I just recently completed my first build from the ground up. I accidently was bitten by the ebike bug after I was looking for a LWB recumbent and found one that happened to have a WE 350W kit on it with SLAs. I had no plans of an ebike but I thought I’d give it a go and see what I thought. After taking it for a spin on not fully charged batteries I wasn’t overly impressed but the owner was willing to deal on the bike and had the original front wheel. So I bought the bike and figured I could toss the WE kit and have a very well cared for bike at a great price.
Fast forward a week. I had some time to play with the bike and get the batteries fully charged and a quick tune up. I took it out for a ride and was more impressed. Biggest problem was the range was poor. Make the incredibly poor. I did a little research and realized the batteries were probably not in that good of shape and I’d probably need to buy a new set even though the previous owner hadn’t bought this set not too long ago.
Somehow I stumbled upon the forum hear while searching for info on alternatives. Best thing that could have happened and at the same time the worst thing possible for my wallet at the time. After pouring over forums it seemed like LiPo would be a great option but my limited experience meant maybe not such a good choice for me. I kept seeing info about Cell Man and his A123 packs as well as the Ping packs.
I sent Paul (Cell Man) a few emails and it seemed like he was very knowledgeable and very helpful. After even more emails and very patient answers I knew Paul was my go-to-guy for my first build. Well it wasn’t supposed to be a build but after seeing what options there were I decided to toss the WE kit and get something closer to what would be more useful for me. To put it mildly my enthusiasm got the best of me during my ordering. I ended up going off the deep-end just to make sure I was covered with most everything I thought I would need to overall my recumbent.
Since I wanted to be able to use it without juice, I went with an geared motor so as to have minimal drag when not on power. I knew it might not be quite as fast but I figured the lower drag of a bent might compensate. Not to mention hill climbing and efficiency were supposed to be a bit better. Plus I knew it probably wouldn’t be that fast as I planned on using the front wheel. My experience had already shown me that my bent was already tail-heavy with the current WE kit and putting a motor in the rear would make the front to rear balance even worse. I ended up buying a front 500W MAC, 6T 520 rpm (@ 48V) motors.
I decided to go with one of his 9 fet Infineon, IRFB3077, cruise, CA, 3 speed controllers. I bought several different throttles to try. I figured this would be a good controller for the MAC and the battery I decided to go with; 16S 7P 2-high pack. I figured I’d have some very good range and the weight was going to be less than the 36V pack that was originally the bike when I bought it. I bought a 2 chargers (1 for home and 1 to take with me), a torque arm and a also had him build the motor into a 20” wheel for me. Then I decided to have a 26” MAC geared motor for the rear or to use on another bike if I so desired or that the 20” front didn’t have enough speed for me. I figured I had the pack to get me great range even on motor alone. Of course I ordered another controller and a few other bits to potentially round out a second kit.
Order was done and now just to wait. And wait. And wait. I went with the low cost shipping option. Saved a huge amount of money and arrived in good shape. Probably wasn’t that much longer than the other options. Just seemed that way as I was anxious to try out my new toy. While waiting I was thrown a curve ball. My job changed a bit requiring even more travel. To top it off winter was setting in and snow was around the corner by the time I was able to even think about building the bike so I had to shelve the project.
Meanwhile I was working out of state in a nice sunny location but with a lot of hills. I’d sometimes make use of my Xootr scooter but it wasn’t the ideal form of transport considering the hotel where I was staying. I thought about a bike but not too easy to commute with and the airline had destroyed my Brompton. So I got the bright idea to just buy a bike and have the hotel keep it for when I was gone. Started scanning CL and amazingly enough found the twin to LWB bent at home. Main difference was not in quite as nice of overall shape but a nice windscreen if I could make a few tweaks and get it to mount properly. The owner had left it outside and the only rain in about a month was the night before I came to take a test ride. Soaked seat and all I took it for a spin. Made the owner an offer I thought was fair and after about 5 minutes he accepted it.
