LightningRods mid drive kit

Rotems said:
I don't think that this is the right place to ask for it but you are not responding to my emails.

This is absolutely not the right place. I did respond to this person's e-mail.
 
Hey Mike can you post a list of your build queue. I cant wait to strap this drive to my Santa Cruz. 18s2p 16ah multistars for speed. 12s3p for range/pedal cadance. I hope there in stock soon so I can finalize the shape of my fiberglass battery enclosure. It's just a Styrofoam block at the moment. I ordered a 12t 15t and 18t #219 drive to play around with the ratios.
 
I'm shipping orders that are six weeks old right now. You can tell where you are on the build list by when you ordered. If you ordered a month ago, your order should ship within two weeks. By the end of this month I hope to be shipping within 30 days.
 
FluxShifter said:
... 18s2p 16ah multistars for speed. 12s3p for range/pedal cadance. ...
RANGE shouldn't change if you re-arrange your batteries but keep total number of cells the same. the capacity you have stays the same, so does your range. so if you just ride slower with your 18s setup your range will be the same as 12s, with the advantage of sending lower amps to the motor.
 
Yes but it will be alot easier to pedal along at 48v than 72v wich adds to my range. I could lower the amps at 72v and help run cooler. Either way with 2.3kwh of battery I should be able to get down the trail pretty far.
 
FWIW, I can only peddle at 72V up to about 30kmh. From 30-50 I might as well be peddling backwards. I also have the chainring set up for speed, not cadence.
If I limit to 2.5kW, I can forcefully peddle and feels more like assist...@72V 5kW peak, the acceleration is so fast that I only get about 2-3 peddle rotations before it's past my cadence.
 
LightningRods said:
The current kit can be used on a recumbent by mounting it on the crank boom. I'm really interested in building a recumbent with the motor in between the seat and rear wheel. I have a new two jackshaft design that has a lot of advantages. On a bike with a very long chain run, like a cargo bike or recumbent, one advantage is that it separates one long and problematic chain into two more normal length runs.

I'm currently building a mid bike drive for the Lunacycle fat bike. Following that will be a Surley Big Dummy cargo bike that's on my build bench. I'd love to follow that up with a recumbent.


Mike,

One thing at a time, I know :) But, what recumbent model were you looking at? I assume you would do a similar design to your BD/Luna bikes?

The BD will be my commuter and my workhorse. One day I hope to get a LWB recumbent (and sell my SWB recumbent) with fairing and the works for long-distance bikepacking/touring. It's not a priority, perhaps many years away, but I was curious as to which model you were thinking of building on.
 
I haven't found a model of recumbent tadpole that I've latched onto yet. What I have seen are a number of models of recumbents that use ALL of the premium space behind the seat for the rear suspension gubbins.

Having the mid drive between the bottom bracket and rear wheel is definitely the way to go when possible. Two manageable short chain runs instead of one long one, more gearing options, less motor reduction required making it possible to use bigger drivers and smaller drivens, and a stock bottom bracket with no motor wear and tear going through it.

Dean sent me his Surly Big Dummy frame months ago to design the cargo bike mid drive. It's nearly finished and he gets the first one. :D
 
Yeah I've been looking at tadpoles so far. The same ideas do apply to the two wheeled recumbents as well.

When I first got interested in building my own EV I was thinking about something in between an electric tadpole recumbent and one of the T-Rex three wheeled motorcycles.
 
The Tour Easy LWB recumbent would be a good choice. Plenty of options like fairing, and plenty of space to mount a drive and batteries, etc.

philip_toureasy_ecospeed1sm.jpg
 
Hi all,

I'm looking at mountain bikes to purchase to fit my ordered 1500 kit onto.

Are there any mounting limitations to the downtube shape I need to be aware off ?

I've noticed that a lot of modern mountain bikes have a curved down tube near the chain ring.

