E-biker in Colorado

P

pm

Guest
I've been posting a fair bit over at the Endless Sphere's electric forum and found this website from a link at Wikipedia.

I have an electric bicycle that I commute to work on most warm days. It's a Columbia Trailhead mountain bike with a Crystalyte Phoenix 5304 3-phase electric hub-integrated motor on it. I'm running it at 44V with an 18Ah home-made lithium ion battery pack that uses a charging system that I put together myself. It uses 96 lithium ion cells - the same ones used in laptop batteries. I have a fairly elaborate safety system for charging it.

The bicycle goes about 30mph and has a range of approximately 35 miles (I think... I've never tested it to it's limit) without my pedaling at all. I rode about 22 miles yesterday and put a bit more than half the capacity of the pack back into while charging it.

I have two 20W 24V Xenon lights on the front which are driven from the primary battery and then an LED taillight that also runs from the main battery. The headlights use a cheap setup that I read about on the internet that uses parts from Home Depot and costs less than $15 (w/o batteries) - although I had to special order the 24V bulbs that I'm using.

The bicycle weighs about 70lbs ready-to-go (without a rider though) and doesn't make any noise at all - not even a little. No whine, no squeaks, no chain rattling. It's completely noiseless.

Here's a picture of it - I hope:
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Hi, and Welcome to the group. Greeley here and a very clean bike you got there :D
 
Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone.

bamabikeguy said:
Hi PM,
Which part of Colorado, the flat part or the not so flat?
I updated my profile now. I'm in Fort Collins - which is in the flat part, but the not-so-flat part starts at the western edge of the city limits.
Greeley here and a very clean bike you got there
Greetings from up the street back at you. Thanks for the compliment. :D It's a nice bike - the acceleration is a bit slow, and I can't refill the tank very quickly (it took about 5 hours to charge back from ~50% empty), but I love the lack of noise.
 
ALL RIGHT. The official home of MB.com's semi-official brew !!

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I had quite a few on the 2006 trip, and coincidentally on Memorial Day, at a bluegrass festival, a neighbor at the campsite had a Fat Tire t-shirt.

If you know those guys, tell them we'd sure like some shirts!!! :cool:
 
The future is getting close. I am partial to the noise of the internal combustion engine, but that is just me. My son is working on a project for a new electric car, goes 95 MPH, goes 150 on a charge, and charges in 15 minutes. No carbon in the battery, so no fire hazard. I'm old so I still love the sound of an Offie down the straight. Good looking bike, and nice to hear you talking about your own inventive touch. Have fun Dave

PS: They say it cost $7.00 to go the 150 mi.
 
bamabikeguy said:
ALL RIGHT. The official home of MB.com's semi-official brew !!

21_scan0005_4.jpg


hi and welcome pm...i think your bike is very nice...got my new fenders today it looks sweet!

On the fat tire label change it a little and add an L after the f and super impose an engine in the V and where new belgium is put new american!

then it would not be copy right infringement lol...nice idea since i am a bartender...

good luck pm in all your endeavors :cool:
 
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