I've went 200 miles on my e-bike

I know it's not great but hey...200 miles problem free riding. No flats. Nothing breaking. Forsen hub motor holding up very nicely. No broken spokes. It's been great. I need to get lithium batteries, though.

That's pretty good compared to mine. In the last 431 miles (as of last night) I've had quite a few little things go wrong, and a few big ones (including shearing off a welded-on pedal-drive sprocket when I didn't yet have that particular version's motor system operational!--walked a couple miles home on that night).

It *is* built from recycled junk, so I don't get too mad at it when it falls apart on me, though.

Have you had *anything* go wrong with yours? Or just act wierd, etc.?

I've got almost 200 mi. on my 9c . on 7.5 ah sla that's quite a few charges. So fer so good.

Mine is a little over 1000 miles just this summer. It had more miles but I had to put a new battery in the bike computer. The bike is a cyclone setup on a solid frame old Diamondback. I’ve also done a lot of trail riding with it, once a week. It's taken quite a beating this summer and is very reliable. I check it before each trail ride; last thing I want is to be stuck in the woods with a 62lb bike. The only issue with the bike is a bent rear rim. My fault for going too fast over a curb. Adjusted the spokes and it was good enough to ride with, not as true but very rideable. I also had to replace the cheap aluminum bike rack with a steel one. The batteries were just too much for the aluminum rack. Wasn't a problem till I started trail riding. Surprised things aren't breaking more, no suspension and I ride fairly hard in the woods.

I've had nothing major really happen. Only thing that has happened to me is one time I was plugging batteries in and huge spark came out and now their is no spark when I plug them in now. Not sure what that is all about but everything still works fine. And also, a screw fell out on my rear rack. That's it, though.

morph999 said:

I know it's not great but hey...200 miles problem free riding. No flats. Nothing breaking. Forsen hub motor holding up very nicely. No broken spokes. It's been great. I need to get lithium batteries, though.

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You need to get out riding more :wink:

When are we going to see pic's of your bike? I also thought you purchased a 5303 after you got the Forsen; how's that project going?


-R

i am now 983 miles...mostly bike trails... not a problem of any kind.... older norco alloy frame[no shocks[] found in dump....ping v2 36v 12amp battery...infineon 36v 20ampand CA...longest ride 43 miles...CA still showed 34 volts under load

Russell said:

morph999 said:

I know it's not great but hey...200 miles problem free riding. No flats. Nothing breaking. Forsen hub motor holding up very nicely. No broken spokes. It's been great. I need to get lithium batteries, though.

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You need to get out riding more :wink:

When are we going to see pic's of your bike? I also thought you purchased a 5303 after you got the Forsen; how's that project going?


-R

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I don't get out of the house much. Tomorrow, if it's not raining, I'll dust off the camera and put pics up. I meant to do it a while back. I don't have the money to put the 5303 on yet. I have everything but the bike.

Morph, I just got a new bike, I don't have any immediate plans for the old one, you can come and see if would work for you if you want sometime, its a Trek 850 solid cromoly all around.

Man, I bum out any week I don't get in at least 100 miles. Addicted to the pedaling now. But 200 miles using sla's is a lot compared to a big lithium pack that itches to go miles and miles and miles. And 100 miles of city riding must feel like 1000 miles on nice bike trails. Keep on trucking Morph.

My latest problem is too nice a MTB. I got a great deal on a used Giant, with 5.5 inch travel rear suspension, 4.5 on the forks. It rides like the road is made of marshmallows, and now the hard tail with the 5304 on it barely gets used. It pedals so nice, I don't want a motor on it. Imagine me feeling like that.

Dogman, I know exactly how you feel. I picked up a DK charger MTB pretty cheap for a conversion. High end components, lots of travel hydraulic disc brakes...the works. Now that I have been riding a few weeks, I think I will keep it as is and look for another one to do the conversion.

nomad85 said:

Morph, I just got a new bike, I don't have any immediate plans for the old one, you can come and see if would work for you if you want sometime, its a Trek 850 solid cromoly all around.

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Ok, I'll let you know in a couple days. Thanks for your offer. What kind of new bike did you get?

People always ask me why I stay home so much. I've went 20 miles in the last two days. Why don't I go out much anymore? I don't know. lol.

I partied lots in my college years. I did all kinds of things. I'm not that old. I'm 33 yrs old. The reason why I guess I stay home so much is that I'm flat broke. I spent the rest of my money on the 5303 because it was something I really wanted. I have a little money now but not the thousand dollars I had before. Hollywood movies don't really appeal to me anymore. TV is horrible.

