E-Bike Planning Help (anyone in WI?)

[bendyline]

Greetings all. This is a great forum.

So I'm in the process of planning and building an e-bike. Here's my situation...

I live in Verona, WI just outside Madison, WI.
I have a 10 mile (one way) commute to work, by bike it's mostly on trails which is very nice. It's mostly flat but there are a couple medium size hills for good measure.
I tried just biking in alot last year, but I was always getting into work too late, and it's just hard finding the motivation to get up and ride so far so early in the morning.
So, Here's what I'd like to do. Put together an ebike, to get me to work quickly and efficiently and be able to use it every day, instead of 2 or 3 days a week. Or 1 day a week.
I'm 28,M, 5'11" and 220lbs, hopefully will loose some of that biking to work.
I'd like to be able to cruise around 25-30mph on flat surfaces with a combo of Motor and pedeling. I'm also a volunteer Puppy raiser/trainer for a local organization that trains Service Dogs for people with disabilities, so I'd need to be able to tow a trailer since I'm frequently taking a dog with me to work. the current 9 month old pup i have weighs around 50-60 lbs. I realize towing the dog will drag my speed and batteries down. I'd have the dog pull me but then she'd be useless for training all day because all her energy would be gone, plus 10 miles is too far for such a young dog and that's not what she's being trained for anyways.

From my reading on this all over the web, it seems like Crystalyte is the way to go. But really it seems that the secret to a good setup is all in the Batteries. I like the cheaper prices of kits like the BL-36 from Wilderness Energy/Golden Motor, but I'm wondering if those are cheap for a reason?
I also like the idea of having the motor on the rear wheel, we get lots of Pot holes around here, (we just had a 100"+ of snow winter)

I'm going to get a cheap Mountain bike to put this on to start with. Eventually I'd like to build a Recumbent Trike, and move the kit to that.

Here's one kit I'm considering,The Phoeniz Cruiser 4840. http://www.bernsonev.com/phoenix-4840-p-625.html
Or the RoadRunner 4820 http://www.bernsonev.com/roadrunner-4820-p-629.html
Or the Wilderness Kit http://www.bernsonev.com/wilderness-conversion-bl36-electric-conversion-kits-p-121.html

If there's anyone near me that wouldn't mind letting me Test ride your bike, that might be helpful too.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[lawsonuw]

Howdy neighbor! (I live just a few miles {well... less than 10} north of you PM me) I just got my e-bike working, it's a bit of a recycling project and it uses the wilderness energy BD-36 and a set of NiCd batteries left over from a previous project. It's never going to throw you off your seat, but even when I'm only using 100-200 watts it makes a dramatic difference in my cruising speed. Also, makes a large difference on hills even if it won't pull me up much of a hill. http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3742 Eventually the front hub motor is going to be driving the cranks so it can take advantage of all my gears. A strong contender for my e-bike conversion was the 500w kit from http://www.cyclone-tw.com/ because it uses most of a bike's gears, but I'm cheap and can build most anything so a used BD-36 won out.

Marty

 

[lazarus2405]

So, you'd like to be able to move yourself and a towed trailer. 25-30mph, for 10 miles. Can you recharge between your commutes? Would you like to be able to travel farther? Would you like to be able to travel faster, say 40mph for a short time if you needed to? Or 35 for your whole trip? (That would indeed be a bad idea on bike trails, but a fine one if you were on roads and pulling a trailer.) Are you young and crazy or older and wiser, or some combination? How steep are the hills, what portion of your trip is hilly, and in generally is one direction more uphill than the other? And what sort of budget are we working with?

The point is, that if you want to do it, it can be done. Everything from a little RC plane motor to take the edge off, to doing whole commutes at 60mph, has been done here, and we'd gladly help you do whatever you want to do.

If you'll be often hauling a trailer, perhaps either a pusher trailer setup or storing the batteries in the trailer would be a very good choice. Have you considered it? If you'd need to use the bike as an electric without the trailer, this might not work, but using the trailer can simplify a number of things.

Depending on your needs and budget, each one of those kits would be a decent fit. Though, they tend to contain a number of accessories that are ancillary or useless (brake inhibits, cruise control, lighted throttles, etc). I will, however, suggest you look at ebikes.ca. They're the most knowledgeable and helpful sellers in the business, Justin and Zev. They'll answer any question you might have, and they don't sell you things you don't need. More than just their shop, check out their entire website. There are tons of basic resources about hub motors and electric conversions.

I'll also suggest you look at their CycleAnalyst. It's a handlebar dashboard computer thingy invented by Justin and Zev specifically for ebikes. I'm tired of trying to list everything it does, so just look at the site. Point being, it does everything, and it's the best.

Recumbent trikes here are rather popular. They make good platforms, especially for towing. If you're good at building, you could make yourself a custom trailer like Ross and Rassy here have done, or you could buy one or work with one you already have. Here's an example: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=703

So, if you can be more specific with your wants and needs in the project, I'd be happy to answer any question you might have.

 

[bendyline]

Really, what I need is a setup that will average around 20mph with the trailer. And help up small hills.
Without the trailer if it can get me to 30mph for short bursts (4 to 5 miles), that'd be good too.

"Can you recharge between your commutes?" Yes, I can charge at work if needed.
"Would you like to be able to travel farther?" Further is always better, so that might be nice, but for starters not totally nessesary.
"Would you like to be able to travel faster, say 40mph for a short time if you needed to?" Possibly, but not with the trailer, that would just be fun for me since I don't have a motorcycle anymore.

"Or 35 for your whole trip? (That would indeed be a bad idea on bike trails, but a fine one if you were on roads and pulling a trailer.)" 25-35mph would only be when I'm without the trailer and most of my commute trail wise is long flat and straight, and in the morning I'm usually one of two bikers out, so going fast isn't that much of a concern. Plus I'd never be flying past other people at 40mph. I hate it when the "PRO" cycle guys fly by on trails at 25mph, without any warning. So I wouldn't want to do that to others.

"Are you young and crazy or older and wiser, or some combination?" I'm not sure on this one, in my previous post I just realized I said I was 28, which I will be in December this year? So maybe some combination.
"How steep are the hills, what portion of your trip is hilly, and in generally is one direction more uphill than the other?" In general the hills aren't bad, the largest of them is only about 100yds long, and if I'm going fast enough to start with I can climb it pretty well by myself. Mind you it then takes 10 minutes to recover once I get over it. Which slows me down considerably. None of them are so bad that I have to walk up them.

"And what sort of budget are we working with?" Well, I'm thinking my max to spend on this is going to be close to $2000. I'd like to get the setup done right the first time, if at all possible, so that hopefully I can then have a system that will work for years to come. And hopefully have it be nice enough that I can convert some friends to this as well.

It would also be nice to make it kinda stealth, conceal the wires inside the frame, that kind of stuff, if doable.

A pushing trailer might work well with my current bike, I won a Trek Lime from Bicylcing Magazine last year on their Bike Town tour. It has fixed hubs front and rear (Electric Auto 3spd tranny), so my only way of making it Electric would either have to be Friction Drive, or a Pusher.