The eBike thread

unkel

Apologies, I think you kind of asked before about the drag on the Bafang mid motor. I can confirm there is a bit more drag than a geared hub motor, but if hub motor is 0 and a direct drive is 10 for drag, then the mid motor is at about 1 or 2


You should have sold your haibike years ago, it's now 7 years old, which is ok, but what battery do you have with it? A 7 year old eBike battery is as good as dead, even if used very little for many years now. What are the specs and how much are you looking for? You should put it on adverts. Demand for eBikes is now getting quite strong. I've had no problem selling all my eBikes and scooters for considerable profit after fixing them up.

I will take it out when the weather gets finer and see how the battery is doing. Storing it at 50% has probably helped a lot. I check it every now and then.

I did have it on for sale on the internet for a long time and got no phone call so I took the add down.

Then I thought better to have it when I want it than to have nothing.

Yes, cycling efficiency is important to me and I bet a bit of drag to you is a lot to me having being used to slick tyres and 110 PSI and little pedal resistance.

The greatest attraction with the Bosch was the superb torque sensing, but it's unforgiving if you're tired or your knees get sore because you need to maintain good pressure on the pedals so I'd have my throttle any day but the Bosch Torque sensing is really good.

You still can't beat the super smooth power delivery of a Hub.

Speaking of Hubs, I know there has been success with the BBS02 and Geared Hubs which would eliminate derailleurs and the choppy gear changes.

A 3 speed gear Hub would probably be ideal, I know the 3 Speed Sram hub supplied with the Haibike was brilliant until I damaged it and couldn't get parts because Sram no longer make gear hubs so I had to make do with just the 9 speed cassette but it knocked off my gear range and cadence too fast in top gear so I would need to get a new front chain ring but then this would limit me more on hills. The 3 speed hub allowed me to get up Mount Leinster right to the Transmitter site and that's a long serious climb.

Anyway with my Ham Radio Hobby, it's after costing me a lot since last May when I got my license so I need to save more, but I think I have most of what I need now for a long time. I made contact with a Guy in Sydney on 20 Meters this morning, I was thrilled with that with just my 100 watts of RF power. I was delighted, His call was VK2BY great hobby.

SCOL

Just need to get the battery and clean up the wires and I'm ready also and I'll be needing new mud guards.

unkel

Nice! That will be a stealthy machine if you manage to kind of hide the batteries, maybe on the luggage carrier?

27.5" wheels? If so, with a 52V nominal battery fully charged you could get something like 50km/h

SCOL

unkel wrote: »

Nice! That will be a stealthy machine if you manage to kind of hide the batteries, maybe on the luggage carrier?

27.5" wheels? If so, with a 52V nominal battery fully charged you could get something like 50km/h

29 Inch wheels, I'm trying to go stealthy I've bought the escooter batteries so thinking of building a small box under the carrier/ tool bag under the seat depending how they fit.

loughside

Battery ---> Saddlebag behind the seatpost

and those brakes!! Get a set of 180 discs

SCOL

loughside wrote: »

Battery ---> Saddlebag behind the seatpost

and those brakes!! Get a set of 180 discs

I bought a set of panniers from Lidl yesterday, I'll see when I get the batterie
where to "hide" it. maybe a basket on the handlebars !!!


Is it possible to change your brakes to discs ?

SCOL

I see a cool e-fat bike around Drogheda a few times.

unkel

I will have my cool e-fat bike for sale soon

SCOL

Bike all done now, all the wires are cable tied to hide as much as possible.

Just need to get the battery now and I'm ready.

unkel

Degreased the hub motor parts of my fat bike, re-assembled it with the new gears, greased it, sealed it and tested it. Motor running fine now

Using a 36V controller that is much less powerful and two brand new packs of 36V scooter batteries in parallel (for a 9Ah pack), so unlikely to cause damage to the gears again by overclocking the sh1t out of it like I did before. Charging the batteries now (they arrived yesterday at only 35V), then giving the bike a quick wipe and then off to adverts.ie with it

SCOL

Quick question on my Bafang Middrive that I installed there are two wires ( they are light wires and are red and black ) that are not connected to anything !!!
would these be for a light for the bike ?

unkel

Yep.

loughside

SCOL wrote: »

Quick question on my Bafang Middrive that I installed there are two wires ( they are light wires and are red and black ) that are not connected to anything !!!
would these be for a light for the bike ?

Yes for a light of sorts, very low current output, 6V 500mA, possibly a low power tail light
other cable is for a gearsensor.

