Electric Bikes Conversion Kits EMTBS eRoad/Commuting What's New?

Looking for a reliable long range bike

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owlo

Finding my (electric) wheels
Sep 21, 2015
10
4
42
@Cyclezee Thanks for the video. I didn't know it was an eZee sprint :) That bike was one of the first things we researched from. (original source http://www.merlin.unsw.edu.au/energyh/hy-cycle/ by the way). It's a similar system, except it consists of a canister of compressed H2, which directly powers a fuel cell (the thing on the back.)

The problem with the system is that 1. Those hydrogen canisters are big and heavy (not to mention expensive) 2. Lugging compressed hydrogen around (I believe that canister is 100l) is an explosives risk, and probably wouldn't be welcome on ferries and stuff 3. It provides 738Wh, but still requires a battery to provide the peaks.

The system we're considering works in a very similar fashion, but instead of having a canister of hydrogen, it will be produced on the fly. You have a bottle of locally sourced water (any water will do), and a silicide compound (probably silicon + activator with the silicon as small as possible) stored in anything from a plastic bag to a glass jug. You mix the silicide and the water, and you get low pressure hydrogen on the fly! (Can program the lcd or a 2nd lcd on the bike to control the mixing, or just leave it as standard.) This way you cut down considerably on weight.

Just out of interest, assuming we made heavy modifications to the bike, how would that affect the motor/battery warranty?
 
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Cyclezee

Guest
Hi Owlo,

I was not suggesting that you do this or that it is a solution for you, I was only showing what has been done and is possible.
This sort of modification would invalidate the warranty of the bike.
 
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trex

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 15, 2011
7,703
2,671
generating hydrogen on the fly from 10nm nanoparticles of silicon can only be done in labs. Pure silicon is very expensive and highly reactive, you can't just store it in plastic bag, it'll passivate in contact with oxygen and burn through the plastic and all you are left with is very fine sand. If you drop water onto it, it'll explode.
 
O

owlo

Finding my (electric) wheels
Sep 21, 2015
10
4
42
trex said:
generating hydrogen on the fly from 10nm nanoparticles of silicon can only be done in labs. Pure silicon is very expensive and highly reactive, you can't just store it in plastic bag, it'll passivate in contact with oxygen and burn through the plastic and all you are left with is very fine sand.
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Are you talking about the 10nm spherical particle research done a couple of years ago by a south korean university? (I think it was) The one that showed that the smaller the particles were, the more contact with water was generated? The amount of h2 generated from that was ridiculous. We're not thinking on that scale of reactions or pure silicon but something more like this: http://signachem.com/hydrogen-energy/hydrogen-energy-products/ - Signachem are being very helpful, but there's also the stanford research which could prove useful if that source falls through. Gonna have a play in the university lab this week or so, and see what's feasible.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/november/nickel-water-splitter-111213.html- for the stanford results.
 
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trex

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 15, 2011
7,703
2,671
The PEC system based on n-Silicon can't work in e-bikes so I guess you have to go for SigNa system.

 
5threeone

5threeone

Pedelecer
Jun 27, 2015
33
8
85
owlo said:
I used to love cycling as a kid, but have fallen into driving laziness as I live in Manchester now. Was down staying with my mum in Cambridge for a month and ended up hiring a [normal] bike for the whole time, and thoroughly enjoyed my various 15-25mile outings.

However lack of fitness and being a fatty precludes me from being able to do truly long distances on a standard bike. (I'm fairly strong so handled the shorter rides, but then again Cambridgeshire is pretty flat)

Therefore I'm looking into long range ebikes, for 1. Commuting into university, 2. Doing longer tours. 3. Hopefully doing the entirety of the North Sea Cycle Route ( http://www.northsea-cycle.com/ from Norway to the UK at least) next summer. I realise I'll need a spare battery or two, so take this into account

So, I'm 6'2, and weigh almost 18st/120kg. Got quite a lot of strength for the shorter journeys, so can certainly contribute to the pedaling. An extra 2-3 batteries and gear will easily add another 20kg to that.

There's so many available that I'm confused, but I've generally been looking at the Woosh Sunbear/Bigbears and the Kalkhoff S11's.

Budget isn't the biggest consideration, but if the Sunbear will do the job as well as the Kalkhoff, I'd obviously rather spend less :)

I'm decent with electronics and stuff (though not so strong mechanically) if a custom made battery is the best option.

Thanks!
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If you type the word Qwic into the search box it will take you to comments about my own experiences on entry into the world of EBikes. As an update I can say in just three months I've had more than 1500 miles with my Qwic. Faultless and reliable.
 
anotherkiwi

anotherkiwi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 26, 2015
7,845
5,786
The European Union
trex said:
Spare battery is the way to go. You can simply connect the output of the spare battery to the charging port of the main battery. When you ride, the main battery voltage sags, the spare battery tops it up automatically. You can daisy chain as many spare batteries as you can carry in your paniers.
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I am back on this idea as my work season is drawing to an end I will be out on the road looking for a better job and need some range comfort.

When you daisy chain like this can you charge all the batteries at the same time by plugging the last in the chain into the charger?

Is the charger port limited to 2 Amps by the BMS? Or does it go into rapid charge mode and accept 4-5 Amps? My current battery is capable of outputting up to 30 Amps peak.

I had another idea. Lets pretend I have three bottle batteries of various capacities:
- Make a battery to controller wire that has three charging port plugs spliced into one final section that goes to the controller.
- Battery 1 is switched on and the two others off
- Battery 1 is empty, turn it off, turn battery 2 on
- repeat with battery 3 when battery 2 is empty

The danger is turning on two or more batteries at the same time. If the system is used only by myself I think that I can avoid that happening.

Can anyone see another potential reason for not doing this? I looked at boat battery bank switches as an alternative but they all have only two battery banks in mind and the switch is for one battery bank or the other or both at the same time. My goal is to have three standard bottle batteries mounted on a support inside my pannier bag.
 
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