the e-bike life....

I stripped my small trailer for parts a few days ago. Now I need to build a new one. Since I do, I think I am going to build it just for the battery pack. I am also going to use smaller wheels. I have a couple of ten inch lawn mower wheels. I think I am going to use those.

It's as good a project for today as any.
 
I have made so many bike trailers and have so many parts laying around that it took about two hours to put the new one together. It has 10" plastic lawn mower wheels with solid rubber tires. I'm sure it rides a little rough but it seemed to do okay on the test track. It was a little noisy but not too much.

I used my jig saw to rip a piece of lumber 13 x 6 x 3/4. I bolted a channel similar to the ones used as corner posts on cheap shelving. The channel wasn't cheap though. I bolted a channel on top and bottom of the sides. then I ran an all thread 1/2 rod through it and bolted on the lawn mower wheels. On top the chanel is the guide for the battery pack. It is now 19ah strong.

The tongue is a square channel with an L bracket and brace. The L bracket give it a little seperation from the bike tire. That's all there is to it. Total cost should be well under fifty bucks even if you have to buy everything and had nothing laying about. The beauty of this kind of trailer is you can make it any size you want. I even take the battery pack off mine and fold it to the top of the rear bike wheel for storage. At lease I am so far.
 
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Okay I have ridden the hub motor enough to know that I prefer the home built bikes. I suppose in the near future I will put the hub motor kit up for sale on ebay. I want to build one faster pusher bike first and keep one of the ones I have for hill climbing as well.

I debated buying the hub long and hard. I only bought it because I was having terrible luck with the friction drive bikes. Once I had a decent designed, easy to build, and inexpensive drive system, I became bored with the hub.

The pusher is much more challenging to ride but that is okay. I like those bikes better. Something about saying, "Yes I built this myself," appeals to me
 
I bought the sprocket for the drive wheel. I will be replacing an 80 tooth sprocket with a 55 tooth sprocket. What kind of increase in speed should I expect. I'm thinking about a third faster.

the bike will probably need to be pedaled a little faster before engaging the motor since I don't use a controller. Good reason to get a bike with gears.
 
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Since it's raining and I'm totally bored, I went to the shop to assemble the new pusher wheel. I had converted the scooter wheel which I needed for the new pusher to a trailer wheel. To do that I had to remove the scooter axle. Of course it was lost in the black hole I call my shop.

What I do have out there is about two dozen wheels from bikes I have scrapped out. I just removed the axle from an old mountain bike read wheel. There were enough nuts on that axle to reinstall the axle into the scooter wheel. I even had enough to secure the motor mount when I get the sprocket in. TNC sent me a shipping notice so it should be here in the next few days.

Between now and then I need to either buy a new bike for the pusher or get a new rear coaster wheel. The new bike is my first choice, but only if I can get one with a suspension front end at least. If not, I'll just pick up a kids bike for the rear wheel. I can get one of those for ten bucks or less. I might give twenty five for a complete bike with a suspension system of some kind.

They actually have two at the thrift store. One is front end only and one is full suspension. The problem is they want fifty bucks for them. I can get a new one at Wally-mart for 90 bucks so I'm not paying that much for one of the used ones. Even though they are in like new condition.

I did buy a front suspension fork from ebay for my hub bike. It should be here within a couple of days. I am going to just put it on the bubba bike. I had thought about switching things to a better frame but it's too much trouble.

So my work is cut out for me.
 
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I swore on saint Max's ashes, My previous dog, that I would not build another motor bike. Honest I had the best of intentions. I was going to update one that I have by adding a smaller rear wheel sprocket. Honest that's all I intended to do.

I ordered the sprocket and since the pusher wheel on my spare bike didn't have a freewheel I pulled one that did off an old trailer. I stuck an axle I had laying around in it. So I was waiting for the sprocket from tnc to arrive, when I saw this motor on ebay.

Now I have 350 watt motors with neat little mounts that I have been using. The motor that fits the ez mount only comes in 350 watts. With the faster sprocket a more powerful motor would be nice. That was my only thought, when I went looking around on ebay. Just wishing since those things run about sixty bucks at least.

There it was staring me in the face. A 450 watt motor with a bid of only 2 1/2 bucks shipping just ten bucks. That is just peanuts. So I made a bid of 6 bucks max. That would make the motor half what I paid for a 350 watt motor. I never thought I would win it but I did.

So now I have this wheel almost ready to go... I have a more powerful motor on the way. It can't use my quick mount, so I have to mount it on the pusher in a different way. I will probably have to have a longer pusher frame to do that, so I am going to have to build a new frame for it.

If I do that, I might as well buy another junker bike, the one I have needs a new rear wheel anyway. So now I'm going to be building a forth bike. My wife is going to divorced me for sure.

