ebikes
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You are currently reading a thread in /n/ - Transportation
You are currently reading a thread in /n/ - Transportation
Trying to decide on which motor kit to go with. I plan on commuting to work which is about 10km mostly across bike paths/trails with gentle slopes. Don't plan on going faster than 20mph which is the legal limit here.
I think I'm settled on a lunacycle shark pack and am leaning towards a rear geared hub around 350-500w (maybe Bafang bpm). Does anyone have experience with a motor they really like?
>>932415
E. None of the above.
Bicycle motors are a waste of time. Just get a scooter or actual moped.
If you really want help with your shitty project, go talk to diy.
>>932416
what this guy said
clumsy fatties on e-bikes belong on /o/
Is there a reason you care about it being electric?
Why not just get an old fashioned moped with pedals?
>>932415
>350-500w
ya,, go lower., 250w.,(w=Whiskeyts,, based on the wisker pricipale of rubing catson balloooons, READ the BROCHURE!)
,,and lite,, that Battery looks WAY to big for your ride., 48/52voltsis HArd biteing.,
,, so?, my suggest?, 250w,, under 3kilogranes free wheeling,,24volt,,250w batt,,no controler aside from on/off switch, front hub, back hub is busy already.
,,,MEgelectric Bike guy may differ., outamy leage.
>>932422
Probably a fat alchy with a dui
>>932415
Go for front, 250W. Simpler installation, can easily be switched back to a normal bike without much effort.
>>932415
Stick with leg power. 10km on easy slopes is no sweat commuting.
>>932422
Licensing, registration and insurance ruin the benefits of mopeds. If you go with a gas engine for commuting go all the way and get a car. The comfort, safety, and all weather utility of newer small cars beat mopeds and motorcycles.
>>932431
>>932427
I'll look into a 250w. I've read online that they're too weak and basically a waste of money, but I'll reconsider it.
>>932433
>Stick with leg power. 10km on easy slopes is no sweat commuting.
The main reason I want this is to decrease my travel time. It currently takes me about 40 minutes one way, but with a motor, it should be cut down to a little over 20 minutes.
As a bonus, I'll be less sweaty on hot days.
>>932434
They're too weak for fat fucks who don't pedal. 250W with pedaling gets me up 15% grade, heck when I set it to output just 100W I can still get up those grades, albeit with effort.
>>932437
I weigh about 150 pounds, would I be able to maintain 20mph with a 250w motor? With peddling (though I'm not sure which motors support pedal assist).
Distance doesn't matter to a certain extent, my commute to work is only about 5km there and back but there are some steep hills and I ride on the road so I use my electrically assisted bike.
If my journey was flatter and I wasn't on the road much then I probably wouldn't bother even if it was a longer trip, on road it would only be worth it if you used the motor to achieve a speed that would be hard to pedal at (I can easily do 18mph unassisted so I'd imagine 20mph on a much lighter road bike would be nothing).
>>932434
So you're average speed is 13mph? No offence but that's pretty slow, depending on just how gentle these hills are. In your case a motor would make you a bit quicker but I don't think 250w will cut it for 20mph (based on my experience). Also as you'll be using the motor to maintain top speed (instead of just using it to boost acceleration and climb hills) you're not going to have much range on the battery, don't be surprised if you have to charge it multiple times per week.
>>932438
>>932439
In addition, I'm about 140 pounds and quite a strong pedaller. I usually have my motor limited to about 250-300w and that'll allow me to maintain about 20mph on flat ground with close to the same effort that'd get me 18mph unnassisted, maybe 21-22mph with the same effort. So, that small amount of power really isn't going to do a whole lot to make you faster.
>>932439
>So you're average speed is 13mph? No offence but that's pretty slow
It probably is. My current bike is garbage, so that affect things a bit, but I'm not very physically strong.
>don't be surprised if you have to charge it multiple times per week.
That's what I was expecting. I'll probably just remove the battery and charge it while at work.
