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D-Man

100 kW
Joined
Nov 28, 2006
Messages
1,557
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hi D-Man

nice review ty

curious what your normal non assist speed was (pre conversion) and your speed now (after conversion ) with extra weight without assist over same conditions.
 
Hello 29a,

With me on the bike, total rolling weight of me plus the bike is about 240 lbs, not something you want to pedal too far. Especially up a hill. I think I pedalled it at 8mph in the flats without assist. Its not that difficult to pedal, just takes more effort. It coasts fine down hill.

I forgot to mention that the hub motor did get hot at the end of the hill climb I did above. Not super hot, but I would say it was the beginning point of hot. I could smell it. It was a 10 mile round trip hill climb. There was a 15 minute rest I took at the halfway point. Usually it only gets warm in the flats.
 
I have a couple questions, how are you connecting batteries to get 42 volts and what was the original distance you could travel at 36 volts (15mph).

Nice write up and great looking bike. - Dan
 
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Wiring and connectors
 
I think it looks great, very clean and straight forward design. I recognize the pack in the back because it's the same one I'm using, hehe. I love those things because they hold so much (including batteries). I love the pannier pockets on the side though, great for getting things from the store.
 
Also I wanted ask, have you thought about running the wires through the front of the pack or are the new ones completely blocked off in the front now?
 

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D-Man

Not meaning any diss
If u where to do your bike again from scatch would u still use the 408 motor or something else given your experiences.
 
Knightmb - thanks for the idea but the key switch wiring is in the way anyhow, so I ran the wires in the same way.

29a - If you don't have big hills, the 408 works fine. If I had lightweight batteries, 48 volt, it would be even better on hills but they cost too much. I noticed my bike will go up 7 degree hill easily with me walking next to it!

If I lived in the hills and didn't have a bike, I would look closely at the new elec trec electric bicycle with 600 watt motor. You can change the gearing. (evdeals.com) And because it runs on only 24 volts, (frame mount batteries), you could double up, and triple up with nimh on the back for more range.
 
knightmb said:
I think it looks great, very clean and straight forward design. I recognize the pack in the back because it's the same one I'm using, hehe. I love those things because they hold so much (including batteries). I love the pannier pockets on the side though, great for getting things from the store.


Of course it looks clean. That's cuz the post is blank!

Sure wish I coulda seen it. :cry:
 
Picture of the bike is over in the "photo section". (Specialized E-bike Conversion) As soon as I get the suspension fork installed, I'll update this thread with new pictures. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update: There won't be a suspension fork. I'm sending it back. It has loose parts inside of it and I don't like the crown. Mail order sucks. I'll stick with the steel fork. Going to look into high volume tires so I can use less pressure to get better "suspension."
 
Just wanted to say a few things about the Go-Hub kit. The problem with it is that you get very little slack in the wire harness that goes from the controller to the motor, at least in my kit. If you had a bike with a large travel suspension fork, you would have to lengthen it. Of course you can hack the harness if you want but too bad they didn't make it longer. From this picture, you can see it only has 1 inch of slack with no suspension.
 
Here's some before and after pictures of the battery wiring. I removed the various guages of wire they used and replaced with 8 guage wire I got a local hardware store. I stopped short of the controller as you can see from the picture above where it returns back to 12 guage wire. I got rid of the 6 volt battery isolation switch I didn't need and the anderson connectors. Looks more basic now.
 
Nice pictures.

One tiny suggestion for you, would be a good idea to isolate each battery tab with non conductive material and then tape them with filament or similar tape.. this prevents the wires from moving in the first place.. and accomplish that and you will never risk sparks in the event something moves..

How far are you traveling on this rig ?
 
Thanks for your concern Ypedal. I forgot to mention about the plywood hatch they give you with the Go-hub. It goes on top of the batteries. It keeps them from jumping around and short circuiting. Plus I have two large dowels on either side of the batteries. The wires are somewhat stiff. They were laminated with thin clear plastic. I unwrapped the plastic to make them in some spots more pliable. One good thing about the plywood, you can stick another battery on the front side of it. I had a 12v-7ah (borrowed from a relatives alarm system) battery on it when I was testing it on 48 volts for hill climbing. I could stick another 6 volt in there also but don't really need it here in the flat terrain. Plus the roads are being torn up and you can't go that fast anyhow. I use to go around 13 miles regularly but have backed off due to construction.
 
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This is very interesting and useful information for newbs like me. Especially on such a popular and highly-praised kit like this one. Thanks!
 
No problem giveahoot, yeah, its not a super fast bike or anything but its a lot of fun. :)
 
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