experiments with the Etrike

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
So I have used this motor and drive combo on bikes and trikes for a year or so now. In all the time i have played with electric bikes and trikes, I have never given flooded cell car batteries a try. So I bought two used ones for about 60bucks and now I have them on the trike. I probably could have carried them on a trailer and two wheeler like i did with SLA batteries but I never did. Now that I have the three wheeler, I decided that it was time to give it a try.

So I have two batteries with an average cranking amp capacity of about 500. I'm interested to see what the run time is for them. Yes pulling the two batteries is like having a second rider on the bike so it's like a tandem in a way.

I charged it up and ran it a mile just to see how it did. It's not going to set any records, but I'm not sure yet what it is going to do for me good or bad.
 
I finally got the new lift mechanism setup for the trike motor. This one is a a series of levers worth of Rube Goldberg. The beauty of it is that it is self contained in the mount. When you bolt the motor mount on the lift is in place and there are not wires or brake handles needed. Just push down on one end of the lever and it pulls the scissor hinge toward you which causes the mount to lift from the wheel. A truly cool thing to see in action but I can. do vid so you will have to take my word for it.
 
If you decide to pick up lead-acid batteries for it again, go for a deep cycle not a standard battery. They are a bit heavier, but they'll take the draw better than a starting battery. If there's no label on the battery identifying it either way look for a code on the case made by a dot-matrix printer such as 24D625X1W (This particular unit has auto posts and threaded stud posts). If it's not covered by a label it'll probably be hard to read, as it's made by hot pins on the plastic, so no contrast and sometimes incomplete or otherwise mangled. If the posts are toward you (between you and the well covers), it's probably on the side facing away from you. The first two digits are the size (group), D is for deep cycle, the middle three are cranking amps (for auto/truck units, the middle three are cold cranking amps), the last three have more to do with manufacturing methods and aren't relevant to the end user. Well, if the last digit is a D it was originally sold as a dry (no acid until filled when purchased) unit. Not something you'll find in that application anyway.
 
weather hasn't cooperated for me lately but I have used the batteries from the junkyard a few times for a mile or so at a time and they seem to work fine. My complaint is weight.

I did a two wheeler with that wheel on wheel motor and added a 16" pusher wheel to the rear of the trike. It looks pretty cool but I'm waiting for a motor to put on it.

the two wheeler has a ten inch wide by twelve inch long trailer with 12 inch scooter wheels. It actually pulls pretty well. I'm waiting for some dry weather when I'm not exhausted to do a little distance testing. So fair I have left the house at 25.8 volts and come home after a mile of reasonably hilly pull at 25.5 so that's about all I know. I need to go about three miles to be effective. I will let you know when I get it done. I should send some photos along but Im going to wait until I can send the trike with the fourth wheel and the two wheeler with trailer.
 
Deacon my old friend. nice to see you are still active in the Forum. Howdy from Sunny South Florida. Jim...
 
I second that Deacon, nice to see you are still at it. I took in an older Sun trike on the sale of one of my builds. Seems to be substantually made. Would be real easy to hang an IC motor on, maybe on down the time line a bit. Finishing up a 20" build that makes me think of some of your stuff. Has actually turned out to be one of the most fun things I have built in a while. Wiil try to stick a pic in here for ya.
 
I know this this is the wrong thread for this bike but its just a quick pic for Deacon.
 

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I moved those auto batteries to a two wheeler to experiment with them, but I haven't really made my range test. I do have the bike so that I can drop the trailer and ride it as a regular bike on the off road bike path..

I'm going to give you the quick specs on this build, because it is so easy and minimal to do. It might be the perfect bike just to putz around with.

First of all you need a bike from the thrift store. I chose that because I decided to hack mine up and I didn't even want to put 80 bucks in a cheap new bike.

Now the first thing I did was to clean off the handlebars. I removed the front gear shifter. I decided that if I shifted the front sprocket I would just reach down and move the chain. Then I removed the rear brake. Since I was going friction drive the drag of the drive roller on the rear wheel would be plenty of extra drag along with the front brake.

So what I had left was a seven speed bike with electric friction drive. and a front brake.

The friction drive I use most all the time now is an eight inch scooter wheel on top. In this case it is on top of the 24 inch rear six speed wheel I have on this bike. It is a 26" bike frame so I have plenty of room to position the drive frame.

Now I run this 350watt motor with a simple on off switch and 24volts. I don't even have to have the bike moving to turn on the motor. It is just loose enough to slip under full pressure. When it does start to move, it pics up just fine. I just turn off the motor to get a little drag to slow it down.

So all you is a cheap motor on a cheap bike with a few gears and an on off switch. Probably just a little over fifty bucks till you get to the batteries. The only lift I have is so that I can lock the drive wheel up when I ride it on the trail.

Now for the batteries I just pull them on a trailer behind my two wheeler. My question is since I have never run them down yet, what is the amp hour on these things I wonder. Goggle is all over the place with guesses.

On the three wheeler the batteries will be on the back of the trike, I have a motor and 16" wheel mounted as a pusher dead center of the rear. I haven't even tested it though it is ready to test now.

By the way so far I have come to the conclusion that used auto batteries are not bad at all. There are several ways to recondition them but honestly there is nothing wrong with the ones I bought from the junk yards. I just left them on the slow charger of my motor scooter thingie and they work just fine. They are on the charger right up to the time I take off on the bike. Then they are off until I'm finished and go right back on. that might make a difference.

My other thought, after the fact, was that I could have done something really cool with this bike. I could have made a three speed with a rear coaster brake for more braking power. If I had just removed the six speed rear wheel, then installed a coaster brake wheel. I would have had to set the derailleur in the right place then locked it into position and used the front three gears. The rear setup would keep the chain in line. I am not sure that back pedaling would work. I might have to try that one day just to see.

Happy super bowl. yall

PS cb you have come over the the dark side of chopping the heck out of these bikes.
 
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