Proper setup for touring?

Warren said:
Man, I don't see why you bothered to come on Endless Sphere and ask for folks opinions. You obviously have no use for them. I certainly won't be offering you any more.

Bingo!
 
Stu Summer said:
Donn, I would sure like to see a photo of your set up. I bought a Ryan Vanguard this summer, already mounted with a 500w cyclone mid drive. I am just about to pull the trigger on a Luna Mac 6t for the front in hope of: 1. raising top speed to 30, especially up gradual hills and 2. increasing stability/decreasing squirrelliness at the front end.

Hm, it's squirrelly? Mine rides like a freight train (until we go over the humps caused by tree roots running under the multi-use trail, which can be a bit of shock when you're laying on top of the rear wheel.) The battery is strapped on top of the top tube, maybe 3/4 or 2/3 of the way to the front, so it's more front loaded than it used to be, and it doesn't seem to hurt anything. Anyway, check Warren's analysis above on the Tour Easy forks vs. hub motor. I'm not in a position to say how strong they are, maybe stouter than the pictured Tour Easy forks, but pretty sure they weren't designed to take a disk brake. It would be a shame to damage it. Which I should probably be worried about on the rear, with a 1500W hub. I have clamped on the usual torque arms, but due to the unusual geometry it's only the 1st member of the set, clamped directly to the tube, rather than the two piece normal arrangement, which I think should be OK but anyway it's a fair amount of torque back there that it wasn't designed for.

Also, I would love to see how you are going to mount your fairing. I have an old fairing laying around from a df but haven't wanted to spend the time (or money$$$$) on a mount. I have strong experience on my df ebike of the huge effect of the fairing on efficiency and comfort.

I'm using the factory mounting standard. Terrible. The clamps are, understandably, not able to reliably hold the standards upright on a round tube. The standards each have a clamp for the cross bar struts; the clamps are made of soft aluminum or something that deforms easily, so they aren't very effective. I gave up on that mess after a year or so, but it would be really useful at higher cruising speed, so I installed the battery right in back of the rear standard and will lash the two together, for hopefully better stability. Later versions of the mounting hardware might be better.
 
toureasyman wrote;
The Jumbo Shark battery from EM3EV is rated at 52V, 14.8 amp hours. I'm thinking that should be enough power to get me through the touring day.

Somebody call Guinness.
 
Warren said:
Man, I don't see why you bothered to come on Endless Sphere and ask for folks opinions. You obviously have no use for them. I certainly won't be offering you any more.

That’s fine. Forums are a great place to get good info, but with the understanding that many contributors wish to steer the topic toward their own agenda. My original question has been answered, but only indirectly; did I pick a good setup to suit my needs? It wasn’t about the value of recumbents vs regular bikes, or whether I should use the Ebike motor while cruising on the flats. My choice of motor for my needs seems good, potential battery placement seems good, and front hub vs rear hub was answered by you. Your original posting had me reconsidering my original idea of using a rear hub motor, only to have you follow up with a new opinion on the matter having actually looked at a TourEasy recumbent bike. All of this confirmed that my choices regarding equipment are sound. If in the end I discover I have made some poor choices, at least I can say that I did my best to pick the correct equipment. I value everyone’s input, but if I challenge someone’s statement, it’s because I’d like to see them defend it. If they can, then I may be persuaded to change my view, as in your case. So, thank you for your input, I did have use for it, and valued it greatly.
 
motomech said:
toureasyman wrote;
The Jumbo Shark battery from EM3EV is rated at 52V, 14.8 amp hours. I'm thinking that should be enough power to get me through the touring day.

Somebody call Guinness.
What do you figure for Wh/mile? It's not unlikely I'm confused about something, but my computer is saying 10, and I'm not using it very economically at all. Check my math, but it seems to me that does add up to 75 miles on his battery. Not the way I'm riding, or half the time he'd run dry 10 miles out of town, but it shouldn't be hard to lean that down to 8 Wh/mile or so.
 
