750/1500 watt hubmotor

Hi folks first post, been lurking and reading for quite a while, always a treasure trove of useful information. I already have a BBSHD w/ 52V Shark on a Yuba Cargo bike as my main transportation which has been a total workhorse and does pretty much anything I ask of it with the exception of off-road use.

Never had a hub motor so went ahead and ordered a brushless 1500 watt motor off eBay which I intend to install on my old Specialized hardtail, probably will leave it on the 750 watt setting initially using the battery I already have:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322269304808?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Would appreciate any insight or feedback on these particular motors, is there mods like beefing up wires with thicker gauge or anything? My intention is to eventually spring for a nice full suspension frame/bike at some point if I enjoy the hub motor off road, possibly purchase a higher quality hub motor too if needed.

Added: I have determined the unit is a 9C so I might try and tackle a phase wire upgrade if it seems to get overly warm during the summer months. I am clueless about hub motors, should I start looking for a good set of torque arms?

Yes, torque arms. On the rear, making them yourself can fit better. Two of them on an alloy frame.

Gotta luv the way they put a watt number on things on ebay, or alibabba.

The picture looks like a typical 750w-1000w kit. The motor is a direct drive 500w rated motor, or at least that is what it appears like in the picture. 28 mm magnet width motor, which many have run at 3000w. I personally advise limiting those motors to more like 2000w. I have run one, briefly before I melted it, at 4000w.

So anyway, no issues with running it at 1500w, 48v and a 30 amps controller. It could easily come with a 30 amps controller, I am just saying the box in the pic looks like the smaller 9 fet 22 amps type. The kit may just come with a longer 12 fet controller. Pics on the page and what they send can vary, the motor or controller may look different on the outside. I see no 9c logo on the outside, but there are literally thousands of motor factories in China that make motors near identical to the 9c/muxus.

One thing to know, at that price the motor will be laced with the cheapest spokes in the world, on the cheapest rim in the world. Depending, your spokes, with careful maintenance could last years. Or maybe a week. So for sure, don't ride around with any loose spokes on that wheel. Don't over tighten them either, that rim can't handle that.

You might want to relace that thing with a better rim, if off road use starts popping spokes. The stuff I ride off road never gave me a problem. Those were motor wheels from my employer, that have saipam spokes, and a cargo bike type eyletted rim.

Thanks I noticed there was one single review hidden at the bottom of the page:

"Review of 1500W 48V Rear Wheel Conversion kit.
Here is what I wish I had known before purchasing this kit.
1. The motor is a standard 9C hub motor with disc brake and freewheel attachements.
2. The motor is laced into a double wall aluminum rim that is pretty thin but of decent quality.
3. The 1500W motor controller is a 15 FET model with 7.1mOhm / 100V /300 watt FET's. It's capable of living up to 1500 watts but isn't as overbuilt as some. The circuit board it self is surprisingly clean and well labeled (in english)"

I'll take your advise and use torque arms, put the wheel on the truing stand and make sure spokes are tight. like I said before I'll run it on the lower power setting for a while and see how it feels.

Well cool, or not,,, The photo is not what you will get, that's not a 15 fet box in the picture. They will send you a "nine continent type" motor and some kind of controller, presumably a 30 amps one.

At 200 a pop, what do you expect. they will send you something, most likely. Its not going to have spokes and rim you'd expect to last riding off road. At least not around here, where its rocky as hell. The motor will just about last forever, if you pedal enough up reasonable grade trails, and when your wheel blows up, you can rebuild it with a stronger rim and quality spokes.

Yeah it will be interesting to see what a couple hundred bucks buys, mostly wanting to keep the internals happy and functional, the cheap rim I can replace with a quality beefy double wall if it appears problematic, not planning on doing any rock garden riding at this point, my neighborhood has some nice single track trails and BLM roads that are fun to get lost on. I prefer to have quality spokes and rims on my bikes though so I'll probably just order replacements and start reading up on controller upgrades too.

Start with truing the rim. Ride itfor 10 miles and repeat. This will get you started. I use spaim spokes and an alxe 24rm rim. Broken spokes come with the territory.

I have that kit, and am the one who wrote the review.

I've learned some more things since writing the review. The motor has 0.35mm laminations and has a 30mm stator. It's really a very good deal for the money. I added ferrofluid and hubsinks and it's now quite capable.

-Jim

King Jamez

Thanks for the info, have you been running the controller that came with it? I'm curious what the number of windings is on the motor they sent you. I'll go ahead and read up on how to add ferofluid, that's the stuff that helps keep the thing cool isn't it?

Raisedeyebrows said:

King Jamez

Thanks for the info, have you been running the controller that came with it? I'm curious what the number of windings is on the motor they sent you. I'll go ahead and read up on how to add ferofluid, that's the stuff that helps keep the thing cool isn't it?

Click to expand...

No, that controller is sitting in my parts bin. I immediately put a Sabvoton 60A on it so that I could get regen.

I haven't used it much. It was more of an impulse purchase since the price was so low. I've been distracted on finishing that build due to my new "fast" bike build. I'll get around to finishing that bike eventually, but you'll probably beat me to it.

Ferrofluid thermally joins the stator with the outside of the motor. Hubsinks cool the outside of the motor. Combined they can significantly improve the average power capability of the motor. I'd say 3000w continuous should be no problem for that motor with ferrofluid and hubsinks.

Ebikes.ca is the North America source for both of those products. I bought mine from them and it came from Canada to Virginia very quickly.

-Jim

The Hubsink looks like a nice unit, is that a good way to go as far as a heat sink? I tried to find the Sabvoton 60A controller on Ebikes.ca but had trouble finding it, I'll keep looking. Like to hear any other recommendations of sinewave controllers that might be a nice fit for one of these hubs.

Raisedeyebrows said:

The Hubsink looks like a nice unit, is that a good way to go as far as a heat sink? I tried to find the Sabvoton 60A controller on Ebikes.ca but had trouble finding it, I'll keep looking. Like to hear any other recommendations of sinewave controllers that might be a nice fit for one of these hubs.

Click to expand...

Sorry my post was confusing. Ebikes.ca has both ferrofluid and hubsinks. I got the sabvoton from Electricrt. It's probably overkill for that motor though, you might look at PowerVelocity's sinewave infineon clone. It looks like a good match from both a performance and price point to your kit.

-Jim

Thanks I realized you weren't referring to the Hubsink in particular but I noticed it looked like an interesting unit when I looked at threads on heat sinks.

Edit: went ahead and ordered the Hubsink and Statoraid from Ebike.ca, glad to support him. I see Powervelocity has 12 mosfet 50A controller for $150.00, is that about what I'm going to need?

I see the Infineon clones PowerVelocity has listed now available include 12F 4kW, if I purchase one of these I should be able to hook it up and interface easily with my IOS devices to tell it what level of amps, LVC, type of battery etc etc? The controller that came with the unit:

Just getting back to this particular project, been a busy summer so far so it's been on the back burner. Installing a suspension fork w/ disk mount on the frame with new headset. Put the hubmotor on the wheel stand yesterday and checked spoke tension, amazingly it seems very even and the wheel is nice and straight, I see no reason to adjust it at all and once it's in use I'll check it again after a week or two.

Applying the Statoraid seems easy, next I'll do that and install the heat sink fins. After that will be making sure the torque arms are mounted super securely, seeing photos of what can happen has certainly wized me up to the importance of that.