dogman dan
1 PW
I just recieved the 36v version of the Fusin gearmotor kit. I did not buy the battery, so this reiview is just the motor, controller, etc. Dan K's review has lots of pics of the box and what's inside so I won't duplicate it here. Definitely the best shipping box yet on a motor kit. Everything seems undamaged, and for once, unbelievably, the box had very few scuffs on it. Unfortunately since I did not buy the battery that usually comes in the kit, I screwed myself, and can't tell the polarity of the power wires. The kit came with no real instructions, but it did come with a nice wiring diagram of the many wires from the controller. That diagram tells me the polarity, but it does not help me since there are no markings on the plug. I have a pm off to Louis for the answer. Had I bought the battery, I would be fine, since I could simply plug it in.
No instructions came with the kit, but the worldwide electric bikes website has some. The Fusin motor site had a link but it did not work. The kit came with one part that seemed to go to something we don't have. It looks like a fork lock, and it's keyed the same as the lock on the power switch on the headlight.
Three things stuck out as questionable right away.
I know this motor is supposed to use less power than a direct drive, but the power wires are really thin looking. Especially the controller to motor, phase wires. Good wires can look thinner, I hope they are still big enough to not get hot.
The power supply wire is too long, and I think it needs a design change. The design takes power from the battery in the rear carrier, routes it to the handlebars for a switch, then back to the rear where the controller is. There is almost ten feet of wire between the controller and the battery. Holy cow that can't be good for voltage sag. My Aotema kits only have about a foot of wire between the battery and controller. Put the main switch on the controller and then route power for the light to the handlebars.
There is a lot of wires and connectors and such on the controller. This is a sophisticatied kit with lots of extra wires, but it does not look like it was designed to be exposed to the elements, It looks bad, and might be hard to waterproof. This many wires and connections is going to need a box or something since there is no body work to hide behind on an ebike. Edit. Looks better with some tape wrapped around it but it will need more waterproofing than that in wet climates.
We'll see when I get it running whether any of this matters. Compared to my other kits, the wiring looks horrible now, but later on I can do some bundling with tape and tidy it all up, and fabricate something to put all the connectors in. Maybe a metal band aid box or something like that can tame the wire tangle left from a quick install.
The kit is a bit harder to install than some, just because you get more. So you have to put on the brake handles, horn button, and headlight. Not a problem, but it does take more than 20 minuites to install it all on the bike. I'm very impressed with the motor itself. It looks like a real quality product to me. With the tire installed it weighs about 12 pounds. Real beefy spokes, and the rim is fairly nice for a single wall. It also seems pretty thick and tough, but not so crude as the aotema ones. Despite the first impression on the wiring I still think it looks like a decent quality set up, and customizing the controller connectors would add to the cost. I'll just need to find a way to make a weather resistant container for all the plugs. It seems like an issue now, since water is falling from the sky at the moment. We haven't seen that in six months, so suddenly a bunch of exposed connectors seems like a thing to worry about.
Edit..... The next mornig.
Louis was very quick to send me the info on the polarity of the power cable wires so I could hook up. On the main wire to the battery, the red one is the positive. Hooked it up and the initial ride impressions are very positive. There are a lot of really cool features on this kit and the cost is not more than many other kits.
Controller.
Writing this, at 350 miles now, I am very happy with the controller. It gets warm when worked hard , but not overly hot. Louispower has told me that it is a 16 amp controller, so with my 36v battery that rests at 44v, you theoretically have 700 watts when you need it for a steep hill.
Speed limiter. 8)
This works really good. It's turned on and off by connecting a couple wires that come out of the controller. It could be hooked up to a switch, or left stealth as it comes. When hooked up, the top speed is about 13 mph in high, and 6 mph in low. Great for loaning out the bike, or smaller kids, or like I will use it, walking the dog by bicycle. The advantage of the lower speeds is that you get a finer controll over speeds less than 10 mph. My direct drive motor is kinda hard to modulate the throttle at speeds less than 12 mph. This one will make it easy to go slow. Yeah I know, most ES readers will not be interested in slow, but it is a really neat feature for stricter places with harsh ebike laws.
Regen braking.
Louispower has now said that the regen function in the controller is not going to be functional when combined with a freeweeling gearmotor. They are going to pull the regen stuff from the ads on the website. I don't have a motor to test the regen with, since my direct drive motor is sensorless, but have no reason to disbelieve that it works. For me, I really would not want regen braking on the front wheel anyway. I would think that as time goes by, a lot more controllers will be coming along that support regen braking.
