Kepler Drives are HERE!!

[adrian_sm]

I just weighed my road bike with my "Commuter Booster" friction drive. Came in at 11.8kg, or 26lbs , only one 5s5000mah battery though. My heavier hardtail MTB with the newer model friction drive (larger motor), came in at 15.8kg, or 35lbs.
Where as my dual suspension hub motor bike, weighs in at a more conventional 30kg, or 66lbs.

I would really struggle to make my road-bike friction drive bike any lighter without going for a silly expensive carbon everything bike. Since the drive plus battery only adds about 1.7kg, or 3.7lbs.

- Adrian

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

I just weighed my road bike with my "Commuter Booster" friction drive. Came in at 11.8kg, or 26lbs , only one 5s5000mah battery though. My heavier hardtail MTB with the newer model friction drive (larger motor), came in at 15.8kg, or 35lbs.
Where as my dual suspension hub motor bike, weighs in at a more conventional 30kg, or 66lbs.

I would really struggle to make my road-bike friction drive bike any lighter without going for a silly expensive carbon everything bike. Since the drive plus battery only adds about 1.7kg, or 3.7lbs.

- Adrian

Nice! How much range/speed do you get from one 5S 5AH pack? And what did the road bike weight before you added electrics?

I have three 4S 6AH (so 15V, 18AH's) Turnigy Nano 25 - 50C LiPo packs, Magic Shine P7 headlight, Batman's Utility Belt, a Watt Meter, MX Cycle computer, all the various heavy gauge wire (I KNOW that 10G is over-kill especially for 15V, but I'm out of 12 and 14G for negative, and I want to try 8S again some day, and I don't think my 16G would cut it ..) running it the length of the bike to the bars, and my trekking bars aren't light either. :lol:

What did your MTB bike weigh before electrics, and how much battery & speed does it sport?

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

W00000t!! One more hour and I can test out the new improved "soft drive" on my Kepler!

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

Well, that lasted about 7 miles!!

The carpet tape I got must be the wrong type, it's "indoor/outdoor" but soon as the drive has been used it starts letting go.

I got some new 80 grit belt and a 3M "Industrial Mounting Tape" that is rated for outdoor use on any surface, good for -20 and + 200 F.

What a difference! No problems with the tape at all, but I'm averaging about 800W of power, peak 1300W, all this with three Turnigy Nano LiPo 25 - 50c 4s, 6000 mah in parallel, so 18AH of 15V, and that good for me at 175, tools 30lbs, (I always go with everything I need for just about any road-side repair) bike 41 lbs (that's 16lbs of K-drive, batteries Batman accessories, Wattmeter, Speeds, etc ....) so a total of 246 lbs, and I'm cruising at 23 MPH on the flat, 21 MPH with a headwind, and it's WOW fast acceleration!

Not quite as snappy of acceleration as when I was running 8S (30V) on my last motor 295KV vs now 200KV and loads of copper, but hey, no magic smoke, or even HEAT yet!

I haven't totally flogged it yet, but I went up the hill that killed my first motor (running 8S, 295KV E-Flight 110) that averages about 6% at 15MPH and NOTHING even gets warm! Granted I am riding in 40 F weather with a light sprinkling of water most of the time, so that keeps things cooler, but so far, the ONLY thing that has heated up in the least are the batteries, and they only get slightly warm to the touch, so slight that you're not even sure it's warm, and that was when I took a 12% at 9MPH being cautious!

I have been running an average of 20 AMPs most of the time, it spikes to 30-50A depending on the hill, on a really steep hill (12%) I might hit 80A at the start (this still with me pedaling first to at least 7 MPH) and then settle down to 30-50 on a steep hill, and most of the time on stuff below 3%, I only pull 10 - 20A!!

I am extremely pleased with the build so far, and once I get a good tire/friction strip combo that I like, it will be perfect! 8)

 

[LI-ghtcycle]

Wanted to list an up-date on the drive and my thoughts, here it is in a nut-shell:

1) Extremely Light, portable and affordable.

2) Not my first choice in wet weather (makes using fenders very difficult), however, it will do the wet as much as you will. :wink:

3) Very forgiving if you stay with in the suggested build as described by Kepler (Recommended motor, esc, voltage, etc.)

4) Good water-proof wet/dry sanding belts are worth their weight in gold! (try local automotive shops, I ordered mine on-line) If you are going to ride in the rain, regular sanding belts will begin to saturate and fail after about 200 miles.

I am very happy to finally have the light E-Bike I wanted in the start of this journey, and now that I have water proof sanding belts, it's a finished product, other than the interface that Kepler is still developing, and not too hard for the average person (might buy a throttle soldered up with a servo tester if you're not handy with a soldering iron) to put together and operate.