I immediately thought about converting this one instead of my one at home since I already had all the parts but just needed to get them to my work location. I didn’t want to ship them so I boxed up everything but the battery and took it as my luggage. I put the big battery pack in my carry-on luggage. There was no way I wanted it going through checked luggage. I wish I could have taken a picture of the TSA screener’s face as my backpack went through the scanner. I thought the guy standing next to him was going to run away as he thought it was a bomb. The TSA screener’s face went white and then when he saw I wasn’t running for cover he relaxed a bit. He asked me what was it. I said a backup battery for computer system. I said I’ve never had an issue with it before. I was able to make it through the TSA checkpoint without the option colonoscopy and body massage and I also avoided the anal cavity searches that normally accompany bringing something like this through the checkpoint. I don’t think it hurt that I should him a pretty well-known federal agency that I work for.
So now I had all the parts to piece it together. My hotel room became my garage. Nothing went as planned. I wanted to keep my original wheel assembly just in case I had an issue. So that required a new tire and tube. After looking all over town I finally found one in the size I needed. Well not exactly but close enough. At least for the tire, another shop had the tube I needed. I rush home to start the build. All is going well until I air up the tire. Bang goes the tube. WTF I think. Pull tire off. Issue is immediately obvious. I didn’t check in my rush to put it to together and there wasn’t an rim band to protect the tube from the spokes. One over-priced $12 tube down the drain and too late to buy another. I email Paul and he said they had a few go out without them.
Fast forward to next day. I find another tube and rush home after work. A few strips of protective tape and it is all set. I start plugging stuff together. No instructions with the parts but hard to muck up the connectors. I get all together as a test fit but nothing mounted on the chassis. I plug in battery and twist the throttle. Zero, zip, nada! Of course no DMM with me and everything is closed. I try a different controller, different ebrake and everything else I can think of. Nothing worked. I send an email to Paul. He suggests a DMM and give him shout the next day as it is almost midnight my time now.
Yet another day slips by. I am beginning to feel like I am doing my own personal imitation of the Keystone cops but for an ebike build. I stop by the nearest store that might have a DMM and pick one up. I get home and check a few voltages from the diagrams Paul has sent me. He comes on line and I walks me through a few things. Figure out the issue (ebrake switch) and decide I can’t use it anyway because of how it has to mount on the handlebars means I can’t get full braking ability with it (lever is too long) but at least I have power to the front wheel.
Now to just mount everything. While at home I had ordered a nice, heavy duty rear rack for the bent. It is really heavy duty but make to clear a disk brake. Turns out to be a good thing/bad thing. Rack is awesome and while it is rated for 55lbs, it looks like it could hold double or triple that. Bad thing is the mounting fasteners won’t work with my bent. I am beginning to think I’ve pissed off the ebike Gods to no end either that or they are really teaching me about delayed gratification. Now it is too late to go to store to buy a drill to ream out the holes on the rack. So I decide to go low-tech and use a screwdriver as a drill. I finally get it done. Then the damn fasteners I had won’t work. Totally a dead stop now.
Yet another day’s worth of sand slips out of the hourglass until I am back on my build. I found a Home Depot store WAY away from my hotel. I spent almost an hour on the Xootr riding back. No damn buses seem to go anywhere I need and the last bus was at like 6:30 pm and wasn’t close to either hotel or Home Depot. I bought a ton of fasteners to make sure I have what I need. Get back to the build and finally have the rack on. It fits great with the rear seat support tubes. I tied it all together to make it more sturdy. Even some nice (but a little dorky looking) panniers go together very nicely.
I finally get the controller mounted up and lash the battery down to the rack. I had no bag for it so some HD bungee cords and some large nylon webbing straps are used to hold it in place. I finally wheel my Frankenbeast looking ride outside of the hotel. It is ready for its maiden voyage but the real question is am I… I am more ready than a high school virgin on prom night! I am not going to let my eagerness though get in the way of mucking something up. I do a pre-flight check. I double check all the fasteners. The torque arm is secure. No wires can get caught in anything. Air pressure looks good. I put my phone in the little holder I bought for it and fire up the GPS. I am finally ready to roll. I think back it was only 6 short months ago when I ordered the parts and I am finally ready to roll.
I put the speed selector on setting 1. Pall said this is 50% power and 2 and 3 are 75% and 100% respectively. My original target was a top speed of about 25 mph and cruise of about 15 mph. Paul thought I’d probably be at about 15 mph on setting 1 so all seemed pretty good. According to the ebikes.ca simulator I should top out at about 28 mph based on the closest I could figure to my motor and payload.
