Something Different

2door · Apr 11, 2013

I ran into a fella today riding an electric. Real nice guy and he's looking to build an electric recumbent for his father. He wasn't familar with our forum. I gave him a card and told him to visit us here.

His bike was powered by a nifty little chain drive system that attached to the left rear chainstay. The sprocket hub adapter was very neat.
Currie, was the brand name > http://www.currietech.com/

Anyone have any experience with it?

Tom

SuperDave · Apr 11, 2013

My neighbor has one, he built himself a 'hybrid' bike with a 250w chain drive Currie motor on the axle and a 33cc friction drive hanging over the back tire. He does okay but he's no match for my SuperRat! He's had it/them (3rd frame, 2nd gas motor, 2nd electric, numerous batteries & parts) for several years, he rides it almost daily to & from work. electric's good to about 15 mph, gas about 25.

He planted a bug in my mind to investigate adding a front hub motor-wheel to my chopper. Never pedal start again, get the bike up to speed under voltage then engage the clutch.

Correction, I have TWO neighbors who run these things, 2nd neighbor has just a Currie (I think, it looks the same config.)

paul · Apr 11, 2013

i have not seen the currie e-bikes in person but they are pretty popular and have a good name and i have researched them. they are a great looking motorized bicycle but pretty pricy.
its easy to build your own electric bicycles and a pretty big selection of kits out thier to meet a persons needs. biggest draw back with the currie is speed,. their bikes only do around 18mph.

2door · Apr 11, 2013

After I researched their website I see that what the guy had was probably an early generation. It was different that the kit they show currently available. His motor clamped onto the chain stay and rear axle and had a little hub adapter that clamped on the spokes much like our rag joints but no rubber that I could see.

He said he can do twenty but his range was short, less than 10 miles.
Maybe he'll check in here. He was really interested when I told him about the forum and especially about the hub motors like Pauls.

Tom

paul · Apr 12, 2013

if your friend has questions he can post on the forum or get hold of me directly if not comfortable with posting in the beginning. i still remember when i first joined a forum, i was afraid to ask a lot of questions because i afraid i would get hassled like a lot of the other forums allow, i am really impressed with my kit. i have well over 3000 miles on my motorized electric bicycle. it will cruise all day at 28mph and with no pedaling riding the island mountains i get around 26 miles to the charge if i pedal a little i get well over 30. i have not found the range with pedal assist yet but i went 30.7 miles before the last charge and still had battery left. that is running a 48v 15ah battery

577-Jersey · Apr 12, 2013

paul said:
if your friend has questions he can post on the forum or get hold of me directly if not comfortable with posting in the beginning. i still remember when i first joined a forum, i was afraid to ask a lot of questions because i afraid i would get hassled like a lot of the other forums allow, i am really impressed with my kit. i have well over 3000 miles on my motorized electric bicycle. it will cruise all day at 28mph and with no pedaling riding the island mountains i get around 26 miles to the charge if i pedal a little i get well over 30. i have not found the range with pedal assist yet but i went 30.7 miles before the last charge and still had battery left. that is running a 48v 15ah battery

That is really awesome!!
Do you notice it getting weak after say 25 miles or so,,or is it strong right up until it falls on its face?I know depending on the battery material used some will be strong right to the end.

Tom

paul · Apr 12, 2013

you get no warning that it is about to die. goes bassically from a full charge to nothing in about a city block. dosnt take long to find your comfortable distances you can go till you need a charge so its not really a big deal. had a cheap electric bicycle long ago that had regular lead batteries. you could tell they drained down real slow which kinda sucked. i like having full power till the end

Toadmund · Apr 12, 2013

Don't any of these things charge up a bit while going downhill?
If not, why?

paul · Apr 12, 2013

they have regan braking. only ads a small amount of charge. works on same principle as an electric car

577-Jersey · Apr 12, 2013

paul said:
you get no warning that it is about to die. goes bassically from a full charge to nothing in about a city block. dosnt take long to find your comfortable distances you can go till you need a charge so its not really a big deal. had a cheap electric bicycle long ago that had regular lead batteries. you could tell they drained down real slow which kinda sucked. i like having full power till the end

Yeah,,
I like that also,,maybe there is a meter or strength gauge you could put inline with the battery so you can have an idea how much is left...depending on the terrain your distances will vary.I wish they could get perpetual motion figured out.

paul · Apr 12, 2013

you can get a gauge however you still have to keep track of the amps ect. i just use the odometer and clear after each charge. the good gauges are expensive and one of them things you would stay glued to the first few rides then never look at it again. i know i can go 25 miles in the worst conditions full throttle up and down the mountains with strong winds and still have battery left and that is all i need to know.

577-Jersey · Apr 12, 2013

That is far enough..lol

kevyleven007 · Apr 13, 2013

I had a friend who had a curry I-zip trail's. Changing a rear flat tire is a real job on those. The battery packs are overpriced. 18 mph tops.12 miles range. They are good solid well made bikes. His lasted about 4 years until he burnt the motor up. I almost bought one about 3 years ago but changed my mind and went with a hub motor kit. Now my friend wants a hub motor kit.

SuperDave · Apr 14, 2013

paul said:
i am really impressed with my kit. i have well over 3000 miles on my motorized electric bicycle. it will cruise all day at 28mph and with no pedaling riding the island mountains i get around 26 miles to the charge if i pedal a little i get well over 30. i have not found the range with pedal assist yet but i went 30.7 miles before the last charge and still had battery left. that is running a 48v 15ah battery

28 MPH? Not bad! If you don't mind me asking, what kind of motor/controller are you running? Any idea how many watts it runs? Most of these kits are limited to 200-250 watts, which can barely hit 20 MPH, but that is generally with 24 volts running 10 Amp Hour batteries. Also, have you upgraded the batteries yet, or are they OEM?

paul · Apr 14, 2013

i am running a magicmotor.com magic pie 3. we have a few members running them also. it is a 48v 1000 watt which i got from the same company. they are awesome

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