ebike

good to find a post from a fellow ebike owner!

After quite a bit of tinkering around with batteries and voltages, I am running a stock 24v ebike like yours on 36v 13ah nimh pack from batteryspace with no problems other than the typical sag, and the peak voltage is around 42v, running voltage at 10 to 15amps is 36 to 37v as specified. I do run the bike hard at times, up to peak amps 30. the motor only complains when it starts getting hot, which is on the steepest and longest of hills, so you just pedal a bit harder for a short while, its really not an issue. overall the bikes seem to be very tough, I take it off road as well.

I found that the Controller will not work from around 43v. I blew the back light so just threw it out and bought 3 mars lights for max rear visibility, the 20 watt headlight works even better at 40v and bulb has not blown after a year.

I also put in a better wider spring seat, stripped off the ugly fenders, installed a wattsup. mtx seatpost rack. new bontrager comfort hardcase tires at 65psi. stripped of the decals and no one even notices its an ebike now.

like I posted before, personally I think these are great bikes for ebike fans to work on and upgrade as you get a very good quality frame and without all the fenders and travel bags a very cool design where you can conceal the batteries and controller and wiring. 33v will not in reality give you that much woomph so I'd try to get as close to 40v running as you can as long as the peak doesn't go over the 42v you're ok. the motors are rated to 48v. you can always run the motor to the ground then get something like a puma hub which is my next wish.

you mention the dewalts, but if I had the money and time to pester them to "free their resources", i'd get the 36v 20ah hi-capacity lithium phosphate pack from powerstream. it fits like a glove. $1255 but the longevity would be way up there, think of the range, I have gone 27 miles on the nimh so you are up in the 50 mile mark for these, and no problems in the heat. why don't you ask them? now that is an upgrade I'd love to hear about but do post what you do either way I'd like to read about it

Ian

this is mine

I put thousands of miles on my 24v and 36 volt "Iacocca" eBikes. But they wouldn't get me around the entire 22 miles of the Tiburon peninsula until I added external Radio Shack SLAs to a rear-rack setup on the bike. Then they were pretty heavy, but still manageable. I particularly liked the way that I could pedal hard with the bike and the thumb throttle, unlike the Tidalforce which felt dead pedaling against a direct-drive motor. The Heinzman hub motors on the eBikes are perfect for that although they make some noise.

I just put the SLAs in series until they matched 24v and 36v. I would put in as many as I thought I'd need for that day's ride, then put the series packs in parallel with a wiring harness to the bottom bracket terminals of the eBike's normal battery. It worked fine, but I matched the voltage.

Thanks for your above posts...

I have modified my 24V Iacocca to 36V. I put a 1.5A 12volt Zener diode in series with the tail light (black wire) to block 12v of the 36v to the light, so it should not burn out.

Everything else as posted above...works great. I use the stock SLA 12AH batteries, but just added one more mounted on the rear rack.

__________

Ebike 1999
24v converted to 36v
everything else original

Oh...forgot to add that I changed the front sprocket from the 33T to 42T for a better pedaling ratio.

__________

Ebike 1999
24v converted to 36v

yesterday I attempted to add a 36v charge to the system...big mistake. It burnt up my controller.

Hi,

Thanks for your post. I just bought an ebike. With a little TLC I was able to used it this weekend. The chain keeps falling off the gear at the tallest gear.
The sprocket is not perfectly straight. So I might as well replace it with something better like you did with the 42T. It seems optimized for hill climbing with the gear ratio and not commuting or riding around town.
What is a good source for these?
Also I tried removing it, and it has a press fit. I think I would need a special tool. Any pointer there would be also appreciated.
Thanks,

Hi I have a 1999 eBike 24Volts. I dont have a battery for it.
I would like get a replacement battery. Is it easy to convert it
to a 36V.
Thanks