Unless I pull the 350watt EZ built bike pusher off and sell it on ebay as a DIY elec motor kit. There is a thought but I really do not want to ship that thing. Or... I could sell the hub motor kit and tell my wife that I really do need three push bikes. Yeah she is going to believe that alright. Or I could just save the new motor and wheel I need to replace to do the upgrade. One day I will have it laying about in case I come up with some other idea. I can put it beside the friction drive that I also have laying about just in case.

Decisions decisions decisions
 
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I got my pusher upgraded with a smaller faster sprocket. It actually didn't lose very much torque either. the 55 tooth is the way to go if you ever build one of these.

I just got to ride it over the test track I am a sick puppy today. I have TSS (Toxic Snot Syndrome) More miserable than really sick
 
80 teeth twice as big in diameter too.... It seems to have been a huge improvement in speed. I had expected 20% hoped for 30% and I think it was closer to 30% and I expected to lose torque signiificantly but I didn't. The speed going into the hill more than makes up for any loss. I'm not sure there was any lost at all.

I'm wondering now what would happen if I put a bicycle chain 11 tooth sprocket on the motor and used the wheel from a childs coaster bike on the rear. That would be even an smaller sprocket. About a sixteen inch wheel might just rock. You can even get a 12" kids bike. m If the 16" proves to be too much wheel.

tnc sells a motor already set up for a bicycle chain. I might just give that some serious though for the next one If I ever do a new one. I'm giving serious thought to selling the hub on ebay. I want to ride it a couple of weeks to compare it to this new pusher.
 
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I have had this on my mind all day. When they rate these motors at 2700 rpms, they have to mean that it runs at that speed with no load. If they ran at that speed even going down hill, it would throw me into the next county.

I suppose the watts actually tells you how it performs under load. More watts the more true rpms you get. That's my thinking on it now.
 
Absolutely on the hill thing.... Not much difference at all. If anything it does better because it hits them with more speed to bleed off. Doesnt the ezip have the bike chain these scooters run the #25 chain.

By the way I rode it this morning to the park to do my walk and it did so good I couldn't pedal until I almost stopped. So like a complete fool I tried a tight right turn and decided instead pedaling to start the bike moving, I would give the motor a try first. Of course I blew the fuse. It would not have happened if I had a controller.

If you run without a controller you have to get it up to five or six mph with the pedals, I think. I got some new fuses and it works fine now. I do need a new rear wheel or a new bike. The test bike I am using it on, I pieced together and it has a bad freewheel on the rear bike wheel. About half the time it slips.

New bike or wheel is the plan for this weekend.
 
OZZY I bought a trailer from Nashbar 80.00,I was told by nashbar it would not work on the e bike.I had my machinist build new hitch from 1inch S/S.He is makeing several sets,so i will have them for sale.HD
 
My son in law rode the new pusher motor bike. The one with the 55 tooth sprocket. He swears the bike is doing somewhere between twenty and thirty miles an hour. I think it is closer to fifteen to twenty. But the mudder does hum.

I stripped the hub motor from the big red bike and put it on an eighteen speed. man that was a nightmare of where to put what. Not to mention having to beat the devil out of the front fork to get some clearance.

I still have to build a battery rack. That's tomorrow's project. I actually haven't ridden the hot pusher bike since I moved the pusher over to the red bike. There were just too many things wrong with the test bike to leave the motor there.

I also need to hook up the front brakes on the red bike. I didn't get them reattached before I moved on to the hub. I need to turn the trailer, I built from the bike rack, back into a bike luggage rack. The extra batteries are more trouble than they are worth I think.

I still have a complete rear scooter wheel with a 80tooth sprocket to do something with. Oh well something will come to me.
 
DOC BOLM said:
OZZY I bought a trailer from Nashbar 80.00,I was told by nashbar it would not work on the e bike.I had my machinist build new hitch from 1inch S/S.He is makeing several sets,so i will have them for sale.HD
Click to expand...


Maybe after i put my DAX 80/70/67/whatever LOL on it

DSCF4642.jpg
 
I had a productive day today. I moved the hub motor to a 18speed bike. My first one that I kept the gears on. I managed to get on it okay but only because I used a trailer for the battery pack. The trailer kept the bike stable while I mounted it. I kept the seat as low as possible so I wasn't strained and it worked out pretty well.

I set the bike up for the highest gear combination and took off with the hub motor pushing it along. I was amazed at the difference in speed with the bike set up that way as opposed to the coaster setup.

With just minimum pedaling the bike zipped right along. The problem I always had with the small coaster bikes was that the pedal drive could not catch up to the motor unit is was going very slowly. Well it wasn't a problem it was just a fact. With this combination the speed is much higher.

Now I'm wondering If I shouldn't Switch out the rear coaster wheel on the small sprocket pusher for the six speed wheel that was on it. Then set it up for the highest possible gear combination. Or buy another multi-speed bike, or better yet do nothing for at least a month while I decide what is working best.

Anyway the point was I had a really good day and that doesn't happen all that often.
 
