Please help me electrify my trike...

[corkscrew]

Maybe you can flip it like the attached picture. It will be pushing, not pulling on the arm, but at least it is going in a better alignment. The ampedbikes torque arm you can rotate 180 degrees so you can position it for the best alignment. I did have to take apart the wiring connector since it had clearance issues with the derailleur.

I have electrified my catrike and use it for a 20 mile commute. I have speed issues with the 20" wheel, with an ampedbikes 36V lithium battery, and am dreaming about increasing my speed via extra voltage. You shouldn't be having those problems.

When I lived in Michigan, I ended up having rust issues after riding my bike in the snow/salt. (I had an EZ-Tad with a steel frame) Something to think about. In Southern California I don't have to worry about that any more.

I'm more concerned about torque issues than speed with the 2806 motor and 700c wheel @ about 48ish volts of LIPO.

On the rust issues - I'll be giving this trike a good coat of wax before I complete it (if not a new powdercoat - I HATE red bikes, but the price is always right!) The winters here in Boise ID are fairly mild, and the they use sand, not salt for icy days.

Considering the Torque arms - does the axle really end up spinning backward from the forward direction of the bike, or is that only during regen? Also - on the ebike kit one - that is not a pivot point once it is tightened properly. So it might make for a funky curve, but with that thick bolt and nylock nut, it's not going to pivot separately from the second arm.

 

[Gordo]

Considering the Torque arms - does the axle really end up spinning backward from the forward direction of the bike, or is that only during regen?

Yes, the old elementary school physics still holds. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. From the right-hand sided of the bike, wheel turns clockwise, force on the axle is counterclockwise. Under regen the axle force is clockwise.

 

[corkscrew]

Considering the Torque arms - does the axle really end up spinning backward from the forward direction of the bike, or is that only during regen?

Yes, the old elementary school physics still holds. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. From the right-hand sided of the bike, wheel turns clockwise, force on the axle is counterclockwise. Under regen the axle force is clockwise.

Makes sense. I will play with it later, in fact, would the alloy rack I have installed make a good place to secure the p-clamp on the torque arm? Otherwise I might flip it like shown above.

Fiddled around with cleaning up my wiring harnesses last night. Reduced the length of all the wires, and bumped it up from 12ga to 10ga wire. Also added some strips of adhesive backed foam padding (meant for HVAC work) under the batteries, and behind. Just need to order some shrink wrap sheets for the packs now.

In other news, my replacement 1420I charger is due in the mail today.

 

[corkscrew]

Any better?

I'm shortening the motor wires, and moved the torque arm to the NDS of the trike. Thinking it will work for now and Ill look into making some torque plates.

 

[corkscrew]

Just a quick update.

Spent most of Saturday working on the trike. Shortened the motor and controller wires - color coded the andersons on the motor phase wires. Made the wiring harness to connect the batteries to the 100amp circuit breaker. Also used some epoxy to mount some panel mount andersons to take the power to the controller, and across to the other box that houses the 48-->12v DC DC converter. Then in bicycle news - I have the new chainline/with chain tubes mocked up and 3 new 8 speed SRAM chains installed.

On the circuit breaker - The two sides of batteries are unfused before they are serially connected. The 100amp circuit breaker stands between them and everything else. Should I bother putting some MAXI fuses on the individual two sets of four batteries? The output from the DC-DC converter will have an automotive style fuse box on it eventually.

Hoping to take the boxes down to my buddies shop today. Want to get the box covers mounted (since my battery shrink wrap is due to arrive today), and a new plate to mount the controller made. Hoping to get a tube welded to the controller plate to mount my Cycle Analyst too for a nice centered position. We shall see how it goes.

 

[corkscrew]

Just another random update, more for my benefit at this point.

Going down to the shop after work tonight. Going to get the covers installed on the battery boxes. As well as hoping to build a combo controller plate/Cycle analyst mount.

Also have decided to ditch the idea of the LVC box in the middle of the frame. Instead I'll be splitting the LVC boards into their two respective halves, and will probably just shrink wrap the boards to the batteries. Then I'll just need to run a connection wire between the two boxes to still use the LVC cutoff. Can then repurpose my JST-XH extensions to make one long balance charge cable for each side to plug into the 1420I.

Also will re-do the long arm on my torque arm tonight. It will be nearly vertical when I'm done.

