Electric Bike Modification

[OP No.213893]

helllo /diy/kes, Recently I have become very interested in electric bikes, and having recently got a cheap get-around bike I want to try to slap on a motor and some batteries.
In my research I've determined the best (and cheapest) batteries to get are sealed lead acid batteries, is this correct? do any of you have any good websites on where to buy some quality ones?
also I've found this motor
www.monsterscooterparts.com/24-volt-450-watt-brushless-electric-motor-9-tooth-chain-sprocket.
html
this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wthT6ZI4ISM)) looks like it has the same motor and claims to get up to 16mph without pedaling, more then enough for myself, and I like how it looks like it would be really easy to mount with a double threaded hub. But is that good for the price? or is there another one that would be more cost effective?
Any other suggestions or resources would be great. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.213902]

>I've determined the best (and cheapest) batteries to get are sealed lead acid batteries, is this correct?
No, cheapest only.

NiMhs and Lithiums are better.

You can also just buy retarded kits on eBay.

[Anonymous No.213916]

You can buy that motor in a complete kit for $400 from the manufacturer through Amazon. Inbcludes battery, motor, controller, charger, throttle, and hardware.
http://www.amazon.com/Currie-Technologies-IZ-KIT-1-Power/dp/B002RRBDIW
Replacement batteries can be purchased and installed into the stock casing for way cheaper than manufacturer replacements cost.

Your range will be improved by pedaling from a standstill and only using the motor for coasting.
Any other type of kit is going to cost you much more.

SLA batteries are heavy, lithium is light but expensive as well as difficult to shop for the right kind, and NiMh is somewhere between the two on all counts.

[Anonymous No.213919]

Some of the eBay kits are pretty shitty. They have a sprocket that attaches to the left side of the rear wheel by clamping onto the spokes. Nothing says reliability like an off-center sprocket that fucks with your spoke's tension.

[Anonymous No.213923]

MOST of the eBay kits are hub motors, available in front wheel or rear wheel.
Front wheel is extremely easy to install and fine for low speed. Handles terribly at speeds above 20mph and doesn't get very good traction.

[Anonymous No.214101]

>>213893
I would advise against this. Bicycle frames are meant for one form of engine only: Human muscle power. You strap a heavy electric motor and heavy batteries onto it, you're going to stress it in ways it's not designed to be stressed, you're going to make it heavier, you're going to fuck up it's center of gravity, and you're going to make it harder to handle at speed, harder to stop, and generally unsafe. If you cause and accident because you modified it, it will be YOUR fault and you will get the fuck sued out of you over it. If you want motorized transportation, go find a small motorcycle or even a moped, something that was build with an engine or motor of some type. Also, you'll look like a total faggot riding the thing, and I don't think you want that.

[Anonymous No.214211]

>>214101

dude, you sound like some 1960's disc jockey who wont play rock-and-roll coz he thinks it's just a passing fad.

[Anonymous No.214221]

>>214101
looking like a faggot is the biggest thing that stops electric engines from succeeding.

[Anonymous No.214279]

>>214221
Actually its battteries being shit

[Anonymous No.214288]

>>214211
Do the math: You have a 20 pound bike, you're going to strap 20 or more pounds of other shit onto it, then you're going to put a 150 to 200 pound person in the saddle. What do you think is going to happen to the way the bike handles, and it's ability to stop? Also you're going to strap a motor on it that's going to drive one wheel in a way it wasn't designed to be driven? Also, what you do think the chances are that one of these shitty kits is going to have you mount everything in such a way that the side-to-side and back-to-front balance is maintained? Putting a chainsaw engine on a skateboard is safer than this shit in my opinion. At least buy a motorized bicycle that was designed with that in mind in the first place, it might be less of a safety hazard.

[Anonymous No.214290]

>>214288
please just leave

[Anonymous No.214297]

>>214279
It's good batteries being expensive. And small new market.

[Anonymous No.214300]

>>214290
Suck a box of cocks.

If this was such a great idea why don't I see them all over the roads and bike trails all the time? There are more than 32 miles of paved river bike trail and I've never seen ONE of these atrocities. Why? Because they SUCK ASS, and you're an idiot if you attempt one.

Stop being fatasses and PEDAL YOUR BIKE, lose that fat ass of yours, get in shape. The coolness factor is much higher on being a non-fatass and being in shape, than it could ever be with a wannabe-motorcycle made from some lame-ass kit from China.

[Anonymous No.214301]

>>214288
Bikes are made to accommodate a variety of weights. As far as weight is concerned myself (170lbs) + a motor and batteries (20lbs) is no different than a 190 pound guy riding the bike.

As far as balance goes, common sense can act as a really good guide to mounting the equipment. Placing the motor and batteries of opposite sides or closer to the center of gravity will all but negate this.

