hightekbikes.com motor kit review. Electric bike kit.

[TPA]

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YESSS! Trophy!
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And venison.

 

[dogman dan]

That looks like him, actually couldn't see good enough to count points, even from 100 yards. Eyes going, deaf already, back gone, etc. But he was huge, so big, I really didn't think muledeer at all at first. The does out there are rarely spotted, and are much much smaller. I hunted for about 10 years and never saw one this size. I liked em small , tasty and easy to pack out anyway. Everybody called me bambikiller, allways getting a little forkhorn.

 

[HighTekBikes]

Was testing the controller today with a Bafang motor. I'm planning to offer a couple options on our mountain ebike which comes with the Bafang. The first option will be a high powered controller along with a second battery wired in parallel supplying the Bafang with 30A @ 36V = 1080 watts. The second option is a dual motor system using two Bafangs. Anyway, the controller had an issue with the Bafang. It seemed to have trouble syncing (determining the motor position). If you gradually moved the throttle, it synced and ran fine, if you moved it fast and kept it pressed, it never synced, and chattered loudly. I tried diferent wire combinations, with the same results (one combo is revese). The controller was designed to work with the Aotema and does this well, but as of now I can not recommend it for any other motors. Another thing I discovered was that the controller seemed to max out at 20 amps. I was using an old-school analog meter which should have been fairly accurate, but I will re-check it. I was told the controller was 30A and since it was so large, I believed the spec. If it's in fact set for 20 amps, I will check with the factory about changing it to 30 amps. Ideally, I could set it to either one. The setup actually did pretty well on some paved hills and the dirt trail on Mount Tam. With an extra 10 amps it should handle most hills (with me on it). Next step will be to try the Shenzhen controller.

 

[dogman dan]

Interesting about the controller. Actually that is a plus to me, since I really want to keep my ping battery amp rate in area of 20 amps average or less. Not getting 40 amp spikes on a hill is going to make the battery last longer for sure. I am finding this motor and controller handles hills fine as long as you are at speed, but if you do get slowed down, backing off the throttle seems to work well, and with easy pedaling in a low gear, you still get up some pretty steep stuff easy. It would be nice to have two controllers though, so you could amp up when riding on the weekend. For long distance commuting though, optimising the motor controller and battery to last as long as possible is a good thing. I've bought so much stuff in the last year, and smoked enough of it that my wife thinks saving money by riding the bike to work is quite a joke! I call all the burnt stuff entertainment budget.

It had seemed to me that when on the steeper hills on my commute route, I was topping them out a tiny bit slower than I used to on the brushed motor, so I suspected that was due to lower amps on this controller. The brushed controller is a 35 amp, or so they say.... Still I am impressed with your kits performance in rough terrain. I just aquired an old ev golbal bike, a 24v one. With the legendary heinzmann motor, it doesn't perform as well on steep hills as your motor does! At 36v its another story, but I ended up smoking one I tried that on pretty quick!

 

[RTLSHIP]

I received only 1 torque washer w/ this aotema kit. The torque washer itself had to be bent into a 90 degrees angle so that
it would fit snug between fork opening . On my first test ride one of the axle nuts loosened. Danger! I think it's ok now.
I bought 2 extra lug nuts.

 

[dogman dan]

Odd, I got two, one real nice one, and one that needed to be bent a little, like my other aotema kits had.

Setting a hub is a process, I like to install to moderate torque, using a short handled wrench. Watch for spreading dropouts or any movement as you tighten it. Wait 15 minuites or more, and retourqe. The washers always bend a little on the first tighten on a particular set of forks. Then you can do a short test ride. After the ride, torqe a little harder if you can, but not with a long handle, don't strip the axle. After that you should be good to go. But check again after the first long ride. Once you get to this point, you are ok, and don't need a torque arm unless you are using aluminum forks or steel forks that are very light and thin.

 

[RTLSHIP]

I have steel forks on an aluminum frame. It's a Raleigh SC 7. I have 2 of these bikes. I knew it would fit nicely because my
BD-36 is on the other SC-7. The main negatives about these bike are a 40 tooth front sprocket and no suspension except for the seat post. My aotema brushless is finally on the bike with the controller and bulk of the wiring in a front mini basket.
I'm going to try and post a pic next week

 

[dogman dan]

Bigger front sprocket should be easy to find. Many mtb's have 44 tooth, but some have 48. 48 front and rear 14 tooth gets you a pretty comfy pedal at about the speed of an aotema brushless motor at 36v. I got lucky, looking for a 52 tooth to fit a mtb crank, I found a 58 tooth on ebay. I can pedal hard at speeds up to 30 mph. But you should be able to score a 48 tooth sprocket off a mountain bike for 10 bucks by looking at garage sales and flea markets for a junk bike with what you need. The hunt is half the fun, especially if you go on the ebike.

