Bafang 750w Mid drive on 13 Incline Alpha 27.5" MTB

[Gagsinio]

Hi Folks,

I currently have a Boardman Hybrid fitted with an Oxydrive kit (thanks to D8veh for the advice on that) which is a fantastic Commuter ride, but am now looking for something off road. Has anyone fitted a Bafang 750w Mid drive to a Halfords 13 Incline Alpha Bike please?

Or, could you recommend a sub £500 Mountain bike that I could mount the Mid drive on with relative ease?

Also, I can find 48v Dolphin Battery packs online in the UK, but not 52v, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks for your time,

Gareth

 

[Fordulike]

Also, I can find 48v Dolphin Battery packs online in the UK, but not 52v, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated

IMHO, there is little reason to run a BBS02 on 52 volts. The low voltage indicator will not give an accurate representation on 52v, as it's designed for 48v.

Also, the controller low voltage cut-off would be a little too low, leaving you relying on the battery low voltage cut-off. Best off letting the controller deal with the cut-off, rather than the battery.

The important thing is making sure you use a 48v battery pack containing quality batteries. Samsung 30Q's are one of the best you can buy at the moment, and Jimmy at BGA Re-working can make a Samsung 30Q 15Ah pack.

This would be all you'll ever need and it wouldn't even be close to being stressed with the 25A draw of a BBS02.

 

[Kinninvie]

Stick to a 48V battery and there is less chance of overheating.
I tried my BBS02 on a 14S battery and at the top of the hill outside my house the motor was so hot |\\\i could smell it and it was too hot to touch.
Luckily it was a short hill and did no harm as I have done over 1000 trouble free miles since.

 

[Gagsinio]

Thanks for your replies.

Fordulike, what do you think of this http://www.eclipsebikes.com/whale-175ah-lithium-frame-battery-sanyo-cells-p-1129.html to power the 750w BBS02 please?

 

[Fordulike]

Thanks for your replies.

Fordulike, what do you think of this http://www.eclipsebikes.com/whale-175ah-lithium-frame-battery-sanyo-cells-p-1129.html to power the 750w BBS02 please?

If you need the capacity to travel a long distance, then that would be fine.

If you don't need the capacity and want something a little bit lighter and cheaper, then their Samsung 30Q 12Ah pack would be perfect.

http://www.eclipsebikes.com/12ah-lithium-frame-battery-samsung-cells-p-1123.html

To put it in perspective, I was getting 15-20 miles out of a Samsung 29E 11.9Ah pack, when the pack was new. This is using a BBS02 750w, which has been controller programmed for a bit more performance.

I reckon you would see 25-30 miles out of the Sanyo 17.5Ah with stock controller programming.

 

[RobF]

Worth having a think about if you really want a 750w motor.

It has more power than most of would use, and I believe a couple of owners on here run theirs 'turned down'.

Your Oxygen kit is known to be perky - do you want more grunt than that?

I like crank drives, but when running two ebikes, there's a lot to be said for compatibility.

You could fit another Oxygen kit to the mountain bike, or at the very least fit a crank drive which can operate nicely on the same fitting of battery you have on the commuter.

 

[Gagsinio]

Hi RobF,

The idea of fitting the MTB with an Oxydrive makes a lot of sense,thanks, I'm just not sure it would perform as well off road as a Mid drive. Its pretty wet and windy here a lot of the time and quite hilly and I like the idea of the 750w mid drives extra oomph.

The Oxydrive is great on tarmac, I'm just not sure how it would fare off road.

 

[Fordulike]

Hi RobF,

The idea of fitting the MTB with an Oxydrive makes a lot of sense,thanks, I'm just not sure it would perform as well off road as a Mid drive. Its pretty wet and windy here a lot of the time and quite hilly and I like the idea of the 750w mid drives extra oomph.

The Oxydrive is great on tarmac, I'm just not sure how it would fare off road.

I agree. I've ridden extensively, both a rear hub motored bike and a BBS02. I would not even consider a hub motor for the terrain you are riding.

The BBSxx range of motors have the ability to provide a massive amount of torque at very slow speeds, which is ideal for muddy, wet and hilly terrain.

A hub motor bogs down in these conditions and puts excessive strain on the motor internals, battery and controller.

I've taken my current BBS02 bike, places that the previous hub motor bike could only dream about.

 

[Fordulike]

RobF will relate to this one.

I've visited this north eastern iconic landmark, very easily with the BBS02. The rear hub motor struggled. The hub motor was in fact running a little more power than the BBS02.

 

[Topdonkey]

I run a BBS02 750w on my bike, a Giant AC1 full suspension off roader which i bought second hand for £300, and i'm using a 14s lipo 8ah battery pack, I have 2 identical ones giving 16ah for longer range but dont bother joining them together, i just swap them over when i run out.

I live in Axminster in Devon and commute to Lyme Regis which is only 8 miles away but its all steep hills around here, and it copes perfectly well climbing the steepest ones with ease (and some are really really steep) yet up through the gears and your doing 40mph downhill (which saps the battery really quickly!)

I do a lot of off roading too and we have a muddly stoney hill that is so steep we struggle to walk up it, yet on full power mode and first gear my bike can climb it (with wheelspin in places!) at about 3 mph, i keep thinking about getting one of the newer bbs HD drives, but my 750w bbs02 does everything i need of it and its used almost every day

 

[Fordulike]

I run a BBS02 750w on my bike, a Giant AC1 full suspension off roader which i bought second hand for £300, and i'm using a 14s lipo 8ah battery pack, I have 2 identical ones giving 16ah for longer range but dont bother joining them together, i just swap them over when i run out.

I live in Axminster in Devon and commute to Lyme Regis which is only 8 miles away but its all steep hills around here, and it copes perfectly well climbing the steepest ones with ease (and some are really really steep) yet up through the gears and your doing 40mph downhill (which saps the battery really quickly!)

I do a lot of off roading too and we have a muddly stoney hill that is so steep we struggle to walk up it, yet on full power mode and first gear my bike can climb it (with wheelspin in places!) at about 3 mph, i keep thinking about getting one of the newer bbs HD drives, but my 750w bbs02 does everything i need of it and its used almost every day

What chainring are you running on the BBS02?

 

[Topdonkey]

What chainring are you running on the BBS02?

I'm still on the standard one, I managed to shim the axle to get a decent chain line so i could use all my gear cluster on the back, but only have about 0.5mm clearance between the chainring and frame now