DIY 70V hub motor fat tire build - input wanted, please.

[BB_Mike]

Before I start a build thread, I'd like some input on the parts I am looking to order.

e-Bike - I have a Windone E2. 48V, 750W hub motor, 20" fat tire dual suspension, 170mm dropout. Decent bike, gets about 20 miles with minimal pedal, but that duration is getting worse each week.

Windone E2 Fat Tire Off-Road Adventurer

Discover the Windone E2 fat tire electric bike, an affordable high-quality option for those seeking a cost-effective ebike. Best Super73 Alternative, But More Affordable. With its robust electric motor, fat tires for stability, and sleek design, it's perfect for navigating city streets with ease...

windone.com

Hub Motor - 72V, 4500W, 20x4" fat tire that uses a cast spoke/hoop. I think a straight spoke or even a two spoke fat tire like Leaf offers at this power and weight used offroad is sketchy and a bonus is this look will match the factory front wheel nicely. Even the reflector swaps over.

20Inch 4500W 48/72V 100Km/h Gearless Hub Motor

20inch 4500W 48/72V 100km/h gearless Hub Motor, ideal for high-performance electric bicycles and scooters, excels on urban streets, highways, and off-road trails, delivering powerful acceleration and smooth operation.

www.lunyee.com

Battery - Amorge 16S5P 60V 25AH 120 Amp / 175A peak. Samsung 50S cells. Nice fit for the area.

https://www.amorge.com/post/amorge-16s5p-60v-25ah-120amp-battery-for-onyx-cty2-electric-bike

Recommendations needed:

Motor Controller -
1) Sine Wave.
2) min 200A support. For longer life into other future projects.
3) Easy learning curve with speed limiting (45mph, but might stretch it out once or twice for YouTube likes, ha. it's still a piggy fat tire though).
Something like the ND72200 FarDriver Controller with Bluetooth, 72V, 200A Battery, 200A Phase

Pardon Our Interruption...

Kit -
1) Full grip twist throttle
2) DKD display
3) Head light I have, but need to control it.
4) Blinkers would be nice for this little bit of road I have to go on to get to the park.
If you have some suppliers or direct links, please share. I love this kit here, but it only comes with the motor and the amps are overkill: FarDriver 72450 Controller | Fat Tire House


Basically, I want to get the controller + display + thumb controls as closely packaged as possible to avoid wiring complexity.
Oh, and what is your recommendation for Battery connectors? Charge Connector XLR, Discharge Connector: QS8
I am going to order that now because of the lead time. I can solder/crimp build cables. Is there a popular choice that will make life easier versus some outdated nonsense?

 

[E-HP]

Battery - Amorge 16S5P 60V 25AH 120 Amp / 175A peak. Samsung 50S cells. Nice fit for the area.

https://www.amorge.com/post/amorge-16s5p-60v-25ah-120amp-battery-for-onyx-cty2-electric-bike

I'd get the version with the P50B cells. It will live a lot longer.

 

[BB_Mike]

Thanks E-HP. +1 brain for you!

I think the first far driver I put up above would limit me on line Amps. The battery can do 120A/175A peak.

While I won't live at that max line, I do want to get a controller that can grow to do more later and live longer.

360 Amps phase, 170 Amps line

ND72360 | far-driver

ND72360 2000-3000W 72V EV Progammable FOC Controller Fardriver Brand For Electric Scooter. Electric Bicycle

www.far-driver.com

That controller plus a dkd display and a throttle should be all I need. I am waiting on some quotes. Hoping to hear more from you all on the sanity check.
The wild card here is a somewhat undefined hub motor on that rear wheel. but it just looks sooooo good. I wouldn't have any information to put into the grin simulator.

 

[99t4]

what is your recommendation for Battery connectors?

I was going to suggest:

1. Genuine XT90s. There was just recent (as in today) discussion about it. Added Bonus: Built-in antispark feature.
2. Otherwise, Genuine Anderson PowerPole 45, crimped and assembled correctly. NOTE: Big quality difference between genuine and cheap counterfeit knock-offs.

But maybe not, depending on your amperage requirements.

For charging connector, how many amps is your charger?

 

[Chalo]

I was going to suggest:

1. Genuine XT90s. There was just recent (as in today) discussion about it. Added Bonus: Built-in antispark feature.
2. Otherwise, Genuine Anderson PowerPole 45, crimped and assembled correctly. NOTE: Big quality difference between genuine and cheap counterfeit knock-offs.

I think Anderson SB50 is a better alternative to XT90 (better than XT90) whereas Powerpole 45 is a lesser choice. 72/4500 suggests at least 63A, unless it's nominal, in which case we could be looking at 125A. PP45 won't do that.

That bike is a pretty wretched use of such power. The stupid mag wheel is toast if it hits anything surprising at 40mph+.

 

[E-HP]

XT150’s are super easy to solder and have a decent amount of contact area.

 

[BB_Mike]

I do like the XT150 for the amount of contact area when seated. I have some Anderson's laying around that I can use as well and my crimper does them nicely. For the charge part, I am thinking XLR. I like that there are so many options for those, and you can get a panel mount locking version for the bike side. It also give more strain relieve for the charger cable end side to "pull" from versus the wiggle-pull-wiggle. Good to know nothing has changed too much in that realm.