 

[RTLSHIP]

I already took my other 40 tooth Raleigh bike to a local shop and was told that the entire crank-shaft would have to be
changed (not just the sprocket) and that he would look around for a compatable used one. Plus a chain link or 2 might be needed as first gear is like 32T. I'm not bike technical enough to attempt it. He seemed honest, maybe mistaken. I can live with the 40 tooth sprocket. After 23 mph my legs are moving fast but not pushing much. It only makes a difference with a tail-wind or no wind. 29 mph is about the max w/ the BD36.

 

[dogman dan]

He may be right, and he is there looking at the bike. In my case, replacing the entire crank arm, chainrings and all was the ticket. My big outer ring may be closer to lining up with the 14 tooth rear sprocket now, but that is mostly where it stays, I took the front derailur off alltogether and rarely get on the big rear sprockets. I just kept buying junk bikes and trying the cranks from them. I allready had the longest comonly avaliable axle in the bottom bracket so that helped. When I found the big chainring on ebay, I took a flyer and got lucky that it did not rub the frame. Really lucky that it would bolt onto one of my better cranks! But I do think if you find and buy a few old bikes, and try em, you might find the crank and or bb part that you need. With an inexpensive crank puller it is easy to change cranks, at least the square taper kind anyway. And having a big box of various exotic bolts and screws stripped from junk bikes is priceless! I found the 44 tooth pretty comfy with a bd 36, but gladly went to 58 when I got it.

 

[Russell]

I already took my other 40 tooth Raleigh bike to a local shop and was told that the entire crank-shaft would have to be
changed (not just the sprocket) and that he would look around for a compatable used one. Plus a chain link or 2 might be needed as first gear is like 32T. I'm not bike technical enough to attempt it. He seemed honest, maybe mistaken. I can live with the 40 tooth sprocket. After 23 mph my legs are moving fast but not pushing much. It only makes a difference with a tail-wind or no wind. 29 mph is about the max w/ the BD36.

Low-end bikes sometimes come with one-piece cranksets and those which do have 3-piece cranks will just as often have chainrings which are braised together and therefore not individually replaceable. You can get replacement 3-pc cranksets with bolt-on chainrings pretty reasonably, new or used, on eBay or look at the house brands at an online bike store like Nashbar.com. If you have a loose ball and cup bottom bracket it would be a good time to replace it with a sealed cartridge unit.

-R

 

[RTLSHIP]

If the chainring itself can come off, I'll eventually go with 44 or 48T. Otherwise, I'll keep it the same. I just sold a 1994 huffy
mountain bike for $75. on Craigs List. I included 2 extra tires, lock etc. I was shocked at how easy it was. The next day I sold to tv's in 12 hrs. So maybe I can unload a Raleigh 7 Speed and buy something else? picture of bike: Tues or Weds

 

[dogman dan]

On just about any day at the flea market, I can buy two dead but high quality bikes and put em together into one good one. I never pay more than $20. Exception to every rule, last week I paid $60 for an EV Global 24v, no controller, but good motor. Lotsa cheap but high quality parts out there. Not much riding on the aotema bike last week with a new bike to play with. I've been needing the car at work too so no riding to work.

 

[RTLSHIP]

sorry, but I'm unable to post a pic. We tried! Anyhow problem # 1 with 2009 Aotema: the wiring inside/outside of the controller was bent and created a contact problem. I've never had this problem before. This problem was resolve by rearranging controller and wiring on front basket. this is unusual.
Of course crimping or cutting wiring will make contact problem, but all I did is coil up the excess wiring.
I suspect that where the wiring meets controller is sensitive and should not be coiled. let the wiring "breathe."

 

[dogman dan]

A coiled wire is an electromagnet. Surely it got hotter? I've had problems where wires enter chargers too, the place where the most bending stress happens. I allways have to edit my pics smaller to post em.

 

[RTLSHIP]

No, I've had problems with the RCA type charging connections, but this time the problem seemed right next to the controller. My father took 2 pics but couldn't figure out how to post it. All he did was put it in a file. I don't have a camara. Almost bought an EV Global. But I'm glad I didn't because they are slower and maybe obsolete. But for $20. you can take that rear wheel motor and build an e-bike
around it and sell Those Brushed motors are reliable according to internet sources. German made.

 

[dogman dan]

Where I had the problem was where the wire solders onto the charger circuit board, maybe you have a similar problem? I was getting intermittent contact on the charger wires since wiggling the wire could break the contact. Easy fix if it is that.

 

[dogman dan]

Holy cow, I can't belive I havent ridden this thing further in 3 weeks! I have been driving to work a lot, needing to carry stuff for the job, and or the weather has been bad. With 150 miles on it now, I did just a bit more work on it to true the wheel. After today it should stay good and straight for a few thousand miles like my other aotema did.