Disconnecting regen and speed limiters. 8)
The instructions say do this connecting and disconnecting while the controller is powered down only. Both functions turn on or off by plugging or unplugging a wire from the controller. No need to open the controller box, so that is nice.
Three speed switch. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
This feature is really great! Like the speed limiter, you can dial in the full throttle speed depending on what you are needing. With the speed limiter, you actually get 6 choices for top speed of the bike. Sure, a lot of folks will want to just put it on the fastest speed and leave it there. But when you are riding slower, a lower setting gives more throttle controll. This is really cool in my opinion, and maybe the biggest reason to choose this kit over a similar bafang motor. I'll get into how and why a bit later, but It became clear to me right away that the lower settings, like medium speed, is a lot easier on the battery than the high speed setting. The motor really does run smoother at slower settings, and uses much less amps than when set on the highest speed. I found it much easier to hold the throttle full on on a lower setting than to try to hold it part way on at high speed setting. It's a very cool feature, especially when trying to ride slower to make a battery go maximum range.
Top speeds. 8) 8) 8)
With the limiter turned off. 180 pound rider, upright position comfort bike, 40 psi tires, no wind, level ground. I do a ride each way and average it, since there is no such thing as perfect level ground where I live. 36v lifepo4 battery with a usual resting voltage of 44v.
Edit,, speed seems to have increased since the first ride, gears breaking in I guess. To see the highest speeds, a long run is needed so in stop and go riding, at least 1 mph less.
High setting-- 22.5 mph
Medium setting---19 mp
Low setting----14.5 mph
With the limiter on, 12mph for high, and 6 mph for low, I didn't try medium. To me this is perfect. The bike is totally and unquestionably legal to ride in the USA on the medium setting. When the cops aren't looking the high speed setting is only a hair slower than my aotema motor. Very impressive speed. It does take just a bit longer to reach the top speed than the other motor, since the wattage is a bit lower. One important point is that this motor will be easier on the battery than a 700 watt motor, but reaches similar top speeds. Easier on the battery can be very good.
Again, I REALLY LIKE THIS FEATURE! I'm going to really miss it when I go to ride my aotema motor on the other ebike now. I can't wait to see how it affects range and climbing longer hills. On a short test in some deep sand, the low setting had noticeably better torque, but not so much torque you couldn't stall the motor. It's not that powerfull, only a 350 watt motor after all, its not supposed to be a dirt bike. This feature would be real nice to have on a 5304 motor, so you could ride most of the time with minimal impact on the battery, and when needed, flip to high speed and haul buns.
Headlight and horn. 8)
Both work well, and now I don't need to go looking for something, or have to move my headlight from bike to bike. The horn is a tone that will get stupid path walkers attention, and the headlight turns off automaticly in the light, or even in a streetlights beam. You can't leave it on by mistake in the daylight. Very cool. The beam is not super bright, but it is very adequate for 15 mph riding at night. At full speed, it might be a bit sketchy , but it is still a lot better than a camping headlamp on the helmet. A keyswitch in the controller turns on and off everything. I have found that the light, which turns off when daylight comes, can be tuned by putting some masking tape over the sensor. Now it still turns off in daylight, but stays on if I ride under a streetlight at night. The horn , though loud as hell in the garage, is not quite loud enough on a busy street for a pedestrian to hear. On my bike trail, I am sandwiched between an interstate and a busy frontage road, so it's pretty loud with the traffic. The walkers, usually with ipods in their ears, can't hear you unless you are 20 feet from them.
Brake handles. 8)
They are OK, but not super cheap. All metal so that is nice, and long handles that are better than the mtb ones that came on the bike. I find brake handles are never long enough once you start stacking on a lot of throttles and shifters.
Hand grips and throttle. 8)
Again they are OK, but I personally don't really like a full throttle, so eventually I will end up sawing off half of the handle and make it into a half twist throttle. thought the handles were kinda hard and stiff, but once riding, I found them comfy enough for a long ride. One nice thing about the stiffness is that you can lengthen a too short handlebar just by letting some of the handle hang over past the ends of the bars. Works good with these stiffer grips, and no need to find a longer handlebar to fit all the throttles, shifters, horn button etc on there.