>>932442
Then I guess a 350-500w would be justified after all.
>>932444
>My current bike is garbage, so that affect things a bit, but I'm not very physically strong.
Just a suggestion, if you can get the opportunity give a proper road bike a go. It's surprising how quick they can be compared to a beat up rigid 90s MTB (I'm assuming that's the sort of thing you're riding). It might not be enough to get you up to 20mph, at least not right away (if you're planning on getting fitter and stronger) but it could end up being a fair bit cheaper.
>I guess a 350-500w would be justified after all
350w should cut it, 500w would definitely do it (mines 500w and will get me to about 25mph with no pedalling on flat ground, 28mph if I pedal). Even if you don't use all the power very often it can be nice to have on steeper hills or when accelerating (if you have a thumb throttle), the latter being nice when ridding on the road as you don't hold up cars as much.
>>932416
>>932419
I second the motion. E-bikes are a waste-of-time fad.
>10km
6.2 miles? If you can't pedal a bike that far twice a day without killing yourself or whatever your problem is, then you need to see a doctor, or stop being an 80 year old woman with a bad heart, or whatever your problem is.
Pedal your bike!
Use the money you save not wasting it on e-bike crap and get a gym membership so you're not so fat and weak anymore.
>>932434
>6.2 miles
>40 minutes
Stop being fat and weak.
>>932442
>I'm about 140 pounds
Oh, OK. My apologies for calling you fat.
STOP BEING A SKINNY WEAK SKELLINGTON AND PEDAL YOUR BIKE. AND EAT SOMETHING, WILL YOU?
>>932451
>Oh, OK. My apologies for calling you fat.
No need to apologise, I'm not OP and unless I missed something no one called me fat.
>TOP BEING A SKINNY WEAK SKELLINGTON AND PEDAL YOUR BIKE. AND EAT SOMETHING, WILL YOU?
lol, I guess it's you that's the fatty. Either that or you're an absolute beefcake.
>>932447
>I'm assuming that's the sort of thing you're riding
It's some shitty walmart bike from the early 2000s. I'm looking at a trek 7.2 fx right now as a base bike. I haven't really researched it all that much, it's the first option that I found that looked decent and it's available at a bike shop near me. I'll probably test ride it soon.
>>932449
I already do the commute occasionally. It's not strenuous, it's just slow. I just want to cut my travel times down.
>>932457
>trek 7.2 fx
Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable putting a 500w motor on that frame, the dropouts don't look particularly beefy and those are what resist most of the torque from the motor (the rest will go through a torque arm that will be secured to the chainstay, which also isn't the beefiest). 250-350w would probably be fine, any more than that and I'd look for a stronger frame. Also don't even consider putting a front motor on with that fork.
>>932462
Thanks for the heads up. Would it be reasonable to find something more fitting in the $500 range or do you think I would need to bump up my budget?
>>932469
I'm not really sure. I had a quick look around and found this, no idea whether you can get one in your country or whether the rest of the bike is any good, but it's got the sort of dropouts you'd want. Click the 5th photo and zoom in, notice how thick the dropout is and the general chunkiness of it.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-bikes-dee-1-26-city-bike-2014/rp-prod80998
>>932449
>Use the money you save not wasting it on e-bike crap and get a gym membership so you're not so fat and weak anymore.
Or take a 10 mile detour on the way home every day. In a year you will asking us good places to get EPO from so you can smoke the freds even harder as part of the flat bar master race.
>>932415
Over 600w and front hub will start to spin out going up hill and makes for heavy steering. But I do not understand why < 500w rear hubs exist despite all the benefits of geared front. simple to install and uninstall, all wheel drive (so awesome!), and almost no drag. Would recommend disk brakes and heavy-ish frame and tires if you go more than 250w.
>and some fucking lights too!
