Have you ever hated your ebike?

[broloch]

Has there ever been a time when you hated your ebike and wanted to get rid of it?

I had this feeling a few times, and it was more of a performance thing. I wanted something to travel at a good speed, accelerate well, accelerate from a stop, and have a decent range.

I couldn't start from a stop because I didn't have torque arms, top speed is 17mph, afraid to accelerate from a low speed to top speed, acceleration overall wasn't good, and range was something like 6 miles.

This was at 36V 4.2Ah, no torque arms.
Will I love my ebike (or hate it less) with a 48V 8Ah battery, and torque arms?

 

[swbluto]

What kind of battery are you talking about? An 8.0 AH "48V" SLA is definitely not 48V under load(accelerating, for example) so your performance will be less than you might expect.

And... 4.2 AH is your current? What kind of battery, again? If it's SLA, no wonder you hate it! You're probably pushing 4-5C's(If not more like a 35 amp controller would demand.) which drastically reduces the voltage to some weak value.

Upgrade the AH. Upgrade your chemistry. You might like it a little more. Also, upgrading the voltage helps with top-speed and acceleration but you'll probably notice a better improvement in acceleration if you better the first two factors.

I never really hated my e-bike as my expectations weren't high to begin with(However, I happily upgraded to a 48V which gave me a top unassisted flat-speed of 25 mph, a jump from 18-19 mph. Now the speed range currently available makes me more than happy. And I also pedal from a start, where I have a relative advantage compared to the motor, so my accelerations are usually on par with normal cars, it seems upto 15-20 mph.). But developments such as these, http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6432, are starting to make me question the reliability of the most essential components and it may dissipate my enthusiasm for electric bicycles if these kinds of developments continue.

 

[Rassy]

Hi broloch. I can't tell if you are being tongue in cheek, or are just young, or what (I'm 68), but I started a few years ago with a 24V scooter motor mounted in front of the crank using 12AH SLA, on a cheap MB. It was a pos but I loved it. After about a dozen upgrades, my current ride is a nice recumbent with a BD36 in the front wheel, running at 48V and using a 20AH LiFePO4. Double the previous when I hook up the trailer. As much as I love riding my bike, upgrading it has been half the fun and enjoyment. I am currently planning my next major upgrade and will be posting that in a few weeks.

So I would say, enjoy what you have, use this forum for ideas, and make what changes you can to make your ride better.

I see SWBLUTO has made some good suggestions while I was typing this.

 

[Lessss]

No, but I've wanted to take a fist upside the head of many a politician that wrote such stupid ebike laws that restrict my motor to 500W and top speed to 32 kph. I KNOW my controller and motor can deliver MORE speed and torque, but it's the law that is restricting it. A speed cap I can understand. A speed cap and a wattage cap is just STUPID.

 

[dogman dan]

If you have obsessive compusive disorder bad enough, you will never be happy with it. Assuming you just worry normaly, get some torque arms and forget about trying to baby your dropouts. I don't know what you are running but many of us have 400 series, or WE motors that aren't going to rip out the forks UNLESS we screwed up with a bad fittng washer under the nuts. I have 1400 miles on my bike with no problems except that first ride when I did spin the axle.

Save up some money and get a Lifepo4 20 ah battery. It's a lot of money, I know, but that battery will outlast several bikes. Once you can go a bit faster, and ride for hours, your bike will get much nicer.

 

[swbluto]

I read in your other post that you had a 25 amp controller. May I make a suggestion for a 48V 12AH Ping LiFePO4? As far as batteries go, you'll definitely notice an improvement and it's about the most economical of the lowest-possible recommendations I could make. I understand some members will suggest 20ah, and if you're financially capable of doing so, that might be wise but I understand not everyone has the money to spend on that; especially when you're just trying to fulfill the bare minimum. I say economical because even though other choices might be cheaper upfront(Like SLA; They'll be 1/3 as cheap, as of current, comparing "usable wh" to "usable wh" with the puekert effect and all), the LiFePO4s will last at least 5 times long with "normal usage". If you're like Safe and have the skills to build a bike that can carry, what, 100AH(?), SLAs might be economical in the long-term but they're definitely not light and you'll need the skills and material to build the right bike and after the "cost" of making special accommodations(including opportunity costs), it might not even be economical anymore and if you're anywhere near "fashion conscious" or "weight conscious", you'll definitely not be happy: It won't feel anything remotely like a "bike". Especially if something goes wrong during the middle of the ride, which almost inevitably happens.

Also, if you're afraid of breaking something with the front fork(If you're running off the rear, you probably don't need a torque arm. I haven't, yet.), torque arms will probably give you peace of mind and psychologically "enable" you to take advantage of all the power available to you, so the "fear" will probably go away. I've read from maslow that fear, and the consequent lack of "security", definitely degrades happiness so you probably want to get rid of that so that you can start looooovin' your bike.

