Again with the trike. Another look with a new design

tomjasz

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Out riding, MN USA
What motor could be used on this trike to make it an able hill climber?
http://www.truebicycles.com/contents/en-us
 

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I don't know if you realize this, but that trike comes with a motor, batteries and so on. Are you looking to buy this trike that includes a motor and such, and then replace just the motor? This really may not work out how you might hope.

Without more information it's hard to make a suggestion, hill is a vague term, and you could weigh 450lbs and need to carry an addition 200 pounds or something.
 
Yes an underpowered anemic Bafang. They also build a trike, same design W/o a motor. Buddy wants an improved version. I had this photo on my iPad and used it. Thanks. I'm working on a better definition of hill. But what is the likely candidate for most powerful front motor?
 
if that e-trike sold for what it's actually worth (about half it's listed price)
... I still wouldn't buy it.
It uses non-standard BB and rear axles, making modifications an exercise in machining custom parts.

As it stands, it will climb about an 8% grade effortlessly.
 
Sorry I should have posted the version sans motor. It was used as an example of the style of trike we're interested in. The question I should have posed was, what is the best candidate for the highest power front DD hub motor available in todays market. One of the chrytalytes? 200lb rider hauling some groceries. I understand this is backwards by some standards but what woul be the beast in todays market for a front drive trike.
 
my last couple of mods I used magic pie motors with a 14s battery in 16" hubs. I'm sure there are stronger motors out there but this one works well when I need regen brakes (for going down long +5 mile +7% grades)
The 350W geared-hub motors have about the same pulling power at 10s but will overheat sooner.

-although for my personal trikes I use 2 motors per trike because it greatly reduces the strain on a single motor
Big + is steeper hills can be conquered.

One trike has a magic pie in a front 24" rim with a 350W geared-hub motor geared to 15 mph (usually) driving the rear.
The other trike uses a 350W geared-hub motor in a 16" rim with a 700W geared motor fixed at 12MPH driving the rear.
-Both trikes climb up to 30% grades without any assistance from me. There are no hills steeper than 30% locally.
 
tomjasz said:
What is the best candidate for the highest power front DD hub motor available in todays market.

http://greyborgusa.com/products-2/motors/hubzillav3specs/ This might work if you can make it fit.
 
WOW what a beast! So much more to learn... Thanks!!!
 
ddk said:
my last couple of mods I used magic pie motors with a 14s battery in 16" hubs. I'm sure there are stronger motors out there but this one works well when I need regen brakes (for going down long +5 mile +7% grades)
The 350W geared-hub motors have about the same pulling power at 10s but will overheat sooner.

-although for my personal trikes I use 2 motors per trike because it greatly reduces the strain on a single motor
Big + is steeper hills can be conquered.

One trike has a magic pie in a front 24" rim with a 350W geared-hub motor geared to 15 mph (usually) driving the rear.
The other trike uses a 350W geared-hub motor in a 16" rim with a 700W geared motor fixed at 12MPH driving the rear.
-Both trikes climb up to 30% grades without any assistance from me. There are no hills steeper than 30% locally.


Thanks, I'll go looking for your build threads if there are any? Now this is a new thought for me. How do they work together? Two battery packs? That sounds complex but makes sense. Do you have an ideal config? Which seems to be the best config in your experience? Now I see why you are critical of the design I posted.

Off to search your threads and comments...
 
I just answered someone so my build thread is on the front page "My solar bla bla Folies" or sumtin like that.

I found that 2-350W geared motors works best ...if I didn't sometimes require regen brakes, which work remarkably well as drag brakes. All current mechanical bicycle brakes overheat on some of the hills I go down.
Although I don't need to use separate batteries I do, because I like having redundant systems.
Yes, I've had one or the other motor system fail for different reasons at different times.
I just motor on home with the working motor system and fix the trike later.
 
There is a kit sold by a USA vendor that is specifically for trikes. It uses a very slow rpm motor, which makes it an able hill climber.