SCOL

loughside wrote: »

Yes for a light of sorts, very low current output, 6V 500mA, possibly a low power tail light
other cable is for a gearsensor.

I have a speed sensor set up. I'm going to hold off with a gear sensor going to try using the brakes to cut out the motor and see how I get on.

I'll just use insulation tape on these wires for the lights.

shuffles03

Hey Everyone,

I know nothing about bikes and need a little help.

I live in Spain.
There's a small mountain between where I live and where I work.
It would be a soul destroyer to cycle it everyday without a little bit of an assist.
I want to try and cycle over everyday so I'm think of the electric bike route.

My budget would be max €3K (don't want a racer).

I'd be most grateful for a bit of steerage - no idea what to look for / what brand / model / what to avoid etc.

Many thanks in advance.

John Hutton

shuffles03 wrote: »

Hey Everyone,

I know nothing about bikes and need a little help.

I live in Spain.
There's a small mountain between where I live and where I work.
It would be a soul destroyer to cycle it everyday without a little bit of an assist.
I want to try and cycle over everyday so I'm think of the electric bike route.

My budget would be max €3K (don't want a racer).

I'd be most grateful for a bit of steerage - no idea what to look for / what brand / model / what to avoid etc.

Many thanks in advance.

I'd suggest reading the thread, I and others probably asked the same as you and got great advice.

unkel

My electric fat bike is now on adverts, I feel with a very reasonable asking price:

Linky

John Hutton

unkel wrote: »

My electric fat bike is now on adverts, I feel with a very reasonable asking price:

Linky

Looks great. (The Merc is also awesome!)

Bigus

shuffles03 wrote: »

Hey Everyone,

I know nothing about bikes and need a little help.

I live in Spain.
There's a small mountain between where I live and where I work.
It would be a soul destroyer to cycle it everyday without a little bit of an assist.
I want to try and cycle over everyday so I'm think of the electric bike route.

My budget would be max €3K (don't want a racer).

I'd be most grateful for a bit of steerage - no idea what to look for / what brand / model / what to avoid etc.

Many thanks in advance.

Any brand with a Bosch mid drive motor would suit , cannondale seem to offer the best value , but there might be different price point in Spain , but Bosch and mid drive you can’t go wrong , go for hydraulic disc brakes too, 3 k should be ample. Gepida bike from Hungary are well made and use Bosch at the right price .

padjocollins

don't know much myself but i like ride1up , great prices and mid level components. am looking myself and this is where i'm leaning to at the moment. 3k is a big of a wallop for me.

5uspect

shuffles03 wrote: »

Hey Everyone,

I know nothing about bikes and need a little help.

I live in Spain.
There's a small mountain between where I live and where I work.
It would be a soul destroyer to cycle it everyday without a little bit of an assist.
I want to try and cycle over everyday so I'm think of the electric bike route.

My budget would be max €3K (don't want a racer).

I'd be most grateful for a bit of steerage - no idea what to look for / what brand / model / what to avoid etc.

Many thanks in advance.

That budget should go a long way. I bought a Specialized ebike because I live close to their main store here in Ireland and I wanted a hassle free appliance. Giant also have a decent range of ebikes. I preferred the Specialized bike because the cutout feels much less abrupt as it did with the Giant bikes I test rode at the time.

Best to see what your local bike shop offers and what you like the feel of.

SCOL

I got a battery today from PSW Power

The battery seems to be dead, so I'm charging it up
There is a on/off switch on the battery pack.

Should it be on or off ?

loughside

SCOL wrote: »

I got a battery today from PSW Power

The battery seems to be dead, so I'm charging it up
There is a on/off switch on the battery pack.

Should it be on or off ?

Not sure it matters but i always charge with it Off.

SCOL

loughside wrote: »

Not sure it matters but i always charge with it Off.

Also how long does it take to charge ?

loughside

Isn`t there a battery indicator or just a Red to Green LED ?

SCOL

There is a on/off button on the back of the unit, there is also a button on the front when you press it blue lights come on
( it looks like a battery indicator)

I took it off charge and put it on the bike it was showing 36v it now up to 40v but the indicator on the controller display
is still showing the battery empty, so I'll keep it on charge for today and see what happens.

loughside

Yes it`s that button you press, all those blue leds should light up, should take 2 or 3 hours

unkel

Out of interest, why did you go for a 36V battery? Do I remember this wrong or did you not go for a 48V BBS02 motor? The built in Bafang controller is not setup for handling 36V batteries. Basically it won't work.

SCOL

I thought I did buy the 48v