>>932434
Wtfff 40 mins for 10 km ? Im taking 15-20 for 7 1/2 km for my school o.O and im
Using my cross/trekking bike for like 100-200 € . Get a bike computer , hold ur speed about 15-20 that should take u like max 30 mins for that way
I want to buy a 1kW rear wheel kit (with a 48 volt and 10ish ampere battery) to put on my 90s rigid MTB to turn it into a monster. Buying the entire kit from U-Long Dingdong in Ebay would turn out to cost something around 700 euros, is that a competitive price for such a kit?
Go big or go home.
I've been commuting on my 4.2kw (peak) "ebike" for over a year now and it's amazing.
0-50kph in a few seconds, top speed around 55kph. Able to do my 15km work commute in about the same time as driving, at around 25 minutes. This thing is FUN. Driving cars during traffic hour everyday is SOUL DEVOURING.
Assembled this thing piece by piece myself. I've done over 7000km on it so far and it's been hella reliable (I have a lot of experience building and maintaining MTB's, though no electrical before this). About 6000km or so of those have been saved from being on my car, so this thing pays for itself after a few years.
I ride MTB, so I sure as shit don't want to spend 40+ mins each way pedaling the same boring ass route to work when I can save my energy for some trail riding and weight lifting after work.
I can easily get as much or as little exercise on this thing as I want. Sometimes I'll add a lot of human power, sometimes none, always turning the pedals either way. Nice having a choice especially after thousands of elevation meters ascending and descending in the mountains over the weekend on regular mtn bikes.
>>933311
Doesn't sound too bad, that's about £550 and I paid about £400 for my 36v 500w kit. That said I paid a small premium to get it from my country and getting it from China would've been a bit cheaper. If you're happy paying that much then go ahead, if you want to spend less then you'll probably have to go with less power, which depending on your frame may be a wise choice.
>>933321
What would you say was the rough cost of the basics, battery and motor and controller (I think you laced the wheel up yourself, right?)?
Also how did you go about building the battery? I know you can just buy a load of 18650s, but then most people I seen ended up spot welding them together which I don't even know where I'd find someone that could do that. Also I'm not sure how I'd go about charging the thing, did you cannibalise another battery for the charging circuit or can you buy something like that separately?
>>933325
Yep, I laced the wheel myself. Broke one spoke so far. Think I used too thick of spokes which counter intuitively can lead to more breakage. Not cheap, but I wanted everything to be reliable and lasting. Electrical components alone? Rough guess I would say at least $2k CAD.
I chose my Headway battery cells because it's like building lego. They use bolt-on bus bars between the cells, and have plastic cell holders that snap together with dovetail joints. Still had to solder a ton of other stuff beyond that though but definitely the easiest packs to put together. Being LifePo4 it is the safest lithium chemistry and also the longest lasting (supposed to get 2000-3000 cycles on it at least before losing capacity and performance etc but should still hopefully work well even past that) however they are not the most energy dense, and are quite a bit heavier than most batteries.
My bike weighs 90lbs... so it's a tank. But it FLIES, uphill, everywhere... you don't notice the excessive weight until you do some rough off-roading. I also have some big tires and a suspension seatpost which takes a lot of the edge off.
For charging, there's lots of different types of chargers you can get. Just need to look at the correct output voltage/amperage/chemistry/connectors that will be compatible with your battery setup.
I bought a lot of components from Grin Tech at www.ebikes.ca , pricey stuff but very high quality. I shunt modded their 40A controller to output 60A and it still barely gets warm. It also has variable regen which is sick.
I could spend hours talking about ebikes, or bikes in general so feel free to ask more questions otherwise take a look at some of the documents on ebikes.ca to learn, and your very BEST resource for ebikes will be www.endless-sphere.com - Super helpful and knowledgeable people there, I couldn't have done my build without the support of them, the staff at ebikes.ca (they really know their shit too), and even some support from Headway.
Just get a moped or real bike m8
>>932415
You'll get nothing but shitposts from /n/ unless that guy with the Batman bike shows up. Try Endless Sphere for any e-bike questions:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=21
No experience but I'm also interested in the subject.
