Making an electric bicycle (looking for advice)

[NoCO2]

Ok, well I measured out the exact distance today from my apartment to work and it's only 4.3 miles which is actually less then I thought originally by almost a mile so that's good to know. I like those Electric Rider kits, the only gripe I have is the price. I'm looking to stay under $400-$500 because I'm not putting this on a very nice bike and knowing me, I'm going to tinker with it and likely upgrade gradually to something faster and better. Right now I really just need something that does between 20 - 25 miles per hour and gets me about 10 - 20 miles on a charge (so I'm not constantly recharging). I would eventually like to see myself get the Pheonix that does 30 mph but right now that's well out of my price range.

[Christopher Jordan]

Originally Posted by bennelson

In a lot of states, electric bikes are supposed to go no faster than 20 MPH under their own power. So a lot of manufacturers design them to go that speed.

I had a 24V Currie kit installed by Electric Sierra Cycles in 2002. Made that recumbent trike "sing"- faster accelaration, flattened hills, boosted distance a lot. That trike is slowly wearing out, but the motor is not wearing out!

I have another recumbent trike (the one in my avatar), and from 2005 to 2007 added more and more until it was becoming heavy. I again had Electric Sierra Cycles install a 36V hub motor December 2007.

I think the Currie was before the 20 mph law and the newer Electric Sierra motor was after; since that old Currie doesn't seem to have governers or controls that the E.S. does have. That older 24V takes off in a hurry, and seems faste than the 36Vr; but neither one is a "slouch". Both have been a blast!

(pictured: TerraTrike with Currie,- the black'spot"near the back wheel/battery under seat- and E-Pod- all mechanicals inside- pre molding)

countersTrike

[NoCO2]

Those trikes are such a neat idea. Any idea what it would take to make one of those legal for street use? I would love to have one of those to go from here to work in, however, where I live the only road to get from here to work is a 55mph 6 lane divided highway basically, but it has a sidewalk so I was planning on riding the electric bike, for that portion of the ride, on the sidewalk and then once I got to the 35mph 2 lane roads I could get back on the road like normal. If I got one of those I wouldn't be able to go on the road in the 55mph zone because of the sheer difference in speed but it, being 3 wheels, probably wouldn't fit on the sidewalk...is there anyway to make one of those trikes that could go, say, 40mph? that would solve the speed difference issue and allow me to use it to get to work...or is there a law that prohibits it?

[Christopher Jordan]

Originally Posted by NoCO2

Those trikes are such a neat idea. Any idea what it would take to make one of those legal for street use? I would love to have one of those to go from here to work in, however, where I live the only road to get from here to work is a 55mph 6 lane divided highway basically, but it has a sidewalk so I was planning on riding the electric bike, for that portion of the ride, on the sidewalk and then once I got to the 35mph 2 lane roads I could get back on the road like normal. If I got one of those I wouldn't be able to go on the road in the 55mph zone because of the sheer difference in speed but it, being 3 wheels, probably wouldn't fit on the sidewalk...is there anyway to make one of those trikes that could go, say, 40mph? that would solve the speed difference issue and allow me to use it to get to work...or is there a law that prohibits it?

That enclosed one now has a rear light, turn signals, molded-in (permanent) top, side windows, a larger two-tone flag (like the other pictured trike) much higher gearing (to out-power the motor- like an overdrive) but it is still a bicycle as far as a license.

That means 20-25 mph max! That is on 35 - 40 mph streets. Strike 1

Neither trike has suspension. I was going too fast and did not see an upcoming driveway to get onto the street. I missed it, flew right off the edge- went airborn a couple of feet- and when the trike slammed back on the street: I swerved across two lanes. Suspension would have avoided that. Strike 2

Also concerning suspension; not every road is smooth as glass. Without it, the vibration causes a fair amount of noise. I hear lower noise of traffic, horns, sirens, construction, etc.; but I cannot hear my stereo or news without stopping. Not good! If I shut all windows and vents I may turn right into trouble without hearing it. Strike 3

For many years a trike held a 62 mph record, so 40 - 55 mph is possible; scare the "tar" out of almost anyone- but possible! _____

I have been VERY pleased with these small vehicles. Although about 3' wide and varying lengths- I feel extremely safe; but if there is a 55mph highway nearby- I am the first one in my car

countersTrike

[NoCO2]

Thanks for the advice, I guess I'm going to be sticking to the bike for now at least so I can hop on the sidewalk/grass when needed to avoid traffic. I wonder how hard it would be to convert one of those to have some suspension from say...one of those small race cars and then get it a VIN and tag so that it could be on the road legally. I would hate to end up in the same situation as those guys who built the pedal powered car.

