38 mile commute

[treefarmer]

I have learned so much reading ES, so I thought I would share my experience with a long commute. I live 38 miles from work, and I have been using my e-bike 2-3 times per week since I got it together in early June. (I work as a nurse doing 3 twelve hour shifts per week.) So far I have 2000 miles on it. I use 16-20 amps from my Ping 48V 20 amp battery each way. I charge at work and at home. I got the eZee kit from the ebike store in Portland, OR. So far I have only had two problems. I have the 5 amp charger, so the battery charges by 0930 am (I get to work at 0530.) If I leave it on the charger all day, then a couple of times the BMS seems to cut out as soon as I try to go (I have it set up with the pedal activated assist). That has never happened if I unplug it from the charger early in my shift to let the BMS cool down. The other problem is I hit and killed a raccoon the other day. No significant damage to the bike, but my helmet cracked. But I still got to work on time.

 

[Rifle]

The other problem is I hit and killed a raccoon the other day. No significant damage to the bike, but my helmet cracked. But I still got to work on time.

That's a little bigger ebike roadkill than I typically imagine. Round here I'm always worried about all the rabbits. How fast were you going? A friend of mine hit a cat on a regular bike and was out of action for weeks.

Do you ride rain or shine? I'm about to move out to Portland and am trying to figure out how to best protect a large battery from water.

 

[Rassy]

Hi TreeFarmer, welcome to the forum. I'm having trouble visualizing how hitting a racoon cracked your helmet, but guess it must have made you crash.

 

[treefarmer]

I did crash pretty hard at about 23 mph. Once I got my lights working again, I saw blood smears on the pavement an feared it was mine, but it was the raccoons. A group of six of them spread out and running every which way left me no safe place to steer toward. Right now I have dual halogens (from ebike.ca) and I'm thinking of upgrading to the lumenator--perhaps I could have slowed down if I saw them sooner.

Fortunately I do ride rain or shine. And at 4 am it is cool rain or shine, so I was dressed in rain gear and polypro longjohns. I had just got new gear from J&G Bikewear in Oregon, and now I need to do repairs on it. But better that than more of my skin.

To protect my battery, I just put it in a rubbermaid container. I used some of the packing material from Ping, along with some wadded up plastic grocery bags to pad the battery, then I duct taped the lid on. The rubbermaid container is in a gym bag, and that goes in a wire basket that I stole from our chest freezer. The wire basket is hose clamped on top of the rear rack. One nylon strap holds the bag in the basket. Despite the size, it looks pretty stealth since it just looks like a gym bag. And The nylon webbing almost wore completely during the slide/crash, but no other damage noted.

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

Glad you didn't get hurt worse from the crash! Too bad about the raccoon. I don't know how powerful your halogens are, but I have been extremely impressed with the Magic Shine light, and if you have a DC to DC converter, you can just run it off of your battery pack.

I have no personal experience with Ping, but many have, I haven't seen anyone talk about this being a normal thing, is this something that started happening after the crash, or was it always overheating?

I bet Ping would send you a new BMS for cheap if nothing else, or maybe even replace the pack for less than a new one yours has some factory defect, most people seem to be very happy with his products.

Got a new helmet? I'm glad you had one on or you might not be posting this!

Welcome to ES, and thanks for sharing your experience with us.

I'm planning a trip from Oregon City to Missoula Montana, so I will be heading out in about a week (I hope! :wink: ) if you're in a pinch and need a helmet, I have a few spare in great shape.

 

[dnmun]

it is not clear what you are asking. you said the BMS would shut down immediately sometimes after it had been charging for a long time, so the presumption is that it must be fully charged but still shuts off?

do you have a voltmeter? or cycle analyst on the bike, or turnigy or watt meter so that you know the amount of battery capacity used? that is a big pack so it should be able to handle that ride.

when it shut down, what did you do to make it go again?

don't worry about hitting the coon, no bad karma in that.

 

[dequinox]

Hey treefarmer, sorry to hear about that horrible wreck... I'd hate getting that vivid with roadkill. Bikes aren't supposed to be dangerous to wild animals...but around here I hear about the occasional nutria casualty. I didn't think a raccoon would be too slow to move out of the way like them...but apparently I'm wrong. Congratulations on such an awesome commute, I would have to go about that far to make it up to OSU from Eugene, but don't have the battery to cover it. I'm only good for about 12 miles

Keep on ridin' man!

 

[mrzed]

My experience with the Ping BMS v2.5 is that it can get hot when charging as it bleeds current to balance the cell groups. It sounds like you have a well insulated battery there - do you let the BMS have air space? I keep mine in a padded rack pack, but I always prop the lid open for charging. I've never felt it get hot on discharge, and at first I was paranoid and checked often after hard riding.

 

[Evoforce]

Welcome! Also glad you are not hurt. I second the approval of the 1400 lumin magicshine. I prefer to use the battery that comes with the light so on my long rides I do not use from my main motor battery. Why do you need to leave your bike battery on the charger so long?

 

[michaelplogue]

Hi TreeFarmer, welcome to the forum. I'm having trouble visualizing how hitting a racoon cracked your helmet, but guess it must have made you crash.

I just got an image of a cyclist getting into a fight with a raccoon, and head-butting it with his helmet....

