To complete that electric bike, you’re going to need the best electric bike accessories. Do you need some useful extras to take your electric bike to the next level, or to finish off the perfect build?

We have you covered. Here we have 10 of the most useful accessories you’ll need for your electric bike.

Helmet

This is more of a courtesy accessory. If you don’t already have a helmet, stop reading and get one right now. You have such a wide range to choose from. From expensive helmets such as the Bell Super 3 or the Smith Optics Overtake. All the way down to the ‘El Cheapo helmets like the Schwinn Thrasher and Kingbike Helmet.

These will do the job, but keep in mind that the more expensive they are, the better quality they are. Which translates to how well it protects your noodle in a fall! (Up to a point the more expensive ones are better. After a certain price range you’re just paying for fanciness, like a Custom Predator Helmet).

Search around to find a helmet that you both enjoy looking at, and that fits well. It’s important to also consider getting a safety rated motorcycle helmet if you plan on going fast on the road. Helmets like the Fuel Helmets HH Series are more rugged than a bike helmet and are held to the Department of Transport standards.

These are good for more safety, but without a full face motorcycle helmet. If you’re after more safety, you could consider getting a full face helmet like the ILM Motorcycle Helmet.

Lights

If you’ve ever driven a car past a bike riding at night with no lights, you’ll know why you need lights. E-bikes are invisible at night time. You’ll be hit in a matter of minutes if you go riding at night.

Unless of course, you get yourself some awesome lights to make you glow! Depending on your country or state, you may need to have active or passive lights on your e-bike. Passive lights are also known as reflectors.

These are mostly installed when the bike is manufactured. Often reflectors are built into pedals too. So if you buy new pedals you’ll still have passive lights. Active bike lighting is what you would normally think of when someone says bike lighting.

It’s best to have a white light on the front, and red flashing lights on the back. The front light allows you to be easily seen when you’re coming towards other motorists. It helps with assisting your vision also.

You can get rechargeable lights that clip to your handlebars and seat post. Lights such as the Blitzu Gator Rechargeable Bike Light or the Ticoze Bike Light Set.

However some would argue (myself included!) that it’s much easier (and way, way cooler) to install custom lighting that runs from your main e-bike battery. This means you’ll never run out of juice (assuming you manage your main battery life well) for your lights when you least expect it.

Something like the 20W Motorbike LED would certainly do the trick! For the back, just get a Rear Red LED and you’re sorted! Pair those with some cable and a switch for the handlebars, and set it all up together, and bam!

Easy light setup. You’re safe, happy and can see the road ahead! Be careful what voltage your lights are rated for! Many will only work at 12V.

If you have a fully charged 48V battery, it will put out 54.6V. A fully charged 52V battery will output 58.8V! So either get yourself some lights that can handle up to 60V, or get a DC-DC converter to take your high battery voltage down to 12V.

Bike Locks

You need ebike security. You’ve just created or bought a masterpiece of engineering. Worth a few thousand, and now you need to secure it. Getting a bike lock will increase the chances that a thief will ignore your electric bicycle and move along to something easier.

Bells

Being courteous is a big part of being an e-biker. You’re faster than most cyclists and certainly faster than pedestrians. So you’ll need to warn them of your looming, speeding presence.

So they can act accordingly. Nothing says “Hi buddy, I see you’re ahead of me and I don’t want to run you down so could you please move out of my way so I can pass by and we can carry on our days just as great, if not better than, before” better than a short ring of a friendly bell. Screaming and yelling “GET OUT OF MY WAY” isn’t quite as nice. So I generally don’t do it. Bells are inexpensive and another great way to add some personal touches to your e-bike.

From classic bells to nice looking bells, all the way to oddly designed bells, super load electronic bells and weird bells, you really have a huge selection. Get one to suit you and your e-bike. From a pedestrian and biker, thanks for getting a bell instead of yelling at me!

Mirrors

If you’re going to be commuting with your e-bike, there’s nothing better than having eyes in the back of your head. But you don’t need to have another set of eyes, you can simply get a mirror! Handlebar mirrors are fantastic to put on your ebike to keep an eye on the traffic behind you. Are they sneaking up behind you?

Drifting into your lane? Or not paying attention at all? You can see all this and more with a bike mirror. You can get them as convex bar mirrors or even larger motorcycle-ish mirrors. Alternatively, you can have bar-end mirrors. Or even crazy mirrors that attach to your eyeglasses?!? If you have a mirror, you’re infinitely better off than the other biker on the road that does not. Do yourself a favour and grab one while you can!

Mud Guards

Get some mud guards. They’re also great if you want to take your ebike offroad too! Stones in your face are not fun. You can go cheap, which will do the job. But not very stylishly. Or you can go nice with these FJQXZ Mudguards. Really anything will do, and it’s just down to personal taste! Get crazy, or stay super stealth. I prefer stealthy mud guards!

Hand Grips, Seats, Pedals

There’s only 3 parts of the e-bike you touch at all times. The hand grips, the seat and the pedals. So why settle for anything less than absolute luxury? If you’re going off on long rides you don’t want a sore hand or bottom! Nor do you want your feet getting achy.

