my ampedbike kit review

[sparky]

Well, I wouldnt put that kind of strain on my motor, but Im sure thats what would happen. Mopeds cant make it up this hill so I dont want to try it lol

I didn't see the Ah rating of the 48V battery...sorry if I missed it. What is the Ah rating of your 48V Life pack?
Any idea of what you're drawing from your pack up the big hills?

--Thanks!

 

[Sacman]

Ohh and I feel different somehow!!??? When I ride my bike to work it somehow makes my day better if that makes any sense.

Makes sense to me, I get the same feeling. 14 months ago I decided I wanted to cut my carbon footprint, started leaving my beautiful convertible in the garage and riding an ebike instead. I don't know if it is the morning exercise (which I typically hate) or not fighting traffic (I take a longer route the back roads through suburban streets) but I feel joyous while riding and have a happy glow all day.

I ride home for lunch too, commuting a total of 22-30 miles (depending on errands) and have a nice beachfront ride every night. I've lost 37lbs in the process, without changing my diet - and I feel nicely tired at the end of the day (similar to an apres' ski glow) without ever feeling like I'm exercising. Good for the environment, good for my health, and good for the economy - ebikes are an all-around win.

-JD

I totally understand about how positive it makes your day go. I started using my ebike to commute to work 4 months ago because it saves me over $320 a month on gas and toll road charges (the toll roads here in California are rediclously expensive compared to most places). In 3 months the ebike paid for itself and I'm enjoying all savings now.

I used to have a 72-mile round trip daily commute by car between work and home and I've since replaced it with a daily combination of 60-miles by train and 16-miles by ebike. From home to train station is 4 miles, get on the train for 30 miles, and from train station to work is another 4 miles. I do the reverse to get home. My nice black sports car is pretty much a "garage queen" now.

But more important than the money savings there was the huge health benefit that I can't really put a price tag on. I always pedal when using my ebike becaue I like the aerobic exersise. I dropped 56 pounds in that 4 months and my blood pressure use to be rediculously high is now down to almost normal. I also like it because I arrive at work fully awake, ready to go, and feeling more productive. At the end of the day I do look forward to that nice bike ride to the train station and then back home.

With the motor assisting you pedal and helping you go fast you do feel somewhat like superman...especially going up these steep hill I've got here...and it does make you feel younger. To me it's fun and easy. On weekends I actually look for excuses to run the local errands on the ebike rather than use the car. I've enjoyed taking different routes and exploring my city, breaking up long rides by stopping at nice parks and shopping malls to take in a small snack or meal or drink.

 

[sparky]

turoczi, a couple of questions:

1. what Amp-hour battery (your 48V one) are us using?

2. what is the weight of the hub motor and wheel? (about...)

Thanks!

 

[turoczi]

they are 10 AH batteries.

My hub weighs about 10-12 lbs.

Ive been working on trying to get a new BMS for my lifepo's any suggestions?

 

[Jay]

Couple of things I'm curious about, if anyone knows (maybe they've been answered somewhere & I missed it):

Is it a pedal-first controller, or does the motor start pulling from a dead stop?

What's the current limit on the controller?

From what little I've read, It sounds like a good product and a good vendor.

Jay

 

[DCM]

Is it a pedal-first controller, or does the motor start pulling from a dead stop?

- Immediate start controller

What's the current limit on the controller?

-~22A

This is what Dan told me in an email 2 weeks ago.

 

[dnmun]

mr turoczi, what happened to the 48V battery?

quote> "Hi, I was running 48V, now Im running 36V ( I was trying to connect my Lifepo4 pack to a different charger and I think I blew my BMS)"

do you have 48V charger or just 36V charger? why did you say that the BMS is blown? anything melted? is there a voltage between the battery positive terminal and the B- output to the load from the BMS? or does your 48V charger not charge the battery anymore? curious. dm

 

[sparky]

Ive been working on trying to get a new BMS for my lifepo's any suggestions?

These people sell BMS'... out of stock right now... :|

http://www.tppacks.com/products.asp?cat=26

 

[Sacman]

Hi Turoczi,
Nice review...

Hi, I was running 48V, now Im running 36V ( I was trying to connect my Lifepo4 pack to a different charger and I think I blew my BMS)
So for now Im running 36V getting between 19-21 mph. Good torque. Rims still true as when I got it.

So 36v with this hubmotor get about 20mph? Is that on the flats?...No pedaling?
How fast did it go when you were running 48v? On the flats?... No Pedaling?

BTW.. I think what happened with the prices is that I got mine at the cost of their origional kit which was a cheap Goldenmotors kit. I bought it before their website was revamped.

Ahhh...so your hubmotor is NOT one of the new shiny, polished hubmotors that ampedbikes.com have on their website right now? The new ones that have a cross-section that looks like a football?

Does yours have a cross-section that looks like a rectangle?
If so ... then yes ... that IS a regular Golden Motors hubmotor.

