Fat guy drama...

[se7en]

Hi everybody,

I’m a fatty. 6”3 and 26 stone. I’m considering buying a conversion kit for my current bike (Voodoo Marasa) but I’m worried the 250v won’t help much with the steeper hills. Would I be better getting a duel power 500v which can switch between 250v and 500v when necessary?

Also, my current bike has a 700c sized wheel. Would it be ok to fit a kit with a 26” sized back wheel? Or would that be ridiculous?

Thanks for your help

Lee

 

[Benjahmin]

Those switchable power motors are direct drive so will be pretty useless up hills. Fine for high speed flat riding but inefficient with a tendancy to get hot on hills and are therefore battery eaters to boot.
You need a good geared hub motor, something like a Bafang bpm. Have a look at the Woosh site.
The 'power rating' of a motor is merely the continuous power it can take without overheating. The actual power consumed is determined by the max current rating of the controller and will be way higher that 250watts. So a 15A controller at 36v will deliver 540watts to the motor, that's like having Bradley Wiggins pedalling for you. Hot off the charger it would be more than that as the battery would be around 42v.
Not sure putting a 26" wheel in a 700c will work, brake alignment for a start. I've got two conversions with 700c wheels so you can get them. You could always buy a bare motor and lace it into a rim of your choice, or get a bike shop to do it. Either way plenty of help to be had here.

 

[Woosh]

Also, my current bike has a 700c sized wheel.

I can supply a BPM kit in 700C rim.

http://wooshbikes.co.uk/cart/#/product/uid-122-bpm-rear-17ah/rear-bpm-kit-with-36v-17ah-battery

 

[Benjahmin]

There you go I can vouch for those motors, my wife has a Big Bear with a front mounted hub. It's a prodigious hill climber even in the front (where things can get a bit tricksy) I wouid imagine that, in the rear with your weight over it, it's never going to scrub. My experience with hubs is that if you keep them at 8mph or above whilst climbing, they are fine. Get down to 6mph and they start to get noisy and strain, so up the power assist before you get there to keep your speed up. We've only had the bpm in the Bear cut out once and that was last week on holiday in south Devon. Climbing out of a very deep coombe ( my God that part of the country is 'lumpy') my wife fluffed a gear change went too slow and I think the motor cut out on thermal. It was fine, once I'd gone back and gave her a push start. It was around 1:5, so fair does I think.

 

[Benjahmin]

There you go I can vouch for those motors, my wife has a Big Bear with a front mounted hub. It's a prodigious hill climber even in the front (where things can get a bit tricksy) I would imagine that, in the rear with your weight over it, it's never going to scrub. My experience with hubs is that if you keep them at 8mph or above whilst climbing, they are fine. Get down to 6mph and they start to get noisy and strain, so up the power assist before you get there to keep your speed up. We've only had the bpm in the Bear cut out once and that was last week on holiday in south Devon. Climbing out of a very deep coombe ( my God that part of the country is 'lumpy') my wife fluffed a gear change went too slow and I think the motor cut out on thermal. It was fine, once I'd gone back and gave her a push start. It was around 1:5, so fair does I think.

 

[DBrown67]

I can vouch for the BPM rear kit. Just fitted a 700c kit to a Cube mountain bike. I'm 6'2" and weigh 95kgs. I find level 3 assist a significant boost from a standstill. Level 2 on the flat will increase range a lot. Even level 1 is useful to go slowly (under 6mph) in a crowded area with practically zero effort on the pedals. I'm getting 50 miles range from a charge using 17aH battery with this type of use and light use of throttle on a few steep inclines. I try not to use throttle too much as continued use does hurt the range.

Interesting thing about range is that it only counts miles that the motor assists with. So when the motor isn't running for whatever reason then that mileage isn't counted. So it's more than 50 miles really as it doesn't assist over whatever speed you set it to. This might seem obvious to the converted but I was wondering why the odomoeter was showing short at first. It only shows the miles the motor has done... not the bike.

Whoosh told me they are getting the SWX02 for 700c wheels in soon... and they are even better torque for hills apparently as it's 48V system over 36V. I'd have gone for that if it was available at the time but the BPM is certainly very good.

Like anything though.... get a bit of power and we always want that little bit more.

 

[minexplorer]

Hi everybody,

I’m a fatty. 6”3 and 26 stone. I’m considering buying a conversion kit for my current bike (Voodoo Marasa) but I’m worried the 250v won’t help much with the steeper hills. Would I be better getting a duel power 500v which can switch between 250v and 500v when necessary?

Also, my current bike has a 700c sized wheel. Would it be ok to fit a kit with a 26” sized back wheel? Or would that be ridiculous?

Thanks for your help

Lee

Bbshd kit with 52v battery .You will thank yourself the first time you take it out and will never want another bike again.

 

[Paultr]

.....
Interesting thing about range is that it only counts miles that the motor assists with. So when the motor isn't running for whatever reason then that mileage isn't counted. So it's more than 50 miles really as it doesn't assist over whatever speed you set it to. This might seem obvious to the converted but I was wondering why the odomoeter was showing short at first. It only shows the miles the motor has done... not the bike.
.....

Thanks for that info - explains my mystery too