Giant LaFree panasonic crank motor

[roby77]

Hi , I have joined pedelecs today and really wanted to ask a question , not sure if am in the correct area ,
Anyhow would anyone know what the torque figures Nm would be on an old giant lafree Panasonic centre crank motor , around the year 2004 I believe

 

[Deleted member 4366]

What do you mean by torque figures. Are you trying to compare with a 40nm Bosch. If so, I'd say about 60% as much, so 24nm. These figures are a theoretical calculation bases on some arbitrary calculation. They're good for comparison, but have little relevance to actual wheel torque.

 

[roby77]

Yes I really needed the information as a comparison. I do not understanding the technical aspects of torque to much , but I understand is is to some extent a measure of power. My wife has an old Giant LaFree and we were thinking of upgrading to a Riese Muller nivinci with a Bosch active line motor , I know that this is the least powerful of the Bosch motors and didn’t want to upgrade a large expense if the power increase would be minimal . But your answer has assured me that the power increase would be worthwhile . Thanks

 

[flecc]

I agree, the power increase would be substantial and very noticeable.
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[Deleted member 4366]

Nuvinci makes the bike very heavy. That bike will be like a tank compared with your Lafree. There are many lighter options.

 

[anotherkiwi]

The NuVinci will also eat up about 18% of that extra torque because of inefficiency.

 

[roby77]

I believe it’s only a couple of kilo extra . The battery she has on the LaFree is not original and is rather heavy . Also the LaFree has only 3 gears and my wife tends to just use just the one of those any more than that would be difficult for her, so I think the nuvinci gears would be more suitable..

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I believe it’s only a couple of kilo extra . The battery she has on the LaFree is not original and is rather heavy . Also the LaFree has only 3 gears and my wife tends to just use just the one of those any more than that would be difficult for her, so I think the nuvinci gears would be more suitable..

If she has trouble with gears, surely a bike with a hub-motor would be better. If you want to spend a lot of money, look at the Gocycle G3, which has automatic gears

 

[flecc]

I owned one of those Lafrees for years and liked its power-off cycling qualities. It weighs 22 kilos including the 4 kilo battery, so was one of the lightest e-bikes and that still compares well with today's e-bikes. The motor unit is very low powered though, any Bosch unit far more powerful.

I'm another who doesn't rate the NuVinci highly, too heavy and rather inefficient. Ideally find somewhere to try one first to make sure it suits.
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[Deleted member 22539]

Hi , I have joined pedelecs today and really wanted to ask a question , not sure if am in the correct area

As your in the classifieds I would say your not even close to the correct area

 

[flecc]

As your in the classifieds I would say your not even close to the correct area

As the intention is to upgrade the Giant to an R & M, perhaps Roby77 is trying to kill two birds with one stone.
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