Yes this is a thread about learning as you go. I'm not an electrical engineer or anything even close so I learn from my mistakes and from my successes if there ever are any.
Today I took the new Pat out for a ride. It didn't seem quite right so after the first ride that got me less than two miles and much less speed than I remembered from the first time I rode it, I checked and found the chain too tight. Who would have thought that the chain tension would make that much difference.
I charged the batteries and took it out again. I got two miles with the motor still running but running very slowly. However I ran the bike wide open the whole time. I wanted to see how fast it would go. I wasn't worried about range at all.
Tomorrow I am going to ride it for range. Just enough power to climb the hills and the rest of the time coast and pedal.
One more thing I learned about the two speed part of the bike. Not to use the lower speed except to start it. Since it uses just one of the batteries it pulls it down well below the other one. When one battery goes down it effects the overall performance of the bike.
I am going to have to be very careful how I use that feature. I need to use it on hills when pulling up from a dead stop, but not on flats when pulling off I can pedal it enough to prevent the chain jerk.
I got about two miles running it wide open throttle, so tomorrow I will see how I do with power management. I would expect about 3 miles range.
Also the more powerful motor on this Pat is pulling more from the battery I'm sure.I guess I am going to look at better batteries after all.
Also I think I want to know what is the optimum size motor for an assist bike. I may have over reached with the 450 watt. The 350 had pretty good power and on the 26" mountain bike I had pretty good pedal assist going.
What I need to do is to run the 450 with the two speed control power management tomorrow. then recharge the batteries and hook them to the 350 with controller and throttle and see how that compares. That should tell me a little about two things the motor and or the controller throttle vs two speed switch. Not to mention the different wheel sizes.
I do love a good experiment.
Today I took the new Pat out for a ride. It didn't seem quite right so after the first ride that got me less than two miles and much less speed than I remembered from the first time I rode it, I checked and found the chain too tight. Who would have thought that the chain tension would make that much difference.
I charged the batteries and took it out again. I got two miles with the motor still running but running very slowly. However I ran the bike wide open the whole time. I wanted to see how fast it would go. I wasn't worried about range at all.
Tomorrow I am going to ride it for range. Just enough power to climb the hills and the rest of the time coast and pedal.
One more thing I learned about the two speed part of the bike. Not to use the lower speed except to start it. Since it uses just one of the batteries it pulls it down well below the other one. When one battery goes down it effects the overall performance of the bike.
I am going to have to be very careful how I use that feature. I need to use it on hills when pulling up from a dead stop, but not on flats when pulling off I can pedal it enough to prevent the chain jerk.
I got about two miles running it wide open throttle, so tomorrow I will see how I do with power management. I would expect about 3 miles range.
Also the more powerful motor on this Pat is pulling more from the battery I'm sure.I guess I am going to look at better batteries after all.
Also I think I want to know what is the optimum size motor for an assist bike. I may have over reached with the 450 watt. The 350 had pretty good power and on the 26" mountain bike I had pretty good pedal assist going.
What I need to do is to run the 450 with the two speed control power management tomorrow. then recharge the batteries and hook them to the 350 with controller and throttle and see how that compares. That should tell me a little about two things the motor and or the controller throttle vs two speed switch. Not to mention the different wheel sizes.
I do love a good experiment.