Nearly as good, and higher top speed, would be a larger gear motor such as a mac or bmc, or the one sold by the same company that sells the trike kit. Choose the gear motor if you want higher speeds, and the rider is not a 300 pounder.

The big pie motor is also a slightly slower rpm motor than most dd's so it's a proven climber too.

Definitely two motors is a proven way to go. But the starting point should be a decent climbing motor on that front wheel. It's a tiny wheel, so you have that advantage too.

To run a greyborg on that bike, you'd need a custom 137mm fork. But if you did that, it would climb anything for sure.
 
Contrary to widespread common belief a slower rpm wind of the same model of motor will NOT make it a better hill climber. Those with thousands of post need to stop spreading this myth. For a given voltage it makes it better at climbing the same hill more slowly just like it makes it better for going slowly on flat roads. It DOES NOT make it capable of climbing steeper roads, because the motor is only capable of making exactly the same maximum torque, which is determined by the stator steel and magnets, not the copper. The copper simply determines the voltage and current, which you would vary in an inverse relationship, to get back to the exact same torque, rpm, and efficiency.

It really depends on what kind of "hills" the OP is talking about and the total load he needs to haul up them. Having a hubmotor in the smaller 20" wheel definitely helps since it's geared 23% lower than in a 26" wheel, but if we're talking about long and steep hills, even big hubbies will have a problem with heat. Proper ventilation (not just the holes in a pizza pan approach) will solve the heat problem.

The best solution though is to get a powerful hubmotor and mount it under the seat driving the chain with a significant gear reduction. Then if necessary use a higher voltage to get back to the speed desired. Then you can still have the nice quiet drive of a hubmotor, but multiply it's torque with the reduction. The beauty of a delta trike is that under the seat there's plenty of space to make the mid-drive solution simple.
 
I DID NOT SAY IT WILL CLIMB A STEEPER HILL. I did used to think that, but that was about 10,000 posts back. Like 3-4 years ago.

It will climb whatever 800w or so will get you up, more efficiently, with less wasted power into heat. That makes it a "better climber" A gear motor will also climb more efficiently. (by having a higher internal rpm than the rim rpm) This means whatever it can get up, it will go farther before it melts.

Both will melt like hell if you try to climb too steep a hill, with too much weight for 800w or so. I've done that plenty o times, trying to climb a too steep hill anyway. But they do go farther up a too steep hill than a faster rpm motor that's way overloaded. If your hill is short, you can get away with it. If your hill is long, you melt a motor.

A small wheel like he has will help as well.

Two motors or one bigger motor, will have far more power than 800w. This will work better than a smaller low rpm dd motor. Especially if you use a smaller diameter wheel than 26" Blast up the hill at high speed, and never get into the inefficient overloaded rpm that smokes a smaller motor.

I never said the cromotor won't work. I just said I don't think it fits in a 100mm dropout. I'm not sure either, what size wheel that is. If smaller than 20", it will be hard to lace a cromotor to the rim. Get a good welder to make you a custom fork, and then you can run a big ass motor and fly up any hill.
 
To further clarify. There is a point where a hill is moderate enough to be climbed efficiently by any rpm motor. Under 5% grade, for the 9 continent, GM, Muxus, etc 28 mm motors. Under 5% grade it makes little difference, because feeding one of these motors 800w on a grade that low, with a rider under 200 pounds, will result in a fast ascent up the hill, with no noticeable motor overheating.

But simple tests with a wattmeter and an internal thermometer prove that 8-10% grade hills are climbed cooler and more efficiently by the lower rpm motor. But NOT faster.

Above 10% grade, both slow and fast rpm motors are starting to overheat. It then becomes a race to the top before the halls melt. In this case, the low rpm motor tends to get farther up the hill before the inevitable disaster.