I start of pedaling and dial in the throttle. Whoa buddy, what the heck was that? I had wheelspin. I start thinking that this setup bears no resemblance the WE kit on my other bike. A ton of torque is obvious available. It is a little chilly, about freezing and I apparently didn’t have any gloves with me. I didn’t plan on it being so cold. I decide to ride to Walmart. It is about a 5 mile ride one way and it should be a good cruise. I am not winding it totally out on setting 1 but I am pretty easily cruising at 16-17 mph. I decide to engage the cruise. OMG- cruise on a bike is much better than I imagined it would be. Actually very useful considering how responsive the motor is.
I cruise to Walmart and all seems great. I can alternate hands in my pocket and keep them warm. Leaving Walmart there is a VERY steep hill. I stop just before the bottom of it and decide to see how it does. There isn’t a steeper hill around here that is paved anyway. I leave it on the first setting. This hill is like one you’d see in San Fran but not so long. It conquers it pretty easy but I have having problems with wheelspin since I need more weight on the front wheel. One disadvantage of FWD for sure.
Coming back I open it up on while still on the 1st setting (50% power) now that my hands are warm. I am running a pretty steady 20 mph with the occasional flicker to 21 on the GPS. To put it mildly I was pretty impressed. I didn’t want to really try winding it out till I put a few more miles on and checked all the fasteners.
Another day goes by and I get to do ride a bit. I try out setting 2 and 3. I see about 27 and 32 mph respectively but under less than ideal circumstance. I had a headwind or crosswind and still trying to get the feel of the motor combination. Sun is setting and I don’t really want to push in the dark.
The next day I had to fly home. I park the bike and couldn’t wait to ride it again. Fast forward to today. I fly back for work and got the bike out. I checked all the fasteners. Made a few adjustments to the brakes. Trued my rear wheel to eliminate some brake drag and time for another cruise. So now I feel pretty comfortable ringing it out. Handling on the bent is great at high speeds. Very stable even though it has no suspension. That will be rectified (sort of) when my Schwalbe Big Apples show up. These tires have worked great on my other unsuspended bikes.
For a change I am riding when it is light out and since it is a holiday not much road traffic. Time to put the petal the metal. No wind that I can tell of. Everything is tweaked, torqued and tightened. Looks to be a pretty level stretch of road. I max out setting 1, 22-23 mph. So on to setting 2; 29 mph. This is getting good. The first setting along almost made my design goal and setting 2 exceeded. I of course know it is diminishing returns but am still surprised when it motors right up to 33-34 mph on setting 3 and finally seems to top out at 36 mph. BTW, all up bike and payload today was probably about 330-340 pounds so it wasn’t pushing a feather along.
A light bulb goes off in my head. I finally get why so many of you on here become power junkies. I have an incredibly fast motorcycle (ZX12R) and a few others but while “streaking along” at a whopping 36 mph I have this big gigantic grin on my face. Sure it may not be 50 or 60 mph like some of the ebikes on here will go but for the low wattage motor and tiny wheel I am pretty darn happy. At the same time I am a little sad. I vastly exceeded my goals and I really don’t need to do anything more. In a way it is already “complete” and I only just started. It is like you start and finish college the first year. You sort of miss the journey if you know what I mean.
I learned a lot and I couldn’t have done it without all the content, help and guidance from people on this website. There is still a lot more to understand yet to maybe try some new things. Each day I read this site I have a better understanding of what I might want to try for another build. In the meantime I have an amazing commuter bike. Paul (Cell Man) was very patient and helpful. His products so far have vastly exceeded my expectations in most areas. I am already dreaming of my next ebike which will probably be my trike. Now I just need my Speedict and CA to show up so I can get some measurements to better understand what is going on. I am definitely impressed by the low drag of the recumbent. It definitely makes easy speed and the motor assist takes the hassle out of the hills which are typically the weakness of most recumbents. I almost forgot, the bike pedals pretty easily without the motor. The front wheel rolls very easily and with the battery pack off it feels almost identical to the way it did before I add the motor. The noise level is pretty low. All in all I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
Sorry about the long-winded post but I thought it might help some newbs in their own search. I didn't have a huge motor or big wheel and I got some pretty decent speeds. Pics to follow soon when it is light out again.
