A new look at an old product.

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
Yesterday I had a wake up call. The hub motor ran out of the front forks. Fortunately I was in the drive and testing the throttle on the trike so I stayed with the trike. I cursed then removed all the parts of the Hub motor.

Since I had been using it in conjunction with a Friction Drive (FD) motor I decided to just use the FD and see what happens. So I spent twenty minutes putting the 24" front dumb wheel back on the trike. It was the wheel that came with it.

Then I messed with the FD motor trying to get it straight, but nothing seemed to work. So I decided it was time I rebuilt the frame using all bolt together brand new metal.

Since I had to buy metal anyway, I went with alum angle side rails to hold the motor and wheel. Removed the hinge I had been using, then made a bolt on solid connection to the trike. Let the weight of the motor be the only tension and it seemed to work fine at the test ride.

Since I jacked up the voltage of the motor system it has about 800 watts at 36volts. That is the official amount on the controller. I may just jack it up again to 48volts then again maybe not.

I realized the trike performs better without the heavy hub motor. I know that goes against all our thinking, but I swear it does. For one thing the trike is much lighter in the front with just the FD motor.

Now for some things I discovered on that test ride.

1. I need to change my thinking back to what it was in the early days. ITS A TRIKE NOT A MOTORCYCLE. I don't have to run with the big boys. It will pull very satisfactorily on level ground and on most inclines. When it gets steep, I pedal as if I was on level ground and it go right up in most cases.

2. I get a little exercise, which is what I had forgotten as I grew fat and lazy.

3. I love friction drive bikes and now trikes. It's the simplicity stupid. I know hub motors are simple as well. They either run or they don't but they are heavy, expensive, and don't fit the front forks well.

So I have a new attitude and an new motor sort of. The sun is out so I'll add some picture now.
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Wow Deacon thats well thought out! You are looking younger than ever! Apparently the exercise is doing you well.
 
god I wish that were true. My grandson is shy but he hopped right up on the trike and let me make his picture.

I rode the bike tonight and found that it is about 95% on the speed and about 85 on the torque on hill climbing. So I do get to pedal some and It really feels good. What really surprised me was that the range was the same as for the hub motor. I thought the hub would be more efficient.

I built one of these once on a 26" frame put the motor on the rear then reduced the wheel to 20 inches so that the wheel on the wheel was almost the same height as the front. It also made the frame just a little lower but I need that my balance is so bad
 
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I fine tuned the drag and brakes on the trike today the range is pretty much equal to the hub motor and the speed and torque are about 95%, so I'm pretty happy with the friction drive. I'm pretty sure in a year or so I'll want to try something else. I have a really nice running but awful looked hub motor sitting in my shop. One day I'll get ambitious and do something with it. It is one of those pedal first brushless motors (no halls) so it needs a special kind of set up.
 
Only thing stopping me is the memory of the smell of nimh batteries burning in the morning.
 
So I'm riding along about a mile from home when the chain breaks. I pushed the heavy trike with the heavy batteries all the way home. It was miserable. Now I had to replace the chain so when I got a new one on, the trike it is very tight. I mean no slack at all. Under pressure so I'm wondering if it will screw up the motor.

I can take it off and add a couple of links but I really don't to do that. so what is likely to happen with a too tight chain. If it breaks again I have decided I will leave the batteries take it off the front wheel and just tough it out as a pedal trike. I am also going to start hauling less batteries and yes I know, a man in a dirty rain coat said, "Hey buddy wanna but a lithium battery."
 
have to so a full link, but I have a little adjustment in the motor mount. I just had a already made up chain, and I got lazy. I 'll pull it down tomorrow and put a link in. I need to check the chain that I put in, since the darn think sounds awful.

I decided to go slow this time. I have a 24v 500 watt controller on the motor. I really do need the exercise. It's a little strenuous on the steep hills, but it pretty doable so far. I'm going to stay near the house for a few weeks till I get back in some kind of shape. I'm 69 years old and no matter how much I work out, I'm still going to be invisible to college girls, but maybe I can avoid buying all new clothes in the fall.

Since my last fall I can't walk more than five minutes, but I can bike all day long. So I can use the motor to get me up the hills. I have been told that a helper motor is a bicycle built for two except the other guy always pedals and is lousy company.
 
I could do that but then they would get a good laugh, not exactly what I had in mind.
 
I did some work on my shop today and I got to thinking bout what I like about the old friction drive outfit. first of all I had a $250 kit I had to junk because a couple of wires screwed up and it would have take a few hundred dollars worth of equipment to fix it. there are no shops around here who could have fixed it, so in effect there are no shops.

so The friction drives uses an interchangeable motor. It comes in 24v 22amp which I have jacked up to 36v 22amp. It might burn the motor out but I'm thinking try not to go full thottle for too long or pull any nasty hills without pedaling good.

So the motors run from about thirty to 60 bucks for the big one I have now. there are some smaller one. The drive wheel is the rear wheel from a schwinn or a currie scooter with the motor mount included. I think it was about 25 bucks used. maybe I have ten bucks in the wheel holder.

the controller is about 25bucks and two 99cent extension cords provide wiring and battery connectors. a Six buck throttle and I'm ready to go. So for something over a hundred bucks i'm running pretty close to 95% efficiency of a hub motor. But that's not what is so cool. What is so cool is that if I do burn the motor up, I put out 60bucks and I'm back in business.

Burn up a controller by over volting it and it's twenty five bucks maybe, not 80bucks like the hub motor. Yeah I bought one of those because I ran too many volts though it.

Most of all I like this motor because it's just plain fun.

I know all about tire wear and the rest of it, but for me it's still worth it.
 
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