New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

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SPEDcial Forces
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New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

OK, I'm new to E-bikes and bicycling in general, but want to build an E-bike. I read some of the blogs/manuals, but am not sure exactly how I should go about this, so I'm posting here. I have little EV/bike experience, but I am mechanically inclined and am at home with powertools, metal, bondo, pnematic hoses, metal cutting/bending, and oxy/acetaline welding, although I myself don't own a toarch.

I want to avoid welding though for this project as oxy/acetaline produces weaker, uglier welds, especially because I'm a little rusty, and not to mention that as of now I don't have immediate acess to a toarch.

I don't currently have a bike to convert, but I want to get one. I mainely need something that is good for roads and streets plus short commutes. I do however live in new england, so I'm considering maby putting mountain bike tires on it during the winter to deal with slush and crapy weather (maby?). I weigh about 160 lbs and am 5'9", and want to be able to carry myself, plus gear for a day of paintballing (local field) which probably weights about 30-50 lbs depending on how much stuff I bring along. Anything else I want to carry will weigh less than that.

So yeah, I need a good bike to start with, that meets those needs, and will be able to stand up to the stresses of having a motor+battery pack and going alot faster than normal. I want to make sure it's pretty rugged, so I can take it with me to colledge. I have no problems with buying used, so if people can point out some good brands and what style/size would fit.

Next is the motors, controller, charger, and batteries. I want it to be petal assisted so I can still get home if I run out of batteries and so I can get some exercise if I want to.

My girlfriend lives about 8 miles away from me, and the paintball field is about 5-6 miles away from me (but I'm haulling alot of stuff), so I want to be able to get about 20 miles per charge without added weight, and 14-15 miles with added wegiht. Those would probably me the two longest/toughest commutes, and the ones where I'm most likely to be really exausted and making liberal use of the electric assist. Everything else that I go to regularely is either strictly driving distance or closer. My dad works for some people in warhouses who might have acess to industrial forklift batteries that I could buy, and I was wondering if one of those would work? Also, how much benifit (both in weight and capacity) do you get for going to L-ion or Nmhd instead of lead acid and how much more does it end up costing?

I'm going to aim for getting to 35 MPH with a combination of my pedaling + full throttle, and at least 25-30 if I want to be lazy. The road to my GF's house is booring and the less time I spend on that road the better. Plus hear in MA people are nasty to bikers, and so a little speed for evasion is useful. Oh, and I'm a speed junky too. So yeah, I'm aiming for 35 mph. Controller/charger wise...I don't know much about them. Obviousely I want to avoid something that limits itself to 20 MPH, and I want something quality, but so long as it can get mostly charged in 6 hours or less I'm good.

I can probably drop about $1500 total on this thing, but would want to aim for $1200 just to have some wiggle room. I'm willing to scrounge around and get creative for some things (forklift batteries maby?), and I'm willing to pay top dollar for others dollar for others (motors...I saw some shiny hub mounted motors that were rated to do 28 mph unasisted for 450, which looked promisisng if you can peddal in addition to that...does anyone know if they are good? Also, how much would a comprable non-hub mounted [and thus slightly heavier] motor would cost?)

Thanks for any help, I hope I can get a plan laid out soon, and start building my wheels even sooner.

P.S. sorry for any spelling misteaks, I have mild dislexia.

reikiman
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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

Converting a bicycle to e-bicycle doesn't require modifying the frame or welding etc.

Look for e.g. Wilderness Energy .. Crystalyte .. Go-Hub (a Crystalyte based product) .. Phoenix (from Electric Rider, also a Crystalyte based product) .. while the BionX is supposed to be a good system, it may be out of your price range.

These products are units you bolt onto a standard bicycle. No modifications. These are all hub motors where the motor is part of the wheel.

For carrying 'stuff' I recommend the Xtracycle frame extension. It is also a bolt on unit, and it makes the bicycle really long with great cargo carrying capability. Or if you want the bicycle to stay normal length and only occasionally carry cargo then there are several kinds of trailers you can get typically these are envisioned to carry kids but that doesn't mean it can't be used for other stuff.

andys
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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

I like the new planetary gear brushless BMC hub motor from EVtech and I will tell you why. It has very high torque compared to most hub motors, you run it on the rear for a more normal feeling ride, it can take a disc brakes, and is very efficient and lightweight compared to the crystalyte stuff. It has zero drag and is really quiet. It is sealed from the elements and maintenance free. You can run it with a 48 volt controller on taller wheels to raise the maximum speed. I think you could get it go close to 30 MPH with 26 inch wheels and beefy tires at 48 volts. Or how about finding a used 29er mountain bike to convert! If you put a big crank wheel up front, you could peddle along at those speeds. I found some 60 teeth rings!

