Tires, tubes, lights and battery updates.
Sad news, my 22k front wheel tube had to be replaced. It did not get a flat but I was having trouble getting air out (or in) and just ripped the valve off. I needed to let the air out so I could rotate the tire and straighten out the valve stem but the valve was stuck and I did not have the correct tools. Playing around trying to get air in, it started to leak slime.
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My back tire lasted 4000 miles. I have been averaging 1 flat a year for the last few years (knock on wood).
For daylight saving, I leave in the morning when it is still dark so I added another light in the back. These Harbor Freight Tools lights are real bright. I have one in the front too. Probably take them off in a few weeks.
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My Samsung 22p (15s 12p) battery is doing fine and still in almost perfect balance. I am noticing some drop in capacity but I estimate it is still over 90%. I have close to 12,000 miles and more than 230 round trip (50 mile) commutes. I will show some pictures and test results later.
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I did some more testing of my 4 year old 48v 15ah ping battery using my 500w bike. For 2 years I used this battery to commute to work with both a 500w (20amp controller) and a 1000w bike (30amp controller) and bottomed it out on about half the time. About 10k of 14k was using this battery. For the last 2 years it has been on my weekend/500w bike on my balcony and getting about 25 miles a week. It is usually charged and ready to ride. I did not protect it with cardboard or plastic but did place a bag over it for camouflage. It does get moist when it rains but it is protected with a motorcycle cover. My current charger is slightly over the recommended charge, 7amps, but it seems to be fine because it tops off at 57.5 volts.
Last night I put my 59.2v power supply on it over night and did a test ride today to see how much the range it still has.
Today was in the low 70s with 10mph winds. I had to peddle because there were lots of people biking on the road but I tried hard to do as little peddle power as possible. Here is my map and stats:
My odometer was about the same:
Start:
End:
I stopped at the gym, track, and the beach so it was not constant ride. When I got home I charged the ping up using both my mean well NES 350-48 to get the voltage to 57.5 and my ebay dc to dc converter to get the battery balanced at 59.2 volts. Here is the total watts:
I never measured this battery when it was new but this seems pretty good after almost 4 years.
Also, the Mean Well NES 350-48 has been an good deal for about $35.00 dollars it has lasted 3.5 years and gets this battery to 57.5 which is full but not balanced:
When charging, it tops out at 485w
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To get the battery balanced, I use this ebay converter with a 12v power supply set at 59.2 volts.
The LEDs use between 12 and 16 watts of power so you do not need to worry about a power supply climbing above the set HVC.
I am looking at the LG MJ1 3500mah for my next battery, maybe a 7 or 8p to get close to 10 pounds. Will report later.