Okay guys, I'm looking to build something extremely simple. Figured some of you might have some ideas as to how I could do this. Here is what I am trying to accomplish:
- Cheap as possible, free would be best but obviously that's impossible. So in considering anything it needs to be cheap, cheap super cheap.
- I will be mounting it to a trike, so mounting space is not an issue
- Does not need to go fast at all, if it'll sustain 5mph that's fine by me
- Does not need to have a really long range, if it can hold a 2 mile charge at a time I'm fine with that
- Does not need to have lots of torque on take-off, I'm fine with pedaling up to speed and then kicking it on
- Does not need a speed controller, I'm fine with ON and OFF
So, given those fundamentals what do you guys think is the absolute cheapest way I could accomplish that? I saw folks using starter motors, they overheat easily but I would only be using it in bursts to get up to speed then coast for a while. Likewise something low-power like a drill motor might work but it's a heavy bike and I'm a heavy guy (225lbs + 75lbs for the bike). I tried the drill idea with an 18v cordless hooked to the rear axle nut and with my mother on it (105lbs) it moved her slowly through the uneven grass yard. I'm thinking with a full charge and with a pedal-start it MIGHT have the oomph, but not really sure.
I'm really kind of doing this just as an experiment to see if it can even be done so keeping the money I spend on it to an absolute minimum is the highest priority.
Ideas?
- Cheap as possible, free would be best but obviously that's impossible. So in considering anything it needs to be cheap, cheap super cheap.
- I will be mounting it to a trike, so mounting space is not an issue
- Does not need to go fast at all, if it'll sustain 5mph that's fine by me
- Does not need to have a really long range, if it can hold a 2 mile charge at a time I'm fine with that
- Does not need to have lots of torque on take-off, I'm fine with pedaling up to speed and then kicking it on
- Does not need a speed controller, I'm fine with ON and OFF
So, given those fundamentals what do you guys think is the absolute cheapest way I could accomplish that? I saw folks using starter motors, they overheat easily but I would only be using it in bursts to get up to speed then coast for a while. Likewise something low-power like a drill motor might work but it's a heavy bike and I'm a heavy guy (225lbs + 75lbs for the bike). I tried the drill idea with an 18v cordless hooked to the rear axle nut and with my mother on it (105lbs) it moved her slowly through the uneven grass yard. I'm thinking with a full charge and with a pedal-start it MIGHT have the oomph, but not really sure.
I'm really kind of doing this just as an experiment to see if it can even be done so keeping the money I spend on it to an absolute minimum is the highest priority.
Ideas?