As for the bike. It is surprisingly solid. Heavy, but solid. I agree the mag/potted metal wheels are a weak point. But it is dual suspension and I keep the tires low on psi when riding off pavement. I also do not wheel offroad with rocks or technical areas. I have other bikes for that which are much lighter. By off-road here, I mean improved trails. 80% of it's life will be bike paths.

If I shred the bike, I'll have a nice battery and controller to start off with on the next build. I have an itch to do an old school mongoose BMX or Rad movie bike clone.

So no worries on the combo other than money wasted, like all my hobbies.

 

[BB_Mike]

I just heard from Lunyee that the dropout of their wheel is 175mm. My bike's dropout is 170mm.

Can that be overcome with a little spreading of the rear frame dropout? I would have to shim my brake caliper a bit, but that should only be half of 5mm, which is in the realm of grinding and or washers. I have had the opposite problem and jsut used steel torque arm bracket to fill the void.

ps. I hate tariffs.

 

[E-HP]

Try loosening the nuts on your motor and see how much you can spread them by hand to get an idea. Easier if the swingarm is steel, but 5mm is probably fine if it’s aluminum. Their 175mm may only be the axle flats, so you may still need a washer inside the dropouts on each side, so spreading even more. Do they have a diagram?

 

[BB_Mike]

link to diagram:

https://www.lunyee.com/static/download/618/20inch-4500w-48-72v-100km-per-hour-gearless-hub-motor-Dimensions-1.webp

 

[E-HP]

link to diagram:

https://www.lunyee.com/static/download/618/20inch-4500w-48-72v-100km-per-hour-gearless-hub-motor-Dimensions-1.webp

Plan on something closer to 179mm.

 

[BB_Mike]

E-HP wins the internet for that tidbit of info. The hub motor came in with a dropout of about 182mm. So I had to widen the bike frame rear dropout.

The bike is together and operational.

I am going to create a build thread that captures the before and after, but I've found that it's easiest to just make a video. I am pleased with how it turned out. Thanks again to all that helped out.

 

[Mpls City Rider]

E-HP wins the internet for that tidbit of info. The hub motor came in with a dropout of about 182mm. So I had to widen the bike frame rear dropout.

The bike is together and operational.

I am going to create a build thread that captures the before and after, but I've found that it's easiest to just make a video. I am pleased with how it turned out. Thanks again to all that helped out.

Mike the Bike looks awesome! So I have a Windone E2 also and just got it about a month ago, I am going to upgrade the motor and controller also! But was going to wait untill winter to do so! A couple questions if you could be so Kind and help me out on them!
On the Farndrive controller what kind of screen did you get so it is compatible? Did you ever add torque bars on the motor? And did you figure out the light situation? I seen on another bike on YouTube someone used milwaukee batteries and a adapter to power the lights! Just an Idea! And any other useful wisdom to make this transition as easy as possible! Oh yeah do you have a Preferred seller on Aliaba that you used for the Bike parts? Thank you for the Video and all the Help so far!

 

[BB_Mike]

The bike has side fairings now and about 15 miles on it. After it gets a seat cover, I will post a follow up video.

For a Fardriver controller, the DKD displays have been proven to work. I did not get one. currently, the bike has no display other than Volts on the throttle. The goal is a sleeper / stock look. You can configure the "low volt limp mode" threshold value in the Fardriver settings. As for speed, well, its's just a number. haha. The bike did 55mph according to a phone GPS app. I have since tuned it down because at that speed you should wear a lot of gear.

I did not ad torque bars, and its fine. This is with ~90Amps limited in software and a 4500W motor. "Max" acceleration will lift the front end, but not wheely like a suron or talaria will.

No light yet. I had bought a voltage converter like the Golf Carts use, but that still needs a switch and the stock light is not exactly awesome. The plan is to go with something like this:

Amazon.com

You can buy "pigtail" connectors that plug into the light's factory connector so that you can wire it up to whatever you want. I am big fan of being able to go back to stock to more easily sell the bike.

For parts suppliers, I used who I called out in the video. Amorge is great for batteries. The hub motor, I wish I would have had a temp sensor. If you plan to make max power, makes sure you price that in. The fardriver and throttle is best to get as a bundle package for ease of connections. I did have to re-pin the hall sensor connector. That was not an amateur task, but doable with some patience and clearly writing out the signal names, wire colors, and pin numbers so that you don't screw it up.

Last tip: Your front forks are garbage! Notice the end of the youtube video. The "wiggle" in the front fork tubes resulted in the fork brace breaking. Completely snapped and the tire turned right about 5 degrees and... CRASH. The material failure was accelerated by doing "stoppies" and all terrain riding. Also, riding a motorcycle makes me use the front brake more. This stresses that front fork. So, leave the dampening as soft as possible and use your rear brake as much as possible.. There are not many options out there for better forks, but I chose this Bucklos one because of the bottom wheel-hub attachment having extra material. The swap was a challenge though because the shock tube is a larger diameter, but I want more strength.

Amazon.com

If I had it to do over again, I would have to just gotten a Tallaria X3. But I wanted the peddles and to be considered a bike. Now I am seeing that talaria people can get crank arms and peddles to fake the bike look. LOL The tallaria will have easier resale too. Think a bit on that. This windone E2 is a very heavy bike and shares a lot in common with the ridstar

 

[BB_Mike]

Video 2 showing the final look of the bike:

All in all the invested cost was $2k with no outsourced labor.