Kona Ute - Electrified

Hi All

I bit the bullet at the end of last year and decided to wean myself off the car. (I have always wanted to make my own electric car but that's a whole other story!) So I've got a pretty much new 2010 Kona Ute, fitted with Yuba bags as the stock Kona ones liked to take on water.

I've done a fair bit of research and am going with a front mounted eZee motor from ebikes.ca, and a 48V 20Ah Ping battery with high rate BMS and 5A charger. Sure that's a big battery but with a background in electronics I will be able to sleep a lot better at night knowing that I can run the motor flat out and be well within the capabilities of the battery, as well as being able to upgrade the motor later if I need to. It's only a couple of extra kilos and not much more expensive than the 15Ah version

I plan to fit lighting and run it straight from the main battery also which is another reason I opted for the higher capacity. Not sure exactly where I'm going to mount it all yet! But that will be part of the adventure.

I will probably buy a CA too at some stage but I want to get the basics sorted out first.

Stay tuned for the installation and testing.

Nice man! Always like to hear from people who are getting away from cars. I think that will be a solid bicycle/ebike compromise. I have an Xtracycle ebike a built up, and I love it. Keep it up!

Great bike! I've built two of them around twin hub motors. They come stock with front motor, but I prefer rear or 2WD.
However, as much as I love the bike, I can't help riding my car when it rains... wish I was more of a hard-core biker

miuan said:

I can't help riding my car when it rains... wish I was more of a hard-core biker

Click to expand...

We all have our vices. I drive a car in the middle of the winter when there is more snow than road. The more the bikes are getting used the better though

miuan said:

Great bike! I've built two of them around twin hub motors. They come stock with front motor, but I prefer rear or 2WD.
However, as much as I love the bike, I can't help riding my car when it rains... wish I was more of a hard-core biker

Click to expand...

This is just the standard ute, not the electric one that Kona make.

I have only just started reading about dual motors. Can you run both off a single large controller? What about two controllers but a common throttle?

I mainly just need help with hill climbing. Here in Australia the legal limit is 200W, can you believe that? Anyway, what they don't know won't hurt them and I don't see police are going to start carrying around multimeters!

You want identical F&R motors, 2 controllers of same type, and a single throttle, or specially modded dual hall sensor throttle.
For low speed cruising you dont need 2 motors, above 30mph and up hills is when it really matters.
For more on 2WD check out this thread
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33429

OK finally got all the parts last week and spent yesterday and today putting it together.

Wired up with two switches - pre charge via 470ohm/10watt resistor, then the main power switch fires a 150A automotive relay (via 4 820ohm resistors in parallel to drop the nominal 48 volts to 12 volts) - works well but there is significant heat dissipation through the dropping resistors, so I will be looking towards something like a 48 volt relay or just a good contactor/breaker.

Just went for a few laps around the block and it seemed solid so rode it to work (3km/1.8mi each way) a short trip but is hilly all the way. Hill climbing was great with some legwork from me in top gear. Controller was warm but not too hot to touch. For reference it's about 35C/95F out and I didn't feel uncomfortable at all pedalling. This is with the panniers removed however so normally the bike will have another 10-20 kilos on board but I think it will handle it fine.

Biggest issue is the front brake caliper hits the hub. I unbolted it and added a couple of washers to get some clearance but it doesn't seem to have enough rotor area to clamp down on now so isn't working well. This is the first thing to fix. I might have to go to a bigger rotor or switch to rim brakes.

Second is sorting out the wiring - it's all sort of a rats nest at the moment and the battery box is a plastic tool box ratchet strapped to the rack. I want to get a custom box that is more secure and re do the wiring with some proper bus bars and a contactor/breaker.

Third I will have to invest in a cycle analyst and some lighting!

Hey nice work. I'm keen to follow the progress of this build. I want to make a dual motor set-up on a 700c road bike using a pair of Q100 36V 350W hub motors.

greydust said:

Biggest issue is the front brake caliper hits the hub. I unbolted it and added a couple of washers to get some clearance but it doesn't seem to have enough rotor area to clamp down on now so isn't working well. This is the first thing to fix. I might have to go to a bigger rotor or switch to rim brakes.

Third I will have to invest in a cycle analyst and some lighting!

Click to expand...

I strongly recommend this one:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=35095

As for the disc brake, I don't suggest you put a bigger rotor on that P2 fork unless it's a newer alloy model. On my steel P2 fork I bent the disc mount using bigger rotor and I had to replace it (had no warranty since only 6 inch rotor is allowed, guess for a reason...)

Get a good suspension fork anyway, it will treat you well. Suntour NCX works well, is not expensive and is meant for 7 inch rotors too.

I have been hoarding these for a few years now when I can find them on ebay. They can fit in a 13mm - 15mm gap between rotor and hub and they're all-in-one hydraulic (master and slave in the caliper, cable to the lever) with cooling fins and ceramic pistons. I have them on all my bikes and they are unbelievably good. The bad news is that I won't sell my spare set, they're pretty rare now and they sell for crazy money when they do come up for sale.

OK status update

- Main power now switched with 130A "4WD" battery master disconnect switch.
- Got disc spacer from ebikes.ca, not hitting any more but still not great stopping power when I'm carrying some speed.
- Have ordered BB7s to replace the stock BB5s (also, for some reason the rear caliper is impossible to adjust properly as the frame is in the way of one of the bolts.)
- Ordered a hebie stand to replace the stock stand that feels like it's going to give out soon
- Wiring is much neater now, still all in the tool box but with proper connectors. I have sourced someone to do a custom aluminium box that will use the bolt holes the standard Ute deck used to be in. Found panel mount Andersons too to make it all neat.
- Cycle analyst fitted
- Cycle lumenator fitted
- Have rear 48V lights but not fitted yet
- Horns fitted. Found some 24V car horns and wired in series. LOUD!

CA tells me I'm pushing a touch over 1000W at times. It's not for long stretches and the motor isn't even warm at the end of the ride so I'm pretty satisfied it's running OK. According to the CA I'm getting 40kph on the flat.