Fast forward a week. I had some time to play with the bike and get the batteries fully charged and a quick tune up. I took it out for a ride and was more impressed. Biggest problem was the range was poor. Make the incredibly poor. I did a little research and realized the batteries were probably not in that good of shape and I’d probably need to buy a new set even though the previous owner hadn’t bought this set not too long ago.
Somehow I stumbled upon the forum hear while searching for info on alternatives. Best thing that could have happened and at the same time the worst thing possible for my wallet at the time. After pouring over forums it seemed like LiPo would be a great option but my limited experience meant maybe not such a good choice for me. I kept seeing info about Cell Man and his A123 packs as well as the Ping packs.
I sent Paul (Cell Man) a few emails and it seemed like he was very knowledgeable and very helpful. After even more emails and very patient answers I knew Paul was my go-to-guy for my first build. Well it wasn’t supposed to be a build but after seeing what options there were I decided to toss the WE kit and get something closer to what would be more useful for me. To put it mildly my enthusiasm got the best of me during my ordering. I ended up going off the deep-end just to make sure I was covered with most everything I thought I would need to overall my recumbent.
Since I wanted to be able to use it without juice, I went with an geared motor so as to have minimal drag when not on power. I knew it might not be quite as fast but I figured the lower drag of a bent might compensate. Not to mention hill climbing and efficiency were supposed to be a bit better. Plus I knew it probably wouldn’t be that fast as I planned on using the front wheel. My experience had already shown me that my bent was already tail-heavy with the current WE kit and putting a motor in the rear would make the front to rear balance even worse. I ended up buying a front 500W MAC, 6T 520 rpm (@ 48V) motors.
I decided to go with one of his 9 fet Infineon, IRFB3077, cruise, CA, 3 speed controllers. I bought several different throttles to try. I figured this would be a good controller for the MAC and the battery I decided to go with; 16S 7P 2-high pack. I figured I’d have some very good range and the weight was going to be less than the 36V pack that was originally the bike when I bought it. I bought a 2 chargers (1 for home and 1 to take with me), a torque arm and a also had him build the motor into a 20” wheel for me. Then I decided to have a 26” MAC geared motor for the rear or to use on another bike if I so desired or that the 20” front didn’t have enough speed for me. I figured I had the pack to get me great range even on motor alone. Of course I ordered another controller and a few other bits to potentially round out a second kit.
Order was done and now just to wait. And wait. And wait. I went with the low cost shipping option. Saved a huge amount of money and arrived in good shape. Probably wasn’t that much longer than the other options. Just seemed that way as I was anxious to try out my new toy. While waiting I was thrown a curve ball. My job changed a bit requiring even more travel. To top it off winter was setting in and snow was around the corner by the time I was able to even think about building the bike so I had to shelve the project.
Meanwhile I was working out of state in a nice sunny location but with a lot of hills. I’d sometimes make use of my Xootr scooter but it wasn’t the ideal form of transport considering the hotel where I was staying. I thought about a bike but not too easy to commute with and the airline had destroyed my Brompton. So I got the bright idea to just buy a bike and have the hotel keep it for when I was gone. Started scanning CL and amazingly enough found the twin to LWB bent at home. Main difference was not in quite as nice of overall shape but a nice windscreen if I could make a few tweaks and get it to mount properly. The owner had left it outside and the only rain in about a month was the night before I came to take a test ride. Soaked seat and all I took it for a spin. Made the owner an offer I thought was fair and after about 5 minutes he accepted it.
I immediately thought about converting this one instead of my one at home since I already had all the parts but just needed to get them to my work location. I didn’t want to ship them so I boxed up everything but the battery and took it as my luggage. I put the big battery pack in my carry-on luggage. There was no way I wanted it going through checked luggage. I wish I could have taken a picture of the TSA screener’s face as my backpack went through the scanner. I thought the guy standing next to him was going to run away as he thought it was a bomb. The TSA screener’s face went white and then when he saw I wasn’t running for cover he relaxed a bit. He asked me what was it. I said a backup battery for computer system. I said I’ve never had an issue with it before. I was able to make it through the TSA checkpoint without the option colonoscopy and body massage and I also avoided the anal cavity searches that normally accompany bringing something like this through the checkpoint. I don’t think it hurt that I should him a pretty well-known federal agency that I work for.
