John in CR said:Get ready to be torn some more. There's a 3rd motor, the MidMonster, also a 6 phase beauty, but with a built on 10" alloy rim. In fact the entire rotor except the magnet backing rim is AL, making the motor only 12kg including the rim. It too has a disc brake mount for easy mid-drive use though it is a bit width challenged. It's not quite as powerful or as efficient as Hubmonster, but it's a great motor smack in between MiniMonster and HubMonster.
Now you need 3:
-an offroad Hanebrink-like bike with a hubmotor using the 2 speed mini that's very light and pedalable
-a mid drive high efficiency trike with power and pedals.
-a faired road rocket with power and speed. Sure it has pedals for legal reasons, but an electronic chain, so the pedals turn a regening small motor, and while it's not a lot of power when riding hard, the vehicle is so efficient thru the air and at the motor that a hundred watts of recharge along with 50-100W continuous charge from the sun does add meaningful range.
I'm so slow at building that someone needs to do these things. It might as well be you. Everyone needs multiple ebikes in the stable anyway. 8)
John
You're pretty much spot on, and reading my mind! Short term, I'm in this for practicality. I want a low-maintenance vehicle that performs well... I don't mind modding or improving, but no oil or tranny fluid changes. =) I want to build it, then just feed it some juice now and then. I do like the simplicity of pedaling a dynamo! There's sort of complex simplicity to it. It'd last forever. While it legally might not qualify, I don't think any cops around here would give me any trouble. But... in the long term, I want an offroader bike with fat tires, and a couple trikes =) But I might end up with the MiniMonster on one of each, and then have one awesome, beastly, and plenty powerful faired trike with at least 8kwhr of cells =) That'll be the interstate machine.
I believe if I was crapping money I could buy two Maxcontrollers and run the Hubmonster up to 28kw peak! =) I wonder what exactly the efficiency improvement would be with a sinusoidal controller on a 6-phase motor? Either way I'd need great traction for that much power =)
You heard about spray-on solar panels? Not here yet but they'd be perfect for a small faired EV: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/sprayonsolar.jsp