June 20, 20169 yr Hi everyone. I was looking at the 500w conversion kit from cyclotricity, it seems great as it can be switched from legal 250w 15mph to unrestricted 500w. I have been reading and learning about the drag caused by these larger 500w hub motors when cycling without the motor on. Is this drag noticeable while normal cycling with the motor off? Apparently the 250w hub motor has far less drag, is the drag in the 500w a problem for anyone? Paul
June 26, 20169 yr Hello? is anybody there? What do you think this is, an electric bike forum ? Should have asked about Brexit, you'd have got hundreds of replies then. Anyway, cant help you i'm afraid, as i've not got any experience of 500W hub motors...... although i'd be interested whether there's much drag unassisted as well. Bumped your thread anyway, hopefully someone will have an answer for you.
June 26, 20169 yr Hi everyone. I was looking at the 500w conversion kit from cyclotricity, it seems great as it can be switched from legal 250w 15mph to unrestricted 500w. I have been reading and learning about the drag caused by these larger 500w hub motors when cycling without the motor on. Is this drag noticeable while normal cycling with the motor off? Apparently the 250w hub motor has far less drag, is the drag in the 500w a problem for anyone? Paul I don't know what motor is in that kit, but I have geared hub motors, Bafang SWX, BPM, CST (500w) and a Q128. None of them exhibit any significant drag, as they all have a clutch. Obviously a 500w is heavier. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
June 26, 20169 yr Just looked on their site, its a direct drive motor no clutch, there will be significant drag when not powered, think of always having the brake pad dragging on the wheel, if you spin the wheel by hand it will stop rapidly (not even 1 revolution) a normal or a good geared hub will spin for quite a while. They are also around 2 times the weight of a geared hub so heavier bike. If you have a lot of hills you will want a low speed one as they have more torque, some DD motors are wired for high speed and will struggle on hills and/or over heat on them. On the plus side they tend to be pretty reliable as no gears or clutch inside. Edited June 26, 20169 yr by Geebee
June 26, 20169 yr Author What i really want is a 250w front hub, and an lcd that will let me turn up the max speed above 15mph when i am on private land. The Cyclotricity kit looks grat but the speed cant be turned up? Can anyone give me some idea of good wheel , controller and lcd manufacturers? i was told bafang were good? i did see a bafang front hub kit but it had no lcd,
June 26, 20169 yr What i really want is a 250w front hub, and an lcd that will let me turn up the max speed above 15mph when i am on private land. The Cyclotricity kit looks grat but the speed cant be turned up? Can anyone give me some idea of good wheel , controller and lcd manufacturers? i was told bafang were good? i did see a bafang front hub kit but it had no lcd, The thing is, being able to turn the power up is just as illegal as having that power all the time, so you may as well do that. Are you sure you need more than 250w though? A 250w controller with no restriction will top out around 18mph. You probably don't want much more than 350w in the front anyway. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
June 26, 20169 yr My front Bafang 350w with 20a controller tops out at 19.8mph @36v,pedal and I can go a bit more. Eventually when my batts are knackered and range gets very low sub 10 miles I will run at 12s lipo locally with a lighter 6.6 or 5.2 ah set up in a small saddle bag.
June 27, 20169 yr If it's the same as fitted to the Cyclotricity Stealth 500W (highly likely) then I can tell you there is very little drag at all. Certainly if you lift the back wheel off the ground and pedal it a little with the motor off it spins freely and doesn't slow down very much at all. The post above about it stopping within 1 revolution is complete nonsense.
June 27, 20169 yr The post above about it stopping within 1 revolution is complete nonsense. Pick up the rear of the bike and just give it a spin with a flick of your hand, if you use the pedals and gearing to spin it up you will get a good fly wheel effect due to the weight helping to mask the drag, now try the same on a non hub wheel notice the difference? The 3 DD hubs I have done that with were generic not the Stealth but if it is direct drive it will be very similar as there is no clutch mechanism. Geared hubs have a lot less drag and mid drive a lot lot less Oh, and re the one revolution I actually went and tried it minutes before typing it.
June 27, 20169 yr I'll see if I can upload a video tomorrow. There is very minimal drag with the stealth motor... no way it stops in 1 rev spinning it by hand.
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.