The Toecutter
100 kW
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2015
- Messages
- 1,317
Bullfrog said:Toecutter...why/how did you decide to go with a Leaf motor? Without knowing the background on your decision, I'd probably choose a motor with a 45-50mm wide stator and probably a 205mm diameter...something like the QS205 or something similar if I was going to run the power levels you mentioned. Going with the smaller diameter wheel/tire should help you with acceleration and over heating.
Just asking so I can learn...I plan to build a bike with a Direct Drive Hub motor at some point.
Thanks
I wanted to retain pedal-only functionality in my electric velomobile, even with a dead battery that is unable to cancel the cogging torque. The Leafbike has the lowest cogging torque losses of any available DD hub motor that can peak at 5+ kW that can also fit a gear cluster. And its weight isn't too terrible either. Keep in kind I'm trying to keep my vehicle under 100 lbs, in effort to retain that pedal-only functionality.
Right now, I can turn the motor off and hold 21-23 mph on flat ground just pedaling it and sprint to 35 mph. And I have the gearing for and it is light enough to climb a 20% gradient at walking speed using a reasonable pedal cadence with the drive system shut off.
Turn the drive system on, and in my current configuration I can keep up with traffic and reach 45 mph with my pedaling being able to add thrust at any operating point, helping to greatly extend my range. I get about 150-200 miles range @ 30-35 mph on a 1.5 kWh battery pack with about 150W of pedaling(I added the second Greenway 48V 15.6AH pack in parallel and never updated my topic with that info). I want more performance and top speed, which is why I'm getting a 3T motor and an ASI BAC4000 controller, and will e building up a 72V battery pack, probably from Panasonic 2170s. And of course, a new more aerodynamic body shell based on the Milan SL velomobile I bought to reverse engineer.
An ideal drive system for me would be a high-powered switched reluctance setup using a motor of about 7-10 lbs that had a freehub body for a 9-speed bicycle cassette that could fit into 135mm dropouts. It would have zero cogging torque losses and would be efficient enough to make far more peak power than I could get traction for while shedding some weight. But no such thing is on the market yet.