Again, this all applies to a rider under 200 pounds. Overload these 28mm magnet motors, and failure comes much much quicker. You cannot take the low rpm motor, feed it 800w, and have a heavily loaded cargo bike or big boy make it up a steep hill. Once overloaded, the grade they can climb without melting is much shallower than 5%. It's just physics, 800w can only lift more than 250 pounds of total weight up a hill so fast. Once you are at full power, and turning slow with a 26" wheel, the motor is going to melt if you don't stop.
 
Hi tomjasz,

Are you aware that your trike with one front wheel, is eventually not the best configuration for climbing hills. I have since May 2013 over 4000 km on a HP Scorpion fs 26' trike and live in a hilly environment in Belgium. Hills here have up to 16% gradient here and are the favorite scenery for famous bike competions several times a year. One traction front wheel is much more inclined for slipping specially on humid days, as the weight is more on the back wheels. A delta trike has more grip on the road with two front steering wheels. The traction wheel behind, with incorporated motor, and charged with double batteries, and being 26' has much more reliable grip. My trike has double 48V16W batteries and a switch L-0-R makes instant switching to the fresh battery a bare necessity going uphill. I climb 12 times a week a 16% hill to reach my home. The typical range in this conditions is 120 km. Regenerating downhill is a welcome asset for batteries and brakes. Cruise is 25 km/h uphill and easily 30km/h flat.
If due to my reduced mobility, pedalling is suddenly no longer possible, the trike can bring me home. I have a Crystalyte 3250 cargo-bike motor build in.

Hope the above is useful for you !

@+
scorpion
 
Definitely a tadpole trike will have the motor wheel in the right place for climbing a very steep, wet pavement, hill.

And in most cases, you can fit a wider magnet, much more powerful motor. With a 20" wheel, and 35-40mm magnet, you won't need any slow windings. Feed it 3000w, and shazam!

Tadpole handles much better at 40 mph I'm told. Not sure what the safe top speed for the trike in your picture will be. For taller deltas, it's about 15 mph. That's why the "trike kit" motor is so slow. Not to climb hills per se.
 
dogman dan said:
But simple tests with a wattmeter and an internal thermometer prove that 8-10% grade hills are climbed cooler and more efficiently by the lower rpm motor. But NOT faster.

Above 10% grade, both slow and fast rpm motors are starting to overheat. It then becomes a race to the top before the halls melt. In this case, the low rpm motor tends to get farther up the hill before the inevitable disaster.

Your apples and oranges testing ended up with invalid results. Stop propagating the myth.

example: Take otherwise identical motors but one wound to double the Kv of the other. For IDENTICAL results, efficiency, speed, torque, power and speed on hills, etc., simply run the speedier wound motor at half the voltage and double the current of the lower Kv motor. If you don't vary both voltage and current in the correct proportion, then of course you get bogus results for comparison purposes. The only real difference is that the higher Kv motor needs larger phase wires, because it needs higher current.
 
The results above mentioned are true and tested in real life on a daily base, and are not theoretical reflections out of an easy chair.

After a 20' climb the motor just feels handwarm and is lightyears away from melting down. The motor can be charged up to 2000 W, and gets climbing typically only 1200 à 1300 Watt for a rather brief period of time. The driver is supposed to pedal too at a rate of 45 à 60 RPM to add some human watts to the count.

The original Scorpion fs 26' from HP, I tested on site, was equipped Bionx 250 W and ways to weak to drive uphill, so I bought the normal human powered one, and got the excellent Crystalyte 3525 High Torque motor build in aftermarket. The workload could be a lot more heavier without harming the motor, so in the actual conditions of use top load is a healthy margin away.

On longer drives a Radical Design Chubby trailer is attached, loaded with my walker. That makes for 20 kg additional weight. The total including driver, trike, 2 loaded panniers, 2 batteries and the loaded trailer totalizes 160 kg on the weight bridge. Climbing in this configuration goes on 20 km/h, on flat roads it makes hardly any difference and permits 27 à 30 km/h.

