egosphere
1 mW
Hi ES.
First timer here looking to electrify my bike.
I recently moved to LA and refuse to commute by car. Living previously in Boston, I transported myself everywhere on a conventional bike. But distances are much greater here so I want to electrify my bike to transform it into a commuting vehicle.
First let me outline my needs. My commute is ~10 miles each way, with one of the ways having a ~350-foot climb overall, of which 250 feet is steady climb over the last 0.6 miles. My route goes through city streets with traffic and lights. It's paved but there are potholes. I can charge at each end if necessary. I weigh 160 lb and am physically able but want my commute to be easy, sweat-free, and fun. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure what this means in terms of speed, but more power is always better and more fun. My budget is $500-700 for electrifying with a strong desire to cut costs wherever possible but willing to spend a little more to get quality.
Before considering the option of electrifying, I've already purchased and built a chromoly-frame city bike with an 8-speed internal gear hub (IGH) because I prefer IGH in conventional urban bikes due to their no-fuss nature. The bike is the Windsor Kensington from Bikedirect (http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/windsor/kensington8.htm) and it's equipped with a Shimano Nexus 8 IGH.
As far as I understand, the IGH on the rear wheel precludes rear-wheel hub motors as an option (it might also preclude disc brakes; right now it has front and back rim brakes; is this ok?). So I'm left with the options of a front-wheel hub motor or mid-drive motor unless I get a new bike or convert this one to derailleur gears (tell me if this is absolutely necessary). If hub motor, I'm not sure if I should get a geared motor or direct drive. As I understand it, a geared motor would be lighter, the sound of which I like and I think I'll sacrifice top speed for that. For mid-drive motor, I understand there are some complications with an IGH since they can't take all the torque from the engine, but mid-drive's power and lightness seem appealing. I read that with a mid-drive, I have to be careful to kill the motor when changing gears (by feathering the brake or wiring in a button switch). This sounds fine for me -- I'm sure I'll get used to that, like driving a stick -- as long as the Nexus 8 can even withstand the torque while not shifting. What kind of motor would you recommend? What power specs? Where would be the most economical place to procure this motor and associated components? I'm ok with waiting for shipping.
For battery, I think I'll stay away from heavy SLAs. I'm also a little scared of lipos burning down the place -- am I right to be? I understand that lifepo4 is overall preferable but I'm not sure what the real difference between li-ion and lifepo4 is. I've read that sun-thing28 on ebay is a reliable vendor of lifepo4 packs and I've seen 48V15AH packs from him for ~$330 shipped. I saw em3ev and ping are also recommended but more expensive. There's also hobbyking. If I go with hobbyking, I will have to combine a few smaller packs into a reasonable pack for ebiking, right? One thing I don't understand is how I can transform 6.6v packs into a 48v pack since putting 6 of these in series gives 46.2v and 7 gives 52.8v -- is voltage approximate or does it need to be exact?
I'm very happy to make this a little summer project for me and put together some of these things myself. I'm only wary of getting in over my head and destroying parts I paid good money for.
Thanks so much for your help. I am really excited to join the community of electric bicyclists!
First timer here looking to electrify my bike.
I recently moved to LA and refuse to commute by car. Living previously in Boston, I transported myself everywhere on a conventional bike. But distances are much greater here so I want to electrify my bike to transform it into a commuting vehicle.
First let me outline my needs. My commute is ~10 miles each way, with one of the ways having a ~350-foot climb overall, of which 250 feet is steady climb over the last 0.6 miles. My route goes through city streets with traffic and lights. It's paved but there are potholes. I can charge at each end if necessary. I weigh 160 lb and am physically able but want my commute to be easy, sweat-free, and fun. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure what this means in terms of speed, but more power is always better and more fun. My budget is $500-700 for electrifying with a strong desire to cut costs wherever possible but willing to spend a little more to get quality.
Before considering the option of electrifying, I've already purchased and built a chromoly-frame city bike with an 8-speed internal gear hub (IGH) because I prefer IGH in conventional urban bikes due to their no-fuss nature. The bike is the Windsor Kensington from Bikedirect (http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/windsor/kensington8.htm) and it's equipped with a Shimano Nexus 8 IGH.
As far as I understand, the IGH on the rear wheel precludes rear-wheel hub motors as an option (it might also preclude disc brakes; right now it has front and back rim brakes; is this ok?). So I'm left with the options of a front-wheel hub motor or mid-drive motor unless I get a new bike or convert this one to derailleur gears (tell me if this is absolutely necessary). If hub motor, I'm not sure if I should get a geared motor or direct drive. As I understand it, a geared motor would be lighter, the sound of which I like and I think I'll sacrifice top speed for that. For mid-drive motor, I understand there are some complications with an IGH since they can't take all the torque from the engine, but mid-drive's power and lightness seem appealing. I read that with a mid-drive, I have to be careful to kill the motor when changing gears (by feathering the brake or wiring in a button switch). This sounds fine for me -- I'm sure I'll get used to that, like driving a stick -- as long as the Nexus 8 can even withstand the torque while not shifting. What kind of motor would you recommend? What power specs? Where would be the most economical place to procure this motor and associated components? I'm ok with waiting for shipping.
For battery, I think I'll stay away from heavy SLAs. I'm also a little scared of lipos burning down the place -- am I right to be? I understand that lifepo4 is overall preferable but I'm not sure what the real difference between li-ion and lifepo4 is. I've read that sun-thing28 on ebay is a reliable vendor of lifepo4 packs and I've seen 48V15AH packs from him for ~$330 shipped. I saw em3ev and ping are also recommended but more expensive. There's also hobbyking. If I go with hobbyking, I will have to combine a few smaller packs into a reasonable pack for ebiking, right? One thing I don't understand is how I can transform 6.6v packs into a 48v pack since putting 6 of these in series gives 46.2v and 7 gives 52.8v -- is voltage approximate or does it need to be exact?
I'm very happy to make this a little summer project for me and put together some of these things myself. I'm only wary of getting in over my head and destroying parts I paid good money for.
Thanks so much for your help. I am really excited to join the community of electric bicyclists!