my thumb often starts to freeze since it is held down below the bars and away from my fist. Even with the warmest options for gloves, you have to pay the price of big and bulky hands that can make it hard to operate the brakes and shifters.
Bar mitts are a great alternative option. They mount on the handlebars and protect your hands from the rushing cold air. That means you can get away with wearing normal, lighter gloves like you’d use on a normal day when not riding. Rad offers their own version that has extra-wide hand holes to better accommodate the sleeves of your coat.
Don’t forget to protect your neck too! An old-fashioned scarf works well, but a tube scarf/neck gaiter or even a balaclava are better options.
Both can protect the lower half of your face better than a typical scarf, and the balaclava can pretty much cover everything. Or you could go full bank robber with a ski mask.
Stay safe while winter e-biking!
If you want to keep riding your e-bike throughout the winter, then go for it! It’s definitely possible, but you’ll want to make sure you consider these important tips to take care of your e-bike and yourself.
Stay safe out there this winter and happy trails!
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Republicans launched multiple attacks against EVs, clean air and American jobs this week, at the behest of the oil industry that funds them. These attacks won’t be successful, and EVs will continue to grow regardless, and inevitably take over for outdated gasoline vehicles.
However, these republican attacks on EVs will still have some effect: they will diminish the US auto industry globally, leading to job losses and surrendering one of the jewels in the crown of American industry to China, where there is no similar effort to destroy its own domestic EV industry.
Republican attacks on clean air this week included moves to block funding that has led to a renaissance in US manufacturing and also to illegally block clean air laws. They also moved forward with a procedural step towards increasing US fuel costs by $23B, an effort which the former reality TV contestant posing as the head of the DOT announced in January.
These moves shouldn’t be a big surprise – republicans have opposed clean air and American jobs for many years now, and they’re doing it because they want to maintain the bribes they get from the oil industry.
But they should inspire worry for Americans, because they will only harm the country’s domestic manufacturing base in the face of a changing auto industry.
Republicans keep trying to kill clean cars
The last time a republican occupied the the White House, we saw similar efforts to try to raise fuel and health costs for Americans, and to block superior EV technology from flourishing. That didn’t work in the end, and EVs continued to grow both during that period and after.
All the while, fossil fuels have maintained their privileged policy position, being allowed to pollute with impunity and costing the US $760 billion per year in externalized costs. Much of that subsidy is accounted for in the cost of pollution from gas cars, which are one of the primary uses of fossil fuels, which means that, in fact, gasoline vehicles receive much more subsidy than EVs do.
And yet, EVs still managed to grow substantially, despite these headwinds. EV sales have continued to grow, both in the US and globally, even as headlines incorrectly say otherwise. The republican party’s attempts to kill them were futile, and will continue to be.
It didn’t work, but it did delay progress
However, anti-EV actions from Mr. Trump and the republican party did manage to delay progress from where it could have been if America actually instituted smart industrial policy earlier.
What if, instead of the bumbling, idiotic nonsense we went through the last time Mr. Trump squatted in the White House, we could have had something more like President Biden’s EV policy, which created hundreds of thousands of jobs and attracted hundreds of billions of dollars of manufacturing investment?
Surely the American auto industry would be ahead of where it is now if those investments had had time to come online. But instead, republicans are currently trying to kill those jobs, which has already led to several manufacturing projects being cancelled this year, depriving Americans of the economic boost they need right now.
Meanwhile, there’s one place that this sort of stumbling isn’t happening: China.
China is taking advantage
China has spent more than a decade focusing on securing material supply, building refining capacity, developing their own battery technology, and encouraging local EV manufacturing startups.
This has paid off recently, as Chinese EVs have been rapidly scaling in production in recent years. It took a lot of the auto industry by surprise how rapidly Chinese companies have scaled, and how rapidly Chinese consumers have adopted them, after having an initially slow start.
But that adoption hasn’t just been local, it’s also global. Last year, China became the largest auto exporter in the world, taking a crown that Japan had held for decades. But the change was even more dramatic than that – as recently as 2020, China was the sixth-largest auto exporter in the world, just behind the US in 5th place.
China’s dramatic turn upward started in 2020, and now it’s in first place. Meanwhile, because of all the faffing about, the US remains exactly where it was in 2020 – still in fifth place. Well, sixth now, since China eclipsed us (and everyone else).
Tariffs won’t fix it
The reaction of the rest of the world’s automaking countries has been to put tariffs on Chinese autos, hoping to forestall the country’s dramatic rise to dominance. (Although, due to Mr. Trump’s idiotic flailing, Europe is already talking about removing these trade barriers with China)
But tariffs have been tried before, and they didn’t work. When Japan had a similarly meteoric rise to global prominence as an auto manufacturer in the 1970s and 80s, largely due to their adoption of new technology, processes, and different car styles which incumbents were ignoring, the US tried to stop it with tariffs.