Dashboard. 8) 8) 8)
This feature I found I liked much more that I expected. It has an indicator light for various functions, powered on, headlight on, and battery power level. Since most battery level indicators don't work well with lifepo4 batteries, I didn't expect this one to be much different. Wrong! It really does work well with a lifepo4 battery. On a 12 mile ride, for the first 4 miles it just said full. But after a few more miles, I began to see a flicker when riding full speed on the first led. Switching to medium setting made it go away and light steady again. This effect became more and more evident the further I rode, and by the end of the 12 mile trip, I had two lights out when under load. Once stopped, all the led's would light up again. So this row of led's was giving me a real good indicator of how many amps I was pullling at the moment, by measuring voltage sag. Once I get some voltage readings to calibrate it, I should be able to tell what is going on with my battery at all times, and how pedaling just a bit harder pays off or not. It really shows the difference in efficiency and strain on the battery of using a lower speed setting than the high setting. It's not a cycyleanalyst for sure, but it is a lot better than the familiar three led throttle lights. Using this feature, I should be able to decide a lot better how to ride more efficient by montioring voltage sag. This may not work as good with a 2 or 3 c capable lifepo4, but with my pingbattery v1, 36v 20 ah battery , it works great as a monitor of voltage sag. A better battery with no voltage sag would not flicker the led's, but if the battery is that good, who cares? For me it's going to be a fabulous aid to my riding efficiency without forking out the dough for a cylceanalyst.
The motor itself. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
The fit and finish is good. Some black paint on the inner hub is not so perfect, but once I put some dirt on it nobody will notice. The machining looks good, and the axle bolts and nuts had a good fit. In my install, the axle flats fit very snug into the dropouts. The axle has a notch in the end so the wires won't get cut the first time something bumps the end of the axle where the wires come out. If the bike falls over, the wires won't be sticking out the end further than the axle. Again, the phase wires look skinny to me, but in use, they must not be slowing me down too much, with a top speed of 20 mph. They will be fine unless they get hot. I'm just used to higher power controllers, so these 350 watt wires look small by comparison. The motor runs with a pleasant low whine, not at all loud or annoying like the heinzmann motor I had. That thing was unbearable at higher speeds than 10 mph. Sure, it makes more noise than a direct drive, but for sure it is ten times quieter than a heinzmann or a currie Ezip. Torque wise, I still haven't ridden enough hills yet to really say. Just that acelleration on flat ground is quite adequate, but it is not a dirt bike, or motorcycle that spins tires. It wasn't expected or wanted to be, at 350 watts. Actually, it performs a lot better than I dreamed it would at such low power levels. I have not yet put an amp meter on it.
Motor heating. 8) 8) 8) 8) In normal use, which for me means a nonstop uphill ride of 15 miles, I have not seen any excessive heating of the motor. I haven't yet cracked the motor open to put a temp sensor inside, but on the hub case and the axle, I rarely see temps much above 100F. In a recent torture test, I climbed a very steep hill for 1200 vertical feet of 5-7% and then rode back into a 35 mph headwind for awhile. I did get the motor up to 140F measured at the hole where the wires come out the axle. There was no signs the motor overheated, and the gears did not melt. That ride was done in 90 F weather.
Hill climbing. 8) 8)
Yup it climbs a pretty steep hill. Like 7% with no problems. But it won't do it fast. Remember, this is the 350 watt 36v version. The 36v kit has a 16 amp controller. The 48v kit has a 22 amp controller. So really, its pretty impressive that it doesn't simply stall on anything above 5%. Again, the speed settings do work well for this. On the steepest part of this hill, which may be even more than 7% for about 100 feet, All three settings were climbing at about 6-7 mph with easy pedaling in the lowest gear. A run at the hill helps with the high speed setting, but before long, good ol physics insures that on a really steep hill, 350 watts is not going to zoom up it. But on the low setting, I definitely saw less voltage sag to go the same speed, and the motor sounded like it was straining less. Returning to the steepest part, I did a torture test, a no pedaling start on the steep. It did it on all three settings, but it was definitely easier on the lowest setting to get started on a real steep hill. I find a real test of a motor is if it can start up on a really steep hill. It can be pretty tough on a direct drive motor, but this little fusin motor passes the test with ease. After a bunch of rain yesterday, it was a cold morning, so I can't say yet about the motor getting hot on a hill. Pushing only 350 watts, this motor should stay pretty cool. That is one thing that got me interested in it. Though it may be slow, it climbs hills just fine.