 

[Evoforce]

That sounds like the scull cracked along with the helmet. :lol:

 

[treefarmer]

it is not clear what you are asking. you said the BMS would shut down immediately sometimes after it had been charging for a long time, so the presumption is that it must be fully charged but still shuts off?

This is what happens. If I leave it on the charger for my full 12 hour shift and then hook the battery right up to the bike, the cycle analyst shows the normal voltage (53-54 volts) and the lights work fine. But as soon as I try to go, I loose power to the lights and cycle analyst--no juice at all from the battery. If I ride it for a mile or so with just the headlights on, but not using the motor, until some of the red leds go out on BMS, then all is good and it starts working again. The BMS is in with the battery and doesn't get good airflow, but it never gets really hot. I haven't measured it, but I would guess less than 150 degrees F, probably not even that high.

do you have a voltmeter? or cycle analyst on the bike, or turnigy or watt meter so that you know the amount of battery capacity used? that is a big pack so it should be able to handle that ride.

I don't think I could do the ride without the Cycle Analyst--it would be too easy to get going a little to fast and end up using up my battery before I got to work. Right now I usually use about 950 watts to get to work and usually a bit less coming home (I go slower and relax a bit more on the way home.)

 

[treefarmer]

Welcome! Also glad you are not hurt. I second the approval of the 1400 lumin magicshine. I prefer to use the battery that comes with the light so on my long rides I do not use from my main motor battery. Why do you need to leave your bike battery on the charger so long?

I don't need to leave it on the charger for more than 4 hours, except that sometimes I get so busy in the critical care unit where I work that I miss lunch and breaks and don't remember to go unplug it. Also, when I get home, I plug it in to the charger and go to bed, at 8:30 pm and wake at 3 am to head off to work, so I can't stay up to unplug after four hours. I guess I should get a timer.

 

[treefarmer]

Bikes aren't supposed to be dangerous to wild animals...but around here I hear about the occasional nutria casualty. I didn't think a raccoon would be too slow to move out of the way like them...but apparently I'm wrong.

Funny thing--About an hour before I hit the raccoon I saw a roadkill porcupine, and thought "another good reason to be riding my bike to work--I'm not killing wildlife like all those cars."

The raccoon wasn't slow--that was part of the problem. With 6 raccoons running every which way, I just couldn't pick a safe route to steer between them.

 

[treefarmer]

Got a new helmet? I'm glad you had one on or you might not be posting this!
.

I did get a new helmet right away. But I also realized that if I had actually collided with and object, rather than mostly just sliding down the road, my bicycle helmet would offer minimal protection. One of my problems is my head gets cold and wet in the rain, so when the weather gets colder and wetter, I plan on trying a full face motorcycle helmet. My wife says she doesn't want to be seen with me wearing it, but as I ride at 3:30 in the morning, no one sees me anyway. I looked at BMX helmets, but without a face shield, the inside of the helmet will get soaked by rain. I'm just not sure if the face shield of the motorcycle road bike helmet will have enough ventilation to prevent fogging.

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

I have the solution to your face shield dilemma:

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/2/69/3820/ITEM/Fog-City-Pro-Shield.aspx

I can tell you this product will NOT fog even under the worst conditions, I commuted for 10+ years by motorcycle in Oregon, all kinds of weather, and this is an amazing product. It creates a dual pane with an air pocket between your face shield and the fog city shield and works perfectly, I have had all the edges of the face shield all covered with moisture and the fog shield area perfectly clear, just be REALLY careful when you install it and make sure the shield is clean so you get a good positive seal with no wrinkles (just follow the directions closely, and install it from the middle out).

As far as a Helmet goes, I would recommend you get a MX Helmet with a face shield, you can get them new for about $100

http://motorsportmonster.com/eshopp...414_keyword_Polaris+KTP+Helmet.KTP_HELMET.htm

 

[GrayKard]

Wow, that is a mega-commute, and I thought mine was long. You rock!

Here's what I think is happening with your BMS. It sounds like you don't open the enclosure you've made for the battery while charging. Now during the initial charge phase that isn't a problem but as some of the cells reach full charge the BMS goes into a balance mode.

What this means is that energy is bled out of the high cells so that the charger can restart and continue to charge up the low cells. That creates quite a bit of heat in the BMS which has nowhere to go. Just unplugging the charger is not a good solution as eventually your cells will get out of balance enough where you will lose capacity. A pack used regularly to 80% to 100% is being worked pretty hard and will need balancing.

You need to figure out a way to ventilate the BMS while charging.

Gary

 

[999zip999]

treefarmer, what is the voatage of your battery when your bms cuts out is one cell higher then the rest, last one in line on the pos. end # 16 cell group ? Maybe this is the funny cell ? And tripping the bms ? with it being fully charged.This is one that I have had the most problems with. Good luck. What now it's working ? Mine too. There must be some rubber in this battery to bounce back like this.

 

[treefarmer]

Looking at the old post, I forgot to post the solution to the BMS cutting out problem. The BMS was just bad--it finally died and I Wake (E-Bike store in Portland) replaced it. No problems since. Also, I now have an additional 10 amp/48 V Ping, so I travel with a total of 30 amps and usually use 18-22 depending on the weather.

 

[dogman dan]

Nice to hear you are still riding the commute after three years. Enjoy it while you can.