 

[turoczi]

HI!

yeah mine is the same. Not a Goldenmotor kit. Mine is one of 5 that have different windings. I dont understand windings but they said its 7X9 instead of 9X7 so mine is quite a bit faster.

Yeah mine is around 30-32 mph at 48V. I dont have a magnet anymore for my speedo but I am right at 22-23 mph at 36V. I read that their standard winding is around 19-20 mph at 36V Not sure at 48V.

I have been posting on the ampedbikes forum and I think they are winding the next batch to be at 22 mph at 36V under no load so that it will be around 20-21 mph. There was a poll on what the customers wanted, more torque or more speed.

I voted speed! Because mine has enough torque

 

[turoczi]

I read on the ampedbike forums that all the kits are being wound faster. Anyone received any of the new ones?

 

[GiantEV]

I just received my new kit two weeks ago. I am rebuilding the wheel from 26" to 700c. I will post pictures and a review after the bike is built.

 

[dsesler]

I got my kit from Ampedbikes about 10 days ago and installed it on a KHS Urban-X bike, and I bought a 36V-10AH LiFePo4 battery from goldenmotor.com. The kit was complete and no issues at all with the installation. The wheel spins up to about 21.2mph unloaded, and me and my 195lb frame cruise along at about 18 when I am on a flat road with no wind.

Don

 

[Sacman]

Darn... only 18mph at 36V??? So these new batch of ampedbike motors are pretty much just like the X'lyte 408. Too bad because I was conisidering buying one. I wonder if there is any way to order one of the fast ones like turoczi's.

 

[E-Ticket]

It's been a blast to build and ride my "new" AmpedBikes-based E-bike. So for what it's worth I'll share some of my observations using the AmpedBikes kit...

I received and installed my AmpedBikes hubmotor kit in late September 2008. I've been pleased with the quality, performance and appearance of the setup. When I picked up the kit in person, I believe Danny at AmpedBikes indicated that the Black Rear kits were wound for a slightly higher top speed than their previous offerings and current Silver Front hubmotor kits. The rim appears true, however my only disappointment has been with the rather loose and noisy spokes. (EDIT: ...and now after just two weeks of commuting on relatively decent paved roads, one spoke broke. Danny at AmpedBikes was kind enough to mail a couple of replacement spokes, but before they arrived, two more broke on the same commute. :x Looks like I'll need to find some better quality replacements. Any suggestions?)

Present E-Bike configuration:
Univega Rover MTB/Hybrid (circa 1991, pure ChroMoly steel, baby!) sporting 26" x 1.5" street tires and using bike's original brake levers

AmpedBikes hubmotor kit (REAR, Black) with supplied 36V/48V 22A controller

36V/20AH Ping LiFePO4 battery, rear-rack mounted (maybe 48V next time, but more $$$/bulk/weight)

Bike (70 lbs) + Rider 185 lbs = 255 lbs (116 kg) approximate total weight

I've ridden the e-bike about 200 miles so far, primarily for my 20 mile round-trip commute to work, traversing elevations ranging from 700' near my home to 50' at the office. Cruising over mostly level or gentle grades, I can generally maintain 21-24 mph with light to moderate effort. The bicycle's gearing makes it difficult to pedal much faster than this and it doesn't seem to add much speed anyway. Hills closer to home present 3% to 10% grades, typically at 12-18 mph with moderate pedaling uphill and up to about 30 mph downhill. A few times I've noticed that the controller seems to cut off the hubmotor power during prolonged "high-speed" coasting descents, perhaps due to some sort of BEMF monitoring. After slowing and resuming pedaling, motor power is restored. This hasn't really been a problem in actual practice, but at first I was quite concerned and hastily stopped on a narrow shoulder expecting to find a wiring fault or possibly flames shooting out of the back!

Typical cruising power is about 140-300W (3.5 to 7.5A @ 40V), per Watt's Up meter. Under real world continuous heavy load, 700-770W (19 to 21A @ 37-38V) is typical. Observed average power consumption of 15-19 WH/mile has been typical, depending upon direction of travel, rider contribution, wind, etc. With moderate terrain and pedaling, a 40+ mile range should be attainable. However, I wouldn't want to have to pedal the beast too far without juice...

The Wattmeter records initial 810-875 W_peak readings when battery is at 46V freshly off the charger. The controller appears capped at about 21.4A maximum. AC Wattmeter indicates about 0.23 KWH is consumed for a 10-mile recharge.

My 30 mile pleasure ride on Monday included portions at 15mph @ 770W with moderate to somewhat heavy pedaling up grades, zooming past casual cyclists (OK, schoolkids on bikes) who could barely maintain balance or forward momentum due to the strongly gusting Santa Ana headwinds.

I still need to adjust my derailleurs to accommodate the new 5-speed rear hub instead of the previous 7-speed, hence I usually just stay in/near top gear and throttle+pedal away from stops. Free Advice: Unless you are seeking some fancy artistic lathe work on your shiny new black rear hubmotor, don't allow a mis-adjusted rear derailleur to make contact when downshifting!