So now I had all the parts to piece it together. My hotel room became my garage. Nothing went as planned. I wanted to keep my original wheel assembly just in case I had an issue. So that required a new tire and tube. After looking all over town I finally found one in the size I needed. Well not exactly but close enough. At least for the tire, another shop had the tube I needed. I rush home to start the build. All is going well until I air up the tire. Bang goes the tube. WTF I think. Pull tire off. Issue is immediately obvious. I didn’t check in my rush to put it to together and there wasn’t an rim band to protect the tube from the spokes. One over-priced $12 tube down the drain and too late to buy another. I email Paul and he said they had a few go out without them.
Fast forward to next day. I find another tube and rush home after work. A few strips of protective tape and it is all set. I start plugging stuff together. No instructions with the parts but hard to muck up the connectors. I get all together as a test fit but nothing mounted on the chassis. I plug in battery and twist the throttle. Zero, zip, nada! Of course no DMM with me and everything is closed. I try a different controller, different ebrake and everything else I can think of. Nothing worked. I send an email to Paul. He suggests a DMM and give him shout the next day as it is almost midnight my time now.
Yet another day slips by. I am beginning to feel like I am doing my own personal imitation of the Keystone cops but for an ebike build. I stop by the nearest store that might have a DMM and pick one up. I get home and check a few voltages from the diagrams Paul has sent me. He comes on line and I walks me through a few things. Figure out the issue (ebrake switch) and decide I can’t use it anyway because of how it has to mount on the handlebars means I can’t get full braking ability with it (lever is too long) but at least I have power to the front wheel.
Now to just mount everything. While at home I had ordered a nice, heavy duty rear rack for the bent. It is really heavy duty but make to clear a disk brake. Turns out to be a good thing/bad thing. Rack is awesome and while it is rated for 55lbs, it looks like it could hold double or triple that. Bad thing is the mounting fasteners won’t work with my bent. I am beginning to think I’ve pissed off the ebike Gods to no end either that or they are really teaching me about delayed gratification. Now it is too late to go to store to buy a drill to ream out the holes on the rack. So I decide to go low-tech and use a screwdriver as a drill. I finally get it done. Then the damn fasteners I had won’t work. Totally a dead stop now.
Yet another day’s worth of sand slips out of the hourglass until I am back on my build. I found a Home Depot store WAY away from my hotel. I spent almost an hour on the Xootr riding back. No damn buses seem to go anywhere I need and the last bus was at like 6:30 pm and wasn’t close to either hotel or Home Depot. I bought a ton of fasteners to make sure I have what I need. Get back to the build and finally have the rack on. It fits great with the rear seat support tubes. I tied it all together to make it more sturdy. Even some nice (but a little dorky looking) panniers go together very nicely.
I finally get the controller mounted up and lash the battery down to the rack. I had no bag for it so some HD bungee cords and some large nylon webbing straps are used to hold it in place. I finally wheel my Frankenbeast looking ride outside of the hotel. It is ready for its maiden voyage but the real question is am I… I am more ready than a high school virgin on prom night! I am not going to let my eagerness though get in the way of mucking something up. I do a pre-flight check. I double check all the fasteners. The torque arm is secure. No wires can get caught in anything. Air pressure looks good. I put my phone in the little holder I bought for it and fire up the GPS. I am finally ready to roll. I think back it was only 6 short months ago when I ordered the parts and I am finally ready to roll.
I put the speed selector on setting 1. Pall said this is 50% power and 2 and 3 are 75% and 100% respectively. My original target was a top speed of about 25 mph and cruise of about 15 mph. Paul thought I’d probably be at about 15 mph on setting 1 so all seemed pretty good. According to the ebikes.ca simulator I should top out at about 28 mph based on the closest I could figure to my motor and payload.