The best decision you can make for your e-bike build is to replace the seat and grips. Be wise about what you order though. Please don’t use just any grip, you’ll regret it. Your hands will not forgive you.

Ergonomic grips are way better! Or even some nice BMX grips. Next you’ll want a nice place to sit down on. There’s two ways about this. You can upgrade your seat post or your saddle. Or both!

Upgrading your seat post to include suspension will soften the ride immensely. This will make it feel as if you’re gliding through the air! The Suntour SP12-NCX or the Cane Creek 3G Thudbuster are the upper end of seat posts. These will feel silky smooth.

If you just want to experience seat post suspension, you could opt for something slightly cheaper such as the Diamondback Suspension Seatpost. No frills, but should give you a good intro to world of suspension seat posts! Lastly you can replace your saddle! The actual bit that you sit on.

If you want high end, you can get the Ergon SME3 or a Seatylock! But you could just as easily get a reasonably priced, comfortable looking seat such as the Daway (or this Daway or Cloud-9. Slapping on a nice soft gel cover and being on your merry way! Keep in mind though, if you go high end saddle, you’ll never go back! They’re just so darn good.

Baskets

Nothing separates a serious commuter from casual weekend rider like having cargo baskets. It gives you a place to hold your helmet, bicycle lock, and gloves…along with sunglasses and possibly a dozen other personal items that make your rides easier, safer, and more convenient.

Having a front basket may not be macho (I’m a hairy old guy), but it puts your most often-used items in easy reach when you are sitting on your e-bike, and it also keeps them within eye-view when riding. Rear cargo baskets (I’ve heard them called “panniers”) should not extend any more forward than the rear-wheels’ axle (on a conventional frame), because your heel would keep bumping into it when you pedal.

Of course, if you have a longtail cargo bike, that is not an issue. If you are riding your e-bike to work, then you definitely need a place to store a few wrenches, a spare tube, and a CO2 canister…for those times when you get a flat tire. Whether your baskets are “affordable” or fancy, large or small…they are an incredibly useful addition to any e-bike.

Fenders

Fenders are one of the items that are rarely found on entry-level e-bikes. Customers are always price-sensitive, and deleting the fenders is one way to keep the purchase price down on an e-bike that might still be over $2000.

However, if a street e-bike turns into something that you end up using frequently, you will soon find that adding fenders can save you from getting splashed with mud and water.

Digital Multi meter

Not always a first thought of an accessory for your e-bike, but I can assure you it’s worth it. If you’re troubleshooting your build or creating a fancy lighting circuit for your e-bike, a digital multi meter will be invaluable.

It can help you check your voltages or check continuity of cables to test if they’re broken. There’s nothing worse than frying your electronics because you thought the cable you were using was 12V instead of 48V.

E-bikes are growing in popularity, and it’s not hard to see why, after all, who wouldn’t want some free speed to take the sting out of any ride?

Still need a bit of convincing? Here are a few other reasons to join the e-bike revolution…

Of course, electric bicycles offer many of the same benefits that regular cycling does but because you’ve got an added bit of oomph on board, you’ll be able to travel greater distances and ride for longer. They’ll also allow you to go faster than most cyclists and in some cases cars.

Although modern motors can travel at 50 times faster than cars of 100 years ago, gridlocked roads mean that the average car speed in traffic hasn’t increased at all. You can get up to 15mph almost instantly on an e-bike, while the average speed of cars in most central places is 7.4mph!

According to a recent report by the Transport Research Laboratory, regular bikes make it out of the shed fewer than 25 times a year, with 46% being used just once or twice a week.

In comparison, 30% of people with electric bikes use them once a day, while a whopping 81% ride them at least once a week. Which means that e-bike users are twice as likely as regular riders to get out there and ride.

Because you’re riding more, you’ll be pedaling more, even if that electric motor is helping you out on occasion. Which is good news for your heart, your lungs and your blood pressure because endless scientific studies have proven the link between regular exercise and reduced stress levels.

E-bikes are great, too, for people who love the idea of riding a bike, but feel they can’t because their fitness isn’t what it could be, or isn’t what it used to be due to age or illness.

You can pick up a new, decent quality e-bike from as little as $650 while upkeep costs are roughly the same as running a regular bike (for consumable parts like tyres, chains and brake pads).

In other words, far cheaper than buying, insuring and maintaining a petrol or diesel car, and a lot less than forking out for a season ticket or taking regular trips on public transport.

As for the cost of recharging your bike’s battery, we’re talking pennies when it comes to what it’ll add to your electricity bill. Most bike accidents on the road take place at junctions such as crossroads or roundabouts.

This is often down to the fact that it takes a few vital seconds for a halted cyclist to build up speed. Having that little motor to help you accelerate will get you out of the danger zone faster. For the same reason, you’re also less likely to jump a red light because you won’t feel so aggrieved about having to abandon all that nicely built up momentum.

You’ll be more willing to slow for bends and corners, too – where most cyclists come off – because you can use the bike’s motor to accelerate out the other side.

Finally, because you’ll be able to keep up with the flow of traffic more easily, fewer cars, buses and lorries will need to overtake you, which also means safer riding.