Power use 8) 8)
Not sure yet, since I have no cycleanalyst, it takes me awhile to get accurate estimates by measuring charging kwh. On this 12 mile ride I used 9.5 AH of 36v lifepo4. I did a lot of different kinds of riding, some with pedaling some without, at all the speed settings, so this is just about meaninless as a data point. But at least the way I rode today, range is just about the same as my aotema direct drive hub. I know from experience with my Heinzmann gearmotor that I can really improve on this, by using a higher tire pressure, and lots of pulse and glide riding to maximize the coasting distance.
Edit. On a second ride, this time using mostly the medium setting I am getting range very similar to my other motor. A 36v 20 ah lifepo4 should take me about 25 miles, and a 10 ah pack about 12.5 miles. Bear in mind, I pedal but not hard, and the second ride included some stout hill climbs.This ride was made at about 18 mph on the medium setting. At first I thought, hmm, It should be better, and I bet with practice I can improve this. But basic physics is not going to change, My weight, wind resistance, height of climb aren't going to magically change when I switch motors. If I ride really slow I bet I can get big mileage increases by pedaling more. But at this speed, its the motor doing it, and any motor is going to use a similar amount to do similar work. In other words, all these motors are pretty efficient except the brushed ones. So it's not suprising that the ranges are similar at similar speeds.
Other voltages?
Forget it. Looking inside the controller box, I see at least two capacitors marked 50v , so for 48v you need the 48v kit. I sorta hoped it might run on 24v, since I have two 24v 8 ah nicads in the house. Nope, on the 28v, nicad battery, the dashboard won't even light up. So there must be a lvc somewhere that is higher than 28 v. That is actually good news for lifepo4 owners, or sla use. But I had thought I might be able to use the nicads too, and have some huge range with this bike. Not till I buy some more 36v battery. No big deal, I'm planning to ride across the state on the direct drive aotema bike anyway. BTW, I'm about 1/3 of the way through the ride, and have done all of it within 120 miles of home.
Range.
No real world , ride the whole battery to cut out range test yet, but I did a 4.25 mile loop and then measured the kwh to recharge. Here's the data from that test. Yeah I know, miles per amp hour is hated by the engineers, but for us mortals, miles per amp hour is fine as long as we know the voltage and battery chemistry. This is a 36v pingbattery lifepo4 that has a resting voltage of 44 volts. Full throttle and no pedaling on this test.
High setting. Used .13 kwh to charge so 3.25 ah used. 1.3 miles per amp hour. Projected range for 9 ah avaliable in a lifepo4 battery, 11.7 miles
Medium setting. Use .10 kwh to charge so 2.5 ah used. 1.7 miles per amp hour. Projected range for 9 ah from a 10 ah lifepo4 15.3 miles
Low setting. Used .08 kwh to charge so 2 ah used. 2.12 miles per amp hour. projected range for 9 ah 19.1 miles.
This data makes it crystal clear that the speed settings definitely do mean better range if the lower speeds are chosen. I think it's fantastic that you can just select a speed that matches your needs and not have to concentrate on not blowing your energy by letting the speed creep up when you need the longer range. The efficieny of the higher speed setting seems very similar to my other motor for similar speeds. There may be some difference, but not enough to matter that much, so don't choose a direct drive motor because it's more efficient. This motor is just about the same as my 700 watt aotema for efficiency at 23 mph cruising. A hill climb might be a different story, I'll have to test the efficiency of both motors on hills to know. I suspect that at similar speeds, they will be simlar.
Forks 8) 8) 8)
I know some of you are wondering, when will he go over the handlebars with no torque arms. The answer is never, this install went very clean on a set of steel cheapo suspension forks. They are horrible supsension, but the dropouts are really strong. I have a very fussy procedure for tightening the nuts and it works good. The short version is, I start with just snugging them down. Look for anything wrong, especially a tendency for the axle to squirt out of the dropout. Tighten some more, this time medium snug. Look again, look real hard! If all ok, tighten fairly tight. I use a short handled crescent wrench so I don't get so much leverage that I strip an axle. Look at it all again. See the pattern? Lots and lots of looking for any hint of a bad fit. After some time, at least a half hour, I put the final snug on the nuts, very tight, but still carefull not to strip a nut. This last tighten should be a very small rotation of the nut. If it's more, Whoa dude, whats going on? At this point it should be bomproof. I have 3400 flawless miles on this kind of front hub install and I have NEVER had a nut loosen. If a nut ever loosens, something is seriously wrong with the fit of the nuts and washers, and don't ride till it's corrected.