All this did was make US manufacturers complacent, and Japan still managed to seize and maintain the crown of top auto exporter (occasionally trading places with Germany) from then until now.
Then as now, the true way to compete is to adapt to the changing automotive industry and take EVs seriously, rather than giving the auto industry excuses to be complacent. But instead, republicans aren’t doing that, and in fact are working to ensure the American auto industry doesn’t adapt, by actively killing the incentives that were leading to a boom in domestic manufacturing investment.
US auto industry jeopardized by republicans
Make no mistake about it: destroying EV incentives, and allowing companies to pollute more and innovate less, will not help the US auto industry catch up with a fast moving competitor.
As we at Electrek have said for years, you cannot catch up to a competitor that is both ahead of you and moving faster than you.
This applies to individual companies, which took their sweet time responding to the challenge from electric upstarts like Tesla, and have now lost market share to said upstarts and let a competitor establish itself in a big way (even though Tesla’s CEO is now trying desperately to harm his own company specifically, and the US EV industry as a whole, by being the largest funder of the party working to destroy said industry).
It also applies to nations, which could have spent the last decade doing what the Chinese auto industry has been doing, but instead non-Chinese automakers have been begging their governments for more time, even though it’s not the regulations that threaten them, it’s competition from a new and motivated rival that is moving faster and in a more determined manner towards the future.
The way that we get around this should be clear: take EVs seriously.
But that’s not what republicans are doing, and in doing so, they are signing the death warrant for an important US industry in the long term.
Another thing republicans are trying to kill is the the rooftop solar credit, which means you could have only until the end of this year to install rooftop solar on your home before the cost of doing so goes up by an average of ~$10,000. So if you want to go solar, get started now, because these things take time and the system needs to be active before you file for the credit.
To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here. – ad*
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
International equipment manufacturer Vermeer has unveiled a full-scale prototype of its Interlune excavator, a machine designed to ingest 100 metric tons of rocks and dirt per hour, extracting valuable helium as it makes its way across the surface … of the Moon.
Helium plays a critical role in the manufacturing of semiconductors, chips, optics, and all the other stuff that makes EVs, autonomy, the Internet, and the rest of twenty-first century life possible. The problem is that, despite being the second-most common element in the universe, helium is pretty rare on Earth – and we are rapidly running out. As such, there are intense economic and political pressures to find new and reliable sources of helium somewhere, anywhere else, and that demand has sparked a new modern space race focused on harvesting helium on the Moon and getting it back home.
To that end, companies like American lunar mining startup Interlune and the Iowa-based equipment experts at Vermeer are partnering on the development of suite of interplanetary equipment assets capable of digging up lunar materials like rocks and sand from up to three meters below the surface, extract helium-3 (a light, stable isotope of helium believed to exist in abundance on the Moon), then package it, contain it, and ship it back to Earth.
“When you’re operating equipment on the Moon, reliability and performance standards are at a new level,” says Rob Meyerson, Interlune CEO. “Vermeer has a legacy of innovation and excellence that started more than 75 years ago, which makes them the ideal partner for Interlune.”
Enter: Japan
America isn’t the only spacefaring nation eyeing a helium mine on the Moon. Japan announced similar plans back in 2023, with Japanese construction giant Komatsu announcing plans to develop a fully electric excavator capable of operating on the lunar surface.
The company showed a scaled prototype of the machine at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (above), emphasizing the need to develop new ways to operate equipment assets in the extreme temperatures of extraplanetary environments beyond diesel or even hydrogen combustion.
On the airless surface of the moon, it would be impossible for an internal combustion engine to operate on the moon’s surface because there is no oxygen for combustion. Electrically powered machines seem the obvious solution with solar power generation supplying the electricity. But the answer is not that simple.
Temperature changes on the surface of the moon are extreme. They can soar to 110° C and plummet to -170° C. Developing electric construction machinery to perform in this environment is no easy task, but Komatsu is tackling issues one by one as they appear. Using thermal control and other electrification technologies, we are engineering solutions.
Despite Komatsu’s apparent head start, however, Vermeer seem to pulled ahead – not just in terms of machine development, but in terms of extraction potential as well.
“The high-rate excavation needed to harvest helium-3 from the Moon in large quantities has never been attempted before, let alone with high efficiency,” said Gary Lai, Interlune co-founder and CTO. “Vermeer’s response to such an ambitious assignment was to move fast. We’ve been very pleased with the results of the test program to date and look forward to the next phase of development.”
Interlune is funded by grants from the US Department of Energy and NASA TechFlights. In 2023, the company received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research award to develop the technology to size and sort lunar regolith (read: dirt). Interlune has raised $18 million in funding so far, and is planning its first mission to the Moon before 2030.