Stress will be an issue depending on the power of the engine mounted to the bike. Putting it on a 50$ walmart special is asking for trouble but mounting it to a sturdy mountain bike will again negate this issue.

I will agree with you that electric bikes look stupid as hell and are a poor substitute for a simple electric motorcycle or moped. However, if someone wants to build one and possibly hurt them self, destroy their bike, or look like a total tool, why do you care?

[Anonymous No.214304]

>>214300
>Stop being fatasses and PEDAL YOUR BIKE

Electric bikes generally come with pedal assist tech, as in, you can adjust them to add 0%, 50%, 100%, or 200% or the pedal input as motor work.

Depending on regulations they may not even be allowed to have motor-only modes, should not supply power anymore after reaching a certain speed and have an effect of no more than say ~300W.

There you go, electric bikes 101.

And god damnit man, why are you such a bike nazi?

[Anonymous No.214501]

>>214304
Why?

1. I honestly believe it isn't safe to do this to a bike.
2. People are TOO FUCKING FAT and need to MOVE MORE and EAT LESS. A motor on your bike just encourages you to stay a fatass.
3. I do NOT WANT these fucking things on the bike trails!
4. They do NOT belong on the street, either! It's now a motor vehicle but has no lights or signals, and the operator isn't licensed or insured, and when they cause an accident, who gets blamed? Bicycle riders! We've got it hard enough without this shit too!
5. It's unbelievably faggy and you're the lamest person on the planet if you own one. If you really want something with two wheels and a motor, get a motorcycle, scooter, or at least a moped.

[Anonymous No.214532]

> People are TOO FUCKING FAT and need to MOVE MORE and EAT LESS. A motor on your bike just encourages you to stay a fatass.

god has given you a tiny brain, dude. the reality is that a motorized bicycle becomes a competitor to the planet-killing automobile in the cities. so, for example, if you live 5 miles from work, cycling is mostly not an option coz you'd arrive too tired and too sweaty. but with a motor, it becomes easy. and the fact that you have the pedals means you're not a hostage to electric current like you'd be on an electric scooter.

it's the ozone-producing fatties in the cars that deserve your scorn.

[Anonymous No.214568]

idgi, why is the bike nazi guy so against this, weren't the first motorcycles essentially bikes with motors on em?

[Anonymous No.214595]

>>214501

It's fucking hilarious how hard you're raging over this. What kind of pathetic retard gets so worked up over a fucking motor on a bike? Go do some laps on your bike, bro. You need to work out whatever ridiculous stress is causing you to be so insanely tight-assed about this.

[Anonymous No.214621]

Maybe because you're all a bunch of nigger faggots, and he doesn't like nigger faggots. Go get jobs and buy cars like everyone else.

[Anonymous No.214725]

>>214568
People also used to think that smoking, and drinking radioactive water was beneficial to your health, lawn darts were a safe toy to play with, that the Earth was flat, a human travelling faster than a horse could run would disintegrate, and that women, children, and negroes were only three-fifths of a full human being, too. Also, bikes started out being made out of nothing but steel, weighed a ton in comparison to modern bikes, and the engines driving ones like in your pic were small and weak comparatively speaking, and it didn't go very fast, and it wasn't very safe by today's standards. Modern bicycles are usually made from aluminum or carbon fiber, and even when they're made from steel they're made to be as light as possible. I wouldn't feel safe putting some sort of engine or motor on any bike I've ever seen, either.

[Anonymous No.214729]

Oh for fuck's sake, are you morons still on about this shit? Can't any of you Google this shit?

Here: http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Electric-Bike-Conversion/

If you're going to do it, do it right, not fuck it up. Enjoy spending $1000 for the privelege of looking like a complete fucking faggot.

[Anonymous No.214733]

>>214300
0/10

[Anonymous No.214743]

>>214501
>I honestly believe it isn't safe to do this to a bike.
So no problems then if you buy a pre-fabricated electric bike.
>A motor on your bike just encourages you to stay a fatass.
Unlike a scooter you also have pedals.
Also, they generally don't operate in motor-only mode. But to know that you would've had to read my previous post and you don't seem to be the literate type.
>3. I do NOT WANT these fucking things on the bike trails!
Why? If they are speed capped they're not going to woosh past at 50mph, you might see more elderly people though.
> It's now a motor vehicle
If it's still limited to humanly achiveable speeds does it matter?
>get a motorcycle, scooter, or at least a moped.
I thought you were against fat people.

TL;DR you're an illiterate moron and just because of that i'm going to buy an electric bike conversion kit!

[Anonymous No.214747]

OP, if I were you, I'd go with gas. You'll get more than 150mpg, and never run out of battery and be stuck with heavy batteries. No having to haul the bike inside to charge, and it is less about the same in cost.

