2 Crystalyte wheel builds. One heavily modified.

onespeed

100 mW
Joined
Feb 5, 2021
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37
Holes drilled in it are for air cooling. I figure it will be good to have this summer here in NYC when working on the bike.
 

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Have you had any problems with overheating up until now, or are you just inviting debris into your motor for funsies?
 
Have you had any problems with overheating up until now, or are you just inviting debris into your motor for funsies?
I am thinking about doing the same, but I ride almost exclusively on the road. No risk of debris. I heard this is also a good way to let water out? It water proofs it?
 
I am thinking about doing the same, but I ride almost exclusively on the road. No risk of debris. I heard this is also a good way to let water out? It water proofs it?
The road is full of debris- hell, depending on how much rubber particle and brake dust there is in your city, its possibly worse than what dust you'd see in farm country because it sticks.

It'll let water out, but now it's also far easier for it to enter and oxidize- if OP has a coating and is frequently re-greasing it'll be fine, but otherwise? The constant chop of the turning wheel during riding will also keep air from getting in to "cool" anything, if you wanted that you'd make a squirrel cage style fan like what you see on treadmill motors.
 
I heard this is also a good way to let water out? It water proofs it?
It will let *humidity* out, but not liquid water (any that is below the holes will just sit in there until it evaporates, but it can't directly drain unless lay the bike on it's side with the holes down).

To let liquid water out, the holes have to be at the very edge of the cover lip, right at the point the magnets are glued to the rotor backiron ring. Then when you park it, you need to ensure one of those holes is at the very bottom to let it drain. (you actually only need the one hole for this, on the side of the wheel that is angled downward when parked) Otherwise puddles will sit at that point and do what water does when sitting on metal.

Don't drill any of hte holes with the covers installed.

Only do it with them removed from the motor, or you will probably drill thru something inside the motor that is averse to holes in it and it will stop working as desired.


If you have overheating problems with the motor, you probably need a bigger motor or better gearing / wheelsize / winding choices for the usage and conditions you have.

If those are not options, then you should read up on the many threads and posts about cooling of hubmotors, as there has been significant testing done on which methods work better for which specific situations and motor types, etc.

If that's not an option, I would just avoid modifying the motor, as you risk more damage to it from the modifications than the heating, if it hasn't had a problem in the time you've been running it.
 
Among the many other things I've tried and would never do again, that's one of them. While I don't think the holes did any damage, I'm not too sure it helped much with cooling. I do think it helped with water in the motor as everytime I heated the motor up it would boil out what had accumulated inside. If I was worried about cooling today I would buy some ferrofluid from Grin.
 
I am thinking about doing the same, but I ride almost exclusively on the road. No risk of debris.
Um, the worst debris you can feed to your hub is steel fragments. Those you will find on roads frequented by automobiles.
 
Among the many other things I've tried and would never do again, that's one of them. While I don't think the holes did any damage, I'm not too sure it helped much with cooling. I do think it helped with water in the motor as everytime I heated the motor up it would boil out what had accumulated inside. If I was worried about cooling today I would buy some ferrofluid from Grin.
allright the FF from G. YEah I've just been limiting the wattage on the bike and going slow in 110 F. Riding it like a regular bicycle, boring, but whatever. I'll definitly see about that fluid. I also need to water proof my motor while I am opening it up to inject the fluid.
 
Totally waterproofing a motor is hard to do. Other than keeping the FF oil from leaking out, I don't bother anymore.
I gotta get a solution. What about spraying stators with that red laquor stuff?

I feel like e biking in the rain is safer than motorcycle in the rain

I need a cool running 4kW motor. My goal is to be able to obtain a top speed of 45 mph on flat good roads. I need waterproof or very very water resistant
 
Sure spraying anything never hurts. I had huge holes drilled in the side covers for cooling (that was the cool thing back in the day) and never had any problems. I must add that I never took it in the sand but it saw plenty of dirt.

Before I added FF my bike would go 43 mph as long as you wanted and stay under 80*C. However I had a temp probe inside my motor and watched it closely when going up hills. You must have the right motor controller combo or you'll have problems.
 
Um, the worst debris you can feed to your hub is steel fragments. Those you will find on roads frequented by automobiles.
That's a scary thought, after seeing how strong the magnets are, and the very limited clearance between the stator and magnets.
 
That's a scary thought, after seeing how strong the magnets are, and the very limited clearance between the stator and magnets.
My low tech temporary solution is to limit the current (i.e. lowest level of pedal assist) to help keep the motor from over heating. That f*ucker gets hot in 114 going up big ass hills! I don't think DD motors are designed for big hills and I read somewhere they will overheat no matter what if you are abusing them like I do. Good thing it seems like they can take some abuse(full throttle all the way).