Electrek’s Take
We’ve got space travel, weird mineral extraction from another planet that’s essential for our technology, and a rapid, unchecked proliferation of AI. All we need now is big worms, a whole bunch of hallucinogenic narcotics, and the will to smash up a bunch of data centers with baseball bats – then we’ll have a pretty decent Dune LARP going. Yee-ha!
SOURCE | IMAGES: Interlune.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. The best part? No one will call you until after you’ve elected to move forward. Get started, hassle-free, by clicking here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Environment
How the U.S. clean energy boom could go bust if Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ becomes law
Solar power CEOs believed the billions of dollars that they invested in Republican congressional districts would ultimately shield their industry from President Donald Trump’s threats to end federal support for renewable energy.
But they may have been disastrously wrong. The tax bill that House Republicans passed this week is a “worse than feared scenario” for solar, analysts at the investment bank Jefferies told clients in a note.
The legislation would terminate key tax credits that have supported the industry’s growth, triggering a broad sell-off of solar stocks on Thursday. The bill does still have to pass the Senate, where Jefferies expects the “unworkable” provisions to be undone.
But in its current form, the tax bill effectively takes a “sledgehammer” to President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the Jefferies analysts said. The legislation would “upend an economic boom in this country that has delivered an historic American manufacturing renaissance,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the lobby group Solar Energy Industries Association.
Hopper excoriated the tax bill as “willfully ignorant” of the role that solar power and battery storage is playing in meeting electricity demand from U.S. consumers and businesses.
“If this bill becomes law, America will effectively surrender the AI race to China and communities nationwide will face blackouts,” she warned.
Sunrun CEO Mary Powell told CNBC in an interview Thursday that the legislation could result in the loss of 250,000 jobs and would increase the cost of electricity for consumers. The rooftop solar installer had its worst performance ever Thursday, with shares dropping 37%.
Trump, for his part, called on the Senate to pass what he calls the “one, big, beautiful bill” as soon as possible. “There is no time to waste,” the president said on his social media platform Truth Social Thursday.
Clean energy boom could bust
Companies have invested more than $161 billion in large solar and battery storage projects since the IRA passed in 2022, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Rhodium Group.
Solar and battery storage is the fastest growing energy source in the U.S., making up 81% of expected power additions to the grid in 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration.
But the tax bill would basically kill the two tax credits that have done the most to enable the surge of solar power. It terminates the investment and electricity production credits for clean energy facilities that begin construction 60 days after the legislation is enacted or enter service after 2028. This also applies to wind power, which is growing at slower place in the U.S.
“That’ll put a massive slowdown on the amount of clean energy that gets added to the grid,” said Ben Smith, associate director of Rhodium Group’s energy and climate practice. The deployment of clean energy to the grid could decline by 57% to 72% over the next decade, according to Rhodium.
Clean energy projects also cannot claim the tax credits as early as next year if they receive “material assistance” from prohibited foreign entities. This mostly targets projects that source basic materials from China, such as glass for solar panels or cobalt and lithium for batteries, King said.
“It really does serve in our estimation as a de facto repeal of the credit as early as next year,” he said. The manufacturing tax credit that has supported companies such as First Solar remains in place until 2031, though its also subject to the foreign entity restrictions.
The tax bill is “disastrous” for the rooftop solar industry, Guggenheim analyst Joseph Osha told clients. It terminates tax credits for companies like Sunrun that lease solar equipment to customers. About 70% of the residential solar industry is using lease arrangements, Osha said.
GOP senators could tweak bill
But some Republican senators have pushed back on the legislation, raising at least some hope for the industry that the bill’s harshest provisions will be softened. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., told Politico that the tax bill acts like a blanket repeal of the tax credits.
“I would expect that to change,” Capito told Politico on May 13. “There has been job creation around these tax credits.”
Indeed, GOP congressional districts would get hit the hardest if the credits are terminated. Some 81% of IRA investment has gone to Republican districts, according to data from advocacy group E2.
A slowdown in solar deployment would come at the same time that electricity demand is increasing due to the construction of artificial intelligence data centers, reindustrialization and the broader electrification of the economy.
Renewables can be deployed the most quickly to meet demand right now because solar, battery storage and wind represent 92% of the power projects waiting for connection to the grid, according to Interconnection.fyi, an organization that tracks connection requests.
Natural gas demand is also soaring in the U.S., but the wait time for new turbines is five to six years if an order is put in now, said Reid Ramdathsingh, an analyst at consulting firm Rystad Energy. While growth may slow, solar and batteries will continue to be deployed because there really isn’t an alternative, Ramdathsingh said.
“The demand is there for energy,” he said. “Gas is not able to meet this demand in the short term. The biggest alternative to that gas generation that we would need in the next couple of years is renewables.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway