Another commuter starting a second build

Lurking for a while, signed up today and thought I'd say hello.

Electrical Engineering student at WVU, haven't got to work on the DARPA car yet, but soon. Electrical vehicles have interested me for a while, and I started biking downtown and back to save the 40~ $ a week in parking alone, got tired of the hills and looked around for some help. Here I am.



Now I'm not satisfied with it, and since it'll only take another week to pay for itself I'm starting to build another one. I don't want speed, just torque to get up some nice WV hills.



70$ bike from walmart (was a return), de stickered, fenders off this old cruiser bike, seat off an electric scooter. Awful bling now for my tastes though. Now I'll be worried about it getting stolen. Should be better visiblity at night though. :lol:

The plan now is a X-Lyte 5305 on the rear wheel and using my current 48V batteries until I can afford some fancy ones. With my current set up, it is more of "no pedal except for hills" type, but on the steeper hills I've get off it and push, and a few times it's overheated the motor, talk about a pain to lug up some of these hills.

But thanks for the board, it's hard to find a lot of info in a single place for e-bikes that isn't a store. I'll be around.

'allo brucey.
ar u a nice shark?

Announcing that you're in EE isn't something you should admit to openly around here unless you want to get pilastered by techie questions, & I'm just speakin of myself!


Just how steep are these hills?
Having to get out & push when you have a powerplant on hand doesn't make a whole lot of sense, not to mention just plain embarassing.
You sure you're not dropping voltage somewhere, & what's the current limit on your controller?
Theres guys here that are climbing the streets of san francisco with 48V nimh on a 5305.
Hope you get it all sorted. A wattmeter would help or separate V/I dpm/dmm to see whats going on.
An engineer once told me that if you can't measure it, it's not real.

Nice to see someone else using a carry bag on the top tube 8)

A 5305 should be able to climb a wall... what's your power input?

Its a wilderness energy cheapo brushed kit, although its running at 48 volts (bought a 4th battery) now, it didnt seem to up the torque a lot, but I keep up with traffic for the most part. Some of the worse hills a "2nd gear only" climb in a car. Is there a site where I could look up slopes?

I originally had the rack that came with the kit over the rear wheel, but I found that to be really screwey. With it on the seat except for the weight it seems to handle fine, pedalling a lot will chaff your legs though.

I take it back too, I'm not an EE I work at McDonalds. Actually wait, I draw a check. :lol:

Welcome aboard, You have a nice build there.

I'm interested in the details of the battery rack on bike #1. How does it attach in the front? How wide is it? I think the 'gas tank' position is much better from a handling standpoint than over the rear wheel. You also don't have issues with fatigue failures common with cantilevered rear racks.

If you're able to overheat the WE motor, you must have some steep hills. A 5305 should do it.

Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh said:

An engineer once told me that if you can't measure it, it's not real.

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So this engineer must not think he exists, since there is, as yet, no gradated measure of consciousness.

Close up pic of the rack, it's just the rack that came with the kit turned around and attached to the seat post. Since all the weight is on the frame of the bike the two metal pieces that would normally attach to the wheel hold up fine and are just zip tied in place for stability more than anything.



What I've found to suck though is the lack of fenders, my backpack has a nice line of mud down it now. Still beats driving. :lol:


Also, I know of two ways to measure consciousness: awake and not.[/img]

Hi Brucey,
Can you easily detach your pack to protect against theft? I'd be really worried about all my ebike parts disappearing from an otherwise well-secured ebike in a university setting.

Brucey said:

Also, I know of two ways to measure consciousness: awake and not.[/img]

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And dead and not. But this not a measure of consciousness -- an establishment of degree -- but rather an existential statement of status.

If someone wants to steal 40 lbs of lead batteries, they can take it. It'll give me an excuse to get something better. I've ridden it for 6 weeks now and no one has noticed its electric, its why I'm wanting to stay with a single speed hub motor too, I ride with other cyclist and they just think its a tool box or something and I have a weird front drum brake or something. :lol:

do you think the 4 12V 12Ah batteries will be enough to supply the 5305 at least temporarily? They don't have any sort of max/continous rating on the box, but ah well.