No instructions came with the kit, but the worldwide electric bikes website has some. The Fusin motor site had a link but it did not work. The kit came with one part that seemed to go to something we don't have. It looks like a fork lock, and it's keyed the same as the lock on the power switch on the headlight.
Three things stuck out as questionable right away.
I know this motor is supposed to use less power than a direct drive, but the power wires are really thin looking. Especially the controller to motor, phase wires. Good wires can look thinner, I hope they are still big enough to not get hot.
The power supply wire is too long, and I think it needs a design change. The design takes power from the battery in the rear carrier, routes it to the handlebars for a switch, then back to the rear where the controller is. There is almost ten feet of wire between the controller and the battery. Holy cow that can't be good for voltage sag. My Aotema kits only have about a foot of wire between the battery and controller. Put the main switch on the controller and then route power for the light to the handlebars.
There is a lot of wires and connectors and such on the controller. This is a sophisticatied kit with lots of extra wires, but it does not look like it was designed to be exposed to the elements, It looks bad, and might be hard to waterproof. This many wires and connections is going to need a box or something since there is no body work to hide behind on an ebike. Edit. Looks better with some tape wrapped around it but it will need more waterproofing than that in wet climates.
We'll see when I get it running whether any of this matters. Compared to my other kits, the wiring looks horrible now, but later on I can do some bundling with tape and tidy it all up, and fabricate something to put all the connectors in. Maybe a metal band aid box or something like that can tame the wire tangle left from a quick install.
The kit is a bit harder to install than some, just because you get more. So you have to put on the brake handles, horn button, and headlight. Not a problem, but it does take more than 20 minuites to install it all on the bike. I'm very impressed with the motor itself. It looks like a real quality product to me. With the tire installed it weighs about 12 pounds. Real beefy spokes, and the rim is fairly nice for a single wall. It also seems pretty thick and tough, but not so crude as the aotema ones. Despite the first impression on the wiring I still think it looks like a decent quality set up, and customizing the controller connectors would add to the cost. I'll just need to find a way to make a weather resistant container for all the plugs. It seems like an issue now, since water is falling from the sky at the moment. We haven't seen that in six months, so suddenly a bunch of exposed connectors seems like a thing to worry about.
Edit..... The next mornig.
Louis was very quick to send me the info on the polarity of the power cable wires so I could hook up. On the main wire to the battery, the red one is the positive. Hooked it up and the initial ride impressions are very positive. There are a lot of really cool features on this kit and the cost is not more than many other kits.
Controller.
Writing this, at 350 miles now, I am very happy with the controller. It gets warm when worked hard , but not overly hot. Louispower has told me that it is a 16 amp controller, so with my 36v battery that rests at 44v, you theoretically have 700 watts when you need it for a steep hill.
Speed limiter. 8)
This works really good. It's turned on and off by connecting a couple wires that come out of the controller. It could be hooked up to a switch, or left stealth as it comes. When hooked up, the top speed is about 13 mph in high, and 6 mph in low. Great for loaning out the bike, or smaller kids, or like I will use it, walking the dog by bicycle. The advantage of the lower speeds is that you get a finer controll over speeds less than 10 mph. My direct drive motor is kinda hard to modulate the throttle at speeds less than 12 mph. This one will make it easy to go slow. Yeah I know, most ES readers will not be interested in slow, but it is a really neat feature for stricter places with harsh ebike laws.
Regen braking.
Louispower has now said that the regen function in the controller is not going to be functional when combined with a freeweeling gearmotor. They are going to pull the regen stuff from the ads on the website. I don't have a motor to test the regen with, since my direct drive motor is sensorless, but have no reason to disbelieve that it works. For me, I really would not want regen braking on the front wheel anyway. I would think that as time goes by, a lot more controllers will be coming along that support regen braking.
Disconnecting regen and speed limiters. 8)
The instructions say do this connecting and disconnecting while the controller is powered down only. Both functions turn on or off by plugging or unplugging a wire from the controller. No need to open the controller box, so that is nice.