 

[pwbset]

A few times I've noticed that the controller seems to cut off the hubmotor power during prolonged "high-speed" coasting descents, perhaps due to some sort of BEMF monitoring. After slowing and resuming peddling, motor power is restored.

Keep an eye on that. I don't know the no-load speed of your motor, but if I was going 30mph @ 36v with my high wound motor it would be sending a lot of amps back into my battery pack, which might not like that. It's possible your Ping BMS is cutting out from too many amps flowing back into it. Those NineCont motors are pretty fast though so 30mph might not even be crossing into regen yet. Anyway... definitely worth looking into!

 

[Sacman]

Hey that's great Gary! Sounds like you're running pretty good. Good speeds and great range. Those ampedbike kits are looking pretty good. I only wished they had a Peddle Assist mode then I'd buy one.

A few times I've noticed that the controller seems to cut off the hubmotor power during prolonged "high-speed" coasting descents, perhaps due to some sort of BEMF monitoring. After slowing and resuming peddling, motor power is restored. This hasn't really been a problem in actual practice, but at first I was quite concerned and hastily stopped on a narrow shoulder expecting to find a wiring fault or possibly flames shooting out of the back!

Yeah this doesn't sound normal. The controller shouldn't cut out on you when you're going downhill and doing faster than the normal top speed of your motor. It actually sounds more like your BMS on your Ping battery cutting out because the regenerative amps are too high for your batts.

 

[dsesler]

Here is a speed histogram from my GPS datalogger:



I live in Austin, TX, which means moderate hills and moderate winds for the most part. I chopped off anything below 12.5mph, but its likely that some of the lower speed numbers were still acquired during acceleration rather than climbing a hill. I do tend to peddle when travelling, but I rarely put a lot of force behind it.

I've made a couple of 30 mile runs with no indication that the battery was weakening, so it looks like I ended up with a little less speed and a little more range than I had expected.

Don

 

[nomad85]

We must have different motors, I have an amped bikes kit and its rather slow. 21-22 mph at 48v. I'm fairly disappointed, but it gets very good range.
I think the rear motors are faster. Good thing I ordered one of each. Nice torque on the front motor, but I bought it thinking I would be able to go at least 25mph... They need better information on their website.

 

[Sacman]

Only able to do 21-22mph at 48v is very disappointing. That's the slowest Ampedbike motor I've heard.

Ampedbikes owner Danny Ray has been trying to manufacture different configurations of controllers & hub motors since he stopped selling Golden Motor kits. Some are slower and some have been pretty fast. And he explains that in the Ampedbike forum http://www.ampedbikes.com/forum/. Go there if you want to read what his ideal goals for motor/controller configurations as well as lots of customer input. That way you'll have less suprises when you buy his kits.

I was going to buy his kit since his last batch had a black rear hub motor tht can do 23mph at 36V. But he has recently said he will make them slower now (20mph @36V) in order to stay in compliance with the U.S. 20mph limit.

 

[nomad85]

We must have different motors, I have an amped bikes kit and its rather slow. 21-22 mph at 48v. I'm fairly disappointed, but it gets very good range.
I think the rear motors are faster. Good thing I ordered one of each. Nice torque on the front motor, but I bought it thinking I would be able to go at least 25mph... They need better information on their website.

I swapped out the front motor for a rear motor(I bought one of each) and man its a lot better. Feels better, not as noisy, and much faster. Only problem now is the noisy freewheel... ah well

 

[recumbent]

Have you tried oiling your free wheel? I think perhaps the noise is amplified from the hub motor housing. You can just replace the freewheel hub (with Shimano) as said on your other post.

How fast does your bike go without pedalling ?

 

[nomad85]

I try lubing up the freewheel.. or I can just peddle... I have only tried it on 60vSLA and it got to 31 mph, but SLA sags quite a bit so I don't know if my 48v lithium pack would be faster or not. I'll report back when I know.

 

[turoczi]

Still running my ampedbikes.com conversion daily. It was raining pretty hard and had to drive the car a few days but still in love.

I am thinking of buying one of the new ones that have the fast windings for a friend of mine.

 

[kazbluesky]

I bought an ampedbikes kit at the beginning of December, a rear 700c kit, this thing is WONDERFUL !!! I am about 120kg (biiig) and yet with a 36v 10ah battery it'll zipp me along at 35 or 6 kmph with no problems. If I have one little criticism it is the 'clicky' free wheel - though I have a set of shimano's that (when I can work out how to do it) I'll change out for. I pedal pretty much all the time so the free wheel clicking is not such a problem really and because I ride on the path a lot here in Tokyo it's a nice little warning to pedestrians in front.

Actually, one other thing would be a fewer toothed gear so my poor little legs can keep up with the speed of the motor!!! It is a great kit though, my daughter and I (she's 3 and goes on the crossbar) get on it as often as we can.