Brucey said:

I ride with other cyclist and they just think its a tool box or something and I have a weird front drum brake or something. :lol:

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Yah, flying under the radar is a comfort I fear we won't enjoy much longer.

do you think the 4 12V 12Ah batteries will be enough to supply the 5305 at least temporarily? They don't have any sort of max/continous rating on the box, but ah well.

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4, 12ah SLAs will provide all the current the 5305 and its controller can take, just not for very long compared to 12ah of other chemistries, and of course at a substantial weight penalty. While working on my lithium pack, I ran my 5304/35amp system with 4, 10ah SLAs. I got about 12 good miles of range. But just that much lead felt quite a bit heavier than my 80 volt 33ah lithium pack! Too heavy to even consider using 5 or 6 10ah SLAs on my bike.

Brucey said:

Close up pic of the rack, it's just the rack that came with the kit turned around and attached to the seat post. Since all the weight is on the frame of the bike the two metal pieces that would normally attach to the wheel hold up fine and are just zip tied in place for stability more than anything.

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OK, I see now. Good idea.

You could just drill out the rivets and get rid of the legs I suppose. A hose clamp around the top tube might work good to stabilize the "front" of the rack.

Yeah, I eventually plan to get a better battery pack of NiMH or lithium, whatever I decide at the time, but I won't be upgrading anything until this new bike pays for itself.

I never realized how expensive operating a car was until I started biking!

Expensive HAH. At one point I had 5 drivers(Teenagers) and 6 vehicles.. Totally immoral situation no matter how you measured. I was spewing emissions AND dollars... or making emissions WITH dollars. Either way dredful situation.

Serious question now..... do your thighs hit the rack mounted up there when you are pedeling.

if I'm sitting no, if I'm standing yes.

I also average 35,000 miles a year on my car over the past 3 years. Here is hoping to a bit less.

xyster said:

Hi Brucey,
Can you easily detach your pack to protect against theft? I'd be really worried about all my ebike parts disappearing from an otherwise well-secured ebike in a university setting.

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This is something i'm particularly worried about. i'm intending on getting a SLA setup while i wait for the lithium based battery set to arrive. I'm also wanting a 25k range minimum out of them, don't think its going to happen. i've already had a whole bike stolen at uni.

sabrewalt said:

Expensive HAH. At one point I had 5 drivers(Teenagers) and 6 vehicles.. Totally immoral situation no matter how you measured. I was spewing emissions AND dollars... or making emissions WITH dollars. Either way dredful situation.

Serious question now..... do your thighs hit the rack mounted up there when you are pedeling.

Click to expand...

Wow thats crazy - 5 drivers... you'd spend most of your time earning money to run them!!!!!

love the black stealth look of your bike! I think i'm going to paint my bike black now, after seeing yours!

Good choice on the full suspension. How is the WE brushed motor handling the extra voltage? It sounds like the motor heats up on hills. Are you using the stock controller? No problems with it at 48V?

I just bought another 36V pack of lead. It will do for me, I don't have a lot of hills to conquer. But it would be nice to have the additional Watts in a fourth battery. 12 miles is just not enough.

Top speed (as measured by my etrex) is about 31 mph at 48V 25A I've had some flukes with the satelites going crazy and saying I went 120, but I don't have hyperdrive on it yet. Its pretty easy to reproduce 31, however I might be on a very slight hill as I can't think of any perfectly flat roads in the entire town. The speed is great, as I dont ever want to go faster than 30 on a bike anyway (30 feels like atmosphere re-entry) The good news is parking is always abundant:



25,000 kids think they need to drive to go to class. Ha.

LOL, I love the exercise bike in the bike rack

Hi brucey. Looks like a fun bike to ride with your 48V system. Like E=IR, I am curious about whether you are using the stock WE controller. I have three WE BD36's on my trike and trailer, and would like to see how it performs at 48V's. Did you replace or modify the controller?

Howdy, sorry for lack of response time, I've had 40 hours of dental work done in the past week or so... but anyways.

Rassy: I'm using a 25 amp 48 volt brushed controller, I had to change the connectors on it to work on mine, but other than that it works fine.

I'm getting ready to order the x5305 in 26 inch rear wheel / 7 speed, any specific sites to recommend where to order it? Also, is taking a gear off the 7 gear cluster usually hard (In case its too wide?) Thanks for any help you guys offer, I'll be lurking until I get more updates on the bike.