you electric guys still there?

L

lotsa_mpg

Guest
Ok, I'm just posting this because I noticed there hasn't been any action on electric avenue since May 17....man, that's a long time. I know absolutely nothing about the electric bikes and conversion kits.....but I do have a John Deere mountain bike that might look ok with one mounted. Do any of you electric conversion enthusiasts have any recommendations for a kit for this bike? How far and how fast could I realistically expect to go if I put an electric motor on it? It has front & rear suspension, so that pretty much rules out installing a gas engine with a chain drive on it.

Pete

1548_Picture_1.jpg
 
John Deeres usually run best with diesel power :LOL:

seriously, I have an old currie electric drive. 24 volt, lead gel acid batteries (heavy) . 18 mph on flat ground...fresh batteries.
good torque for take off. got about an hour of "throttle" time, then ya gotta plug it in for 8 hours. Great for short rides.
hmmmm, I need to get that kit off the bench & on a bike! :)

btw...I like the john deere bike!! how much travel does your rear suspension have?
 
lol.....I guess a diesel would be kinda fitting...if I could find one that would work, I could make a Johny Popper out of it.

I think if I do electrify it, I'd like to see at least 25 miles from a charge, but perhaps that is wishful thinking.

There's only about 2" of rear suspension travel measured at the axle...not a whole bunch, but likely enough to cause probs with if running a chain drive set up.

Pete
 
my currie is prolly antique...compared to the newer hub motors. And the $$$'s the limit on newer, lighter, better batteries.

the cool thing about my electric ...it was nearly silent.
 
How fast and how far depends largely on the amount of money that you want to spend, and how much pedalling you want to do. The set up that I have goes about 30mph and I rode about 22 miles yesterday and used a little over half the pack that I have... although I tend to pedal more than a bit. So I could probably go close to 40 miles at about 30 miles per hour - again, with moderate pedalling.


A hub kit like one sold by Wilderness Energy will go about 22mph for about 20 miles without pedalling. Obviously, if you pedal more, you could go a lot farther. $450 for everything
http://www.wildernessenergy.com

The GoHub motor kit goes about 20mph for about 30 miles. It uses a front-mounted Cystalyte 408 motor which should have reasonable acceleration too. It's $550 for everything.
http://largoscooters.com/go-hubkits.html

A more expensive BionX kit can supposedly go as far as 62 miles at approximately ~20mph - although without pedalling much at all it looks more like 28. These run around $1000 for everything. Plenty of places sell them - google "bionx", or one example:
http://largoscooters.com/bionx.html

Another alternative - which is closer to what I ride - is a Crystalyte brushless hub motor, such as the Crystalyte Phoenix. With the "Eon" lithium ion pack sold by Electricrider, it would get you up around 35mph over a distance of up to 51 miles - presumably that's without pedalling at all. That will run more like $1100 for the 48V kit.
http://www.electricrider.com/crystalyte/phoenix.htm

As mentioned above, I ride a Cystalyte Phoenix mounted on my front wheel, with a 44V 18Ah battery pack and go about 30mph for a range of about 40 miles (approx.). Lithium ions give a better range for the same capacity battery compared to lead-acid batteries - it has to do with how manufacturers rate capacity - they rate them at very low discharge rates. Various chemistries handle high discharges rates like an e-vehicle by reducing the "real" capacity. So an 18Ah lithium ion battery will get you a lot farther (usually) than an 18Ah lead-acid battery. (it's called the Peukert effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peukert's_law. Mathematics aside, the important thing is that the kits with lithium ions - including my own - give much better range than the ones using lead-acid batteries. But longer range is mostly (almost entirely?) due to the batteries.
 
Thanks a bunch to srdavo and to pm for your input. It seems the electric kits are a bit more capable than I had thought. I think I'll start saving up for one to mount on the John Deere.

Pete
 
Another one worth considering:
http://www.cyclone-tw.com/

They make a kit that attaches a motor in below the pedals. The nice thing is that it can use the gearing to give a better range of torque and top-speed. It goes about 20 miles at about 20mph, for $358 (inc. shipping) But there's no batteries included as near as I can tell (approx. another $70).
 
lotsa'...an e-drive is on my wish list, too...the few e-riders we have here have inspired me, no doubt :)

i'd love to experience a silent 20mph in the moonlight along the bay (no, i'm not making that up, it's my real life) 8)
 
8) i loved my CRYSTALYTE front hub motor on my girlie cruiser bike. it had 50(fifty!)-plus miles range w/no pedalling, 23mph on the flats. the 135-pound bike was a land barge, but it had power like a big-block CHEVY IMPALA. it also ran whisper-quiet, vibration-free, and warm to the touch, like cocoa.(except if you tackled a steep hill SLOWLY) :eek:

sadly, my bike lies disassembled now, awaiting my next impulsive adventure. :cry:
 
Back
Top