[Anonymous No.215571]

>>214747
trying to find the legality of this.
http://www.zippycycles.com/california_law.html
>maximum speed of not more than 30 miles per hour
>Is incapable of propelling the device at a speed of more than
20 miles per hour on ground level.
>Is incapable of further increasing the speed of the device
when human power is used to propel the motorized bicycle faster than
20 miles per hour
what the fuck
anyone help?

[Anonymous No.215777]

>>214743
Hope that you don't live in my city. If you do and I see you on the bike trails on one of these fucking abortions, I'll run your ass down, call the Rangers, get your cited or maybe arrested, and if I have anything to say about it, your monstrosity of a bike confiscated in the interests of public safety. Fuck you and fuck your shitty electric bike crap, faggot.

[Anonymous No.215793]

>>214501
>We've got it hard enough without this shit too!
Because you're all self righteous assholes that don't obey traffic laws and troll people in cars because you think you're better than them because you're not being fat.

[None !5G.kLeGACY No.215811]

>>215777

[Anonymous No.215829]

I wish I took a photo...

Last summer I saw a cop stop a guy riding a scooter-style electric bike on a park's cycling path. The cop DROVE HIS CAR ON THE PATHWAY to get to the guy.

[Anonymous No.215832]

>>215777
If you try and "run me down" I'll draw down on you and shoot you dead, faggot

[dragondeka !m5.w7DkrXU No.215870]

>>214300
not knowing the difference between engines and motors rustles my jimmies

>>214221
you've got so many posts that im lolling over. seriously bro, you're almost a poor fag like me except you have no ambition. i used to be like you, but then i took a weed whacker from the trash, and now im putting it on my bike. not because i'm fat. or i'm lazy. but because i'm a broke ass nigger that needs to get back to work quicker. get off everyone's back because you can't figure out how to do it to your bike

oh and mopeds in my county only need head lights and tail lights. no turn signals. go figure.

[Anonymous No.215875]

>>215571
It simply means that the pedal-assist should stop working when you're travelling above 20mph. And that there should be no motor-only mode that can get it to exceed that level. Now if you pedal yourself to exceed that level, fine.

[Anonymous No.215876]

>>214501
since when the fuck did /fit/ show up in /diy/? Jesus Christ

[Anonymous No.215880]

Any SoCal fags in here? You should try the electric bike out on the Santa Ana River Trail. It connects Anaheim to Huntington Beach

[Anonymous No.215901]

Electric bikes are for little girls and nancy-boys

[Anonymous No.215904]

[Anonymous No.215922]

Cordless drill with extra batteries and charger, on sale at hardware store every 3 weeks (it seems some where there is always a deal). Diy front mount friction drive FTW?

[OP No.216001]

>>215922
from what I've read that ruins the rubber on tires
it doesn't seem like a drill would be strong enough to make much difference
also, when the batteries die out or you want to go faster then the drill you have to work extra hard to turn the drill.
Its a neat concept but I don't think its practical.

[Anonymous No.216015]

Wow. I'm surprised at how little /diy/ has brought to the table on this thread.

Gear drive/belt drive motors waste power. Brushed PM motors are torqueless wonders. The best solution is brushless hub motors. The sensorless type aren't very good at starting or very low-speed torque, but very good for assist when you're already moving. For cheap, moddable chinese motors check http://www.goldenmotor.com/
What people often do with those is bypass or modify the internal controller. The motors they sell are very conservatively powered, and can usually handle much more power over short spurts.

Lead-acid batteries are particularly shitty for electric propulsion because their voltage and efficiency tends to dip dramatically under high-current conditions. They are also heavier and bulkier per unit of energy stored. The best batteries currently for ebike use are LiFePO4 cells, which can be bought in conveniently-sized packs for RC use now.

A 4000w ebike is an attainable goal, running 40mph or more in short bursts.

[Longinus No.216210]

>>216015
Thanks for the info, I'm also trying to build an electric bike and I think this thread can help me.
Any opinion about the motor MBG36R or HBS36F? My goal is to go from home to school and back, 30km in total and some areas with 20% inclination.

>>216001
Correct, it's called friction drive, very simple but very inefficient, you need a very fast motor and the tire wears faster.

[Anonymous No.216222]

>>216210
First thing is that those motors will need controllers of some kind.

One thing to remember with hub motors, you're going to need a very wide rear fork to include a gear index with one on the back. Another concern is if the bike you want to convert has suspension. The weight from the motor will rapidly degrade your suspension.

With those motors as well, you'll have to either know how to lace the wheels yourself, or take it somewhere which can do that for you. It's not a bad idea to relace the wheels with stronger spokes whilst you're at it, given the additional weight in batteries & such your bike will need to carry.

There's no reason you couldn't go with a single front or rear motor. If you're going up a slope big enough to lose a lot of traction on a front wheel, you'll probably be pedaling anyway.