 

[corkscrew]

Made some progress last night!

Got the torque arm in a workable position...

And installed a bunch of nutserts into the boxes, so now the covers can bolt on. yay! Also had a controller mounting plate made, that has a riser to mount the cycle analyst on, so that it will be mounted dead center in the middle of the trike.

Tonight I'm hoping to split Gary's LVC boards up, and shrink wrap the battery packs. So..very...close!

 

[Gordo]

Made some progress last night!
Also had a controller mounting plate made, that has a riser to mount the cycle analyst on, so that it will be mounted dead center in the middle of the trike.

That CA mount looks like a bit of a ballbuster if you hit anything? Maybe mount it with very light zip straps so it will break away on impact?

 

[corkscrew]

That CA mount looks like a bit of a ballbuster if you hit anything? Maybe mount it with very light zip straps so it will break away on impact?

Ha, funny you should mention that. Same thing occurred to me when I mounted the seat for a dry-fit session. I've since moved it a bit far forward and made some changes to the plate.

 

[corkscrew]

Well I took my first test ride tonight, I think I see where the term "EV Grin" comes from! Did about 4 miles, hit 31.5 mph with room still to go on the throttle. It's a bit slower on takeoff than I'd prefer, but I suppose that comes from the 2806 motor in a 700c rim! I didn't have the chain drive setup yet, and the CA read an average of 35wh/mile.

 

[Farfle]

35 wh/mile is pretty good, my 5304 trike gets about 60 wh/mile if I baby it. Looks like a very clean build .

 

[rscamp]

35 wh/mile is pretty good, my 5304 trike gets about 60 wh/mile if I baby it. Looks like a very clean build .

What the heck? I can't consume more than about 16Wh/km (25Wh/mi) and to do that I have to climb steep hills and not go back down.

I have a geared eZee and I do limit it to 32km/h (20mph). Is that the difference?

 

[corkscrew]

What the heck? I can't consume more than about 16Wh/km (25Wh/mi) and to do that I have to climb steep hills and not go back down.

I have a geared eZee and I do limit it to 32km/h (20mph). Is that the difference?

I would guess it was the speed limiting? Aren't geared hubs more efficient than Direct ones? A lot of my riding yesterday was above 20mph. (In fact, it doesn't really seem to push you back in your seat until after 20!). Maxed my controller out at 41.5amps drawn. Also, I had no pedaling to help level mine out, and my riding was all local, IE no hills to test.

I do need to look into cooling the motor better. Yesterday wasn't even hot. An overcast 50F day. Still after flogging the trike for 15 minutes the motor was rather warm to the touch!

 

[recumpence]

WH per mile varies greatly. My 9kw yellow trike averages 20 to 21 wh per mile (it is geared for 40mph top speed) if I average 20mph. My Catrike averages 14.4 wh per mile at 20mph (that trike is geared for 30mph top speed). That is without any pedalling.

60 wh per mile is really high. 35wh per mile is about normal for a trike.

This is a very pretty build, I must say. It looks quite elegant.

Can you post some finished pics with it all together, preferably a side shot or two?

Matt

 

[corkscrew]

WH per mile varies greatly. My 9kw yellow trike averages 20 to 21 wh per mile (it is geared for 40mph top speed) if I average 20mph. My Catrike averages 14.4 wh per mile at 20mph (that trike is geared for 30mph top speed). That is without any pedalling.

60 wh per mile is really high. 35wh per mile is about normal for a trike.

This is a very pretty build, I must say. It looks quite elegant.

Can you post some finished pics with it all together, preferably a side shot or two?

Matt

Yeah, I figured 35wh/mile wasn't to shabby for flat lands and no pedaling! Other than a fairly steep yet short hill on my commute I think the 12S4P pack will have plenty of power for my 20mile round trip commute. (Though the dc-dc converter will be pulling about 60watts for my 50W Halogen headlight and I'm guessing less than 10watts for the 7 led trailer tailight. Although I'm already debating switching out too a 18S setup for the increased torque off the line. (Just need to buy batteries, mount them and have my brothers mod the infineon controller board).

Once it's all finalized (Still figuring out handlebars - buttons for regen, etc) I'll have plenty of pics!. Also waiting for my box covers to finish drying. (Painted them black yesterday).

