Extreme Noobie Request...

J

jaz1902

1 mW
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
11
Location
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania USA
I'm Joe, a 59 yr old semi retired toolmaker with 32 yrs experience designing and building mechanical lab apparatus. Just ordered a cheap imported ebike (delivery Tuesday) to use as a working platform for clean transport and fun. Can someone please point me to an appropriate forum for learning the basics? Interested in upgrading 24v LiPo system/controller and tweaking 300W hubmotor. All help deeply appreciated, and I will respond in kind as my knowledge and expertise permits.... Thanks much and Cheers! PS... living in frosty Eastern PA, where winter is firmly in command.
 
Welcome jaz1902, Could you post a link to the bike that you bought? That would make it easier to asses the best "bang for your buck" upgrades that would be appropriate.
 
Welcome to ES****Do this before your first post or now (it's retroactive)*****
Please go to the User Control Panel, select Profile, and then enter your city, state/province, and country into the Location field (country minimum) and save it. Once done, your location will appear in every post so you won't have people asking where you are ever again. This will help people help you. Example: Wylie, TX, USA. or just USA, but country as a minimum, and country is the most important. There are many cities with the same name all over the world. Without knowing what country you are in it's hard to make any recommendations. Thank you.
 
spinningmagnets said:
Welcome jaz1902, Could you post a link to the bike that you bought? That would make it easier to asses the best "bang for your buck" upgrades that would be appropriate.
Click to expand...
Yes, a good saddle !
 
jaz1902 said:
I'm Joe, a 59 yr old semi retired toolmaker with 32 yrs experience designing and building mechanical lab apparatus. Just ordered a cheap imported ebike (delivery Tuesday) to use as a working platform for clean transport and fun. Can someone please point me to an appropriate forum for learning the basics? Interested in upgrading 24v LiPo system/controller and tweaking 300W hubmotor. All help deeply appreciated, and I will respond in kind as my knowledge and expertise permits.... Thanks much and Cheers! PS... living in frosty Eastern PA, where winter is firmly in command.
Click to expand...

Hey Joe! Welcome to ES! Glad you are looking for clean transport and fun, it is our specialty around here. BTW this is the best forum for e-bike info. I would just recommend reading as much as you can and ask any questing that comes to mind. If you want to do some in-depth reading then read as much of the ES Wiki and you are able.

http://endless-sphere.com/w/index.php/Main_Page

Don't worry about the vertical learning curve, over time it will sink in.

Glad to have you on board and looking forward to experienced advice in "designing and building mechanical apparatus" as we build a lot of our own stuff around here and are always looking for good guidance.

:D
 
Welcome to the most addictive hobby on the planet
 
Wow, thanks to all so far for your encouragement Platform bike is imported by X treme Scooters model . Still trying to construct a link. (Newb to this BB format) I stumbled on ES after pursuing info on applications of the Halbach PM array, whose axial form appears to be the basis of the hub motor... Still reading as much as fast as possible... Read FAQ and updated profile.
Many thanks again Cheers, Joe.[/http://www.farbike.com/x-treme-xb-310li
 
The motor can give double the power or more.
Stage 1: solder 30% of the shunt for a good jump in torque,
Stage 2: 36v battery for about 30% more speed and another jump in torque.
Stage 3: 12S lipo battery (44v nominal), new 15 amp 36v high-speed controller will give about 30mph down-hill.
Stage 4: solder the shunt for another jump in torque

Stages 3 and 4 should only be done if you don't have steep hill, or don't weigh too much. The standard controller will be dealing with about 300w from the battery. Stage 2 is double that and stage 4 is about 3 times the power. The motor can handle it, but will heat up on the hills.

With your battery case, you can just fit in a pair of 8aH 6S lipos, and you can get a 36v battery that is a direct replacement.

As soon as you go to 36v,you need to change the gearing bbecause you won't be able to pedal fast enough, You'll need a DNP rear free-wheel gear-set with 11T top gear. For 44v, you need to go to at least 48T on your front chain-wheel.

I did all these stages on the Cyclamatic, which has a similar motor to yours. It only overheats when going slowly at full throttle. I'm 100kg, so the motor still had a hard time.

Here's my thread on it and the missing pictures are in the photobucket link. In principle, everything should be the same on your bike.

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/cyclamatic-the-beastamatic-is-dead-long-live-the-beastamatic.9857/

http://s451.photobucket.com/user/d8veh/library/Beastamatic?sort=3&page=1



Here's my thread on it and the missing pictures are in the photobucket link.. In princip[le, everything should be the same on your bike. Can we see a photo of it?:
 
Definitely you found the right forum. I thought you had a more scooter like "bike" but looking at that link, it's a typical folding bike, with a small planetary gearmotor. It might be a bit petite for what I have heard of, of Pennsylvania hills. But maybe you won't need lots of hill performance if you just zip about in a town.

All can learn more than you ever thought you wanted to know in the battery section. You sound smart enough to leap into building your own battery, or assembling one from RC packs as soon as you want to. It took me a lot more time to be ready for even the simplest battery stuff.

The one nugget you need to learn right away is how to troubleshoot a bad connecting plug. You will find one on the bike sooner or later. The contacts tend to unsnap from the housing and back out. Unplugging may pull it back in, so it looks normal, but it backs out again when you plug back in. It can drive you NUTS! Learn how to spot the bad one, and tweak the tab so it snaps into the housing and stays there. That's 90% of ebike troubleshooting right there.

Tools you need are a digital voltmeter, likely you have one. Then good additions to your bike are wattmeters, or at least a real voltage read out you can see while riding. Knowing what your battery is really doing is just crucial. A stash of spare or replace with better plug contacts, wire, etc.

Slime the tires, with thick chunky 4x4 slime if you have lots of road hazards in your area. Here it's hard to say what's more common, huge thorns or careless construction workers debris.
 
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