BRUSHLESS GEARED HUB MOTOR KIT

It comes with a 36 volt set up, but you can exchange out the controller and throttle.

I'd run it with a 20 pound 48V 20AH Lifepo4 battery from Ping battery on ebay. That pack runs at a slightlty higher voltage than LA packs for more power, and the output is flat for many miles. It is also way less affected by low temperatures than LA batteries are.

There are other set ups that will give you higher top speed, but are very heavy, inefficient, or have fairly low torque. I would not recommend a front wheel drive 30 MPH plus bike, as the handling gets strange.

The kit below looked interesting as a high speed set up, but I read some reviews and they were not very favorable. Hard for the chain to bend so much, and the use of a nylon bushing is questionable for long term use. their given speeds do not seem realistic for the power of the motors either. haven't heard anything about hill climbing ability,but I'd guess it isn't that great.

1000w Motorised Electric Motor Bike Bicycle Kit e-bike

I just built my first electric bike using the hub in the link from EV tech, and am really enjoying it. It is so smooth and quiet. I wanted more hill climbing and less high end than you do, so I ran it on a 20 inch wheel folding KLH mountain bike. I still get 21 MPH at 48 volts with the small 20 inch wheels, and it will climb any hill with ease.

We may try to set up a higher speed bike with it for a friend sometime soon. I'll let you know if we do and how it works out. We are looking to convert a full size full suspension mountain bike. At high speed, the suspension makes a big difference in the ride quality. 30 MPH on a bicycle seems much faster that it does on a real motorcycle. Make sure you take it easy until you get a feel for the machine whatever you end up building, and be sure to have good brakes!

SPEDcial Forces
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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

Thanks for the fast reply, I'm going to look into all of those, especially the bike extender.

Can anyone tell my more about non-hub motors? I have heared they are cheaper, and I'm not afraid of a little fabrication/customization, and in fact might enjoy it.

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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

Well, if you go with a non-hub motor, you have quite a few options. There are all sorts of motors around that will work.

Basically, you have a choice between a brushed or a brushless. Brushed are older. They're reliable, pretty robust, and controllers are cheap. You do have to replace the brushes, but only every couple of years or so.

Brushless controllers are newer in design. Instead of a commutator, they have the controller switch around the magnetic field. They and their controllers are more expensive, but they are fairly maintenance-free.

Brushed motors are generally cheaper than hubs, and Kollmorgen brushless motors can be had for about $40. You have to relpace the internal controller on the Kollmorgen if you wan't more than 400 watts, but this isn't really a problem if you are mechanically inclined.

For your speed goals, you're going to need a fair bit of power. A 1200 watt motor should do it, especially if you overvolt it. To go full out for 20mi at that speed would require some beefy batts.

How big forklift batts? There's no way you're going to be able to fit enough battery on the bike to go full out all the time if you use lead. You'd probably need a battery trailer or something. If you can get ahold of forklift batts and put them on a trailer, I don't thing you have to worry about range too much. I've seen a few (Home Depot) that were the size of my bathtub. They were like 600Ah at 96V o_O!

Lithium is more just barely more expensive than NiMH or NiCd and about 2-3 times the price of lead, but certain chemistries (i.e. LiFePO4) have really high cycle life, high discharge rates, lighter, smaller, and far more energy dense than even NiMH. PingPing on Ebay sells cheap LiFePO4 packs, but they're wrapped in duct tape, and can't be run in series unless you replace the BMS FETs. If you can put them in some sort of sturdy housing and either replace the FETs or don't need to put packs in series, they're a very good deal.

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SPEDcial Forces
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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

...ebay.com/ebaymotors/Electric-E-Scooter-Bike-Motor-36-Volts-750-Watts-Engine...

About how much would that thing get me in terms of power/speed? in looks like it's a little uner 1 HP.

I checked out the Kollmorgen, it looks nice, but where can you get a new contrller for it? Also wouldn't putting more watts into burn the thing out? I'm a bit clueless when it comes to controllers, so what exactly should I be looking for?