The Specialized Camber For example :
http://cdn.coresites.factorymedia.com/bikemagic_new/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/01-IMG_1752.jpg

I noticed that the 2nd bike listed on the Customer Rides Page, on LIghting Rods web site here appears to be a Kona Stinky, which has a milder curve in the down tube than the specialized camber. http://www.lightningrodev.com/rides/index.html

Thoughts, Experience, and comments very welcome.

Thanks :)
 
Deanwvu said:
The Tour Easy LWB recumbent would be a good choice. Plenty of options like fairing, and plenty of space to mount a drive and batteries, etc.

I'm sure that the Tour Easy works well but -damn- that girl would need to have one great personality before I'd date her!
 
1080p60 video of the BB kit on a Motobecane Sturgis bullet.

[youtube]EXMmedVzNUA[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXMmedVzNUA

I have this limited to 3kw right now. No issues in any gear except 10t rear, 10t only handles about 1.5kw before the derailure can't keep enough wrap on it.

Super super happy with this bike and Mike's product. Will post a final video that shows all of the aspects this machine does well now. It rides slow, it rides fast, lifts the front on demand, all in a controllable manner.

Note this is very close to how it actually sounds too. Tires, brakes, rear wheel freewheel are all about the same noise level as the motor. I use an 18fet Lyen so likely this can be made quieter with a sine wave controller if noise is a sticking point.

you NEVER hear a belt or any of the chains....they are all silent. Freewheels make all the noise to be hoenst.
 
LightningRods said:
Deanwvu said:
The Tour Easy LWB recumbent would be a good choice. Plenty of options like fairing, and plenty of space to mount a drive and batteries, etc.

I'm sure that the Tour Easy works well but -damn- that girl would need to have one great personality before I'd date her!

Yes, but the problem with the "sexy" 2-wheel recumbents is the general lack of space to mount things like a mid-drive. My Bachetta is literally just a stick with wheels and a crank--no way to reliably mount one of your rigs to it.
 
Deanwvu said:
My Bachetta is literally just a stick with wheels and a crank--no way to reliably mount one of your rigs to it.

If your bike looks like this:

giro-26.jpg


I could definitely mount a mid bike drive reliably to that big frame tube. I'd have most of the drive under the frame. Certainly the drive sprocket. I think it'd be awesome. Maybe once you have your Big Dummy back home. :D
 
LightningRods said:
Deanwvu said:
My Bachetta is literally just a stick with wheels and a crank--no way to reliably mount one of your rigs to it.

If your bike looks like this:

giro-26.jpg


I could definitely mount a mid bike drive reliably to that big frame tube. I'd have most of the drive under the frame. Certainly the drive sprocket. I think it'd be awesome. Maybe once you have your Big Dummy back home. :D


That is my bike, yes, except that I have a 20" front wheel instead of the 26" shown in that photo (mine has a 26" rear wheel and a 20" front).

Where do you think it would be placed? Behind the seat or ahead?

Nice thing about this frame is that it's REALLY easy to ship--it's basically a large baseball bat :)
 
I was thinking about mounting the drive right where the rear mounting bracket for this thingy is. Probably motor and primary reduction above the frame, the second jackshaft with the pedal input and final drive sprocket below the frame. As long as the frame tube is smaller in diameter than the motor is wide it would work sweet. If the frame tube is over 3" in diameter you may have to go for the big block. Oh darn!
 
What would be bad ass is a LR kit on any of these 3 or 4 wheel trikes! Pics from Utah Trikes.I'm seriously wanting a trike or quad for winter transportation.And would need electric drive for the snow as I would tire out much to fast trying to pedal thru several inches of snow.
 

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Question: If it has four wheels and power assist are you getting into a weird place with the law? If it has three wheels it can be Chevy V8 powered and it's still a motorcycle. Do the pedals keep this a "cycle" instead of a motorized vehicle?
 
As sweet as it is, it would be illegal in Ontario...even motorless it'd be illegal on public land and roadways. The law is <=3wheel ...silly. Those would be so fun. I always liked the 4wheel hand bikes too
 
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