Hello, I’m a returning cyclist, 12 years ago I had no car, I lived in apartments in our smallish city town, (recently featured on a “TV” show woohoo) and I went everywhere on my bike I was in great shape, I had a kid hauler bike trailer, and I had baby carseat securely strapped in to the trailer, pretty much anywhere my wife and I went was on bikes with our daughter in tow.
fast forward 12 years I’ve “upgraded” everything, better vehicles, more kids, more land, more permanent residence, better(read: lower) monthly payments for housing actually (woohoo for mortgage over rent), better wife (I got full custody), and, sadly, bigger gut.
I got out my old Marin (21 speed comfort bike) the other day, put all new cables on her, all new tires and tubes, all new grips, and all new chain. Rides like the day I bought her. I rode about two miles that day and came to a realization.
If I’m going to ride this very much, and do what I had envisioned which is ride it into town, I was going to need a motor and more than 12 mph (I got up to either 20 or 25mph 12 years ago in front of one of those speed radar signs.)
Most of the bike kits I’ve seen have a separate chain that goes down to a sprocket haphazardly mounted to the left spokes. Here’s what I’d like to do, and I’d just like to know if there’s anything already on the market that does this, I’d like to have a setup where my ≈2-3 horsepower motor will constantly work in tandem with my =.2-.3 horsepower. Some sort of a, not torque multiplier, but torque “adder”. For example if the bike will do 40-45mph max with the motor I want to be able to pedal, with resistance, to add another .2 hp to maybe get 45-50 mph max, or if the bike takes say 30 seconds to accelerate to max speed of 40ish then with my pedaling it could do the same in 20 seconds or so.
I basically want the convenience of a motorized bike with the exercise of a non motor bike.
When I pedaled to 20+ mph 10 years ago I was in peak condition and I was pedaling as fast as I could so I know, without at least changing factory gearing I can’t pedal a bike to 45+mph even with motor help.
Can someone advise me, or direct me where to get advice, on what is available or throw down some ideas for multi-input torque management? I’m willing and capable of building something if anyone has any ideas.
The only idea I’ve had so far is to try putting larger pedal sprockets and smaller wheel sprockets, though if that were to work I’d have to manage throttle, clutch, brakes and making sure I’m in the right gear at any given time, which means if a chain drops off of the front sprocket or if it fails to shift and I have to make a minor adjustment to get it to shift then I could be in an awkward position at either a dangerous speed or dangerous position or both.
Ideally I’ve always envisioned something akin to a CVT set up where I could, through good gearing, match up the rpm range of the engine with the RPM range of my pedaling, feed that through a CVT to the rear wheel so that the motor is always matching my pedaling and together we build speed in the rear wheel
What do you guys think?
fast forward 12 years I’ve “upgraded” everything, better vehicles, more kids, more land, more permanent residence, better(read: lower) monthly payments for housing actually (woohoo for mortgage over rent), better wife (I got full custody), and, sadly, bigger gut.
I got out my old Marin (21 speed comfort bike) the other day, put all new cables on her, all new tires and tubes, all new grips, and all new chain. Rides like the day I bought her. I rode about two miles that day and came to a realization.
If I’m going to ride this very much, and do what I had envisioned which is ride it into town, I was going to need a motor and more than 12 mph (I got up to either 20 or 25mph 12 years ago in front of one of those speed radar signs.)
Most of the bike kits I’ve seen have a separate chain that goes down to a sprocket haphazardly mounted to the left spokes. Here’s what I’d like to do, and I’d just like to know if there’s anything already on the market that does this, I’d like to have a setup where my ≈2-3 horsepower motor will constantly work in tandem with my =.2-.3 horsepower. Some sort of a, not torque multiplier, but torque “adder”. For example if the bike will do 40-45mph max with the motor I want to be able to pedal, with resistance, to add another .2 hp to maybe get 45-50 mph max, or if the bike takes say 30 seconds to accelerate to max speed of 40ish then with my pedaling it could do the same in 20 seconds or so.
I basically want the convenience of a motorized bike with the exercise of a non motor bike.
When I pedaled to 20+ mph 10 years ago I was in peak condition and I was pedaling as fast as I could so I know, without at least changing factory gearing I can’t pedal a bike to 45+mph even with motor help.
Can someone advise me, or direct me where to get advice, on what is available or throw down some ideas for multi-input torque management? I’m willing and capable of building something if anyone has any ideas.
The only idea I’ve had so far is to try putting larger pedal sprockets and smaller wheel sprockets, though if that were to work I’d have to manage throttle, clutch, brakes and making sure I’m in the right gear at any given time, which means if a chain drops off of the front sprocket or if it fails to shift and I have to make a minor adjustment to get it to shift then I could be in an awkward position at either a dangerous speed or dangerous position or both.
Ideally I’ve always envisioned something akin to a CVT set up where I could, through good gearing, match up the rpm range of the engine with the RPM range of my pedaling, feed that through a CVT to the rear wheel so that the motor is always matching my pedaling and together we build speed in the rear wheel
What do you guys think?