The water proofing thing is something I need to work on asap. One guy sprayed the stators with some red stuff on a video, but I can't find that video. SEems like a special tool is needed to pull the magnet part(no idea what this is called) out. Any work around for that tool? What's the red stuff call anybody know?
 
My low tech temporary solution is to limit the current (i.e. lowest level of pedal assist) to help keep the motor from over heating. That f*ucker gets hot in 114 going up big ass hills! I don't think DD motors are designed for big hills and I read somewhere they will overheat no matter what if you are abusing them like I do. Good thing it seems like they can take some abuse(full throttle all the way).
I've found that Statorade and a temp sensor (and rollback as a safeguard) are a pretty good combo for controlling the temps on a DD motor for moderate to steep climbs. I've been doing temp testing on my motor for about a year now, using Statorade alone, ahead of my next upgrade of adding some low profile heat sinks. I'll be testing for the improvement afterwards. I'm not expecting much, but there's been lots of times that I wish I could make it another 50 yards without feathering the throttle to let the motor cool.
Here's a video of my main test route for collecting peak temp data. I have other routes to test how variations in speed impact the final temps and the top. Those are mainly for learning how my bike performs and using the throttle to control how the temps rise, rather than for the heat sink exercise. In this test, the motor starts at 37C at the bottom of the hill and reaches 98.7C at the top, 715 ft elevation gain. I try to maintain speed between 20 to 25 mph, which seems to keep the temps from rising too fast. I let the motor cool down to 74C at the top before riding back down, but the motor hit 101C from regen, so I had to stop halfway down.
Looking at the starting point at the bottom of the hill at the end, provides some perspective on the climb, since it's hard to capture steepness on video on the way up. If you can add some cooling improvements, and monitor the temps, there isn't a problem climbing any hill. You may need to stop or roll back on the throttle on a long climb, but that's not a big deal.
 
I believe you. Statorade: Check. I am guessing it's not a PITA to get it in there? I can skip the temp sensor right? CAn my hand double as a temp sensor ? lol

Hold on, will the statorade also help protect from water?

I think I need to crack open the motor and see what all the water and snow did to it... It was a very rainy season here this year....

How about those hub fins too? looks pricey, can I skip those too?
 
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I believe you. Statorade: Check. I am guessing it's not a PITA to get it in there? I can skip the temp sensor right?

Hold on, will the statorade also help protect from water?

I think I need to crack open the motor and see what all the water and snow did to it... It was a very rainy season here this year....
Nope, just facilitates heat transfer from the stator to the case, where air can provide cooling. In my older motor, I drilled and tapped a hole in the side cover to inject it, and didn't have a temp sensor. On my current motor, I opened the case, added a temp sensor, and applied the Statorade directly to the magnets. I'm sure either method works just as well. but applying it to the magnets is pretty cool to see.
Going forward, I won't own a motor without both Statorade and a temp sensor. I want to know what's going on. Same with cars. I'd rather have gauges to see what's happening than idiot lights that tell me afterwards what happened.
 
Nope, just facilitates heat transfer from the stator to the case, where air can provide cooling. In my older motor, I drilled and tapped a hole in the side cover to inject it, and didn't have a temp sensor. On my current motor, I opened the case, added a temp sensor, and applied the Statorade directly to the magnets. I'm sure either method works just as well. but applying it to the magnets is pretty cool to see.
Going forward, I won't own a motor without both Statorade and a temp sensor. I want to know what's going on. Same with cars. I'd rather have gauges to see what's happening than idiot lights that tell me afterwards what happened.
One of my motors just started having problems. It will suddenly spin in reverse. I'm gonna take it apart, see what's going on inside the motor. Pretty sure its a severed wire shorted halls.I'll install a temp sensor, and statorade

Without having any specs for the motor (Chinese brand) what can I expect as the max temp of the motor?
 
One of my motors just started having problems. It will suddenly spin in reverse. I'm gonna take it apart, see what's going on inside the motor. Pretty sure its a severed wire shorted halls.I'll install a temp sensor, and statorade

Without having any specs for the motor (Chinese brand) what can I expect as the max temp of the motor?
It will die in stages. I think halls, magnets, windings (someone can correct/confirm).
I have my temp rollback set to 100C, but try to avoid that by rolling back the throttle to manage the temps. I can confirm that the rollback works though, from a time that I wasn't looking at the temps during a pretty long climb. Some people run hotter, some cooler. I have spare hall sensors and don't have a problem changing them out, so the rollback should protect the magnets and windings from getting cooked, Hopefully.
 
Resident Relic Here.....Crystalyte X5 Series Hub Motors started to get Holes drilled in the side covers and Boeshield added in 2008 (no temp sensors). Had no issues with my (X5304). Only difference was only 2 holes per side but fairly large holes. Seemed to be trendy for a couple of years till Golden Motor started to add a Heat Exhaust Fan in the Axle Hub which I tried and it worked fine right up till it ripped my front forks apart.
 
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