Although technically not totally correct, I go by miles per Amp hour. I use LiPoly which discharges in a very linear fashion and after the first couple of years I ditched the Cycle Analyst(good leaning tool)and only carry a Voltmeter. For many years now, I get between 1 1/2 to 2 miles per Amp hour(the later only on multi-use paths where the speeds are very low)riding a mountain bike w/ 26 inch whl.s and a geared motor(Q100, MXUS mini, Ezee V1, it doesn't matter). That's riding on fairly flat terrain, moderate pedaling and controller from 15 Amp rating to 25 Amp rating.
I don't care about calculations, only what I know after from observing during the last 8 years.
Unless the OP is a World class cyclist, the best he will ever see is 2 miles per Amp hour, or 29 miles on a 14.5 Ah pack(assuming the pack is run down to LCV).
 
Well, here's a response from one who has toured on a 300 pound plus bike, and done testing to see what the limits would be for a major kit retailer.


You can easily kill that mac motor if you push it too hard up steep hills, loaded to more than 300 pounds. That is 300 pounds, you, bike, motor, battery, water, equipment, etc. My touring load out on a heavier type of bike was usually over 400 pounds. The big problem is the large rear wheel, it would work a LOT better on a small wheel such as your front one. In 20" wheel, you can increase the weight.

But you can tour on that mac, What you have to do is not use the motor to get you up the hills, if you cannot maintain 10 mph or more, in the 12t motor. 12-13 mph or more on a 10t, 15 mph on an 8t. If you put in full power to that motor when it is turning too slow, it becomes a heater, and you cook off a motor. Loaded heavy, with 26" wheel, I could do it in 30 min, easy. So any steep hills, they need to be short, like one mile, or you need to stop for a very long time to cool the motor, or finish off the hill on just legs.


IMO, what you should do, is junk the hub motor idea, and fit out the bike with a mid drive type system. A mid drive will let the motor spin fast, while the power goes through the chain and your lowest gear. Then you can gear down, and crawl up the worst hills at 3 mph. The motor will keep up its rpm, and run efficient.


As for the size of the battery, if you pedal enough, the range of your battery is infinite. But if you have lots of hills, you will get less range because half the time you are using the motor. On hills, that size battery should last about an hours use. So if you have more than an hours worth of time on the uphills, then you will need more.


When I toured, I needed motor power the whole way, and had mountains, not just hills. 48v 40 ah would take me 80 miles. You are much more healthy than I, and it is plausible that 15 ah could take you 75 miles. But its not typical, and they are correct that you might need 20-30 ah for a 75 mile day.. Or, a long lunch break to charge for about 3 hours..
 
motomech said:
Although technically not totally correct, I go by miles per Amp hour.

I don't know why it isn't correct, but it would help to know how many volts behind that.

Unless the OP is a World class cyclist, the best he will ever see is 2 miles per Amp hour

I can see I'd better get more experience with my setup before I take off for any long trips. CA seems to be pulling my leg and giving me the idea that I could get twice that much without even being a Neighborhood Class cyclist.
 
2 miles per amp-hour just means the rider is just hardly ever giving any power and using leg power all the time. And the power would have to be given not going up any hills, but using it on flats.

http://www.ebikes.ca/learn/batteries.html
1.609344 kilometers = 1 mile
Motor Type Rough energy usage
Minimal Assist (using motor only on hills, slower ~30kph setup) 6-8 Wh/km
Typical Assist (~40 kph with pedaling, motor on all the time) 9-12 Wh/km
Power Hungry (either no pedaling, or hauling a load, or going really fast) 14-20 Wh/km
 