I start of pedaling and dial in the throttle. Whoa buddy, what the heck was that? I had wheelspin. I start thinking that this setup bears no resemblance the WE kit on my other bike. A ton of torque is obvious available. It is a little chilly, about freezing and I apparently didn’t have any gloves with me. I didn’t plan on it being so cold. I decide to ride to Walmart. It is about a 5 mile ride one way and it should be a good cruise. I am not winding it totally out on setting 1 but I am pretty easily cruising at 16-17 mph. I decide to engage the cruise. OMG- cruise on a bike is much better than I imagined it would be. Actually very useful considering how responsive the motor is.
I cruise to Walmart and all seems great. I can alternate hands in my pocket and keep them warm. Leaving Walmart there is a VERY steep hill. I stop just before the bottom of it and decide to see how it does. There isn’t a steeper hill around here that is paved anyway. I leave it on the first setting. This hill is like one you’d see in San Fran but not so long. It conquers it pretty easy but I have having problems with wheelspin since I need more weight on the front wheel. One disadvantage of FWD for sure.
Coming back I open it up on while still on the 1st setting (50% power) now that my hands are warm. I am running a pretty steady 20 mph with the occasional flicker to 21 on the GPS. To put it mildly I was pretty impressed. I didn’t want to really try winding it out till I put a few more miles on and checked all the fasteners.
Another day goes by and I get to do ride a bit. I try out setting 2 and 3. I see about 27 and 32 mph respectively but under less than ideal circumstance. I had a headwind or crosswind and still trying to get the feel of the motor combination. Sun is setting and I don’t really want to push in the dark.
The next day I had to fly home. I park the bike and couldn’t wait to ride it again. Fast forward to today. I fly back for work and got the bike out. I checked all the fasteners. Made a few adjustments to the brakes. Trued my rear wheel to eliminate some brake drag and time for another cruise. So now I feel pretty comfortable ringing it out. Handling on the bent is great at high speeds. Very stable even though it has no suspension. That will be rectified (sort of) when my Schwalbe Big Apples show up. These tires have worked great on my other unsuspended bikes.
For a change I am riding when it is light out and since it is a holiday not much road traffic. Time to put the petal the metal. No wind that I can tell of. Everything is tweaked, torqued and tightened. Looks to be a pretty level stretch of road. I max out setting 1, 22-23 mph. So on to setting 2; 29 mph. This is getting good. The first setting along almost made my design goal and setting 2 exceeded. I of course know it is diminishing returns but am still surprised when it motors right up to 33-34 mph on setting 3 and finally seems to top out at 36 mph. BTW, all up bike and payload today was probably about 330-340 pounds so it wasn’t pushing a feather along.
A light bulb goes off in my head. I finally get why so many of you on here become power junkies. I have an incredibly fast motorcycle (ZX12R) and a few others but while “streaking along” at a whopping 36 mph I have this big gigantic grin on my face. Sure it may not be 50 or 60 mph like some of the ebikes on here will go but for the low wattage motor and tiny wheel I am pretty darn happy. At the same time I am a little sad. I vastly exceeded my goals and I really don’t need to do anything more. In a way it is already “complete” and I only just started. It is like you start and finish college the first year. You sort of miss the journey if you know what I mean.
I learned a lot and I couldn’t have done it without all the content, help and guidance from people on this website. There is still a lot more to understand yet to maybe try some new things. Each day I read this site I have a better understanding of what I might want to try for another build. In the meantime I have an amazing commuter bike. Paul (Cell Man) was very patient and helpful. His products so far have vastly exceeded my expectations in most areas. I am already dreaming of my next ebike which will probably be my trike. Now I just need my Speedict and CA to show up so I can get some measurements to better understand what is going on. I am definitely impressed by the low drag of the recumbent. It definitely makes easy speed and the motor assist takes the hassle out of the hills which are typically the weakness of most recumbents. I almost forgot, the bike pedals pretty easily without the motor. The front wheel rolls very easily and with the battery pack off it feels almost identical to the way it did before I add the motor. The noise level is pretty low. All in all I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
Sorry about the long-winded post but I thought it might help some newbs in their own search. I didn't have a huge motor or big wheel and I got some pretty decent speeds. Pics to follow soon when it is light out again.
