Front wheel electric, rear friction drive

[ollicat]

Has anybody ever done this? I have a DE drive on my rear wheel on my cruiser bike. I like it a lot and it runs smooth from about 14 mph to 30 mph. But under 14 mph, the friction drive really has no torque. I was thinking about installing an electric, battery operated front wheel for slow speeds and as a back up in case of engine failure, out of gas, or more importantly, rain since the friction drive stinks on wet pavement.

Any ideas on how do set this up? One would have 2 throttles. And, where to mount the battery pack?

Thanks

 

[Happy Valley]

Yes, there is at least one active member, Cooltoy

who is using a HT engine with shiftkit and rear electric drive.

I've long been working on my own ideas with this trying to get it right.........a tribrid: pedal, ICE, Ehub.

One of the major drawbacks of course is weight, getting something usable that's not a tank. SLA batteries are the deal killer and as you go through the newer lithium battery technology upgrades
( On, Po, Fe ) expense escalates.

I'm thinking of a belt drive 4 stroke ICE with front Ehub that has regen braking that would trickle charge a smaller_than_usual electric bike battery pack to keep weight down. The trick for me is total weight, any complete setup over 80 pounds would be too heavy.

The throttle controls, you'd need an electric controller, are not much of an issue, you'd follow the path of the obvious to get those where you want them.
Where you mount the battery will depend on what kind of battery pack and bike you use. If it's a fairly standard triangle frame then somewhere out of the way in the front tri or seat post area.

On another note, I'm curious why you feel you're running out of torque with a set-up like the DE with the available 6 roller sizes that come with the kit. What size spindle and what engine are you using?

 

[ollicat]

Using the Mitsubishi TLE43 and using one of the larger rollers for speed. I like to cruise around 25 - 28 mph and the engine hums nicely with the larger rollers at this speed. Of course, at lower speeds, under 15 mph, the throttle is almost useless for acceleration. I have to peddle to 15 mph to really use the throttle to accelerate further.

That is one reason I would like a front wheel electric drive, for the slower speeds and acceleration. Also, driving on wet roads would be great!

 

[Happy Valley]

Using the Mitsubishi TLE43 and using one of the larger rollers for speed. I like to cruise around 25 - 28 mph and the engine hums nicely with the larger rollers at this speed. Of course, at lower speeds, under 15 mph, the throttle is almost useless for acceleration. I have to peddle to 15 mph to really use the throttle to accelerate further.

That is one reason I would like a front wheel electric drive, for the slower speeds and acceleration. Also, driving on wet roads would be great!

When you say the larger rollers...they are 1 1/2" then 1 3/4".....quite a bit of difference there in gearing ratio.
But yeah, variables like rider weight, etc aside, with a roller that size peddling up to speed from a start and out of corners is going to be pretty common.

BTW, I've had good results with the 7/8' and 1 1/4" aggregate rollers from Dimension Edge with that engine on wet roads.

 

[350zdrftr]

I have everything needed for an electric setup if your interested pm me