E-Trike Kick Starter Project.

[picowatt]

Caster, camber, and toe...

[TommeyLReed]

Yes Picowatt,

I will be able to also adjust the camber from the frame also.

I just got my steel in today, using 1"x1"x1/8 square stock for the (4) A-frame.

Tom

[Magluvin]

Hi Mag,

Thanks for the input.

This is a test design look before I start doing welding on the front end a-frame and steering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTLWFU4Mc4U

Tom

Hey tommy

Watched the vid. Looks good.     About the soaking of the wood. Just use thinner ply and bend it, then glass it. if you soak the wood to bend it, most all the water needs to be gone from the board before you glass it. If the wood gets warm or hot(resin curing, sun, etc), the water will expand and possibly delaminate the resin/glass from the wood, cause bubbles, etc.

Some other tidbits about the motor wheels...

if you ever take one apart, make a jig to separate the armature from the drum. The armature is the winding holder, stationary to the axle, and the outer diameter of the drum has the mags. My motor, 54 mags, little curve to them, about 1inx1/2inx 1/8in.  But all of them together have some serious pull on that armature. So a jig that separates them is a big plus. The biggest issue is the mags breaking if something goes wrong during manual separation. Lots of shims, one after another to lift all sides a bit unevenly, pain in the butt. And pain in the finger that happens to get caught in that bear trap.  Pulled mine apart to replace a bad hall sensor. There are 3 of them for timing. They are embedded in holes in the outer diameter of the winding cores to detect magnet positions for timing. I moved mine over about 1/16in to gain more bottom end. My plan with the arduino controller will be to add delay to those pulses from the halls to change the ratio of top speed or more torque. This will give the motors the best of both worlds. My first kit was a brushed Wilderness motor. The brush holder had slotted mounting screw holes for the same kind of adjustment. But that would take a mechanical deal to be able to adjust those while riding. So I figured with the delays on the halls, its a piece of cake to adjust on the fly.

The wheels that the motors come with are generally pretty much stronger than normal bike wheels. Spokes are fatter also. So dont get concerned about lots of weight on that rim. Chinese, but beef. Just check for loose spoke nuts once in a while. You wont know one came completely loos till it falls in the rim and jingles around. The rims are real stiff. So if a spoke becomes loose, the wheel wont wobble or seem bent to the side like a normal bike rim. So best to check them here n there. broke a lot of spokes on the trek rim. Hitting bumps and holes in the street at 25mph at a total of 300lb, snap, snap. Sidewalks are even worse at times.

Dont know what tire your using on the motor wheel. I recommend 2.0 tires. Adds a little more cushion to the ride. And looks better. Beefier. Razorbacks are  very resistant to puncture and flats.  Like 50 bucks but worth it if you dont want to fix flats pretty much ever. I go with bontrager street 26 2.0.  Last a long time and rare to get a flat. I learned my lesson. Was doing 30mi a day to work for 3 years. 1 day I had 5 flats. FIVE!!  UGH!   Just fixed one and 1 mile ahead, PSSSSSSssssss.  lol   About 38 bucks each. Worth every penny.  Also, for the tool kit, they have co2 cartridges to fill the tube.  Fast and on your way.  The little pumps. Over 200 pumps and not up to 65lb.  I dont mind a workout, but gees. Large cartridge will fill close to full. Got 3 in my kit. Havnt used one in a year.

You can make a kickstand thing to raise the rear and also on the front for repairs and even maintenance. Just ideas for ya.

Mags

[Pirate88179]

Mags:

I like your thinking on this.  Very good ideas.

As far as I can find out, KY has no laws on electric bikes.  Now, what would be the difference between an electric bike and an electric motorcycle?  I would guess...speed.  But, I find nothing saying anything about this.  The 50cc motorized bike I built complied with all of the laws here pertaining to motorized bikes.  Well...almost all.  Speed was supposed to be limited to 25 mph but I could hit 36 on a flat road.  The law said I needed a step through frame (think scooter) so I built it using a girl's bike.