OP here,
I'm probably just going to get a magic pie since there's a distributor in Canada who apparently has decent customer service. At least then I'm not getting fucked by the exchange rate.
>>933321
I like the mad max vibe, is it 200mm disc brakes? And hydraulic i presume?
>>933794
Ty. 203mm rotors yes. Front is hydraulic Shimano Zee brake. Rear is mechanical BB7, because you can only buy "e-brake" levers for mechanicals. The brake lever activates regen braking through the hub motor from the lightest touch of the lever, then I can modulate the regen intensity by the twist throttle while braking. Works well.
It's possible to custom mod the e-brake lever assembly to work with a hydraulic brake without too much effort, but this setup is working fine for me for now.
>>933815
So once regen is activated the more you twist the throttle the more it brakes? I bet that took a while to get the hang of. Probably a stupid question but if you do this whilst stopped will the motor spin in reverse?
>>933824
Right. Didn't take long actually, but a half dozen times I forgot to release the throttle before the brake and got a nice SURGE of power. One time dampened only by my pinky stopping the bike on a solid metal fence. Luckily only moved maybe 1 foot so not enough momentum to break it but it was annoying. Most messups were during early morning commutes not paying attention... but it's been a long time since it's happened now, and apparently the new firmware for my bike computer will prevent this surge among some other nice improvements. Gotta get on dat.
As for your other question, no.. regen operates differently from reverse.
>>933683
in canada, also consider ebikes.ca
excellent customer service, has torque sensor and competent pedalec stuff
if you want just throtle, magic pie is a neat setup
>>933825
Does your controller have a reverse mode, and if so have you tried riding backwards?
I wasn't quite sure how regen braking worked, I assumed it just tried to rotate the motor backwards and regained power through back EMF or whatever.
Another question regarding regen braking, just how strong is it? If it worked the way I thought then I'd assume it could equal the forward driving force (more powerful system = more powerful braking).
>>933839
i'm seen readings in the 300-400W regen from my cycle analyst when going down a pretty steep hill
>>932416
based on your years of experience, no doubt.
OP, get a bumble bee.
How good of a choice would a BionX system be if I got it at half price?
>>934130
Even half price doesn't make up for how ridiculously expensive they are.
>>933839
My controller does have a reverse option... though I haven't tried it. Regen is generally much weaker than output power.. Couldn't say exactly why. After shunt modding my output amperage the regeneration amperage went up with it. I now get up to 1400w of regeneration power at higher speeds. Pushing the limit of what is safe for the battery perhaps as it's only rated up to 15 charge while I'm getting up to 200 regen. However it only pumps that much current in for a couple seconds at a time usually and then tapers down quick.
>>934346
Up to 20 amps regen*
>>932457
>I just want to cut my travel time down
Then pedal faster!
ina, MadMax world,, you needan edge.
>>932422
Mopeds are a cringy abomination
>>932433
>licensing, registration and insurance
but why people still use e-bike in places where ebikes are completely illegal?
>>939180
What places would that be?
>>939181
Hong Kong
>>939180
Depending on the particular bike some can be hard to tell at a glance that they're electric, combined with the low noise and lower speeds means they don't attract as much attention as a gas engined moped.
The same also applies to places where there is a power limit and not just an outright ban, most cops wouldn't be able to tell a 250w and a 500w bike apart unless the latter was exceeding the speed limit.
>>932449
E bikes are cool for elderly or mildly handicapped persons where the glass is half full -any cardio is cool
>>933321
this is the most interesting bike on /n/
e-bikes are motorcycles and should be banned from purchase and anyone caught with one should be forced to bear witness to the motorcycle's destruction.
I love blasting past ass hole cyclist with there European touring bikes with my ebike at close to 40mph.
what would it take to power an ebike with 827 grams of unprocessed thorium without looking suspicious while still being fun to ride and haul cargo day to day?
