Beer-Electric Hybrid

[dennyt]

I only get 28 miles per gallon of Rainier, so I thought I would add some hydro-electric into the mix to help with the 24 mile headwind on the way home.




Most of the parts are here, but I'll be on vacation next week, so it will be a couple of weeks before it's up and running. I'm excited!

[War_Wagon]

Uh oh, now that I have read this and the original link, I have a bad feeling I will be testing out those numbers for myself. I'm going to need a bigger bike. And a helmet. Well at least I will be able to blame the scientific method for my excessive drinking / drunken wheelies.

[ecomodded]

Riding bicycles while drunk is perhaps the worlds most dangerous activity.
I know,cause I always end up pushing my bike home..
Wear your helmets and jocks cause you got some pain headed your way,lol

[Ryland]

What Surly frame is that? also what are you running for a hub motor and batteries? I found out the hard way that small batteries couldn't handle the demands of a hub motor, but those are looking like model air craft batteries.

[dennyt]

Ryland,
That's the Karate Monkey, their 29'er mountain bike frame. I'm running a front hub motor because I wanted to run an internal gear hub, and no electric hub motors are available with that. They all use 7 speed freewheels. The front hub motor isn't ideal but I'm looking for help with long straights into a headwind, rather than motorcycle-like performance.

The batteries are Lithium Polymer, 6S (22.2V) 5AH per pack, 8 packs in a 2 serial x 4 parallel configuration. 44.4V x 20AH = 888WH. Each pack is rated for 100A, or 400A for my 4-parallel configuration, which is 16X what my controller & motor can handle. Yes, there will be fuses

[dennyt]

Finally got the bike assembled, and rigged up a simplified battery pack for a quick test ride. 30mph in the neighborhood (wearing flip-flops) generated a few smiles



Now time for the "real" battery pack build.

[skyl4rk]

I'm interested in details on how you put your battery pack together, and how you charge it.

[dennyt]

I made some progress on the battery pack last night, and created a flickr set for the build-up:
Photos Here

[NeilBlanchard]

Cool! Does the motor being in front allow you to do some regenerative braking?

I would love to do this to a Quest (install front hub motors and a couple of kWh pack):

[dennyt]

I went with the front hub because I wanted an internal gear rear hub, for commuting in the rain with less mess. This hub motor has a reduction gear and freewheel inside, so it can't support regen. Direct-drive hub motors do exist. My commute is so flat I didn't go for regen.