For torque arms, may I suggest ampedup's torque arms? They seem easy to install and extra secure for a torque arm, but you'll need to check if they'll fit your specs first. If you have a C'lyte 4XX, they will(probably. Don't hold me up to it.).

 

[andys]

At first when I built my 2 e-bikes, I wanted more power, so I wasn't totally happy with them. Then I crashed a bike at only 18MPH and got a first hand experience of the violent power of kinetic energy! I am glad I wasn't going 28MPh when I went down. Two months later, I am still not 100% back to normal. I still ride, and now find 20 to 22MPh to be plenty enough speed. My rear geared motor has a lot of hill climbing torque, and that is more important to me where I live than top end speed anyway. So I don't hate the bikes, (even the one I crashed) but I do think about ways to make them better if not faster. Trying to get a better suspension fork right now for one of the bikes, and want to put an Avid disc brake on the front of the other. Lithium batteries are the way to go right now, and have a LIPO on one bike and a LIFEPO4 on the other

 

[broloch]

You may have read from my other posts that I have been contemplating upgrading voltage, even adding a booster pack or anything else.

I currently have some really good torque arms made up. It is just a matter of getting everything right first, getting some other parts in before installing them.

I love the concept of an ebike, and I have an idea of what I would love, but the thing is the actual ebike I have now hasn't reached that point...yet.

My expectations are no grander than the majority of people here at Endless Sphere for a decent ebike.

I want to add some Big Apple Schwalbe tires to make for a cushier ride. I am currently sporting Schwalbe Marathon Pluses at 26" x 1.75" and they feel awful.

I am using a 36V 4.2Ah NiMH pack. My controller gives 20A, but can range from 15-25A. The hub motor is a 408, rear, which is a Crystalyte brushless motor.
I don't hate ebikes, I just hate the way mine is currently. Ideally, I would like to ebike around for a few hours, exploring, then go home, all while being powered by the ebike motor and battery, and not having to pedal unless I wanted to. I train with a road bike utilizing only glucose and glycogen, but would like to have a "funner" bike that can let me explore and wander without a physical stress or strain. It is a way to complement my bike experience.

I am starting to think that a LiFePO4 pack with the same voltage and Ah will be more powerful than a similar pack in NiMH, is this true? If so, how is this realized?

Regarding Maslow's theory, on my ebike, I feel like I am on the bottom two levels of the triangle. I would like to ride the ebike as though I were near the top levels. By another analogy, I feel like I am riding a very old, and unreliable ICE motorcycle, that is all rusted over, and has a weak engine that I need to kick off the ground to get started, and it doesn't travel very fast, or accelerate really well either. And it seems, I would be happier with a more powerful ICE motorcycle, probably in the year 2000-2007 range, accelerates better, and abolishes my concerns of it not being fast enough.

Another little annoyance is having to connect all the wires each time, from the motor, and throttle to the controller. I would like to solve this by having my controller more or less permanently installed onto the frame of my ebike. I would like to accomplish this while preventing theft, discouraging theft (e.g. out of sight, out of mind), and protected from the rain and elements. One idea I have is welding a loop of wire or a metal ring onto the controller, so that I can run a Kryptonite lock wire through this loop. Then I would use zip ties to latch the controller onto the frame, then put some sort of rain cover over it, and duct tape the rain cover, and electrical tape all around it to seal it from the weather.

I hope this clarifies my situation a bit more. I would really like to enjoy my ebike and this is where I hope to make the adjustments.

Can anyone shed some light on what the range would be at full throttle (48V 20A) using a Ping 48V, 12Ah LiFePO4 battery, and a Ping 48V, 20Ah LiFePO4 battery?
I am trying to save some money for a better battery, but at the same time, I need to come up with quite a sizeable sum for motorcycle gear, as I am doing my MSF course soon, and will have to have the right equipment for that, which would run close to $1000, plus about $400-$500 for the cost of the MSF course.

Also, to keep costs down, wrt Andys post, I was considering and Avid BB7 for the front as well, but it would cost me a whole new wheel, as well as the brakes themselves. I have decided on upgrading my brake pads however to Koolstops. There is actually plenty of braking power using my V-Brakes, since they belong to a quality mountain bike with a front suspension.