Has anyone done an electric bike using a trailer for the batteries?  I mean, a small bike trailer could hold several car sized batts and/or even the motor.  I have seen tube videos of guys using trailers for gas engine bikes with larger engines than the law allows for but, the law seems confused on the trailer bit.  Four 12 volts car batteries on a bike trailer with a nice solar panel on the top could power your e-bike for a long, long time.  Otherwise, build a battery pack out of 18650 li ion cells.  (Like 50 of them)  I could make an e-bike go over 100 miles/charge easily I believe.  You could even use 2 motorized hubs on the trailer and leave the bike stock.  Batts and motor in the trailer.

Sorry Tommy...

Design is looking good and I hope you raise a lot of money to make a lot of them.

Bill

[Magluvin]

Mags:

I like your thinking on this.  Very good ideas.

As far as I can find out, KY has no laws on electric bikes.  Now, what would be the difference between an electric bike and an electric motorcycle?  I would guess...speed.  But, I find nothing saying anything about this.  The 50cc motorized bike I built complied with all of the laws here pertaining to motorized bikes.  Well...almost all.  Speed was supposed to be limited to 25 mph but I could hit 36 on a flat road.  The law said I needed a step through frame (think scooter) so I built it using a girl's bike.

Has anyone done an electric bike using a trailer for the batteries?  I mean, a small bike trailer could hold several car sized batts and/or even the motor.  I have seen tube videos of guys using trailers for gas engine bikes with larger engines than the law allows for but, the law seems confused on the trailer bit.  Four 12 volts car batteries on a bike trailer with a nice solar panel on the top could power your e-bike for a long, long time.  Otherwise, build a battery pack out of 18650 li ion cells.  (Like 50 of them)  I could make an e-bike go over 100 miles/charge easily I believe.  You could even use 2 motorized hubs on the trailer and leave the bike stock.  Batts and motor in the trailer.

Sorry Tommy...

Design is looking good and I hope you raise a lot of money to make a lot of them.

Bill

Hey Bill

Its a federal law.  Some states or cities may have their own laws also, Like I heard that S.C. allowed 30mph. But that was hear say.  In cali, you can have higher speeds up to 35 with registration. Tag I suppose.

The gas motors work pretty good. Cheaper than electric for a kit usually. For me the drawbacks are noise, cant bring it in the apt due to fumes. And can make you smell like you have been using a leaf blower all day. lol. The hub motors are very quiet. Some have internal gears that are noisy. Some are chain drive and noisy also. But the motor like Tommy has, like mine, there is a hum, but pretty quiet. Wont wake the neighbors. Or a baby. lol And the low end torque is incredible. Ya have to ride one to gain full appreciation, There is a stigma to electrics for some reason. A lot of people tend to think of the little electric cars kid ride. Like 3 to 7 mph. But once they take my bike for a spin, they seem to take a long time to come back.lol But then they are amazed and say, I would have never known till I road it. I have 3 bikes. Total miles of about 25k. Lost count. Trek has about 15k. Little walmart triax with wilderness kit about 6k mi. And the tidalforce m750 about 5kmi. I still sold.

Electric is awesome. My fiero will us a dc motor, 9in dia, 15in long.  Will beat a normal fiero all over the place. Whats really cool about electrics also is that you can exceed the typical constant power input over 10 times in spurts. So the motor I want is a Net Gain Warp9.  like 18 hp at 72v rated. But you can give it up to 300v. Figure how long do we really need to be accelerating, then we only need about 16hp to keep the vehicle at 65mph. Some vids on YT show guys with evs using this motor and its just plain sick. 72v wont get ya very fast. 40, 45 maybe.  So I want to run 144v. Just transportation. Will do 70mph or so.

Would love to build hub motors for the fiero. Gota do a lot of thinking on that one.

Mags