Donn wrote;
.... it would help to know how many volts behind that.
Sorry, w/out knowing the Volts of the system, Amps per hour(as you point out) doesn't mean a whole lot.
Almost all my systems have been 12S LiPoly(46.5 Volts nominal), either Turnigy 20C or 25C, or the Multistar 10C.
The motor/wheel combos I use are either a mid-speed range motor(approx. 260 rpm rated @ 36 V) in a 24" or 26" wheel or a low-speed range motor(201 rpm rated @ 36 V ) in a 26" wheel.
Most 48 V controllers w/ a set LVC shut down at 41 or 42 Volts, which makes 12S LiPoly particularly well suited to ebike systems. 42 Volts divided by 12 (cells) = 3.5 V/cell(in reality, one or more of the cells start to stay downwards at the bottom of the curve and I actually see an cell avg. of 3.6 V @ LVC).
Carrying this a little further, the reason 48 to 52 V systems are the "go to" Voltages for many constructing an Ebike, is that it is an easy Voltage to work with. "Off the shelf" series and parallel adaptors(which use 14 AWG silicone wire) can be used and, in fact, I use 14 AWG Turingy wire for everything. Also, pre-charge sparks when connecting pack wires are not the concern that it is w/ higher Voltages.
We hear a lot about the pros and cons of Geared vs. DD hub motors, free wheeling vs cogging, weight, size, etc. But perhaps the biggest advantage for someone resigned to a 48 Volt system is the ability to pick a geared motor's speed range to match the system Voltage for a desired top speed. DD motors on the other hand, really perform best w/ some serious Voltage behind them.
Conversely, why not 36 Volts? Well, one of the "rules of thumb" bandied about here is;
"In general, a system w/ higher Volts/lower motor speed rating will be more efficient than a system w/ lower volts/high motor speed rating, although the subject is probably over-rated. As Dogman has pointed out, what the rider had for lunch and/or is the rider's clothing tight fitting or flaps in the wind might have more effect on efficiency than the system itself.

The battle ground for hub motors are hills. As Dogman points out above, there is a non-intuitive element concerning loads and electric motors and this is where those making assumptions of how an electric motor equates to an IC engine can get in trouble, and this brings us to the second hub motor "rule of thumb";
"At approx. half the motor's top speed/rpm(also called the "no-load" speed), more energy starts to be turned into heat rather than forward momentum." To best illustrate this, we need to look at the sim @ Ebike CA;
http://www.ebikes.ca/tools/simulator.html?bopen=false&motor=MMAC12T&batt=B5213_GA&cont=C25&frame=semi&mass=140&hp=200&axis=mph&wheel=700c&grade=0

Plugging in the OP's build spec.s;
Semi recumbent
MAC 12T
52 Volt/14.8 pack(I used the 13 Ah option)
25 Amp controller(no Phaserunner option)
700cc wheels
300 lb.s
Constant 200 Watts rider input(since the OP claims he is a super cyclist)
We get these results;
Top speed-26 mph
Best efficiency speed(not considering wind resistance)-24 mph(84.4%)
Efficiency @ 12 mph-70%
Range-27 miles.
Add a 10% grade and we see the bike can maintain 16mph, but we get a "time to over-heat" of only 10 minutes! Steeper hills will be more limited exponentially.
So maybe this build is not as well optimised as the OP thinks. If he really wants to cruise at a lowly 12 mph to maximise range, he should, as dogman points out, be thinking about a mid-drive system.
But what the hub motor user can take away from this are a couple of things;
1)always carry as much speed into the hill as possible. Momentum is your friend.
2)If the rider starts to feel as if his E-rig is losing enough momentum that it will stop in short order, get off and push. Never let the motor lug and certainly never let it lug to stop.
motomech wrote:
"Although technically not totally correct, I go by miles per Amp hour."
Donn commented;
"I don't know why it isn't correct....."
I think Watt/hours more accurately represents range because many(most?)chemistries discharge on a curve, the cells in the lower part of the capacity having less potential energy avail. But as I mentioned, given a large enough pack(15 Ah and above), healthy LiPoly tends to hold to a more linear dis-charge line better than most chemistries, sag showing it's ugly head only @ the very end of the dis-charge cycle.
 
markz said:
2 miles per amp-hour just means the rider is just hardly ever giving any power and using leg power all the time. And the power would have to be given not going up any hills, but using it on flats.

http://www.ebikes.ca/learn/batteries.html
1.609344 kilometers = 1 mile
Motor Type Rough energy usage
Minimal Assist (using motor only on hills, slower ~30kph setup) 6-8 Wh/km
Typical Assist (~40 kph with pedaling, motor on all the time) 9-12 Wh/km
Power Hungry (either no pedaling, or hauling a load, or going really fast) 14-20 Wh/km