Edit - finished today with it looking like this. Hope to be riding tomorrow. =)

I changed to a top pull XT derailuer when installing the shifters, it actually shifts better now than it did pre-build! Despite the wonky solution.

I'm actually charging the batteries on the trike! Still need to weatherproof everything though.

I'll have all sorts of pics once it's completely finalized. Which at this rate may never be completely finished! I have parts coming in still -- now just waiting on a 700x50 Big Apple for the rear. *hoping it fits*

 

[corkscrew]

Well this is where she sits as of now.

Now that the gearing is setup I averaged 25.4Wh/mile over an 11 mile ride. Max speed was 30.4mph and average was 16mph.

 

[recumpence]

Very elegant. 8)

Matt

 

[docnjoj]

Very pretty and well thought out trike, Corkscrew. I like the mirror mounts from the bar handles. Clever.
otherDoc

 

[Farfle]

60 wh/mi was only possible with me flogging the poor thing around a parking lot for its first and only run before my battery/BMSdied. haven't actually gotten it out on the road to do a real efficiency test.

 

[ebent]

Great work! You are a good mechanic. Great custom work especially on the battery boxes. It all has a high quality factory look.

All my accessories draw from my main pack through a converter. You could reduce your electrical demand with led"s. I have a stella 200 in front. Real brite. Modest draw. On 2 levels of brite, blink, off. The tail light comes from justin/ ebike. It has on off and blink with 8 bulbs. Brite, indistructable and tiny draw. The world of led's is getting better. Consider it.

Will your trike have a sound system?

When you started this thread you indicated you had a $1300 budgit. How do you stand?

Good luck

 

[corkscrew]

Great work! You are a good mechanic. Great custom work especially on the battery boxes. It all has a high quality factory look.

All my accessories draw from my main pack through a converter. You could reduce your electrical demand with led"s. I have a stella 200 in front. Real brite. Modest draw. On 2 levels of brite, blink, off. The tail light comes from justin/ ebike. It has on off and blink with 8 bulbs. Brite, indistructable and tiny draw. The world of led's is getting better. Consider it.

Will your trike have a sound system?

When you started this thread you indicated you had a $1300 budgit. How do you stand?

Good luck

Thank you! I can't take credit for the box design, or the welding and mounting. I have buddies that own a shop that installs wheel chair lifts and other such mods, spent a lot of time down there while they built the boxes for me.

Yeah I'm looking into different lighting - my tailight is a good 7 LED trailer light, and the front is a MR16 50watt bulb in an optronics driving light. Both are leftover from my SLA powered winter driving setup. Going to run it for awhile to see how much it effects my commute. If it's to much drain I'll look into some magicshines or something similar.

No plans on a sound system for my trike - I'd rather power more lights.

I overshot my budget by about $400 - saying that due to some extra last minute hardware store runs and whatnots.

Managed to average about 17 w/h per mile this morning. It also handled the hill I normally dread like a dream.

 

[recumpence]

That WH is awesome! That is my best on my yellow trike. My Catrike is 14.4. But that is pretty extreme. Anything under 20 is phenominal.

Matt

 

[corkscrew]

That WH is awesome! That is my best on my yellow trike. My Catrike is 14.4. But that is pretty extreme. Anything under 20 is phenominal.

Matt

Well I'm used to pedaling the whole 10 miles to work, so by adding some e-power to it I'm still pedaling, only going a lot faster.

 

[recumpence]

Gotcha.

What I typically do to test wh per mile is go for a long ride (5 miles or so) and average 20mph without any pedaling, then I check my consumption.

That trike is really pretty. Tadpoles can truly be elegant if setup well.

Matt

 

[corkscrew]

Gotcha.

What I typically do to test wh per mile is go for a long ride (5 miles or so) and average 20mph without any pedaling, then I check my consumption.

That trike is really pretty. Tadpoles can truly be elegant if setup well.

Matt

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I designed the electric upgrade around function over form. I'm glad to know the form still came out well.

Although I'm wishing my brake upgrade had gone to hydraulic instead of BB7's and 185mm rotors.

So far today I rode to work, then to REI to replace a broken Mirricycle mirror. Have used about 9 amps out of my 20ah battery, and still averaging about 22 w/h per mile. I'm pedaling most of the time, albeit it's in my 50x11 combo, and at 30mph, it's pretty easy to keep a decent cadence without breaking a sweat.