My Statorade has run dry, or at least that's what the evidence is pointing to. I added Statorade to my hub two years ago, and it's been running nice and cool until a few weeks ago. That's when I started noticing the motor getting hot, even on flat ground, when horsing around with some spirited riding. It was hitting the high 80Cs, when normally it would stay in the lower 70Cs even when mashing on the throttle a lot. I also noticed the motor getting hotter more quickly on hills.
This weekend I did some offroad testing on a few trails I normally wouldn't have an issue with and my observations were confirmed. The motor was getting near the danger zone half way up hills that I would normally ride up without a problem. Additionally, it would continue to heat up after I was off the throttle (it shot up 10C is a couple of seconds). The normal behavior is that the motor cools very quickly when off the throttle, but now it cools very slowly, which to me, confirms that the Statorade is no longer working.
I reread the super long hub motor cooling thread, and a few other Statorade maintenance related threads, but it's hard to glean whether maintaining Statorade should be based on time or miles. As I mentioned, I've gone 2 years without topping off or flushing, and around 7k miles. I've decided to add Statorade to my rigorous ebike maintenance routine, which currently consists of checking the axle nuts once a month, and lubing the chain twice a year. Should Statorade be part of an annual/biannual maintenance routine or something done every 5k miles or so? Also, some threads mention flushing the old stuff out, so that would affect how to maintain it. On my old ebay motor, I had drilled and tapped a filling hole in the case, but for my current motor, I opened it and had the very satisfying experience of applying it directly to the magnets and watching them suck it up. If maintenance is just adding fluid, I'd drill and tap a fill hole.
This weekend I did some offroad testing on a few trails I normally wouldn't have an issue with and my observations were confirmed. The motor was getting near the danger zone half way up hills that I would normally ride up without a problem. Additionally, it would continue to heat up after I was off the throttle (it shot up 10C is a couple of seconds). The normal behavior is that the motor cools very quickly when off the throttle, but now it cools very slowly, which to me, confirms that the Statorade is no longer working.
I reread the super long hub motor cooling thread, and a few other Statorade maintenance related threads, but it's hard to glean whether maintaining Statorade should be based on time or miles. As I mentioned, I've gone 2 years without topping off or flushing, and around 7k miles. I've decided to add Statorade to my rigorous ebike maintenance routine, which currently consists of checking the axle nuts once a month, and lubing the chain twice a year. Should Statorade be part of an annual/biannual maintenance routine or something done every 5k miles or so? Also, some threads mention flushing the old stuff out, so that would affect how to maintain it. On my old ebay motor, I had drilled and tapped a filling hole in the case, but for my current motor, I opened it and had the very satisfying experience of applying it directly to the magnets and watching them suck it up. If maintenance is just adding fluid, I'd drill and tap a fill hole.