Three speed switch. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
This feature is really great! Like the speed limiter, you can dial in the full throttle speed depending on what you are needing. With the speed limiter, you actually get 6 choices for top speed of the bike. Sure, a lot of folks will want to just put it on the fastest speed and leave it there. But when you are riding slower, a lower setting gives more throttle controll. This is really cool in my opinion, and maybe the biggest reason to choose this kit over a similar bafang motor. I'll get into how and why a bit later, but It became clear to me right away that the lower settings, like medium speed, is a lot easier on the battery than the high speed setting. The motor really does run smoother at slower settings, and uses much less amps than when set on the highest speed. I found it much easier to hold the throttle full on on a lower setting than to try to hold it part way on at high speed setting. It's a very cool feature, especially when trying to ride slower to make a battery go maximum range.
Top speeds. 8) 8) 8)
With the limiter turned off. 180 pound rider, upright position comfort bike, 40 psi tires, no wind, level ground. I do a ride each way and average it, since there is no such thing as perfect level ground where I live. 36v lifepo4 battery with a usual resting voltage of 44v.
Edit,, speed seems to have increased since the first ride, gears breaking in I guess. To see the highest speeds, a long run is needed so in stop and go riding, at least 1 mph less.
High setting-- 22.5 mph
Medium setting---19 mp
Low setting----14.5 mph
With the limiter on, 12mph for high, and 6 mph for low, I didn't try medium. To me this is perfect. The bike is totally and unquestionably legal to ride in the USA on the medium setting. When the cops aren't looking the high speed setting is only a hair slower than my aotema motor. Very impressive speed. It does take just a bit longer to reach the top speed than the other motor, since the wattage is a bit lower. One important point is that this motor will be easier on the battery than a 700 watt motor, but reaches similar top speeds. Easier on the battery can be very good.
Again, I REALLY LIKE THIS FEATURE! I'm going to really miss it when I go to ride my aotema motor on the other ebike now. I can't wait to see how it affects range and climbing longer hills. On a short test in some deep sand, the low setting had noticeably better torque, but not so much torque you couldn't stall the motor. It's not that powerfull, only a 350 watt motor after all, its not supposed to be a dirt bike. This feature would be real nice to have on a 5304 motor, so you could ride most of the time with minimal impact on the battery, and when needed, flip to high speed and haul buns.
Headlight and horn. 8)
Both work well, and now I don't need to go looking for something, or have to move my headlight from bike to bike. The horn is a tone that will get stupid path walkers attention, and the headlight turns off automaticly in the light, or even in a streetlights beam. You can't leave it on by mistake in the daylight. Very cool. The beam is not super bright, but it is very adequate for 15 mph riding at night. At full speed, it might be a bit sketchy , but it is still a lot better than a camping headlamp on the helmet. A keyswitch in the controller turns on and off everything. I have found that the light, which turns off when daylight comes, can be tuned by putting some masking tape over the sensor. Now it still turns off in daylight, but stays on if I ride under a streetlight at night. The horn , though loud as hell in the garage, is not quite loud enough on a busy street for a pedestrian to hear. On my bike trail, I am sandwiched between an interstate and a busy frontage road, so it's pretty loud with the traffic. The walkers, usually with ipods in their ears, can't hear you unless you are 20 feet from them.
Brake handles. 8)
They are OK, but not super cheap. All metal so that is nice, and long handles that are better than the mtb ones that came on the bike. I find brake handles are never long enough once you start stacking on a lot of throttles and shifters.
Hand grips and throttle. 8)
Again they are OK, but I personally don't really like a full throttle, so eventually I will end up sawing off half of the handle and make it into a half twist throttle. thought the handles were kinda hard and stiff, but once riding, I found them comfy enough for a long ride. One nice thing about the stiffness is that you can lengthen a too short handlebar just by letting some of the handle hang over past the ends of the bars. Works good with these stiffer grips, and no need to find a longer handlebar to fit all the throttles, shifters, horn button etc on there.
