My 1st bike/trike/moped project ever

GoldenMotor.com

Intrepid Wheelwoman

New Member
Oct 29, 2011
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Hauraki District, New Zealand
That's a great looking trike you have built for yourself and the whole thread itself is very informative. Thank you for sharing your trials and tribulations, I ride an electric tricycle myself powered by a hub motor, but after reading through this thread I feel more confident about devising a possible upgrade to a more powerful electric motor.
 

Mike B

New Member
Mar 23, 2011
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Central CA
Looks great! I love all the nicely radiused wood.

Good to hear you solved all the power train issues, if it don't run it don't matter how good it looks - :)
 

vsavoldi

New Member
Jul 24, 2012
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Monterey Bay California
Yeah, thanks all. There are quite a few things I would have done differently.

The 36v 1000W motor is just barely enough, I think that when it burns up (as I am sure it will) I will try to (at least) double the size and get a motor with liquid cooling.

As pointed out many times 48v would have been a better choice so the last controller I purchased will handle 48v and 200A surge/100A constant.

I don't want to go faster so the gearing is right on the money, I would like more torque. I need to change pedal gearing as I would like to be able to partially assist at top speed as right now I can't keep up at anything over about 15mph.

I am very happy with it overall, It just cost way too much, I wasted a bit of cash in the learning curve but I suppose that's to be expected.

If I were to do it over again I think I would do it as a hybrid with a gas chain or belt drive motor and hub electronics.

#1 item I learned, don't wimp out and buy SLA batteries, spend the extra 100% for LiFePo4 or at least Li-Ion.