alas poor Rhino I knew her well..

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
Not in the biblical sense of course. I decided after a quick ride on the chain drive with no controller that the Rhino is headed to oblivion, Never let it be said that I'm not man enough to admit when I am wrong. The chain drive does seem to use power more efficiently.

I tried 36v sla battery and it broke the chain. then I tried the nimh which does not dump all the pwer at once and it did pretty good not great but not so bad. Lots of pedal assist but I think it is going to be okay once I get enough nimh batteries in the pack

Tomorrow first thing, I'm going to move the electronics from the rhyno to the chain bike. I did some serious welding on both bikes to day to set the trailers to pulling better. I may turn the rhino into the souped up mobility scooter. Most of them around here run at walking speed. This one will probably do ten miles and hour and I'm not calling it a mobility scooter unless some cop stops me.
 
well the first time that chain goes through the wheel and destroys the spokes, Im going to resurrect the rhino. At least im not using a tensioner maybe I will be able to survive it.
 
I couldn't do it. I just couldn't scrap her. Im waiting on the controller to come in for the chain drive before I give up my rhino. then I will probably just save her for special occasions. Like when I really really have to get somewhere lol. I don't trust chain drive yet.
 
I rode the rhino to the mall to walk this morning. It ran like feces. When I got there I looked back and discovered that the drive was not tied down. No tension at all. I did the best I could with my key ring tools, then rode home on a bike that ran great for the first time since I switched the drives. The reason the drive wasn't tied down was that I took it loose last night to loosen the chain. With the chain with a little slack it runs much much better and quieter.

I know I bad mouthed it a couple of days ago but I'm not so sure any more lol.
 
I rode the lower powered rhino on the bike trail this afternoon. I got some exercise and it was a good ride. The pavement is terrible but doable. I expect that I will do it again and probably often.
 
There better be some real advantage to this chain drive when i get it up and running. I finally got the new rhino drive adjusted correctly and it runs great.

Once I get the new controller and get it wired up I will make some tests on the power issue then make a decision.
 
I moved my good controller from the rhino to the chain drive bike so that I could use it after burning up the new one I bought for it. So I finally got around to picking up a controller for the rhino. The rhino has a smaller motor these days. I wanted a bike I could ride and still get at least a little exercise. Since it has a 350watt @24v motor now I bought a controller 36v 25amps.

So I got it on last night and test rode the bike today. I had also switched the trailers on the two bikes so I had to do a little adjusting to that smaller trailer. The combo works pretty good now it seems. I do have to do some serious pedaling now and then but nothing that is a problem. I plan to take it on the bike trail so I won't have many issues with it I hope.

The difference between the 36v 30amp controller and the 36v 25amp controller are significant. I don't get as much torque with the 25amp but it isn't all that much. Two things I also noticed that don't seem to make a difference in the performance of the bike. One is there is no controller whine as there is with the bigger ones I have used. Also there is no big pop when I hook the battery to the bike. I also never get that pop from the under powered nimh pack I am working on. Maybe that's how I will know when I have enough power in the pack. It will pop when it gets plugged up when it is right.

Since there wasn't five dollars difference between the 25 amp and the 30 amp controller I will buy the thirty from now on. Still this one seems okay. Maybe it will be more power efficient.
 
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