From my experience this e-Scorpion fs 26' is a first class trike permitting very honest results on the road, leaving well trained bikers far behind in the dust when going full load uphills.

@+
scorpion
 
OPs' pictured trike seat is 240mm taller than raat MT trike. I doubt it would be stable beyond 12-15mph (19-24kph)

I've no doubt a tadpole configuration is a safer, more stable platform for a tricycle... BUT (big but with a double t)
...it's really, really difficult to add all-wheel drive to a tadpole within 'my' budget for bike building.
When nobody locally has money you have to build bikes with no money (or very little)

Adding a BB-drive motor to a rear hub motored tadpole, offers about the same benefits as two-wheel drive -for climbing hills... but lacks the off-road capabilities my raat trike has (slow and steady)
another BUT is -BB-drive motors are twice as expensive as most hub motors (at least, where I'm at)

-plus- just offering my experiences with building bikes and trikes for my location (hilly, windy, rainy) and configurations that meet my 'local' requirements (hilly, windy, rainy)

final note:
ratt trike weighs 400lbs with 40Ah (2kW) of battery and 'me'
MPPM trike weighs 500 pounds with 40Ah of battery and 'me'- It has a BIG fairing- solving the issue of "rain" :lol:
 
Dudes and dudettes. No lock on the model of trike. But it will be a delta. I know it won't be safe at high speeds but my aquaintance and I are both thinking more about getting up hills. I'm a gimp so there won't be much input from me. But thanks to all the chatter i have several new ideas to consider. I really appreciate the input. My bud wants semi recumbant as pictured. I'm holding out for a Trek Pure or commercial Workman. Exciting stuff. Got my current ride set up for icy conditions with studded tire today. Added a winscreen too. Since I don't drive(can't) medical not legal issues i want a powrful hauler for 4 season use.
 
dogman dan said:
I DID NOT SAY IT WILL CLIMB A STEEPER HILL. I did used to think that, but that was about 10,000 posts back. Like 3-4 years ago.

It will climb whatever 800w or so will get you up, more efficiently, with less wasted power into heat. That makes it a "better climber"

You still insist on propagating the myth, because climbing the same hill with less heat means it will climb a steeper hill with the same heat. To get EXACTLY THE SAME PERFORMANCE IN ALL USES (HILLS OR FLAT) ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DECREASE THE VOLTAGE AND INCREASE THE CURRENT IN THE SAME PROPORTIONS FOR THE SPEEDIER MOTOR AS THE Kv IS DIFFERENT.

You have made literally hundreds of posts to the contrary and they are all wrong, because you did an apples and oranges comparison that essentially compared the same motor (motors are the same regardless of the winding) set up to run faster on the flats to one set up for lower rpm but the same power. Set them up for the same power and rpm, and the speed wind motor will climb the hills exactly the same and produce the same heat.

As proof I'll again share the document from Astro, which makes very high quality brushless motors. It shows the results of the 3210 with each winding possible. On previous occasions I shared the top half of their chart, which isn't applicable and must have caused confusion, so this time I am sharing exactly the pertinent section only. This was from actual testing and proves conclusively that different winds of the same motor achieve exactly the same results by varying voltage and current in the correct proportions.


I often make the statement that slower wind motors are slower and lower power motors, but that's only true to the extent that we are practically limited by voltage to 100V for reasonably priced controllers. eg To get a 10 turn hubmotor to perform the same as a 5 turn motor run at 100V100A would require a controller of 200V50A for identical performance, which doesn't exist, at least not from a practical standpoint.

Dogman, since you rely entirely on anecdotal evidence here's some for you. I live in a mountainous area and contend with mountain roads all the time. I'm also a lot heavier, so my ebikes have to push a bigger load up these steeper longer climbs. I use only speed wind motors, and until last year I never even bothered with a temp sensor. Guess how many motors I've melted, exactly 0. How many motors have you melted? Don't try to fall back on "but John you use more powerful scooter hubbies.", because for the first 5 years of this hobby, the motors I used were the ones Crystalyte copied for it's H40xx series.