[bennelson]

The easiest way to get a VIN is to already have one. That is why I am CONVERTING a vehicle to electric.

Check out my motorcycle registration.

Another thing you might be interested in is the Bug-E electric trike.

[BarrysWorld]

Hey guys, I'm super new to the forums here... and I plan to stick around.
I'm looking for a little advice. I'm trying to do a super inexpensive electric mod to my lowrider bike. I have a motor from an electric scooter I was thinking of using. It's rated at 6A 100W 24VDC. I'm only looking for a little motor assist, as I plan on pedaling all the time too. I had seen on an earlier post that these were good batteries to use http://www.all-battery.com/index.asp...ROD&ProdID=202 ...so, if I bought 20 of those, and made a pack that would be 24v would I be exceeding the amperage of that little motor? Also, I was thinking of using a switch for the power, and only switch it on when I'm up to speed. I don't think the scooters controller would handle the load.

[AndrewJ]

welcome to the board Barry,
Don't worry about going over on amps. Your motor will only pull as many amps as it needs, no more (you can usually feed it more volts than it says too). What you'll need to watch out for is the rated voltage of the controller. That is the major sticking point for most EV setups, the controller. If you need a bigger/better one for what you're doing you can always find one online. 100 watts isn't too much in terms of power for electric bikes, but you could easily up that by using a 36v controller and running your motor at 36 volts.
Anyway, keep looking around at parts, and reading about electric conversions and you'll be in great shape.

[NoCO2]

Hey, AndrewJ, thanks a lot for that link to the scooter parts and thank you and welcome to BarrysWorld as well. I was looking for some other batteries as well because I'm thinking of getting the parts separately now after looking around a bit and building a custom battery pack (for optimal space usage and power output) and possibly even go with a more powerful motor or possibly something other then a hub motor maybe moving to a small, 3-5hp motor from an industrial motor supply company and hooking it to the drive train via belt drive or something similar.

I have also been playing around with sketches today for a trike chassis that might accommodate a 5-10hp motor as well as a decent set of batteries and suspension system for adaptation for real world road usage. If I can get a hold of a scanner (and make a larger, more legible sketch) I will upload what I have been playing with. The only challenge I really face is safety, I am confident that if I toy around enough with ideas I will find a suitable way to make it work in the long run, but I have never designed a vehicle that was going to be used in real world, road conditions. The closest I have come is building downhill luge vehicles that approached the range of 50-60mph but we used those on closed courses where things were predictable.

Thank you also for that link to the Bug-E page. I will definitely take a look into those if for nothing more then reference for my own design, I may actually think of getting one if I find out more about them though.

::EDIT::
Also, just to add to my last post a bit, I crunched some numbers for the design I have laid out for the shell (just paying around with dimensions, not really shape yet) and assuming I can at least manage the Cd at or under .30 I can get my target speed of 45mph with just under 5HP which means I might even be able to pull off between 30-40 mph if I can get that kind of motor on my bike...hm...more thoughts to play with.

I also took a look into that scooter site, found some 3-5" suspension assemblies that are not only very cheap but could probably be easily mounted on an existing (or homemade) trike frame...I'm starting to think this could actually work...

::MORE EDIT::

Additional math with the most powerful motor I could find on the scooter supply website shows that with a 1200W motor I will get 1.6HP which will get me about 31 mph assuming no wind and no other resistance that is greater then my Cd calculations of .3 which means that in order to obtain the speeds I was looking for (IE 5HP motor) I'm going to need to find a 3700W motor...personally I don't feel like lugging one of these around...back to the drawing board.

[bennelson]

The motor on my cycle is considered an 8 hp Permanent Magnet DC Motor.

It goes 38 mph running on 36 volts with roughly a 6:1 gear ratio.

Has good excelleration, quiet, and fun to ride.

More volts would make it go a lot faster. My limit right now is the space to cram batteries inside the frame.