1st Bike Project

[Deleted member 4366]

A battery made out of recycled laptop cells rarely works. You have to measure every single cell for actual capacity, self discharge and internal resistance before you use them. You need a lot of equipment and time. You end up with a battery three times the size and weight of a modern one to get the same capacity and power. It would be much better to buy a set of modern new cells and assemble your battery from them.

 

[davidg]

You bike is totally unsuitable for one anyway. Those brakes won't be able to stop you. They're designed for an average speed of about 10 mph. Even a 250w 15 mph bike would be asking too much of them. For commuting on an electric bike, you need a bike with disc brakes, ideally hydraulic.

Those type of brakes are fine. I have an MTB conversion (bafung) with those kind of brakes which I ride in the alpes with zero issues with stopping so they would certainly be fine for a flat commute in terms of stopping distance.

The bike, on the other hand, would be a bit of a waste for a conversion.

 

[grldtnr]

Hello D8veh .
I am not snobbish about bikes, but that one to my mind is unsuitable .
You may well have your reasons why you have bought it, size,ignorance or disability, but fitting a motor to such a machine would be self defeating.

For distance commuting you best need at least a 26" wheel (650 mm ), and a ' 'diamond 'style frame with at least flat bars with bar ends for comfort, hub gears and chainguard, disc brakes for low maintenance cleansines desirable.



You are most right il attach a picture of the bike now.
I'm planing to use this for a 13 mile commute to work and back so around 26 miles a day .

I would of liked to use the cyclotricity as it scales from 250w to 1000w when needed .

Would i not be able to just change the gears if i was putting an engine on the back ? .

Also any ideas for one that might scale 250w to 1000w for the front anything up to £250 pounds without a battery.

Kind Regards

Adrian

 

[grldtnr]

Seems my last missive got mixed up with another? Must be putting my words under the finger of someone else!

 

[Adrian21]

Hello d8Veh . Yes you are right chargers for 18650 individual cells around 30 quid , an imax 650 balance charger around 30 quid that can test but only test one but charge 12 cells i believe at once . There's the opus charger again 30 quid but can discharge and test 4 at a time . around well over 100 dead laptop batteries 140 quid . Yes haven't been the smartest but hey i got the bug and very much into renewable energy and electrical transport have to start somewhere.

Hello davidg. Thank you for that i do agree the bike would be ruined by a conversion however trying my best to keep it as pink as possible . Maybe other peoples eyes will melt ) .

Hello grldnt . Yes i think you wrote what's not in there , so i agree partly with the not suitable in terms of brakes not that it can't break but more that it would be much more safer and easier to have disk breaks , that being said , i had dragged the bike selection process for 3 months , i knew i wanted a Danish Style bike aka town frame , be it girls men's i could care less . I had a chance to buy one from Recyke a Bike in Newcastle , took half the day off from work and 30 min before i got there someone bought it . So i couldn't find a nice bike i wanted to ride and to convert . Barely any around 21 inches and i wasn't ready to pony up proper money for a new one so i got one on sale . Is it perfect no , will it work yes , do some men feel hurt that it's pink sure they do ) . In the grand scheme of things i try and learn and hopefully make it work if not next bike .

That being said i despise the diamond style frame i don't think it's any longer necessary when the build quality is good enough , i do get it structural integrity and it does provide an advantage in terms of the power that is used when having a diamond frame but i want to cruise to work not suffer to work . How are the flat bars more comfortable then cruiser handlebars.

Those being said yes i would of loved disk breaks and i would of killed for shock absorbers on a city bike/cruiser.

Now back at it d8veh and anyone else in the know could you advise what in your mind is the best front e bike conversion kit around 200 to 300.

Cheers

 

[Deleted member 4366]

This kit looks good because it has the desirable KT controller:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36V250W-26-Front-wheel-Electric-Bicycle-Hub-Motor-Conversion-kit/222254691677?hash=item33bf69755d:g:0qQAAOSw-o1ZzhHB

The pedal sensor clips into the spline on a cartridge-type bottiom bracket. If you have the older type with a lock-ring on the left side, ask the guy if he can swap the pedal sensor for the magnet disk type, or you change your BB to a cartridge one from Halfords - about £10.

 

[spanos]

A battery made out of recycled laptop cells rarely works. You have to measure every single cell for actual capacity, self discharge and internal resistance before you use them. You need a lot of equipment and time. You end up with a battery three times the size and weight of a modern one to get the same capacity and power. It would be much better to buy a set of modern new cells and assemble your battery from them.

I received this advice years ago from d8veh.

And ignored it

I built a 36v and a 44.4v pack to run an old 200w Chinese hub bike

It worked but ultimately d8veh was perfectly correct. It took me untold hours to harvest, to test, to match and biuld the packs

Even then they were huge , sagged terribly under bigger loads (even with the poxy weak motor) and didn't last very long. All that work for so little use (and miserable use at that)

This was highly worth it for me as as a learning experience

It was a total waste of time as a practical power solution!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I received this advice years ago from d8veh.

And ignored it

I built a 36v and a 44.4v pack to run an old 200w Chinese hub bike

It worked but ultimately d8veh was perfectly correct. It took me untold hours to harvest, to test, to match and biuld the packs

Even then they were huge , sagged terribly under bigger loads (even with the poxy weak motor) and didn't last very long. All that work for so little use (and miserable use at that)

This was highly worth it for me as as a learning experience

It was a total waste of time as a practical power solution!

That's exactly how I felt when I did it. Learning by doing gets you the best knowledge.

I'll tell this story again becuse it's so relevant. I was standing in the headmaster's study when he told me that there's three types of people:

Clever people learn by other people's mistakes.
Normal people learn by their own mistakes.
Thickos never learn.

He hoped that I was in the second category because I'd already excluded myself from the first.

I may not be clever, but I had a lot of fun learning from all my mistakes.