I've been scrounging around a little, and have noticed that car starter motors seam to be pretty cheap, and have a nice amount of power (1-1.5 Kw)...now they might be a bit heavy, but it seamed mildly interesting. I assume the weight would probably be an issue with those.

Also what about one of these scooter motors:

http://www.sd-electric-scooters.com/Scooter-Motors-DC.html

The 600, 750, and 800 watt motors are all in my budget, and seam pretty nice.

As for batteries, thanks for the advice, I checked it out and it looks really good, and I'm definetely up to building a battery casing.

SPEDcial Forces
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OK update

I found a wiring diagram. It makes me happy and sort of smoothed out some things in my brain.

http://www.electricscooterparts.com/hookup/SPD-E10E36wiring.htm

Anyways I also think I have found suitable controllers...I assume you just match the controller to the voltage and the wattage of your motor, and get a battery+charger that delivers the same number of volts?

http://www.electricscooterparts.com/speedcontrollers.html

Anyways I think I'm about ready to buy me a bike to strap some electronics to. Thanks for the help/encouragement, if anyone has any other advise/comentary I would love to have it.

EDIT: Also, in the motors in the above post, I noticed the 24 volt 750 watt motor is signifigantely more expensive than the 800 watt? is it better quality, or is it just that by running it at 24 volts rather than 36 you can get longer range without that big a sacrifice in power? It also seams that I would save money on the controller/charger by using 24 Volts instead of 36.

spinningmagnets
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Re: OK update

Ohm's Law comes into play..

A Watt is a unit of power, and 750 Watts is about one horse-power. You can use high amps/low volts, or, low amps/high volts to equal a given power.

You can get 768 Watts from a large 64 Amp motor that uses 12 volts, or...a small 16 Amp motor that uses 48 Volts.

Lots of Copper and larger Neo magnets in a larger high-Amp motor are more expensive.

The famous "Peltzer E-Bike" (Google it) is a large "high-Amp" motor that uses two 12-volt batteries (2 X 12 = 24 volts). The battery pack will wear out, and need to be replaced, but the motor should last many years, so there is a certain logic to this type of configuration.

Concerning range (Amp-hours of capacity [battery size]), speed (higher volts=higher RPM's), and cost, you can pick two out of the three.

Small (low-Amp) motors will get hot on hills (for rare short hills this is no problem), but they will get very good range per a given size of battery pack, but...

A large (high-Amp) motor will take hills with ease without overheating, but, they will suck your battery dry in a short amount of time, even on flat ground).

If you want high speed (4 batts X 12 volts = 48 volts) and long range at the same time (lots of Amp/hours, perhaps a smallish motor) you will probably need to use expensive Lithium batteries (= high cost).

You have many choices. Like ice cream, no one flavor is perfect for everyone.

LinkOfHyrule
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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

A Kollmorgen can be made to run with a brushless controller. They're kinda pricey, though.

STAY AWAY FROM STARTER MOTORS.

Starter motors are a terrible choice for an ebike. They're made to be cheap, and that's it. They are not made for continuous duty, and their efficiency is terrible. Their only purpose is to put out loads of power for a few seconds.

It's common for those who are new to this sort of thing to gravitate toward them for their price, so don't feel bad.

In theory, it should be more efficient to run a motor at higher voltage and lower current to lower resistance losses. In reality, it usually comes down to how well the motor was designed.

I disagree slightly with spinning magnets. Physical size of the motor doesn't really have any bearing on the range you will get with it. For example: my BD-36 is something like 80% efficient, and at 48V, does about 1500 watts peak with my controller. If I were to do something like replace it with an Etek (which is ten times more powerful), but not go any faster, I probably wouldn't even notice the decrease in range from the motors weight.

As long as they're equally efficient and you have the cash, I'd pick a more powerful motor. You won't have to worry about pushing it's limits, and you could modify your bike to go faster (albeit with a range penalty) just by changing the gearing }:).

You're right about the controller. However, you don't HAVE to match the rated voltage of the motor. It usually comes with a reduced (though sometimes only slightly) motor lifespan, but overvolting is fun. I tell ya, doubling the voltage on my skateboard was pretty awesome.

The author of this post isn't responsible for any injury, disability or dismemberment, death, financial loss, illness, addiction, hereditary disease, or any other undesirable consequence or general misfortune resulting from use of the "information" contai

SPEDcial Forces
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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

I was looking at some 1500 watt motors and was curious, but was worried about weight/size because I couldn't find any listed?

