Riding an electric bicycle in the rain

GoldenMotor.com

Intrepid Wheelwoman

New Member
Oct 29, 2011
2,830
61
0
Hauraki District, New Zealand
over 6,000 miles on my motorized bicycle and still not caught in a real rain, few times light but not enough to get drenched. its just a matter of time but amazes me. this island will have all these rain showers about 3 miles in diameter. I have had them all around me but never hit me, I have pulled into work parked the bike and big time down pour soon as I walk in the door, sooner or later my luck will run out
We get those type of rain showers too as I live not so far away from the coast here in New Zealand. The hub motor kit I installed on my Hercules trike a good few years ago now is a no-name generic Chinese made kit that cost me all of $NZ250.00 including two SLA batteries. I mostly seem to avoid the rain but even when having to ride in the pouring rain the hub motor just keeps on keeping on.
A major test for my poor old trike came when I had a bad relapse with this illness I have and it stood out uncovered in all weathers over the course of a wet Winter. Leaving it out in the weather was not intentional as I normally park it under cover, but as it happened I didn't have much say in the matter. When I finally was able to rescue my trike and give it a much needed clean and service I discovered that the electrics were fine and the motor hub still worked without any problems.
When I installed the kit I made sure to lay out wires so that water couldn't run along them and enter the motor and controller, but apart from that I didn't take any special precautions. I know some folk don't like SLAs, but for my kind of local riding and also for a trike they work out fine and don't break the bank when I have to replace them. Mind you I've only had to replace the batteries once in the past seven years so I'd call that a success.

:crash:
 

n3glv

New Member
Jun 14, 2013
37
0
0
Pittsburgh
The only issue I had was on the currie brushless bike, it has a red and green
button cluster for on/off and pas/tag.
Water getting into that and it will freak out..
The lower tech, brushed motor system used a rocker sw to select between
packs, located at the back of the rack/pwm box. (which eventually failed mechanically but not to rain.)
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,631
409
83
Dallas
I don't know if you've ever heard of Never Wet. They sell it at Home Depot. It's made by RustOleum. it looks great, but I've heard there's a problem for our purposes. It discolors painted surfaces. Supposedly RustOleum is soon to be coming out with a clear version that will solve that problem.

http://www.neverwet.com/
 

paul

Well-Known Member
Dec 23, 2007
5,547
44
48
66
Kalamazoo, MI
luck finally ran out. got caught in a Caribbean down pour today on my e-bike. had to stop because I couldn't see. bike ran great and not worried about it any more
 

kevyleven007

Active Member
Sep 25, 2008
1,217
8
38
texas
I have ridden mine in the rain quite a few times now. I carry an umbrella and putt along at 5 to 7 mph. Lucky for me I live close to work. I have 450 miles on the bike so far its doing OK.
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,631
409
83
Dallas
My bike would fail in the rain right now. It has a 5 pin connector by the swing arm that isn't the least bit water proof. Water wicks into it and shorts out the hall effect sensors. I'm going to have to replace it with a water proof connector.
 

biknut

Well-Known Member
Sep 28, 2010
6,631
409
83
Dallas
A just came close to getting caught in big rain, miles away from home on my electric. It wasn't supposed to rain till tomorrow. For some reason I was dilly dallying for about an hour, and then just as was I was rolling my bike out of the garage it suddenly started pouring down. I would have been about 17 miles away if I had left when I first thought about it.