Yes, riding an e-bike is similar to riding a regular bike, but once you engage the motor, you’ll find that every time you push on the pedals – depending on the setting you’re using – you’ll get three, four, five or maybe even as much as 10 pedal strokes more for your money.

The rules surrounding electric bikes in New York has produced such social agitation thus revealing the huge potential this transport system holds. With the world combating global warming and climate change, there might be a need for another alternative.

Let’s not forget the huge traffic situations, packed roads with buses and trains emitting riders due to crisis-level pauses and slowdowns. With all this surging problems, E-bikes might be the alternative we need.

E Bikes – reduce toxic fumes

E-Bikes don’t have tailpipes belching poisonous fumes into the atmosphere. They also eliminate the oil, fuel and hydraulic fluids dripped by automobiles onto the road surface — which means less toxic runoff into local waterways.

We should also remember that bicycles don’t burn gasoline. A healthy bike culture will help ease pressure on supply once gas demand returns.

Electric Bikes Are Not New

E-bikes aren’t new, they’ve always been in existence but the expensiveness and the limited battery capacity has kept it at bay, this majorly in the States.
Other bike-friendly European cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Berlin, Paris and Lisbon to mention a few, boast a significant amount of electric bikes.

E-bikes generally are more attractive to both the old and the young. They get to enjoy the days better because they aren’t as worn out at the end of the day, or because they move through routes quicker.

Biking communities these days are putting their focus on E-bikes. While the bikes cost more to acquire and maintain, companies avoid passing along those costs to customers on bike tours.

Companies see e-bikes as a complement to, rather than a competitor to traditional bicycles, and report that cyclists of both kinds ride happily side by side on trips every day.

The electric motor is the single most important feature of an electric bike. The different types of motors that can be found on most electric bikes are the front hub, rear hub and the mid-drive motor.

Front hub motors are located on the front tire and provide propulsion by spinning the tire. The motor creates the sensation that the bike is being pulled forward.

Rear hub motors provide propulsion by spinning the back tire. They push the rider forward which can feel more natural to traditional bike riders than front hub motors.

Mid- drive motors send power to the bike’s drivetrain instead of a hub. Its central location creates a more natural riding sensation than hub motors.

The drivetrain provides the power and torque necessary to manually turn the wheels of the bicycle. Mid-drive motors send power directly to the drivetrain, making chain cranking easier. Most drivetrains also allow the rider to shift gears. Electric bike motors are available in a wide variety of power ratings, from 200W to 1,000W or more. The legal limit within most countries is 750W, although different states can set their personal limits.

Think of this limit kind of like a horsepower. A better rating means that the bike could be capable of pulling greater weight with more ease but at the cost of the usage of more battery capacity whilst doing so. consequently, a 750W motor will drain the battery much faster than a 250W one, but it will be more powerful.

Batteries

Since the bike’s battery affects the weight, the style, and the range of the bike, its choice is crucial. Batteries play a huge part in how electric bikes work. Most batteries you’ll find being sold on the market fall into one of the following two categories:

SEALED LEAD ACID (SLA)

These batteries were once the appropriate battery type for most electric scooters and electric bicycles. These days, most electric scooters still use SLA batteries, while electric bikes (which often require human input) have opted for newer battery technologies to keep the bike as lightweight as possible.

Advantages: Inexpensive

Disadvantages: Heavy and bulky. Offer a shorter riding range. Shorter life span of about 100-300 full cycle charges. Require more maintenance, and need to be charged immediately after use
LITHIUM (ION/POLYMER/MANGANESE/ETC.)

These are the newest technology in batteries. A lithium battery has a lifetime roughly 2-3 times that of an SLA battery. Lithium batteries are much lighter and also are largely maintenance-free.

Advantages: Lightweight – high-capacity, 36V10Ah Lithium-Polymer batteries can weigh as little as 6 pounds! Offer a longer riding range – battery can travel up to 40 miles in pedal-assist mode (or 20 miles on throttle-only). Longer life span of about 800 charges or 3 years of virtually daily use

Disadvantages: More expensive – starting at about $1,500 to $3,000 and above

Controllers

Available in a variety of patterns, the controller lets you operate the electrical assistance on your electric bike and is an important component in how electric powered bikes work.

The controller is placed at the handlebar for ease of use. There are different types of controllers – pedal-activated and throttle-primarily based controllers.

Pedal-activated structures provide electric powered assistance as you press down at the pedals. There is no need to engage the throttle – easy pedaling will do the trick.

Electric bikes with pedal-activated systems have a controller mounted on the handlebar that helps you to adjust the level of assistance that you receive as you pedal.

You can dial in the quantity of assistance you need, ranging from no assistance to a great deal of assistance.

Throttle-based controllers work with a simple throttle mechanism. The throttle will either be a twist-grip type or a thumb-press type.

With a throttle, you simply pull back or press the throttle to get hold of the electric assistance. a few electric bikes require nothing more than activating the throttle, allowing you to ride with out pedaling.

By and large, electric powered bikes are easy to use, ride, and preserve. overall, they require little maintenance past that which a standard bike requires.