Dashboard. 8) 8) 8)
This feature I found I liked much more that I expected. It has an indicator light for various functions, powered on, headlight on, and battery power level. Since most battery level indicators don't work well with lifepo4 batteries, I didn't expect this one to be much different. Wrong! It really does work well with a lifepo4 battery. On a 12 mile ride, for the first 4 miles it just said full. But after a few more miles, I began to see a flicker when riding full speed on the first led. Switching to medium setting made it go away and light steady again. This effect became more and more evident the further I rode, and by the end of the 12 mile trip, I had two lights out when under load. Once stopped, all the led's would light up again. So this row of led's was giving me a real good indicator of how many amps I was pullling at the moment, by measuring voltage sag. Once I get some voltage readings to calibrate it, I should be able to tell what is going on with my battery at all times, and how pedaling just a bit harder pays off or not. It really shows the difference in efficiency and strain on the battery of using a lower speed setting than the high setting. It's not a cycyleanalyst for sure, but it is a lot better than the familiar three led throttle lights. Using this feature, I should be able to decide a lot better how to ride more efficient by montioring voltage sag. This may not work as good with a 2 or 3 c capable lifepo4, but with my pingbattery v1, 36v 20 ah battery , it works great as a monitor of voltage sag. A better battery with no voltage sag would not flicker the led's, but if the battery is that good, who cares? For me it's going to be a fabulous aid to my riding efficiency without forking out the dough for a cylceanalyst.
The motor itself. 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
The fit and finish is good. Some black paint on the inner hub is not so perfect, but once I put some dirt on it nobody will notice. The machining looks good, and the axle bolts and nuts had a good fit. In my install, the axle flats fit very snug into the dropouts. The axle has a notch in the end so the wires won't get cut the first time something bumps the end of the axle where the wires come out. If the bike falls over, the wires won't be sticking out the end further than the axle. Again, the phase wires look skinny to me, but in use, they must not be slowing me down too much, with a top speed of 20 mph. They will be fine unless they get hot. I'm just used to higher power controllers, so these 350 watt wires look small by comparison. The motor runs with a pleasant low whine, not at all loud or annoying like the heinzmann motor I had. That thing was unbearable at higher speeds than 10 mph. Sure, it makes more noise than a direct drive, but for sure it is ten times quieter than a heinzmann or a currie Ezip. Torque wise, I still haven't ridden enough hills yet to really say. Just that acelleration on flat ground is quite adequate, but it is not a dirt bike, or motorcycle that spins tires. It wasn't expected or wanted to be, at 350 watts. Actually, it performs a lot better than I dreamed it would at such low power levels. I have not yet put an amp meter on it.
Motor heating. 8) 8) 8) 8) In normal use, which for me means a nonstop uphill ride of 15 miles, I have not seen any excessive heating of the motor. I haven't yet cracked the motor open to put a temp sensor inside, but on the hub case and the axle, I rarely see temps much above 100F. In a recent torture test, I climbed a very steep hill for 1200 vertical feet of 5-7% and then rode back into a 35 mph headwind for awhile. I did get the motor up to 140F measured at the hole where the wires come out the axle. There was no signs the motor overheated, and the gears did not melt. That ride was done in 90 F weather.
Hill climbing. 8) 8)
Yup it climbs a pretty steep hill. Like 7% with no problems. But it won't do it fast. Remember, this is the 350 watt 36v version. The 36v kit has a 16 amp controller. The 48v kit has a 22 amp controller. So really, its pretty impressive that it doesn't simply stall on anything above 5%. Again, the speed settings do work well for this. On the steepest part of this hill, which may be even more than 7% for about 100 feet, All three settings were climbing at about 6-7 mph with easy pedaling in the lowest gear. A run at the hill helps with the high speed setting, but before long, good ol physics insures that on a really steep hill, 350 watts is not going to zoom up it. But on the low setting, I definitely saw less voltage sag to go the same speed, and the motor sounded like it was straining less. Returning to the steepest part, I did a torture test, a no pedaling start on the steep. It did it on all three settings, but it was definitely easier on the lowest setting to get started on a real steep hill. I find a real test of a motor is if it can start up on a really steep hill. It can be pretty tough on a direct drive motor, but this little fusin motor passes the test with ease. After a bunch of rain yesterday, it was a cold morning, so I can't say yet about the motor getting hot on a hill. Pushing only 350 watts, this motor should stay pretty cool. That is one thing that got me interested in it. Though it may be slow, it climbs hills just fine.