What wattage/voltage is your motor rated for, how much did it cost, and how fast does it get you going? The 1500 watts thing peaked my interest.

LinkOfHyrule
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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

I own a Wilderness Energy BD-36 brushed hub motor. Front. It's "rated" for 600W @ 36V. I put "rated" in quotes because it's really the controller that limits this; I'm sure the motor can take plenty more.

I haven't actually measured the speed proper, but according to the specs, I'm doing about 25mph @ 36V. Extrapolating from that, I can make a pretty accurate guess that I'm doing about 33mph @ 48V. I'm peaking at just under 1400 watts. It would be more, but my SLAs sag too much.

My controller is limiting the current to 30A, and it's got some good torque to it, especially at 48V.

I didn't pay full price for it. I got it barely used off of a member of the Endless-Sphere forum. I paid $130 for the motor and another $21 for shipping. It was already laced into a 26" rim.

You can, however, get a kit for about $400 dollars. The kit includes pretty much everything you need: motor (laced into a rim size of your choice), batteries (3 12Ah SLAs), 36V 20A controller, throttle, battery rack, battery bag, and charger. I don't know if they supply wiring.

My setup goes like this: Schwinn full suspension mountain bike (I forget the model), motor (26" rim), batteries (3 18Ah, SLAs), 36V 30A controller (components can take 48V without problems), half twist throttle, and a backpack (contains the controller and batteries). The wiring is 12AWG speaker wire, spray painted black. I use 30A Anderson connectors. I use a Doc Wattson to keep track of my power consumption.

Here's a link to the details.

Mind you: This isn't even a high-end ebike. Some people over at the Endless-Sphere have bikes worth more than "my" car. Still, it works great, is fun, and has a fair range (minimum about 12 miles at full out with lots of stops and accelerating). I only ended up paying about $650 for my entire setup. If I had gotten one of Ping's packs, it would only have cost me about $100 more.

The author of this post isn't responsible for any injury, disability or dismemberment, death, financial loss, illness, addiction, hereditary disease, or any other undesirable consequence or general misfortune resulting from use of the "information" contai

chas_stevenson
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Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

I have a Merida e-bike. In it's stock configuration this bike used 2 12v 9AH lead acid batteries, a 240 watt, 400 watt peak motor, and a controller that was controlled by pedal force. The harder you pedal the more power it gave the motor. It also has a Nexus 4-speed internally geared hub at the rear wheel. The best part of this bike is where they placed the motor. The motor drives the bottom bracket which allows it to utilize the geared hub. The bike was designed to operate at 16 MPH and the controller would cut out the motor above 16 MPH. Well this was not much of an e-bike but it had potential so I decided to make some modifications.

Before I go on the point of this post is to show how using a small motor with gears might give you speed and power.

First I changed the controller and batteries. I now have a throttle and am using a 36-volt 12AH battery pack. At this time I have over 300 miles on the bike with the 24-volt motor running at 36-volts. It does get warm and hot on very long steep hills but as long as I go around the steep hills it never gets too hot.

The stock bike had a 16 tooth sprocket on the rear hub, after I made the above modifications my test ride was unbelievable. I could reach 40 MPH. (I have been told by several people this is not possible. All I can say is if you come to my home I will put the 16 tooth sprocket back on the bike and let you see for yourself.) Of course it could not hold 40 MPH for very long as the batteries could not keep putting out that much current, and range was terrible. I did a 23 mile ride with it in this configuration but I stayed in 1st and 2nd gear for almost the entire ride. I found 3rd and 4th gears not very useful at this gear ratio. After doing some calculations I bought a 24-tooth gear which fit the Nexus hub. With the 24-tooth the bike now tops out at 23 MPH and has a usable range of 18 miles. I have not found a hill, on a street, this bike cannot climb. IMO using gears allows you to do 4 things better than not having gears.

      1. Use a smaller motor to increase range
      2. Accelerate faster with a given motor using less battery
      3. Climb hills with a smaller motor
      4. Go faster with a smaller motor

    I have 3 e-bikes/e-trikes all of them use a geared hub to drive the rear wheel. I live in a hilly country area and with the small motors I use gears were necessary just to get to the nearest town, 4.5 miles away.
    Chas S.

    SPEDcial Forces
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    OK hmmm...

    OK, this is starting to interest me alot.

    So basically what it seams you guys are saying is smaller motor+bigger battery and higher voltage/amprage controller=major speed.