greetings fellow evg e-biker. Definitely worth it, it can be super-easy if you don't care about frying the controller sooner or later, just wire in an extra battery and stick it on the back is the simplest/cheapest. The 24v is way underpowered, and at 12ah is really 8ah. so their "on steroids" 36v sla 8ah pack is what....really 5ah?? pretty pointles.
Ping of duct tape fame will do you a 36v 15ah lifopo4 that would fit in the bay. Or get a 36v nimh pack. Or save $ and use 2 of the sla in the bay and add a 12v nimh or lipoly to the back. Etc etc.
I finally fried my stock 24v controller after using 36v on it for about a year. Why it lasted that long I have no idea, but the bike really hadn't been used that much when I got it. I biked pretty hard, there are serious hills here. First 9 months I just added another 12v 12ah evp SLA to the rear rack, experimented with those, and kept the 24v sla pack as is, just added in the series wiring, but you have to unhook it again for seperate charging. After that, feeling somewhat more confident, I ditched all the sla and bought a batteryspace 36v 13ah pack which fits fine in the bay and leaves a bit of room for padding - a great improvement, also weight wise. But one day for no apparent reason, the controller was just dead. The peak voltage on 36v nimh is right at the upper limit of what the 24v controller will take and you can tonk it at first around 38v, so not surprising the old controller gave up the ghost finally.
Now I have a 36v-48v 25amp crystalyte brush controller on the bike, with a new thumb throttle. I finally let go and stripped out the old controller and electrics, lights, cruise, horn etc. In a typical fit of over-excitement I added another 9.4v 13ah nimh in the controller bay space. I levelled the bottom of the battery bay to make more room for the 36v pack and the 4 to 1 series connector. So now its 46v, all hidden from view. Interesting you take off the "e-bike" stickers and people don't stop and ask like they used to.
Heartwarmingly, the stock 24v Motor actually sounds very smooth at 46V - I do have a watts up to keep an eye on things though, recommend you do the same if you upgrade. Its early days so I can't advise on how the motor will bear up, I will try to be gentle-ish on it. Heinzmann do make a good motor so don't want to fry that as well. They are confident about these motors though, I asked an engineer do the brushes ever need replacing he said "never." we'll see.

I got the chain ring and crank off with a special tool that I borrowed from a freind.
I still need a replacement recommendation. I tried another crank from my spare parts
bin and the ebike crank has an offset in width to allow the wider body near the bottom bracket.
So these crank/chain ring are somewhat special.
I appreciate your help.

Thanks.

Tis now a bit more than a month after gmouchawar's question. I have exactly the same question. This is a 5 bolt chainring (aka large sprocket) with a hub offset. I can't find a manufactures name on the crank. There is no mention of the manufacturer in the EVG ebike Factory Service Manual, now in the EV Download Library. I don't know enough about bicycles to be able to find a 42 or 44 tooth replacement with a 5 bolt pattern and an offset.

Can somebody offer a hint or something please?

Mauibuck

Let me add to Mauibuck that it is 56 or 58 (most likely) mm BTC. This BTC is only common to the most inner grany ring of 22-24T. The BTC is very small for the required tooth count, if you are looking to go to 42T.
So the to increase top speed of an evg ebike, we need a source for a 42T 56-58 mm BTC chain ring, if you are to retain the stock arms, or a whole setup with rings and arms that has enough offset to clear the wider ebike chassis. http://visforvoltage.org/user/rasbrad seemed to have solve this problem from an earlier post.
We just need some confirmation to the above.
I found this in the hyper C chainring table:
TNT CHAINRINGS - Hyper-C 58mm BCD- 42-44 - Black only - Made in the USA! $ 33.99 from bikepro.com.
Would this work?

i love the look of your e-bike . i have 3 36v e-bikes but they wont quite get me home. and i have been looking for a way to increase speed & distance and i took your advise and e-mailed powerstream for a 36v-20ah lithium phosphate pack. i dont know if i ill get any ware with them but ill let you know. have you run into any other ideas since this post or do you think i could get away with anything more i would apreiciate any help or ideas you could help me with. thank you very much frank macalus macalusf [at] aol.com

hi frank
the powerstream seem to be right up there for the evg bike, far as I can find, just look at those specs and the cycle life woa. sizing of 14 x 4 x 2.5inch looks perfect too though I would double check these dimensions to be safe. I would keep pestering them and he will probably fill your order. to increase speed you need to go to 42v or 48v.
other idea would be to look at batteryspace li-po configurations ie you could fit 50v10ah in the bay quite easy and v. light. or ask them for a lifepo custom pack. quite a few options to play around with, please post with what you end up doing and how it goes etc?

ive order a 37v 21ah polymer li-ion module [ i hope this makes sence it will be here next week] well live and learn ill keep ya posted

well i just installed a 37v 21ah polymer li-ion module from batteryspace. i rode it home friday about 12 miles. all seems good all original accessories work and bike was still at full charge with no lag in power when i got home. with a big incline on the bridge by my home. i havent got a chance to test it to see how far it will get me [becouse of rain today] but just wanted everyone to know so far so good ill keep ya posted

that sounds real good and 10 pounds battery weight is awesome. get a watts up i would then you can keep an eye on things they can install quite tidily. but you should get a range of 40 miles plus easy

ian im not really sure how to get you this message but you e-mailed me about needing a 36 volt e-bike motor & rear hub i was just on e-bay and search under e-bike. there is one that needs work or you could use for parts just came up for bid you should look at this for your motor possibly thanks again hope this helps

Greetings Franko and fellow evg e-bike owners.

