Columbia Trike and Hilltopper 250 Watt Kit.

[slickdude]

E-Trike fundamentals got some things ironed out and now working. Tested it and the 250 kit moves it on perfectly level terrain at a whopping 19mph. The road near home in the youtube video has a slight northern incline so it is a tad faster at 19mph. My main concern though has in this instance always been the distance. Can it make it to and from Lake Balboa and the Sepulveda sports complex and home again on a single charge? That would certainly entertain the 10 mile sla battery range. So that is my next deal. BTW, I can add a second battery to the basket in back that would extend the range significantly They have a 20 mile range lithium battery. If the prices are decent I may consider that for the ezip as well and forego their currie system. The 450watt brush motor at 130 bucks replacement or more plus a sla batt pack at 149 every 6 months makes currie way too expensive to support. A front hub kit I may consider. There is a 550watt out there and with a lithium setup it might be the way to go instead of the currie. But that's another project redo.

 

[slickdude]

Tested fully charged battery run on the SLA

from Hilltopper now that it is charging okay. On the trike it can go about 6 miles before dying. Not the 10 or exaggerated 15 I have heard claims After about two miles the performance starts dropping significantly. Now mind you this is an older Columbia trike, however it is probably similar in weight to my very heavy Ezip Trailz which is quite heavy and that has 26 inch wheels. I get now at 6 months on the Ezip battery about 5 to maybe 6 miles after 6 months charges. So not sure, but the range on the Hilltopper SLA won't get me much more then halfway around the Sepulveda basin which is about 8 to 9 miles round trip. I'
ll hop in the car and get an exact ride distance so I can better inform here on it. But according to the advertising, I had hoped for much more. BTW, no hills on this run, all flat areas. I pedaled about a 1/3 to 1/2 way back.

 

[slickdude]

Wow talk about bad luck. My rerar brakes went out and found the right rear wheel was loose. There is a small peg the wheel hub sits against on the axlerod, then tightens down. Anyhow it was a 1/4 inch. Got a steel 3 foot rod at Lowes then cut a couple of inches off of that. Once done, slid that through the axlerod hole and finally replaced the wheel, tightening it with a dab of the red loctite. Working great now. I guess being I am getting a bit over 5 miles on the battery, I'll probably get their lithium for extended range riding. Hopefully this will hold up for a while. Top speed officially at full SLA battery charge is at 19 mph, probably faster on a two-wheeler bike.

 

[Big Red]

Wow talk about bad luck. My rerar brakes went out and found the right rear wheel was loose. There is a small peg the wheel hub sits against on the axlerod, then tightens down. Anyhow it was a 1/4 inch. Got a steel 3 foot rod at Lowes then cut a couple of inches off of that. Once done, slid that through the axlerod hole and finally replaced the wheel, tightening it with a dab of the red loctite. Working great now. I guess being I am getting a bit over 5 miles on the battery, I'll probably get their lithium for extended range riding. Hopefully this will hold up for a while. Top speed officially at full SLA battery charge is at 19 mph, probably faster on a two-wheeler bike.

If the range was better I would probably be riding electric too. Most gas bikes are kinda messy and elec. is a LOT more green. But, to get the range on one is way out of my price. BATTERIES and EXTRA BATTERIES is the only solution, and those things aren't cheap.
Glad ya got the rear wheel problem solved though. Sounds like you got the bike ya want, (almost,) and yer good at taking care of most problems that pop up. And at 19mph yer REAL close to the top speed allowed on an electric. I say, GOOD JOB.
Big Red.

 

[slickdude]

Thanks BR, it rides good now. The battery they tout is a ten mile battery with a fast charge time of 2 to 3 hours. Unfortunately this is where the kit falls quite flat besides another aspect of it. Here are my impressions of it on a trike.

My trike has a 24 inch wheel. With a Hilltopper 250watt front hub motor I can hit about 19 mph on a flat level surface when the batter is first fresh. Speed starts dropping after about a 1/2 a mile After a mile it drops to about 13 mph and after 4 miles down to about 8mph. The battery on this has about a 5 1/2 mile range not the ten it was touted as. BTW, the trike with this setup is not much more than my standard ezip trailz which can still go about 7 miles on a 6 month old battery.