    I came across the Crystalyte Pheonix kit, which looked a bit pricy, but when I went to the replacement parts section, buying the motor and using ping's batteries (which come with a charger) and either a controller from Crystalyte (or somewhere else) ended up being about $1300-1500 including a bike, bags, racks, lights, ect...

    Now what I want to know if that is taking it to far? The motor with the battery and controller ends up being like 2000 watts...I thinks thats probably pretty serious buisness right there. Would this be like throwing a 440 CI V8 into a Smartcar, or would it be an OK thing to do?

    LinkOfHyrule
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    Re: OK hmmm...

    Pretty much. Voltage = speed, and amperage = torque. Good batteries can help with that, too.

    Crystalytes make good motors. Their Series 5 motors (X5 for short) can take 2000 watts continuous and 5000 watts peak.

    Well, it depends on what you call "taking it too far" }:).

    Let me put it this way: Most people are happy with between 20 and 30mph. Crystalyte motors can d0 35+ no problem.

    I know of people that have put two X5s on a bike, and, yes, the performance is comparable to a small motorcycle.

    Is it okay? Well...That depends.

    Now, I'm kind of a speak freak, so my "ideal" setup (should be complete in a month or so) will be a BMX bike running twin BD-36s on two 36V packs for switchable voltages (36V or 72V). Top speed should be around 40mph. Now, at 72V, it will do more than 30mph (California limit for a moped), and WAY more than 20mph (California limit for an ebike). The thing is technically classified as a motorcycle if it's able to do over 30mph in Cali. You "probably" won't get in trouble, though. I don't know of anybody that was driving REASONABLY and got pulled over.

    (Not responsible to loss of ebike, injury, or death in event of misuse ;))

    The author of this post isn't responsible for any injury, disability or dismemberment, death, financial loss, illness, addiction, hereditary disease, or any other undesirable consequence or general misfortune resulting from use of the "information" contai

    LinkOfHyrule
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    Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

    I hear you, Chas. Gears are undisputedly awesome. They're my preference, actually.

    I only use a hub for the fact that I don't have any way to fabricate a motor mount and whatever else I might need. Hubs also have the advantage of being stealthy. Ebikes are not all that common, so it's likely that only fellow ebikers will recognize a hub motor for what it is.

    If I had the tools, materials, and a little spare cash, I would definitely have a geared bike. As it is, I'm pretty happy with my hub.

    The author of this post isn't responsible for any injury, disability or dismemberment, death, financial loss, illness, addiction, hereditary disease, or any other undesirable consequence or general misfortune resulting from use of the "information" contai

    SPEDcial Forces
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    Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

    OK, sounds good to me. Nearing the realm of small motorycle is perfectly aceptable, especially considering I have always wanted a small motorcycle (silly parents, always worried about head injuries...sheesh), I just don't want the weight/power to overwhelm the frame.

    I'm thinking about trying one of the Crystalyte Pgeonix rear wheel motors with the 7 speed (only the rear for now...a front motor as well would go out of my budget and be a little much for a first time E-biker), coupled with ping's 20 AH 48 volt battery, and the stock pheonix controller (unless I can find another 48 volt 40 Amp controller cheaper...are there any other supliers people recomend? And is it a liability buying controllers on Ebay?)

    Now while I think I'll be making a custom mounting/housing for the battery, is there anything I should know behore going into this? As in things that just plane out don't work, and any general concepts that work really well? I like the placement on this:

    http://visforvoltage.org/book-page/996-mountain-bike-conversion-24v-3-4hp

    Or at least the top rack (the extra batteries taped hear and there I'm not as much of a fan of). I read his blog and it just looks like he bent some flat steel to brace it up there and bolted it into the holes for the pump/water bottle. I think i'm going to try to use something more sturdy than duct tape though (I'm thinking two sheets of aluminum on either side, designed to snugly keep the batteries in place, bolted both to the seal strip and wraped around the bike frame, with some threaded rod in between at various points on the end going through both sides for tention).

    Plus I'll need to make a new battery housing. I like the fact that he didn't permanantly modify the bike frame, which is something I would like to do so if I mess up I haven't ruined my bike.

    I'm going to make some mock ups the same size and weight as the batteries that I can take with me while bike shopping, and so I can plan, build and test the mounting system out before I cantually drop the money on the real deal.

