drewjet said:
Well i have been riding and playing with the bike for a few months. Nothing major to report. The Nuvinci is not happy with the 7500 watts I have been putting through it. It works fine until it warms up, which is about 8 miles of hard riding. Then if you let it freewheel, it wont transmit power till you come to almost a complete stop. I was afraid it wouldn't hold up.
Also, I am not happy with only 7500 watts. Yes it is quick, but I want scary fast. I want what LFP has. I have a 72 volt 400 amp alltrax controller to try with the Etek, that should get my numbers up. Unfortunately I loaned my Etek to my buddy, so I have no motor and it sits.
Great news is that Matt (Recumpence) has officially stated that the 4" Astro would be coming soon, hopefully February. The largest of which will be putting out up to 35 or so HP, right in the sweetspot for me. I have a 100 volt 200 amp controller, so should be a perfect match.
My problem is now how to put the power to the ground. I could make an adapter to go to the disc brake mount, but then I loose the disc brake, someting I don't really want, the other option would be to go through dual freewheels like my Astro powered mountain bike, but I don't think and bicycle freewheel will be up to the task. ANY IDEAS?
ONLY 7500 watts!?! Just 10 HP?!!? That's ALL?!!?

:lol: :lol:
The NuVinci wasn't designed for much over 7 HP IIRC, and I have heard of some of the gassers have determined an upper limit of 9 HP meaning that the NuVinci starts to slip at 9 HP, so really nothing over 8 HP continuous that I have seen or heard of is possible with the NuVinci.
That is some screaming watts!! But lets not forget, it's just as important that you put the power into forward motion, just having that on tap, and breaking things in the drive-line doesn't do much good. :wink:
I'm really curious, has the NuVinci continued to perform normally at slower speeds/power levels even after being pushed this hard?
I have heard some of the gassers say that the internal fluid starts to darken at this point, however, I wouldn't open it up as long as it's still performing ok at 8 hp and less.
Again, great build! That 4 inch Astro sounds really interesting!
As far as running a left hand drive, why not just run a dual right hand drive with a straight cog? All you really need a freewheel on is the pedal chain, and if you have a dual right hand drive (I have the motor driven sprocket just behind the pedal sprocket) and use maybe 420 motorcycle chain with the power levels you are using, or what ever LFP is using on his (IIRC 420 chain wasn't up the task?)
I see your point about not wanting to get grease on the disc rotor. What does LFP have for a brake on the back? Knowing him, he doesn't and just relies on a really good front brake (it is a race bike after all, not like you need a rear brake if your riding style allows) and there is always regen braking for the rear if you want to load/unload the suspension in corners but your not using *** rear ***suspension right?