I'd love to 40 mile rides on my bike but the SLA's won't go that far. I can get 10 miles out of them now easily actually. I found that if I go about 18 mph the whole time, I can get like almost 15 miles out of it if I pedal a little.

Up to a month ago, I made around $600 or so a month, but unexpectedly now I make about half of that, so broke doesn't even begin to describe me. Still, going out and riding the bike when I am not doing anything else can help take my mind off of it, usually to test new features I've added to it, or stuff I've changed.

Range on SLA doesn't have to be poor, but I'd recommend running at the highest voltage you can to help avoid as much of the Peukert effect as possible, by drawing lower currents for the same power out.

Some snips from a recent project blog post of mine relevant to this:

I had been running my ebike on 24V, and I upped that to 36V. So far the performance difference is pretty noticeable. Zippier starts with less current draw, both very important as the idea is to keep me from having to put any load on my poor knees (especially the kind of load needed to start from a stop, with a 120 pound bike plus me and cargo).

I didn't just change the voltage, I also changed the gearing for the motor, so that it still outputs about the same max speed to the rest of the drivetrain, but because of that it has better startup torque and gets to speed faster, and is in the high-current/low-speed region for a much shorter time.

So now, even with less total Ah on the bike (was 2x 12v 31Ah, is now 3x 12V 17Ah) it gets better results than it did before. I have not yet tested it's full range, but I think it will probably wind up slightly better range (was 15+ miles at around 15-16mph average cruising speed including sometimes generous pedalling, is now at least 10 miles at around 17-18mph average cruising speed with no pedalling).

I think that higher voltage, causing it to draw less amps for less time during acceleration, is combining with the Peukert effect to allow me to draw more from the lesser-capacity batteries.

At 24V the average cruising current was at a guess 15+ amps (didn't have a way to measure exactly, as I had no meter to do that). Startup currents were enough to pop the little 25 amp breaker I had installed, if I didn't help it start by pedalling pretty hard for at least a few strokes. At 36V the average cruising current is around 6-10 amps. Startup currents are over 20 amps (HF meter now used only goes that high), but it never pops the breaker.


So if you can do it, going higher voltage even with lower capacity cells, depending on other factors like gearing, may let you do better with less current.

I am at 200 miles on my bl wilderness energy kit using lifepo4 batteries i bought on ebay. things are going good. i love leaving the car at home.

Amberwolf you just gave me an idea I have always thought about going to higher voltage but knew that I would probably just run wot and gain nothing in range. But I have a euro loop on my 9c that limits speed/current when connected. What if I upped my ride to 48 v and hooked the speed limiting loop to a switch. Voila range mode or hill/ speed mode.

Someone please tell me if I am totally out in left field or maybe this has merit.

Well, if you're using a hub motor it'll make the wheel go faster, but probably wont' change the hill-climbing.

If you're running a motor thru a drivetrain to the wheel, and can shift to lower gearing so the extra RPMs get converted to torque thru that, then it should work fine, as long as your controller and your motor can deal with the extra voltage.

Yes I run a hub. Right now I do about 18 mph on flats no pedaling. I don't know how accurate my speedo is but it is the perfect speed for pedaling along right now. I really don't want more speed. If the loop works to limit wattage by limiting amps then I suppose more voltage will still increase speed even with the loop hooked up. Seems like time for a test maybe.

torker said:

Amberwolf you just gave me an idea I have always thought about going to higher voltage but knew that I would probably just run wot and gain nothing in range. But I have a euro loop on my 9c that limits speed/current when connected. What if I upped my ride to 48 v and hooked the speed limiting loop to a switch. Voila range mode or hill/ speed mode.

Someone please tell me if I am totally out in left field or maybe this has merit.

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Sure it would work. When I connected the white and black speed suppression wires on my 9C E-BikeKit controller it reduced speed by 40%. When running a 36V battery it's not so useful since it would have reduced my speed on the flats to 14 mph, with 48V though it's a different story. Still once you get hooked on the power and speed of 48V you may never want to stay in "economy mode". I haven't used a 48V pack yet on my 9C bike but I am addicted to 48V with my Bafang. Another reason to use the suppression switch is when you want better control of the throttle. When using higher voltages it doesn't take much throttle movement to lunge forward but when in the low speed mode it takes more throttle to produce the same power. Then instead of having to hold a part throttle you use full throttle more often which may be more comfortable.

-R

That was my thinking. Right now I use full throttle most of the time and it matches my pedaling really well. I can gain a little speed if I want or help out on hills without spinning too fast. I would like a little more on hills and into the wind though. I know what you mean about getting hooked on the speed though.