Time to recharge is about 6 hours, not the claimed 2 to 3 hours. This is with a battery that has only one mile on it. This BTW is their shipped SLA battery. A replacement battery is sold for about 140 bucks which I consider quite pricey. So while you have a 250watt hub kit, it recommends you stay with a 24 volt battery. The install kit time was not less than 5 minutes but rather it took most of a day and lotsa work especially to modify the front forks to accept their axle. The manufacturer says don't go higher volts because a 36 as opposed to 24 volt setup would cause fork problems especially on older forks and might burnout the motor. I have read a number of comments on the battery life. It seems from reading other posts elsewhere on the forum that it does not stay strong for two years as the manufacturer sort of claims, but rather it starts seriously dropping off at 6 months usage. It is supposed to cycle through for about 400 times and have no memory issues. But a drop off in range would indicate that memory issues do indeed exist...anyone more knowledgeable wanna correct me on that, go for it. Otherwise these are my impressions. One last note. You should start pedaling a bit before engaging the red button that is a throttle and speaking of throttles. It's a small cheap square red button. A throttle upgrade would have been sweet because it would allow riders to go at slower speeds. This button sometimes sticks. A very dangerous situation when it presents itself in traffic at the wrong time, in fact an injury from a sticking red button actually opens Clean Republic to a major safety lawsuit. But no upgrade to a twist throttle or a Pedal as you go system exists which is both sad and frustrating. In this case what you get is a very "CHEAP" system that works, but it is bare-bones and as far as range at least in my case, an extra battery with more amps will be required.

 

[slickdude]

Now I know why their sla range sucks. It's the battery they used. For example in my Ezip Trailz it uses 10 amps, but in the hilltopper kit they use only an 8amp batt setup which accounts for decreased range. In addition pressing the little red square button, if you hold it in, you suck battery juice at full throttle since they do not have nor intend to produce a twist throttle, otherwise I could use less and perhaps get further range. That being the case, the old adage you get what you pay for. Because hilltopper won't be able to be upgraded via Clean Republic, I have to recommend there are other kits with bigger motors and batteries a little more but probably a better choice too. As for batteries, they are still way to expensive to rely on at current prices versus life spans.

 

[Big Red]

Hey Slickdude, I don't think I've ever seen an electric bike of any kind without some way to control the speed. Heck, sewing machines have it together better then that. I would research building my own throttle. Basically all you have now is an ON-OFF switch. I found something that might work if it comes with instructions. You would also have to buy the appropriate throttle/twist assembly but I think this is do-able.
http://www.electricscooterparts.com/speedcontrollers.html
Good Luck,
Big Red.
Same site.
http://www.electricscooterparts.com/throttles.html

 

[slickdude]

Thanks BigRed. I am not sure how involved it would be. I have read other forums on the HillTopper mods and it appears others have been able to upgrade the system to a 36volt which brings the speed into the high twenties. In my case, this being a trike which can easily tip over, my preference is to want to go for range. As of today the range is now about 4 1/2 miles which is intolerable considering I have only had this a couple of months now, not really even that. So my preference is maybe to get their 8amp batteries replaced with 14 amp batts. My understanding is with their system, no more than 18 amps max for their 250w hub motor. My other want is a twist throttle, again not sure how to go about this. They use a three pin connector with two wires.

Be advised the HT kit wasn't too hard to do, but when it gets into soldering and rewiring stuff, I get lost really easy.

 

[Big Red]

Yeah Slick Dude, electric stuff ain't my gig either. I'm sure there's someone into E-bikes that knows how to wire up a throttle to yours. Being able to control your speed is kinda important. But hey, YOU chose electric, Now comes the learning curve. Same as those that went 2 or 4 stroke, we all had to start somewhere.
Big Red.

 

[slickdude]

Well Clean Republic now states the Hilltopper is a PAS system only. Had I know that stance I would have invested in a beefier system for a bit more. The claim is that their system was never intended to ride the battery only, yet they imply this in their advertisements both on youtube and through their dealer.

Well luckily I chatted with my neighbor and he used to own a bike shop and is electrical knowledgeable. We have the schematics for the wiring so it's half the battle. With my battery range now below 5 miles and that I am fearful I'll get shorted on their lithium offerings instead of 20 miles, maybe get 8 I have decided to purchase new higher amp batteries for the sla setup. We are also going to look at a twist throttle setup somehow. I'll try and document the new project in a while when I start it up. As for others who want to go this route, I would look at a beefier 550watt system instead of the Hilltopper. You pay cheap, you get cheap, a good rule to remember.