 

[RTLSHIP]

The controller has capacitors, and if you disconnect the battery supply, the controller and throttle will still light up until those capacitors go low or empty. Plus, my controller is 36" extension cord from the battery. This is probably why the controller would not light up. I had to plug and unplug power cord
a few times. maybe the juice doesn't want to go through the power cord? everything is ok now

 

[dogman dan]

Still slacking horribly on getting some miles on this motor. But after crossing the 200 mile mark, here is some results on the amp hours per mile for the ride home. This is a 14.5 mile ride with about 1000 ft of uphill climb, and 300 ft of downhill. Not much of it is level the bike path follows the hilly edges of the mesa.

Into a headwind, 18 ah for 14.5 miles. 1.1 ah per mile
No wind 12.75 ah for 14.5 miles. .73 ah per mile

Note that for a ping 20 ah battery, these are rates in the safe zone for those that want thier average discharge rates to be 1 c. Obviously this would get better on a flat ground ride. Hopefully soon I'll get around to a flat ground range test on a windless day.

 

[WonderProfessor]

Dear DogMan,

Very informative report -- Thank you.

Is there a reason why you aren't using quick release hubs on your front wheel? (Maybe this is a stupid question because everyone knows that quick release hubs just can't work with electric motors mounted on front wheels!)

Many Thanks,

WonderProfessor

 

[dogman dan]

Yep, not much room for quick release hubs with the hubmotor wires there too. On this type, the wires come out a channel on the side of the axle, but still, it would be awflul tight to fit a quick release, and even if it fit, I doubt you'd go far before the axle spun and cut the wires. My commuter bike is a cheap bike anyway. I tried putting a nice quick release wheel off another bike on it on the rear, and found it just wouldn't quite fit right, the rear drops are quite a bit different from those on the more expensive bikes. So it's bolts on both wheels. I don't care a rip about weight on this bike, I just ride it full throttle at all times. At some point I'll upgrade my commuter bike, but not till I can do it on a $50 budget. I just go to garage sales and fea markets several times a month, and pick up any bike that has what I want on it, for less than $20. About three of these bargains can make a nice bike if one of em has a good frame. Still looking for a good deal on a full suspension frame, till then, the wallmart special is working fine. For a front motor, they are ideal, since the cheap 1" headset forks are all steel, and suprisingly strong. Totally insufficient for dirt riding, but they work fine on a street commuter bike. Some will say it's ok to put a front hub on aluminum alloy suspension forks as long as it is a mid range power motor and you use torque arms. Personally I won't do it, but I do trust the steel ones, with just the stock torque washers.

 

[dogman dan]

Thinking a bit, hard work ya know, I guess I can calculate the flat land ah draw of this motor with my bike and 180 pound rider..

Uphill I get about 13 ah used to ride 14.5 miles. Downhill, I use about 10 ah to go the 14.5 miles.

So the average is 11.5 ah to go 14.5 miles. So I get 1.26 miles per ah both ways. And when I rode a range test, up and downhill, I got about the same distance as 19 ah x 1.26. So this figure looks good to me, flat ground, 1.26 miles per amp hour. This is for lifepo4, so for sla's cut that in half.

 

[RTLSHIP]

Hey, I just received 3 12 v 12 ah Greensaver Silicone batteries. The manual says the cutoff is 31.5 v for a 36 v pack. that's an amazing claim. 42 v for a 48. It also says that a discharge of 80% is the max. after that, reduced lifepsan. Speedwise,
my Aotema goes about the same as with regular SLA. The only difference is that I can ride around with the yellow light
on for a while. I recharged last night and unpluged. The batts gauged 39.5 v this morning . Any idea if the claim of 31.5v
is accurate? It might give a 25+ mile range on 90% thumb throttle considering the efficiency of this model. 20+ miles on a BD-36.

 

[Russell]

Hey, I just received 3 12 v 12 ah Greensaver Silicone batteries. The manual says the cutoff is 31.5 v for a 36 v pack. that's an amazing claim. 42 v for a 48. It also says that a discharge of 80% is the max. after that, reduced lifepsan. Speedwise,
my Aotema goes about the same as with regular SLA. The only difference is that I can ride around with the yellow light
on for a while. I recharged last night and unpluged. The batts gauged 39.5 v this morning . Any idea if the claim of 31.5v
is accurate? It might give a 25+ mile range on 90% thumb throttle considering the efficiency of this model. 20+ miles on a BD-36.

What's "amazing" about the claim for a 31.5V cutoff on a 36V controller?

I run with 3-12V/9AH batteries (well 3 1/2 actually now since I added a 6V booster) and also have a 31.5V LVC. When the pack hits the LVC it is pretty much spent. The most I've gotten out of the batteries during a 1.5 hour ride is 5.42AH or 60% at a temperature of 48F. That's pretty typical of what SLA's will deliver though if you discharge them faster you could easily reduce that to 50%.

Actual range depends on your speed and how much you pedal. I know ahead of time how far I'm going to travel so I conserve power using mostly part throttle and keep my speed low, typically in the 14-18 mph range. I also pedal constantly contributing at least half the power required to extend the batteries to about 24 miles.

EDIT: My motor is a Bafang

-R