After I took the break, on which I wrote the above, I decided I really needed to try that pusher bike. The one with the smaller sprocket. My son in law had ridden it but I hadn't. So I push the bike out and take off The first thing is it scared the devil out of me.

It took off pretty easy but then it just kept building speed. Now we are talking a pieced together bike being pushed along by a trailer of sorts. I got about a block where I turn left to ride up my first nasty hill on the test track. It isn't long or particularly steep just enough to be a good test for a motor bike.

I realized three things at the same time. I was going to fast, the bike didn't steer true, and there was a car coming out of the road which I wanted to go in. I manged to slow the bike and get the turn made but it was a eye opening experience.

I did some pedaling to help the bike up the hill. I did that because the bike had blown fuses and I didn't want it to strain until I had time to evaluate it. I made a right turn and the pusher did a side slide which is normal. I hit the motor and it took off. Again steering a little to the right but nothing but a feeling not enough to move the bike that way for real. I was so intent on that right steering that I didn't realise the bike was picking up speed again. Okay fine it was picking up speed, but the motor was pushing going down a fairly steep incline. That was new of course. It had never continue pushing while going DOWN hill before. I actually had to slow the bike down a little.

It went up the next hill just as well as it had with the larger sprocket on it. I was amazed how well both the bikes I tested today did. It seems that I accidentally did something right for a change.

I reduced the size of the bike trailer that carries my batteries. I decided that I don't want to drag around four batteries so I will have to do something different for more power. I know, I lust for a lithium battery pack.
 
This morning I went to the park for my morning walk. I chose the smallest slowest of my e-bikes to ride. It has a 350watt motor but hooked to a 80tooth sprocket on an e-scooter rear wheel as a pusher motor. This bike is also known as evil bike for all the trouble it caused me during the build.

I bought a couple of 7ah batteries to test as a add on to my hub motor bike but I chose to use them on the evil bike instead, at least for now. So after I did the wiring connections off I went to the park. It is a little over two miles round trip to the park. I rode most of the way there on pedal power since it is mostly level or downhill. I wanted to be sure I had enough power to get it home. That part is mostly uphill with part of it pretty steep.

I met some interesting people walking their dogs while I walked the hiking trail. Did my mile and a half. I do hope to double that by the way. So then I rode the bike home. It did pretty well. It is quite a bit slower than the 55 tooth sprocket without any real torque advantage that I can tell. The batteries read 12.9 volts so there was plenty of power in them for me to ride it normally on that short trip.

I chose to ride this bike because it is my least favorite bike. I leave it unattended while I walk and the park isn't heavily traveled. I expect to find it gone one morning when I get back. That being the case let them have my least favorite.

The lawnmower wheel trailer is the next thing to go. Even though it is acceptable it lacks the smooth run of the tires with inner tubes and doesn't pull quite as good as the scooter wheels with the bearings built in. I have a trailer I built from 16" bicycle wheels that pulls good but it is too tall. What I need is to either find another front scooter wheel or to find a child's 12" bike to make my next trailer.

Then again I could use the 16" trailer and set it up for multiple beds. Set up an easy change system for maybe a battery box made from some kind of plastic storage box. Then also be able to switch it for a bigger one to carry a few things as well as the batteries. I have in mind being able to pick up a loaf of bread from the store. That is pretty much why I kept the hub motor. I can't pull a trailer with the pusher wheels that I built. I did see the pusher trailer with the storage as well as the motor. I might give that a try one day.
 
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Yesterday was great today was one step forward and two steps back. But that's okay I learn something even in adversity or downright failure. Today I went to buy a bike at half price day at the thrift store. The bike was gone woe is me. I learned to risk it all to save ten bucks might be a bit foolish.

Then I came home and worked on a trailer for my hub bike. I had been using a lawn mover wheeled trailer and I thought the old bike wheel trailer I had would work better. I rebuilt it to fit the hub bike and tried it. It did not work better. It worked okay but the center of gravity is too high so I went back and redid the lawn mower trailer.

It had a wheel lock up. I thought something was wrong the bike got slower. It was dragging the trailer not pulling it. I redid the trailer but I think I'm going to get a second front 12" scooter wheel since they make the best trailers. They have bearings built into the wheel. It pulls better than anything I have tried. Also at 12 inches it has the low center of gravity needed to pull heavy batteries.

The dragging wheel pulled the batter down so much I have to charge it up all over again just to test ride the bike a mile. It really did a number on the bike' battery charge but it didn't blow the fuse so that's something I guess.
 
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Here is a hint for you guys with e-kits. If you have to cut the cable to an ebrake lever, you want at least skin it back and insulate the raw ends with tape. If you don't, one day you will have this mysterious "it won't do anything" moment. It took me about two days to figure it out. Because it mysteriously started to work for a day. Then the next day nothing.

I did get the 'opportunity' to look inside a controller because of it.
 
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