Single Speed Charge Plug Commuter – Q100H | 52v 6aH Battery

This is my second electric project, the first being a lightweight road bike with a 48v 17.5aH battery and Q128C 210rpm rear hub.



This was a fun bike to learn with but it was never quite the right combination. I've learnt that adding a massive battery and heavy (ish) rear wheel ruins the ride-ability over a lightweight carbon road bike. It rode horrible, you could feel every bump in the road and I also didn't need a battery that big for my 6 mile commute.

So, I sold up and decided to start again.

My base bike is a Charge Plug 0, I was previously very much a fixed gear rider and loved the simplicity of the single gear. I never changed gear on my road bike so it made sense to keep everything simple.

The Charge Plug's can also take fairly wide tyres, are well bike and made from steel.



I had a custom battery made from Jimmy (I'm UK based), after a lengthy discussion with him over a Luna Mighty Mini clone we agreed upon doing so with Sony VTC6 cells. He wouldn't build one using 30q's as he really doesn't rate them especially for a 14s2p setup.

The battery itself is tiny and actually a bit smaller than the Luna MM.



As with my Ribble road bike, there was no room to use the smaller PAS so I had to glue the ring onto the chain ring:



The motor this time round is a Q100H at 260rpm, I found the Q128C was great but wanted something a bit stealthier and faster.

This was laced into my previous wheel and looks perfect:



Everything came together in an evening once I had all the parts, the controller is currently in the storage bottle.



The battery is sat in that seat bag but I'm not totally happy with it. The seat bag itself is amazing and really doesn't move even when going over bumps etc so its great not to damage the battery, but it doesn't fit that great and there is a lot of room at the bottom. I'll continue to source a more square seat bag or maybe contact Luna about their one they use.

As you can see from the images above, the wires are messy! This was basically a shakedown test to make sure everything worked.

And... it did! I went for a 10 mile ride with a friend and the bike performed amazingly. This thing is fast, you can tell the difference of the 260rpm and extra voltage.

The motor is a bit noisier than the Q128 but it may quiet down a bit when worn in a bit.

I need to shorten all the cables so they sit in the bottle nice and tidy, when I'm done you shouldn't see anything.

I've also got another set of bars to go and these bull horns are horrible to ride with.

A few pictures from the ride out, hopefully get some more progress on this soon and be able to start commuting.

Very nice.

Slow progress on this sadly, weather over here has been horrid and I've been shortening every cable etc.

I really wasn't happy with the way the Topeak bag sat and how the battery fit within it, I went on search for a more squared back and the LBS had some Giant seat bags... these literally fit the battery perfectly.



Now that I've shortened every cable they fit nicely within the bottle I'm using. I'm not 100% finished with tidying the cables yet but want to get a few 100 miles on the bike before finalising anything. Much better now though!



I also replaced the bullhorns with some risers from a friend and they have improved the comfort a ton! Coming from a road bike with drop bars and then these bullhorns, risers are amazing.



I've taken the bike for a quick 5 miles tonight and its so comfortable to ride, I'm also using the new throttle from BMS that is much more hidden. It's a bit sticky but nice to use.

Plans for the future are to actually ride it when the UK weather sorts it self out and then fit some nicer all black tyres. Currently these are 32c but there is plenty of room for 38 / 42 which will make the ride even better.

I've been a bit concerned about putting potentially 1000w into the motor via the throttle so set the C6 param on the display to 5 which limits the amps slightly, max throttle now does a max of 700w which still feels great and means I don't have to be as careful no more.

Finally, single speed is how eBikes should be! This is easy to ride at 10mph and 25mph, the 16t rear cog doesn't cause me to spin up neither even when going my max.

Roll on warm weather!