More power and range for Babboe big trike

[mik]

Hi Everyone,
I have a "Babboe Big" trike that i use to carry kids an groceries, it came with some little hub motor perhaps geared from the noise (250 watt limit) and a protanium 29v 10 ah 266 wh battery.
the complete bike weights about 75kg / 165lbs plus me another 70kg, kids and stuff 100 kg so we looking at 250kg/550lbs total mass.

i need advice how to:
1) get more power to go uphills
2) and how to disable the speed limiter which stops at about 18kph
3) extend the range to 30 km, officially is rated at 40 but in real life after 12 km it slows down i guess 15km is max range.

http://www.bakfietsen.com/eng/babboe-cargo-bike/products/babboe-big-e-cargo-bike
http://www.babboe.co.uk/bestellen/bakfiets/elektrische-babboe.html

Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge.
Mik from Italy

 

[Ugrd]

Hi Mik,

Welcome to endless sphere! Il try to solve your problems with various solutions so bare with me if it gets outa hand
1. Most of the power is limited by your bikes motor controller. Upgrading this controller is a fairly easy task for a novice user. Upgrading the controller wont have much effect on top speed but more on acceleration and hill climbing abilities. Id recommend you go with a decent 250w - 400w controller without having to upgrade the actual hub motor.
2. Its highly unlikely that there is a speed limiter device on your bike as 18kph is pretty slow and its quite rare to be honest, but not unheard of. It is probably actually limited by your poor 24v battery. More volts will get your more top speed. 24v is on the low end for most ebike batteries.
3. Id recommend a 36v-48v battery as an upgrade (Just make sure your controller can handle it), 10ah-20ah will increase your range enough. 20ah would probably get you your 40km but it really depends on how you ride.

Im afraid your little hub motor is being put under a lot of stress with all that weight and thats why you aren't getting said amount of range.

Tell us what you are willing to change/upgrade and we can give you some more recommendations.

Cheers,
Ugrd

 

[mik]

Dear Urgd,

Thanks a lot for your through reply!

Could you please suggest a good controller? A good battery? Where to purchase them?

There is definitely a speed limiter as required by euro laws, and I feel it as soon as I pedal too fast the assistance goes off and it becomes really difficult to pedal.

Thanks again for your time!
Mik

 

[Hegge]

Hi

We have the same problem. We want more power in climbing hills. Top speed is OK. What would u have me buy to fix it?


This is our bike

https://www.lastcykel.se/butik/cyklar/3-hjulingar/babboe-curve-e-sverige-edition/

 

[amberwolf]

does your battery presently last longer than you need for the trip? or is it close to running out when you're done?

if the latter, you'll probably need a whole system (motor, controller, battery), to get more power (motor/controller) and keep your range with the higher power (battery).

even if the former, you may need a new battery (or a second one of the same to put in parallel with it) to provide enough power for the new motor and controller, if the original only puts out enough for the system you have now.


how much better performance do you need the system to have, vs what it does now?

 

[dogman dan]

With these cargo bikes, much depends on the type of brakes, or type of gears on them.

Anything with a rear drum brake, or rear internal gear hub, or both, makes it harder to put a big powerful rear hub motor on it.

But if you have rim brakes or disk brakes on the rear wheel, and regular derailleur gears, then any typical hub motor bike kit will fit it. So you can choose from pretty powerful 1000w 48v hub kits, or even more power if you really want it. Choose a lower rpm version, if they have the choices.

In the USA ebikekit.com is the specialist in trike kits, if it fits your budget. They have the 1000w, but low rpm kits.

But for the best low speed hill climbing, a mid drive is the ideal. I cant tell about your trikes, but looks like mid drive kits would fit them. With mid drive, 350 w will get a lot of weight up a hill. But slowly.