Power use 8) 8)
Not sure yet, since I have no cycleanalyst, it takes me awhile to get accurate estimates by measuring charging kwh. On this 12 mile ride I used 9.5 AH of 36v lifepo4. I did a lot of different kinds of riding, some with pedaling some without, at all the speed settings, so this is just about meaninless as a data point. But at least the way I rode today, range is just about the same as my aotema direct drive hub. I know from experience with my Heinzmann gearmotor that I can really improve on this, by using a higher tire pressure, and lots of pulse and glide riding to maximize the coasting distance.
Edit. On a second ride, this time using mostly the medium setting I am getting range very similar to my other motor. A 36v 20 ah lifepo4 should take me about 25 miles, and a 10 ah pack about 12.5 miles. Bear in mind, I pedal but not hard, and the second ride included some stout hill climbs.This ride was made at about 18 mph on the medium setting. At first I thought, hmm, It should be better, and I bet with practice I can improve this. But basic physics is not going to change, My weight, wind resistance, height of climb aren't going to magically change when I switch motors. If I ride really slow I bet I can get big mileage increases by pedaling more. But at this speed, its the motor doing it, and any motor is going to use a similar amount to do similar work. In other words, all these motors are pretty efficient except the brushed ones. So it's not suprising that the ranges are similar at similar speeds.
Other voltages?
Forget it. Looking inside the controller box, I see at least two capacitors marked 50v , so for 48v you need the 48v kit. I sorta hoped it might run on 24v, since I have two 24v 8 ah nicads in the house. Nope, on the 28v, nicad battery, the dashboard won't even light up. So there must be a lvc somewhere that is higher than 28 v. That is actually good news for lifepo4 owners, or sla use. But I had thought I might be able to use the nicads too, and have some huge range with this bike. Not till I buy some more 36v battery. No big deal, I'm planning to ride across the state on the direct drive aotema bike anyway. BTW, I'm about 1/3 of the way through the ride, and have done all of it within 120 miles of home.
Range.
No real world , ride the whole battery to cut out range test yet, but I did a 4.25 mile loop and then measured the kwh to recharge. Here's the data from that test. Yeah I know, miles per amp hour is hated by the engineers, but for us mortals, miles per amp hour is fine as long as we know the voltage and battery chemistry. This is a 36v pingbattery lifepo4 that has a resting voltage of 44 volts. Full throttle and no pedaling on this test.
High setting. Used .13 kwh to charge so 3.25 ah used. 1.3 miles per amp hour. Projected range for 9 ah avaliable in a lifepo4 battery, 11.7 miles
Medium setting. Use .10 kwh to charge so 2.5 ah used. 1.7 miles per amp hour. Projected range for 9 ah from a 10 ah lifepo4 15.3 miles
Low setting. Used .08 kwh to charge so 2 ah used. 2.12 miles per amp hour. projected range for 9 ah 19.1 miles.
This data makes it crystal clear that the speed settings definitely do mean better range if the lower speeds are chosen. I think it's fantastic that you can just select a speed that matches your needs and not have to concentrate on not blowing your energy by letting the speed creep up when you need the longer range. The efficieny of the higher speed setting seems very similar to my other motor for similar speeds. There may be some difference, but not enough to matter that much, so don't choose a direct drive motor because it's more efficient. This motor is just about the same as my 700 watt aotema for efficiency at 23 mph cruising. A hill climb might be a different story, I'll have to test the efficiency of both motors on hills to know. I suspect that at similar speeds, they will be simlar.
Forks 8) 8) 8)
I know some of you are wondering, when will he go over the handlebars with no torque arms. The answer is never, this install went very clean on a set of steel cheapo suspension forks. They are horrible supsension, but the dropouts are really strong. I have a very fussy procedure for tightening the nuts and it works good. The short version is, I start with just snugging them down. Look for anything wrong, especially a tendency for the axle to squirt out of the dropout. Tighten some more, this time medium snug. Look again, look real hard! If all ok, tighten fairly tight. I use a short handled crescent wrench so I don't get so much leverage that I strip an axle. Look at it all again. See the pattern? Lots and lots of looking for any hint of a bad fit. After some time, at least a half hour, I put the final snug on the nuts, very tight, but still carefull not to strip a nut. This last tighten should be a very small rotation of the nut. If it's more, Whoa dude, whats going on? At this point it should be bomproof. I have 3400 flawless miles on this kind of front hub install and I have NEVER had a nut loosen. If a nut ever loosens, something is seriously wrong with the fit of the nuts and washers, and don't ride till it's corrected.
She's a lot harder to please than me. 
