Bell No-Mor Flats innertube review

[parajared]

Bell No-Mor Flats innertube
I bought mine at Wal-Mart but Amazon.com has them too.
$30 per tube

So far extra thick tires, slime tires and tire liners have all been a bust. I have had foam tires on my peddle bike for a while now so I decided to toss some on the ol' e-bike after rupturing a 2x thick slimey and see how they do.

My peddle bike has been equipped with Bell foams for 2 years now and heres what I think.
-They feel a bit "underinflated" on pavement and a little on the hard side on off-road trails.
-They can be tough to get on to the rim, same sorta job as installing your own motorcycle tire.
-They are darn near impossible to get off. Seriously, you will have to cut the tire off.
-I haven't weighed them but they seem about the same weight as the x-thick slimes

As far as on an e-bike I was a little concerned to put them on because of the gushyness, but heres how they turned out.
-It turns out my average watt draw did not go up, I was worried about increased rolling resistance: average wh/mi remains around 44
-They did not feel sloppy during hard cornering or blasting along at high speeds, I was worried they might gush out from under me

So far I like them, I think they are a totally viable option for an e-bike if you are getting a lot of flats.

 

[psycholist]

I have this crazy idea of using an undersized No-Mor flats innertube along with a narrow size regular innertube. In the event of a flat, you would still be able to ride the bike and fix it when you return home.

 

[Fishmasterdan]

what tire size are you using?? are you offroad riding or on road riding. thanks for the report

 

[parajared]

I use a bell semi-off road 1.95

Half of my 16 mile commute is on the shoulder of a highway, the other half is on a dirt bicycle trail by a lake. 7miles tarmac 9 miles dirt trail.

I also like to go trail riding sometimes. The 1.95 tires feel a tad skinny compared to the 2.2's that I used to have on and slide out a touch more on loose soil.

 

[Ypedal]

it's " Pedal " .. not " Peddle " ..... :wink:

And 44 wh/mile is pretty high, what's the motor/controller , battery, specs ?.. pictures ?

rider weight ?

 

[parajared]

I'm not sure if it's my cycle analyst or my motor that is not right (or both). Unfortunatly my motor seems to be going bad, its slowly drawing more and more amps to maintain the same speed. Currently it's to the point where it's drawing 60 wh/mi and only creeping along at 15mph average. The motor is heating up a lot. I'm going to have to pull it apart and see what's going on, but the tests on tubless tires were before the motor started going bad. I have another thread on my motor bogging issue here: http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=39284

Here's my specs back before the motor started going bad (well really bad) though:
motor: 9c (not sure the winding)
batteries: hobby king 12s 20ah battery.
bike: giant revel mountain bike
controller: lyen 12 fet
rider weight: 215lbs

It's also noteworthy to say that my 44 wh/mi readings were done on 2.2s tube slime tires and 1.95 tubeless tires. Both yielded 44 wh/mi according to CA.

 

[amberwolf]

FWIW, I get notably higher Wh/mile on DayGlo Avenger using the airless tire (whihc is probably equivalent ot 30psi, if that) than with a pneumatic pumped up to 55-60psi. About the same, maybe a little less, than with an actual pneumatic pumped up to only 30psi or less.

I don't remember the exact difference, though, but it should be findable in my DGA thread from a few months back.


Regarding your motor getting hotter and taking more power--have you checked your brakes for rub, both on that wheel and the other one? ALso checked your wheel bearings, both in the motor and the other wheel? Any of those could cause enough drag to contribute to motor heating and inefficiency. Low tire pressure also does this, if it's dramatically lower.

 

[parajared]

Itchynackers wrote this in this post: http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29847

Follow me here:
If one shunt is approximately 4.8mohm, then for a 12 fet with two shunts:
Resistance should be about R = 1/(1/4.8 + 1/4. = 2.4mohm (which is accurate for my 12 fet),

I have a lyen 12 fet and my cycle analyst Rshunt setting was set at 1. I believe changing my cycle analyst settings to 2.4 mohm may yield more accurate results assuming itchynackers is correct about his calculations and my 12 fet is also a two shunt setup.

As far as overheating hub goes, I popped it open and nothing looks burnt, the bearings seem in good shape. Dogman suggests it may be wrong hall sensor sequence, but I don't have the foggiest how to check that.

Whew! sheesh, I never thought it would get so complicated when I first got started.