OK, so maybe we're looking at some assumptions about what's typical. That's where my fabulous mileage is coming from: I'm apparently slow. That cuts the load in half on level ground, and about 60% of the Wh/mile. And not working hard - I am using the motor, but only 70-150W. By the ebikes.ca simulator, with a similar setup as mine and no human input, I get 7.5 Wh/mile on the flat and maybe 28 Wh/mile on a 4% grade, at some moderate speed (doesn't seem to matter so much.) On a 75 mile trip with 50 flat and 25 that 4% grade, I'd expect 3.35 miles per Ah, at 52V. If I throw in 100W human power, I get 6 miles per Ah. I've never been able to measure my own power directly, 100W isn't in the World Class range, is it? I could have made a mistake in there somewhere, so check me if it seems wildly off, but I see the OP very possibly getting enough mileage out of his 14Ah x 52V battery for at least some 75 mile trips.
 
donn said:
I can see I'd better get more experience with my setup before I take off for any long trips. CA seems to be pulling my leg and giving me the idea that I could get twice that much without even being a Neighborhood Class cyclist.

I believe you are getting greater efficiency because you are on a recumbent. Your numbers jibe with the Grin motor simulator.
 
motomech said:
Constant 200 Watts rider input(since the OP claims he is a super cyclist)

I don't think he claimed any such thing. His plan is to go 75 miles or so at 12 mph ... on a recumbent. This is hardly super cyclist performance territory. I think even marginally fit people could do this. That's somewhere between 60 and 75 watts per hour depending on how aerodynamic the Easy Racer really is. The biggest issue in this mode of travel would be comfort because you'll be at it for more than six hours.

That's partly why his original question about range is so fundamentally unanswerable. He only plans on using motor power for stops and hills, but provided no information on the type and quantity of hills or on the number of starts and stops. So, as dogman points out, standard calcs for range are almost meaningless if he actually does what he plans on doing.

BTW, he gets two to three times the hill-climbing if the motor is mounted in a 20" wheel. Assuming a 10% grade, 75 watts of rider input and all the other stuff the same as what Motormech input, he can go a theoretical 23 minutes before overheating at full throttle. And if he's willing to crawl up the hill at 3.5 mph and 25% throttle, he'll (theoretically) never overheat. With a 700c rim, you have to drop your throttle down to 15% and your speed to 2.2 mph to hit a "never overheat" plateau.
 
wturber said:
I believe you are getting greater efficiency because you are on a recumbent. Your numbers jibe with the Grin motor simulator.
Hm, hard to say. When I was running that thing for my own purposes I took the "semi-recumbent" option, whatever that means, because I really am not positive I get world class streamlining. Position kind of upright, I'm rather wide, etc. But I see what you mean, the calculator does give a lot of credit to recumbent efficiency - at that 30kph speed, the Wh/mile result more than doubles with upright MTB, and it's easy to see how that would drag down the miles per amp-hour.
 
donn said:
I've never been able to measure my own power directly, 100W isn't in the World Class range, is it?

Back when I was riding a lot (road bike), doing long distances and was moderately fit, I could average 18 mph indefinitely. I could maintain 20-21 mph on the one mile segments between most stops but I was clearly going anaerobic. Those represent about 160 watts and 225 watts respectively, and I wasn't even good local class much less world class. I think that most moderately fit riders can average 100 watts for long stretches. That's right around 15 mph on a road bike riding on the hoods.
 
donn said:
wturber said:
I believe you are getting greater efficiency because you are on a recumbent. Your numbers jibe with the Grin motor simulator.
Hm, hard to say. When I was running that thing for my own purposes I took the "semi-recumbent" option, whatever that means, because I really am not positive I get world class streamlining. Position kind of upright, I'm rather wide, etc. But I see what you mean, the calculator does give a lot of credit to recumbent efficiency - at that 30kph speed, the Wh/mile result more than doubles with upright MTB, and it's easy to see how that would drag down the miles per amp-hour.

