Quest Velomobile Electric Conversion

[2flit]

Here is a Quest velomobile with a conversion that drives the crank.

Watt Hours per mile on an exceedingly hilly commute are 10.3 W-hrs/mile. Worst ever is 17.3 W-hr/mile.
Top speed so far is 62 mph downhill without assist (coasting). All the downhill runs around here are rather curvy and I can't let it rip, I am sure this thing would go allot faster on a steep straight down hill. It is rock steady at 62 mph; as long as there are not gusty side winds. On the flat ;top speed has been 45 mph but we won't mention assist here. Steepest grade on this commute is 15 %. This is sustained at not less than 12% for almost 3/4 mile. One mile of the commute is on a sloppy muddy road that is stopping a Trek touring bike because the fenders (repeatedly) fill with mud on my commute buddies bike. The velomobile just pushes through it. It's an amazing machine. It feels like it just takes off on its own. I also am able to do the commute with batteries removed and just under human power but it is brutal.
One way commute time used to be 51 minutes on my touring bike; 21 minutes by car; the Velo takes 25min when using 10.3 w-hr/mi.
I am 6'6" tall 245lbs; Velo is 85lbs; groceries up to @35 lbs so far (four shopping bags and the Halloween Pumpkin). Had to go to a KMC Xsp chain to handle weight/power. The SRAM chains were breaking under super heavy loads around 900 watt assist on the 16% portions of the climb. Probably were being damaged thru elongation at the pins above 750 watts.

1000 watt BMC motor and 25Amp control (ecospeed conversion)
20 Ah Lithium Iron 39vdc
30-40-53 with 11-34 cassette

I have very little experience with this sort of thing and welcome all the advice that I can get. When I was in college I built an electric motorcycle and about twelve years ago my solar/renewable energy business sold a Solectria Force to our local utility and we wound up servicing the Utilities four EV's for about three years, during which I learned absolutely nothing that would help me with this endeavor. We are planning on moving the drive to a position in front and above the cranks and getting rid of the free-wheeling cranks.... any advice for me?

 

[dnmun]

bill bates did something identical with his WAW and used a C'lyte 406 to drive it. someone else here in portland had used a bionx driving the rear wheel and had it tear out the rear dropouts, twice as i recall.

you should bring your quest to portland for the left coast velomobile gathering and electric bike races at PIR this coming memorial day.

 

[paultrafalgar]

Excellent work, 2flit! An electric powered velomobile has always seemed to me to be the ULTIMATE vehicle. Any chance of a retrospective build thread to give the folks more info for copying? Alternatively, you could just mass-produce it! :wink:

 

[turboocco]

It would be awesome to see a video of this velomobile plowing down a muddy road. Any chance you can post something?

 

[2flit]

I don't know how I could get a video of the Quest without setting up with an extra person on the road, maybe next winter, But this would be a kind of boring video.
The bike riding with me was a Trek 520 that my friend commutes on and has done 1600 mile tours (New Zealand and USA west coast). The fender clearances are large. Yet it had gotten so muddy that his fenders were completely filling and repeatedly stopping the bicycle. The Quest had no trouble what so ever and I just had to wait while he cleared the fenders every few hundred feet.

The motor is now above and in front of the cranks and we have about 700 miles on this setup. It is working quite well. We took it down to the Left Coast Velomobile Gathering. It did quite well in the Epower challenge race that we entered. I still don't know what the top speed is on the flat since we wound up spinning out a 60 tooth chainring as soon as we hit the back straightaway at the Portland International Raceway (PIR). For racing purposes it looks like we need at least an 80 tooth ring to hit maximum speeds on a flat track.
I just came back from a hilly 94 mile trip to Bellingham, WA and used only 6.9 watt-hrs/mile. I am truly excited about how efficient this setup is proving to be.

 

[Matthijs]

Would it be possible to post a picture of the latest setup? Thanks in advance. I live about 30 km from the Velomobiel.nl headquarters but I have never seen a quest or any other model irl lol. Great (amazing!) efficiency! What would it do flat out?

 

[D-Man]

Very nice. I've been dreaming of having a velomobile or building one but its just too hard to understand everything if you haven't done it before.

 

[paultrafalgar]

...
The motor is now above and in front of the cranks and we have about 700 miles on this setup.
...

Please, photos of the new mechanism/drive. Thanks in advance.

 

[itselectric]

I am 6'6" tall 245lbs; Velo is 85lbs; groceries up to @35 lbs so far (four shopping bags and the Halloween Pumpkin). Had to go to a KMC Xsp chain to handle weight/power. The SRAM chains were breaking under super heavy loads around 900 watt assist on the 16% portions of the climb. Probably were being damaged thru elongation at the pins above 750 watts.