    Lastly, I just have afew quearies about some of the minor little items/acessories. First off, throttles...I assume the difference is purely ergonomic? I should probably try to find something (scooter, motorcycle, whatever...) that has similar throttles and see what I like the feel of the most. Personally I prefer analog to digital meters and gauges. The retro look combigned with the fact that they feel more intuitive to me makes me want to try to go with those. The most important gauge would be a batery life meter, as that is really practical. I could care less about a spedomiter, but there is always the chance that I might have to register this thing some day, so I might want to know where I could find an analog spedomiter for a bike.

    And as always, thanks! Projects like this really excite me, and it is looking like I'm actually going to be doing this, which will give me wheels again (and I won't have to pay for gas!!

    EDIT: I found this:

    http://www.stevescartshop.com/48v-analog-gage-round-.html

    An analog golf cart meter...would this (or something similar) work?

    chas_stevenson
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    Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast
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    Thanks,
    Chas S.

    chas_stevenson
    chas_stevenson's picture
    Offline
    Last seen: 12 years 6 months ago
    Joined: Wednesday, December 6, 2006 - 17:14
    Points: 1309
    Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

    I have an idea to use small motorcycle saddlebags on my bike to hold the batteries. I have a PhotoShop picture to show what it might look like. ev_custom.jpg

    The link you found to the meter is for a 36-volt meter and would not work with a 48-volt battery pack. I also used a meter like that one on one of my e-bikes but it didn't really tell me what I needed to know. I now use the DrainBrain or as it is now called the Cycle Analyst. This meter is the best e-bike meter I know of. There are links on the V is for Voltage DownLoad LIbrary for this meter and it's manuals.

    Hope this helps,
    Chas S.

    LinkOfHyrule
    LinkOfHyrule's picture
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    Last seen: 14 years 9 months ago
    Joined: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 14:54
    Points: 730
    Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

    "Now while I think I'll be making a custom mounting/housing for the battery, is there anything I should know behore going into this? As in things that just plane out don't work, and any general concepts that work really well?"

    Not really. If you think it out, you can come up with some good ideas. Just make sure it won't get in the way, or put excessive stress on the frame.

    "and the stock pheonix controller (unless I can find another 48 volt 40 Amp controller cheaper...are there any other supliers people recomend? And is it a liability buying controllers on Ebay?)"

    The Phoenix motors are brushless, so you're going to have to pay more for a controller.

    I know of a seller on eBay (e-crazyman) that sells 48V brushless controllers. You can get them for like $40. I've bought two 36V brushed controllers from e-crazyman; he's a reliable seller. The brushless ones will only do 18 or 28A (depending on model), but if you were to upgrade it(replace the FETs and capacitors), you could get some serious performance out of it.

    The most common MOSFET to use for modifications is the IRFB-4110s. They're very high powered: rated for 100V and 180A o_O. Mind you, there is some weird inductive stuff that increases the amperage through the motor and FETs, but there's a guy on ES that pulls 60A through his.

    The modification will cost you a bit (about $6 per MOSFET and a few dollars for some better capacitors), but you will have a VERY powerful ebike if you do.

    "First off, throttles...I assume the difference is purely ergonomic?"

    For your purposes, yes.

    There are actually several types of throttles: hall sensor, resistive, two-wire resistive, I believe there is an inductive throttle, etc.

    The two main types are inductive and three-wire resistive. The resistive throttles are only used on high-end controllers, so scooters and ebikes almost always use hall effect throttles.

    My personal preference is a half-twist throttle. Thumb throttles make you sore after a while, and full-twist throttles can be a problem if you pedal hard.

    "And as always, thanks! Projects like this really excite me, and it is looking like I'm actually going to be doing this, which will give me wheels again (and I won't have to pay for gas!!)"

    It's fun, to be sure. Watch out though, this can be addicting ;).

    The author of this post isn't responsible for any injury, disability or dismemberment, death, financial loss, illness, addiction, hereditary disease, or any other undesirable consequence or general misfortune resulting from use of the "information" contai

    SPEDcial Forces
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    Last seen: 15 years 4 months ago
    Joined: Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 17:57
    Points: 45
    Re: New to E-bikes, but want to go fast

    Chas, thanks for all the documents....I'll have my weekend reading cut out for me, but it looks like it should help.

    Link, thanks for yet more advise, and to everyone who chimed in.

    I think I'm going to start pretty soon. I have to go back to school next week, but I'm glad I got most of the reasearch out of the way before that, and so now all that is left is the fun part (building it).

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