Riding in the hood e edition

deacon · #1 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 07:18 PM

Well this is kind of an interesting thing. I have decided to ride my e bike more so that i can work off a little of this winter fat.

The ebike on the flat will do about ten miles an hour. I just bought and hooked up a controller and throttle hoping to improve the range but I was too tired to test it today. I did ride it a couple of miles and the controller is cool.

First of all after I carefully installed it I had to hot wire it lol. There is a lock out circuit. If you don't want to use it, you have to stick a paper clip in to block it out.

So after riding it and getting a postal lady tell me how cool it was dragging the batteries behind me, and a neighbor telling me she needed to ride her bike more, i have decided to buy a solar panel. No not to charge the batteries but to hide them when I ride. I figure that will get a lot more comments than two lawn and garden tractor batteries.

I put the bike on the bike trail a couple of times. One time the chain broke, but I could fix it with my handy dandy vice grips. the second time the trailer came loose and I got a nice break looking for the nut so that I could get it home. I'm two for two with it as well.

When i ride it within a mile of home nothing ever happens. I can't say that about the gasoline bike.

Pablo · #2 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 07:57 PM

Cool. Can you work my winter fat off while you are at it?!

deacon · #3 (**permalink**) 05-07-2008, 08:41 PM

sure I'll start on yours when I finish with mine... lol

deacon · #4 (**permalink**) 05-08-2008, 03:43 PM

I rode the ebike with controller and throttle today to test the battery range. It is exactly the same. Don't waste your money on a controller.

I coasted every inch possible, I set the throttle so that I could pedal assist every change I got and the bike did exactly the same as when I pulsed it. I have a throttle now woopie. I wanted to know what would happen and now I know. It's still in the batteries.

The flooded batteries get about twice the distance of the sla at the same price, so they are more cost effective but they are heavy and you need the trailer to pull them.

It's a good exercise plan for me since i would rather ride and pump the bike than walk around in circles. But as transportation, I don't see them being of much use unless you live in a flat area. The hills seem to eat the power up.

If you lived five miles from your office and could charge the batteries an hour at work, you could do this pretty effectively. Otherwise stick with the gasoline.

deacon · #5 (**permalink**) 05-10-2008, 03:58 PM

I have been riding the ebike with the controller and throttle a couple of days now. I think that it runs at fewer rpms top end, which is fine. The friction drive tends to slip on the big hills if the rpms are too high. If not slip at least is less efficient.

I still can't tell any difference in the range but I like the throttle some. I wonder if the old on off isn't just as efficient. Probably need a lower reving motor though. The high rev on a hill will slip for sure. I haven't noticed it doing that with the throttle since I ease off on it when the bike slows down from the climb.

I had the chain on the ebike jump off twice today. I truly believe I have been cursed. Since I never pull out if there is a car in sight at all, it was no big deal. Even with the chain off I could kick in the motor and get it off the road.

I wish this town wasn't so hilly I am sure the bike would do great otherwise. I also think that a slow charge 2amps will do better than the 6amp auto battery charge.

deacon · #6 (**permalink**) 05-15-2008, 05:20 PM

I rode the ebike today and am getting used to that throttle controller thing. I also rode it for battery savings and it seemed to do pretty well. I didn't get a chance to really measure the range since the rain was ready to fall. Saturday I should have time to do that.

I am a lot more comfortable on the ebike. It is much slower and I'm more in control. Every little bump in the road doesn't seem to toss me around because it is going slower I guess.

I'm going to start real world tests on it this week. Then start looking at ways to extend the range. One thing I want to test out is a lower watt engine. Since I'm using friction drive I'm not sure it makes much difference what the watt of the motor is. If the hill gets too much the motor will just skip over the wheel. I think that would be the case with any size motor. If that is the case, then I can use one that draws less current and extend the battery life it would seem.