1000 watt BMC motor and 25Amp control (ecospeed conversion)
20 Ah Lithium Iron 39vdc
30-40-53 with 11-34 cassette

Is it possible that you take a picture of your 25amp controller? And post it here?
Did you change out differ type of chains after it broke?

Ken

 

[D-Man]

Does the quest come in any other color besides yellow? Everytime I see one, I think of a banana.

 

[amberwolf]

I think one in DayGlo Pink would be really nifty. Highly visible, very fast....

 

[Matthijs]

Does the quest come in any other color besides yellow? Everytime I see one, I think of a banana.

On velomobiel.nl you can choose between red, white and yellow. RAL colours. But you can also let it be custom painted. It will set you back €600,-. Some people even let their Quest be airbrushed:

 

[D-Man]

Cool. I was just thinking. Where to you hook the lock up when you parking the quest at the grocery store?

 

[sk8norcal]

love that shark!

here's one with a stokemonkey setup
[youtube]zlEi97dcQvk[/youtube]

 

[leaualorin]

Here is a Quest velomobile with a conversion that drives the crank.

Watt Hours per mile on an exceedingly hilly commute are 10.3 W-hrs/mile. Worst ever is 17.3 W-hr/mile.
Top speed so far is 62 mph downhill without assist (coasting). All the downhill runs around here are rather curvy and I can't let it rip, I am sure this thing would go allot faster on a steep straight down hill. It is rock steady at 62 mph; as long as there are not gusty side winds. On the flat ;top speed has been 45 mph but we won't mention assist here. Steepest grade on this commute is 15 %. This is sustained at not less than 12% for almost 3/4 mile. One mile of the commute is on a sloppy muddy road that is stopping a Trek touring bike because the fenders (repeatedly) fill with mud on my commute buddies bike. The velomobile just pushes through it. It's an amazing machine. It feels like it just takes off on its own. I also am able to do the commute with batteries removed and just under human power but it is brutal.
One way commute time used to be 51 minutes on my touring bike; 21 minutes by car; the Velo takes 25min when using 10.3 w-hr/mi.
I am 6'6" tall 245lbs; Velo is 85lbs; groceries up to @35 lbs so far (four shopping bags and the Halloween Pumpkin). Had to go to a KMC Xsp chain to handle weight/power. The SRAM chains were breaking under super heavy loads around 900 watt assist on the 16% portions of the climb. Probably were being damaged thru elongation at the pins above 750 watts.

1000 watt BMC motor and 25Amp control (ecospeed conversion)
20 Ah Lithium Iron 39vdc
30-40-53 with 11-34 cassette

I have very little experience with this sort of thing and welcome all the advice that I can get. When I was in college I built an electric motorcycle and about twelve years ago my solar/renewable energy business sold a Solectria Force to our local utility and we wound up servicing the Utilities four EV's for about three years, during which I learned absolutely nothing that would help me with this endeavor. We are planning on moving the drive to a position in front and above the cranks and getting rid of the free-wheeling cranks.... any advice for me?




View attachment 1

BEAUTIFULL WORK!!! It's CLOSE to what the creators of the Tri-Sled Avatar SuperVelo say on their site!!
200watts/h for a 50 km/h speed!!
For the Quest I think the difference is NOT BEING COMPLETELY ENCLOSED!
And a little more kg's !
Anyway you put it IT'S WAY MORE EFFICIENT THAN A CAR OR EVEN A SCOOTER!!!
Just beautifull!
You should use LiFePo4 battery packs!
THEY WILL give you more range compared to what you have NOW!!!
Gabriel!

 

[bikeola]

Hi 2flit, et al,
My bluevelo Quest is John Deere green, not yellow. Last year I thought it would be fun to electrify it, since I enjoy my Bionx PL350 ICE Trice T26. Because the EcoSpeed is so pricey I bought an eLation ebk300. Oops.
The gearbox failed and so I sent it back, and now dear Mr. Dow is out of business. If I can't McGyver the eLation, I'd better start saving for the EcoSpeed because it looks great.
Roll on!

 

[Rusty the Peddlehead]

Hi bikeola,

I have an elation v3 or 4 with the drive sprocket that is attached to the drive shaft by 5 screws.
Do you want to sell your old buggered motor ?
My sprocket got sheared off and I still cant find a 45mm 10 tooth sprocket (and the motherboard tray isnt removable-- 3dgameman).
So I will buy the lot , let talk.
Hope your in OZ
Rusty bullethole pedalhead !