New GoPro video.
https://youtu.be/yIGC38yrk2k
This is a 4 minute ride partially through the same park as my snow riding video, and partially through a very short trail and in grass. Since the snow melted, I wanted to get some video of what the bike rides like in summer conditions. This is the first ride of the bike in decent traction off-road conditions. All I can say is WOW! This thing handles so well it almost feels wrong. The bike has amazing power, but it is controllable. It handles razor sharp, but is not twitchy. It is light, but has substance. I REALLY like the overall balance of power, speed, handling, weight, head tube angle, seat position, pedal placement, etc. Oh, this ride pulled about 4.6 ah out of the 80ah pack. That means this bike is good for well over an hour of this type of riding (probably about 70 to 80 minutes of riding just like in this video).
I pulled the data from the data loggers on the controllers and here is the raw info (all data is a total of both controllers combined for a true total system analysis).
This run pulled a maximum of 18,000 watts (when smacking the throttle open) during this run. That was a touch under 400 amps peak. That is very good because right now it is geared for 32 mph. That gearing was set for deep, wet snow riding. I innitially had geared it for 42mph when I built the bike and it pulled 580 amps. These controllers like a peak of about 540 to 550 amps to keep from erroring them due to over-amping. So, just as I found with the Motoped using the same drive system, it looks like 36 mph gearing is about perfect for my riding style, body weight, riding area, etc. Remember, this is without any augmentation what-so-ever. I have no torque limiter on this bike, no CA, nothing to ease the amp load. It is just a pure pass-through throttle setup that allows the controllers to pull all the amps I ask for, no matter how unreasonable that request may be. I could add a torque limiter or setup a CA for it and I could gear the bike for as high a top speed as I want without any over-amping issues at all. The reason I have not done that with this bike is because I have found any augmentation (torque limiting) wether mechanical or electronic, dampens the "Hit" (or the feel) of the throttle. There is a bit of processing delay in the CA that is noticeable when running an otherwise very responsive and powerful system like this, and a torque limiter takes away some snap of the front end by slipping a small amount upon innitial throttle opening. Also, the high 30s-mph is about perfect for my area. The 42mph top speed I had it geared for at first was scary fast for my area. Every place I have to ride is relatively tight. There is alot of on-off throttle transitions, tight turns, overall an area that favors sharp accelleration above top speed. If I gear it up and use a CA or a torque limiter, I would be running at a lower throttle setting to achieve the proper speed for my riding locations. This would just load up the controllers and heat them up from pulling high load at lower throttle setting than what is ideal. Now, if I lived in an area with open space like long fire roads or logging access roads, I would gear it up to favor top speed over acceleration. But, for my area, it looks like 36mph top speed gearing is perfect. That will give me the highest speed I would normally use, while maximizing my accelleration and keeping the amp draw below the threshold.
I am nearing perfection on this build. I have a couple tiny changes to make and this thing will be perfect for my needs.
Matt
