My first E Bike project.

[schulze 123]

Hi Troops,
It has been some time since my last update due to work commitments but here is the progress to date. The new forks, gear shifter, rear deraileur and throttle assy have now been fitted. The reduction drive and jack shaft have been mocked up on the frame in preparation for having mounts drawn up. The motor has been simulated in the mock up by the green stubby holder as it was too heavy to keep in place with a couple of zip ties. For those concerned about the safety aspect of the chain drive position I plan to fabricate/mould a stylish carbon fiber cover.

Again any thoughts or comments on the progress so far are greatly appreciated.

Cheers BJ

 

[Neon]

Looking good so far. That darn work thing is always getting in the way of good project progress,

 

[schulze 123]

Hi Neon,
Yes it is a shame about work interuptions but without it the projects don't get past the pen and paper stage.

Cheers BJ

 

[ZnsaneRyder]

WOW!!!!!!

That's an impressive setup!!!!!

Where do you get the Electric Motor, and belt-drive reduction, that is AWESOME!!!

I'm planning an electric build, and that motor is nice and compact (and powerful) and looks like a very good solution for E-bike! I want to get one for myself, as it's HARD to find a good ELECTRIC motor, but gas engines are a dime-a-dozen.

 

[schulze 123]

Hi ZR,
Thanks for the comments. The motor came from Hobby King online store and the belt drive reduction system from Matt Schumaker [shumaker@owc.net]. I must say the quality of his work is first class.

Cheers BJ

 

[schulze 123]

Hi Troops,
I know it has been a while since I posted any progress reports but things a slowly getting back on track again. My machinist friend has finished the motor and jack shaft mounts which has allowed me to mount up the motor in its final resting place. The ESC is hooked up and the motor test run.The next step is to finish off the jack shaft assembly, fit the drive chains and tensioners. Then the first road test will be conducted and if that goes OK, then the proper drive batteries can be ordered and all the covers will be made.

Cheers BJ

 

[schulze 123]

Hi Troops,
The drive chains arrived and have been fitted so I thought I had better fit up some batteries, chuck on some safety gear and see what happens. Well I must say I'm suitably impressed. The torque, smoothness and awsome accelleration is everything that I hoped for. The complete lack of vibration as you power through the gears is a real joy, not to mention the 'Turbine' like howl from the motor belt drive. If the rain stops tomorrow I will post some images and take it for a bit longer run so that I can download the data from the speed controller to see what amps are being drawn and this will give me a fair indication of the expected range.

Cheers BJ

 

[schulze 123]

Hi Guys,
Went for a bit longer ride this morning to see how this unit tackled some of the hills in my area. I have to say now 'What Hills', this bike just launches up them. I thought that my other two fuel powered bikes performed well but on the steeper hills you still had to put a reasonable amount of pedal effort in to maintain about 38kph. Now i just have to take match the speed of the motor and take a very small amount of the load. An interesting feature of the speed control is a RPM Govenor (used on model helicopters) that when engaged will act in this application as 'Cruise Control'. Downside to this is that it lowers the efficiency of the controller.
Now that I'm happy with the performance I will get to work on the chain guards and order the bigger drive LiPos.
Again any comments positive or negative are all welcome and sorry that the project stalled back there for a while, but I say the journey can be just as good as the destination.

Cheers BJ

 

[pedalman]

BJ I would get those chain guards on there, looks awefully close to the jewels if you know what I mean...I just almost completed my first electric build (ridable though),carry my batteries in my backpack with leads sticking out,wouldn't ya know! I use a hub motor and surprisingly they are not bad at all...(48 volt,500 Watt),very low noise,more power than I thought.
Do those chains make any noise? I am considering a mid-drive system for a future build though.

 

[schulze 123]

Hi Pedalman,
I am in the process of making the templates for the guards now and they will be fitted before it goes out for another run. The guards will be made from 1.5mm fibre glass sheet like used in circuit boards (minus the copper).
With regards to chain noise, there isn't much at all. I think the use of 1/2 link chain has paid off there as it tends to flow around the sprockets better than the regular style of chain.
Power output of this critter is peaking at 1895 watts with a top speed of 44kph and this is more than what my initial goal was. But at this level the motor temp is luke warm and so is the battery temp plus when the bigger cells arrive I will have around 45km range.

Cheers BJ