 

[Anonymous]

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[docnjoj]

Definitely get bigger batteries! I use 42 volt 10 ah NiMh and the power is simply not there! Unless U have extremely high quality NiMh (which will cost more than LifePo4) that Peukert effect sucks (so to speak) I use my trike for exercise and local errands and I cant wait for Ping to be able to ship reasonably. Also get the torque arm ON if U are using front wheel drive. I have the Ampedbike one and it works. Mine is rear drive but I have had a number of motors spin in their dropouts and need me to rewire them. No fun! E-bikes rule!
otherDoc

 

[Anonymous]

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[Lenk42602]

Never. It has always been about the journey, not the destination/

 

[Link]

Hmm..."Hated"? Don't think so, but it's been frustrating me lately. What with it's not-being-able-to-ride-a-bility and all. But, after all this work into it, I'll finally be able to finish all but a small part of the electric bits tomorrow (waiting for Ping's BMS) and hopefully be able to make the front wheel either Monday or Tuesday.

Now, I DID hate the other bike's battery pack, though (72V 4.5Ah SLA good for about 3 miles). I haven't ridden that since I effed up the 24V subpack, and I have no plans to until I get a better battery (say better battery five times fast :wink.

 

[dogman dan]

Once you go to 48v lifepo4 you will have a better motor, acceleration may not seem much improved, but speed will.

I don't know that lifepo4 is better than nimh per se, but lighter weight does help, and some lifepo4 may have better c rates than other nimh cells. So in general lifepo4 has the lower voltage sag of the two.

Range for your motor and a 20 ah lifepo4 should be a minimum of 30 miles, if not hilly. And much more than that if you ride slower than full throttle. The other day I had a charger problem and without knowing it did not get a full charge. On that day also, the bus did not show up as an alternative. Peadling home uphill for 15 miles on an 80 pound motor cogging bike, I definitely hated the bike for a few hours.

 

[Johnbear]

Loved it from day one, and made 2 backup bikes! Spare parts for everything. When things break I often learn. Its all fun!

 

[blippo]

Absolutely, I had so many problems with an IZIP Trailz Enlightened I bought, I got rid of it. What a piece of junk

 

[SamSpeed]

Its all fun!

-- who said that? A wise man, I think.

But my ebike's only about a month old. Sure, she's had her usual teething problems, a bit of colic now and then. But what a wonderful journey it has been. And promises to be.

My ebike is based on my trusty 10 year old Schwinn with many thousands of miles on her. She accepted the WE hub without qualm as if to say, "Hey! What is this new toy you are giving me?" She was happy with that, even with the heavy load of lead and acid I dumped on her.

Yes, the journey is the thing. And we have just begun. This whole EV thing is new to us and the learning is half the fun. What's next? Bigger batteries? Lighter batteries? Let's go faster -- we both agree.

See you in the streets....

 

[docnjoj]

Hey blipWhat problems did U run into with that Izip?
otherDoc

 

[blippo]

Hey blipWhat problems did U run into with that Izip?
otherDoc

Controller went out a month after I had it. Rear wheel bolt was stripped when I received it. Rear wheel flats caused by bad rear wheel.

 

[docnjoj]

Sounds like standard Currie lack of QC! If this were the Izip (geared hub brushless with NiMh or LifePo4) i too would complain! If its a $350 Ezip, well thats about par for the course! Izips cost 1300 bucks and should have better quality! Ezips are a good value at 350 bucks and are found at Walbarf!
otherDoc

 

[blippo]

Yes, it is way overpriced. I waited months for the controller. They had to order it from China

 

[docnjoj]

Stick around, Blippo! U could have had a much better controller for 60 bucks from ecrazyman in about 2 weeks. Currie warantees are worthless and always have been! Welcome to ES
otherDoc

 

[Kurt]

I haven't ever hated my bike but I sure have hated my wife's bike.

Its a funny story I wanted my wife to come on a 20km round trip with me to the city and back but I didn't want her complaining about having to peddle her bike up all the hills on the way home with a 1/2 flat battery. I took it upon myself to test her bike first over the 20kms. I set off on her bike that I must mention is WAY WAY to small for me I am 6ft tall she is about 5 3". Off I go and befor long I am 10km out and riding along the river in the middle of the city life couldn't be better I think to myself how this is going to be a great ride with my wife tomorrow.

I start to head home and there are a lot of hills on the way back that I had stormed down on the way there. The first hill the bike started to slow down and hunched over on this little frame I started to peddle and peddle and PEDDLE! that little 10ahs of lead was doing nothing more than holding me back.It was at this stage completely flat and it was now like riding a dirt bike with peddles. About 5km more of steep hills and people driving past and yelling GET OFF THAT SLOW GIRLS BIKE and I HATED that bike that day.

We didn't go on that ride the next day as my back was sore from being hunched over that little thing.

But I am over it now and its kinda funny to look back on .

 

[wasp]

i've only hated my ebike once...about a week after i got it
it hit the side of a pickup at about 20km...lol

 

[ngocthach1130]

Hahahah i felt the same about my scooter. As i was crossing an intersection, this lady block the crosswalk and i plow right into her. Sprained my wrist from that. I was pissed.