Just thought I'd re-open this thread if you're still around it would be great to get your feedback on the 37v 21ah lipo pack from batteryspace? has anyone else got any experience with this pack or similar from batteryspace? They've been selling them a few years now so I am thinking they should be pretty solid and reliable. What are the chargers like are they good enough quality for the packs?

Also I'd be interested if anyoneone changed the front sprocket to 42T on the iacocca e-bike and how that was done exacly? I could use a better ratio for sure if there was a solution, so I can pedal still at 20 - 25mph.

My e-bike is going well still at 46v 13ah with the batteryspace nimh cells. I have done 108 cycles on them over the 12 months, and the only problems have been after storage so I just ran a few charge/discharge cycles down to 1v per cell and that brought them right back, now I figure on doing this every 3 months as a routine. Reading battery university info, I am expecting way over 500 cycles out of them as I don't deep discharge that often or discharge at high c rates.

Also I burned out the 24v motor some time ago and gmouchawar kindly supplied me with a brand spanking new 36v heinzmann at a good price so thankyou Gabriel for that, the 36v is way better than the 24v and perfect at 46v, I have only got it hot once when I cycled up to Jerome AZ high in the hills one fine morning. Running hard for a typical 20 mile run it gets lukewarm max. Real nice. Rarely need to peak over 750 watts and it doesn't feel like you are stressing the motor ever like you did with the 24v.

The mind still explores upgrades, however, if only for the fun of it. 51v 21ah lipo with the new hipowercycles 1000 watt bmc is doable, 37v in the bay and 15v on pannier etc, with new sprocket and gears for 25mph pedalling? Wouldn't be bad deal for another $2,500 compared to optima etc.

Anyway happy and safe journeys and thanks again Gabriel for your help
Ian

Thanks Ian, it was a pleasure helping you.
On the gearing question I have 2 proposed solutions.
1- get the chain ring from someone who is parting out an 36V model. The have 38T rings. More importantly
they have a more standard bolt circle. I was able to replace it with a 40T from my old tool box.
2- Alternatively, change the freewheel to something that has a smaller gear count. It is 14T stock for the smallest and 28T for the largest.
Shimanos with 13T are very common. I also heard that an 11T was available, but they are rare to find now.
I also found a Freewheel from road bikes that have 11T but the largest ring is only 19T. This means less hill climbing without the motor.
On a 36V or higher setup maybe this is not an issue.
I truely enjoy these bikes and enjoy helping people to keep them running.

Hi, New to forum. I just bought a EVG 24 V at an auction, tried to charge battery, no luck. The green light is on while the charger is running. I found in paperwork with the bike a letter requesting replacements for faulty battery and circut board that the bike was a lemmon. I also found information from ebike that some bikes should replace their power module and logic module if they have excessive parasitic battery drain. Anyone hear of this? ANy help to get it running would be appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome to the owner club. These seem to be much wrong with your ebike.
Does it blink of beep when you turn on the switch with the battery on the charger?

Thanks, glad to know there is a place to go to ask questions and somepoint give answers! The green light on the battery pack comes on constant

I wanted to bring this thread back because I have a question regarding batteries. I bought my ebike new in I think 1999 or 2000 but anyway I am needing another battery (I'm now on battery number 3) and was looking at the one the guy from Sebring Florida is selling for $135.00 shipped to my door. I know zero about batteries and was wondering if anybody could tell me if this battery pack setup is any good, nycewheels also sells a battery pack plus one that requires a harness and mounting to a rear rack for the 3rd battery. I have no interest in converting to lithium because I just don't use the bike that much to justify spending that kind of money.

Thanks ahead of time for any help and advice.

http://e-lectricwheels.com/ebikeP.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331287125292?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.nycewheels.com/36voltbattery.html

'The listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing.'

Generally speaking, lead-acid batteries are a bit of a crap shoot. The more obscure the manufacturer, the more likely the battery is crap. Look for replacement batteries from a dealer who sells known brands and honors a warranty.

I posted an alternative solution for the 36V battery:

http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7309&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Nice bike and good information shared

can I run a 36 volt ebike crank motor with a 24 volt battery?
I had a cyclone 24 volt crank motor withe a perfectly good 24 volt battery but the wiring connections to the motor got messed up and I cannot find another 24 volt crank motor. (Only the rubbish 2 wire 24 volt motors from china that require me to by a controller)
I want to buy a bafang motor but they are only 36 volt and 48 volt .
How well will a 36 volt motor perform on only 24 volts.They have very strict power limits on ebike here in Oz. with a limit of only 200 watts.

Have you tried adjusting the set screws on the Derailleur there are two; one for the innermost cog and the other one for the outermost cog. This should stop the chain from falling off the tallest gear.