winkinatcha
10 kW
Hey Josh!
Thanks for the reply
I have been exploring lighter, road oriented builds at my workshop for the last couple of months, thanks to a fortuitious purchase of a bunch of geared mini hubmotors pre-laced into 700c rims.
I am good mates with a Sydney-based, predominantly industrial motor and drive system supplier. I was acting as customer support and tech trouble-shooter for the lad as he was also importing and selling bicycle hubmotor conversion kits with little knowledge of the actual kit components and zero knowledge of bicycles. The kits and customers got to be too much of a pain in the ass for the guy to sell, and so I managed to purchase all his stock.
When the stuff arrived at my workshop, I discovered the mini motors were amongst the various kit iterations, and pretty impressed with the lightness of the wheels, even with massively over engineered spokes and hubs, I decided to push together a build based on a vintage chroMo steel 27" wheel racer.... I've found a way of using a seat post rack inside the triangle as a battery support platform, and had discussed this with the sydney supplier and wanted to demonstrate to him how I did it, so I took a few photos of the build, and emailed them through... His comment... "hey that's really neat, with the seatpost rack, but where did ya get those little motors from?" the guy hadn't even opened the boxes of his own stock!!! My gain his loss I guess
Anyways, further work and lots of riding on a legal in Aus (250w max speed 25km/h) e-bike build (the original ChroMo 27" racer doner bike) pretty much convinced me I was onto something which might interest the pedal-only community, particularly the crusty older members whos knees and stamina start to fade on the hills, but their love of being on a bike keeps 'em on the road. I've had a few cyclist/commuters test ride the first example over a few days of 20 to 40 km commutes with positive feedback, tho the top speed (25km/h legal in AUS) tends to be around 5km less than what a reasonably fit cyclist prefers to cruise at... This has just now been resolved on a new test build I have just completed... another ChroMo vintage racer donor bike... that I've rigged with a modded controller (reduced from 20 amp to 10 amp, and capable of running at voltages from 24v Nominal to 60v), and have just been charging around on it with 12s Lipo (50v hot off the charger), giving me a max push speed of around 35km/h.. Power and top speed now 33% above legal, but not so much of a bother as I am yet to be pulled over by Law enforcement, in the last three years of dedicated e-bike riding on a range of powers from 4kw down to legal...
Blah blah blah...
Anyways.. this year I'm gonna be taking a legal e-bike vintage conversion on this local ride:
http://www.fyxomatosis.com/index.php/melburn-roobaix-mainmenu
40km of cobblestones should, if nothing else, provide a good test for the robustness of the build, and like the somewhat longer n more strenuous rides you and others on this thread have embarked on, this is NOT a race, and I expect to be either the only electric bike or at least in a minority...
I am tossing up with the idea of wearing a large Hi-vis vest with the word "Cheater" written large on the back.
Joe
Thanks for the reply
I have been exploring lighter, road oriented builds at my workshop for the last couple of months, thanks to a fortuitious purchase of a bunch of geared mini hubmotors pre-laced into 700c rims.
I am good mates with a Sydney-based, predominantly industrial motor and drive system supplier. I was acting as customer support and tech trouble-shooter for the lad as he was also importing and selling bicycle hubmotor conversion kits with little knowledge of the actual kit components and zero knowledge of bicycles. The kits and customers got to be too much of a pain in the ass for the guy to sell, and so I managed to purchase all his stock.
When the stuff arrived at my workshop, I discovered the mini motors were amongst the various kit iterations, and pretty impressed with the lightness of the wheels, even with massively over engineered spokes and hubs, I decided to push together a build based on a vintage chroMo steel 27" wheel racer.... I've found a way of using a seat post rack inside the triangle as a battery support platform, and had discussed this with the sydney supplier and wanted to demonstrate to him how I did it, so I took a few photos of the build, and emailed them through... His comment... "hey that's really neat, with the seatpost rack, but where did ya get those little motors from?" the guy hadn't even opened the boxes of his own stock!!! My gain his loss I guess
Anyways, further work and lots of riding on a legal in Aus (250w max speed 25km/h) e-bike build (the original ChroMo 27" racer doner bike) pretty much convinced me I was onto something which might interest the pedal-only community, particularly the crusty older members whos knees and stamina start to fade on the hills, but their love of being on a bike keeps 'em on the road. I've had a few cyclist/commuters test ride the first example over a few days of 20 to 40 km commutes with positive feedback, tho the top speed (25km/h legal in AUS) tends to be around 5km less than what a reasonably fit cyclist prefers to cruise at... This has just now been resolved on a new test build I have just completed... another ChroMo vintage racer donor bike... that I've rigged with a modded controller (reduced from 20 amp to 10 amp, and capable of running at voltages from 24v Nominal to 60v), and have just been charging around on it with 12s Lipo (50v hot off the charger), giving me a max push speed of around 35km/h.. Power and top speed now 33% above legal, but not so much of a bother as I am yet to be pulled over by Law enforcement, in the last three years of dedicated e-bike riding on a range of powers from 4kw down to legal...
Blah blah blah...
Anyways.. this year I'm gonna be taking a legal e-bike vintage conversion on this local ride:
http://www.fyxomatosis.com/index.php/melburn-roobaix-mainmenu
40km of cobblestones should, if nothing else, provide a good test for the robustness of the build, and like the somewhat longer n more strenuous rides you and others on this thread have embarked on, this is NOT a race, and I expect to be either the only electric bike or at least in a minority...
I am tossing up with the idea of wearing a large Hi-vis vest with the word "Cheater" written large on the back.
Joe