Look at how many people melted those H40xx motors, all slower windings than mine and all pushing much lighter loads, and probably up less steep and long hills. How is that possible if slower wind motors make less heat on hills? Sure ventilation has helped me push to extreme power on some of my motors, but my most tested and tortured ebike is my cargo ebike that's seen more miles and more hill climbs than any. It's the only one pushed to a stall numerous times on hills that became too steep, yet is still sealed and has no temp sensor, but this H40xx comparable 2 turn motor still has only slightly discolored copper. I don't even have to volt it down to make it equal to those other motors, because it's a 60mph ebike. What makes this possible is primarily because I run a 20" wheel. That's what makes a hubmotor a better hill climber, a smaller wheel, because it lowers the gearing. It's the only thing that makes a motor a better hill climber, and the number of turns of copper has nothing to do with anything other than the voltage and current you run to get the same results with an otherwise identical motor. IOW, every time a seller uses the words "high torque motor" when talking about different windings, they are either intentionally misleading people or they are ignorant about how our hubmotors actually work, because THERE IS NO SUCH THING.

Dogman it's time for you to get this right, because I'm sure you don't want to intentionally mislead people.
 
True. I was not considering changing the voltage or amps. I'm not picking a fight, but you can't stand my opinion. I no longer think a slower motor is ideal for everything. But It's better for me for most of my needs.

Assuming you wish to stick with a common stock controller and voltage, such as 36v and 20-25 amps, then a slow wind motor will take off from a stop less sluggish than a faster wind motor, which would perform better with a different voltage and amps. Not a hill, but IMO, it makes a better ride if top speed is not your aim. Wattmeters prove that under those limitations of 36v and 22 amps, riding stop and go downtown is more efficient with the slower rpm motor.

John, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Yours works well. Mine works good enough. The BEST approach is a bigger motor, with more magnet and copper, and throws more watts at it. This can result in a faster setup, but that can be good in traffic too!

With the delta trike, you still have to consider the danger of a faster setup, so for delta trikes, I will keep saying a lower speed whatever is a better choice. The best choice might be a mid drive.

Remove the constraints of a delta trike, and replace it with a 20" wheel tadpole trike, and I'll stop recommending a slow motor.
 
So, John, I'm reading with great interest. Which motor/setup would you use if building a trike?

Thanks for the interesting read and education!
 
dogman dan said:
The best choice might be a mid drive.

Remove the constraints of a delta trike, and replace it with a 20" wheel tadpole trike, and I'll stop recommending a slow motor.

I have two mid drive bikes and love them. But haven't read a report of a BBS0x user with a delta. Secondly, is the only reason you recommend a slow motor assuming the rider will not be able to control the desire for speed and crash cornering? If a faster motor gets me uphill more effeciently I think I can, in my middle 60's muster up enough common sense to not exceed 12-15 mph on the road. Heck no one suggest we drive 1 liter cages cuz anything bigger will go 80 miles an hour and be to dangerous. Is potential stupidity the only reason for the slower motor?

Thanks for wading in. You've been a help from day one!
 
While I'm a big fan of tadpole trikes, my wife rides a very stable Sun trike USX delta with the rear wheels in negative camber. This means the bottom of the rear wheels cants out at about 7 degrees, making the trike more stable. She uses an ebikekit 2807 (standard 9C front motor) and can get up 10% hills without slipping. Any more than that and wheelspin is in the mix and she has to zig-zag to get up that hill. I believe that for a delta, the 2 motor approach would work the best so if you can get the trike with a rear motor, just add one to the front too like DDK runs. This "all wheel drive" should equal or exceed a tadpole rear motor trike like I use. I must say that since I put on the new 2 speed xiongda rear motor, hill climbing uses much fewer watts than my old 9C type Ebikekit at the same speed uphill.
Just my 2 pence.
otherDoc
 
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