I was using semi-recumbent as well.
 
proper setup for touring?
a raincoat and a credit card!
(too each their own)
 
I have not installed a chain for the last month (I ride everyday on a cruiser, 20mph = 35kph) but even if there was a chain installed I wouldn't pedal except when starting out and up hills. Un-bypass-able Pedal Assist would be great for a fatfuck like me. That will be yet another bicycle in my "fleet"

Actual useful info starts here:
As for recumbants you can go to www.ebikes.ca to the motor simulator and input a similar motor and select semi recumbant or full recumbant riding position and see what the benefits are for each riding position.
 
donn said:
markz said:
2 miles per amp-hour just means the rider is just hardly ever giving any power and using leg power all the time. And the power would have to be given not going up any hills, but using it on flats.

http://www.ebikes.ca/learn/batteries.html
1.609344 kilometers = 1 mile
Motor Type Rough energy usage
Minimal Assist (using motor only on hills, slower ~30kph setup) 6-8 Wh/km
Typical Assist (~40 kph with pedaling, motor on all the time) 9-12 Wh/km
Power Hungry (either no pedaling, or hauling a load, or going really fast) 14-20 Wh/km

OK, so maybe we're looking at some assumptions about what's typical. That's where my fabulous mileage is coming from: I'm apparently slow. That cuts the load in half on level ground, and about 60% of the Wh/mile. And not working hard - I am using the motor, but only 70-150W. By the ebikes.ca simulator, with a similar setup as mine and no human input, I get 7.5 Wh/mile on the flat and maybe 28 Wh/mile on a 4% grade, at some moderate speed (doesn't seem to matter so much.) On a 75 mile trip with 50 flat and 25 that 4% grade, I'd expect 3.35 miles per Ah, at 52V. If I throw in 100W human power, I get 6 miles per Ah. I've never been able to measure my own power directly, 100W isn't in the World Class range, is it? I could have made a mistake in there somewhere, so check me if it seems wildly off, but I see the OP very possibly getting enough mileage out of his 14Ah x 52V battery for at least some 75 mile trips.
but I see the OP very possibly getting enough mileage out of his 14Ah x 52V battery for at least some 75 mile trips.
IMO, you are still overestimating what the electrons are capable of.
At any rate, better to under-estimate when planning.
From the very first day that shinny new Lipo is installed under the hood, it's all down hill from there. To get that 2 to 3 year service life out of these pricey bits, at some point, the rider has to accept his pack is offering up less performance. This doesn't necessarily have to be too painful(at least in the early stages), as w/ all things, one gets better the more he/she does it. But as one who has had to put more than a few packs to pasture(Including a very pricey Li-Ion "plug and play"), the experience can be traumatic.
But then one reflects on all the miles covered and w/ the LiPoly especially, the distance I can get out of a couple of "bricks" sized somewhere between a stick of butter and a box of Velveeta. Even w/ my, less than impressive to present company numbers.
The result of diminishing pack performance plants the seed of less trust and adds to that, pushing the limits w/ little reserve and the shadow of "range anxiety" , that Demon that probably has shadowed most of us here, turning an otherwise care-free(mindless)ride into a worrisome thing.
All I'm saying is, there is more too it than just the "numbers".
 
wturber said:
That's somewhere between 60 and 75 watts per hour depending on how aerodynamic the Easy Racer really is. The biggest issue in this mode of travel would be comfort because you'll be at it for more than six hours.

Comfort! I don't know about a Tour Easy, but my Vanguard is a lawn chair on wheels.

motomech said:
The result of diminishing pack performance plants the seed of less trust and adds to that, pushing the limits w/ little reserve and the shadow of "range anxiety" , that Demon that probably has shadowed most of us here, turning an otherwise care-free(mindless)ride into a worrisome thing.

Good point, I've been thinking of a 14.2Ah battery as if it had exactly that much juice on tap, but I don't know for a fact that's true even on day 1, let alone in the long run.
 
My touring bike. A simple 27.5 with a bbs02 36v with 17.5A battery. Full setup for self-supported trips with food, tent etc. Very heavy, at least 35 kg's But still I was able to easily go for 115 km with 40% left to spare. Programmed level 1 to use max 100w and that was good for the flat parts and up to 300w on the small hills. Very nice tires - can go up to 30 km without much effort.

Anyway, 115 km is max for me on one day anyway....

 
Here is one I made out of a hand-truck. Two years later and it still works great;
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=86115&p=1341690&hilit=travoy#p1341690
 
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