Hi all and greetings from Finland!
I have been following discussions on the forum already for a while and actually it was this forum that I first time got to know Brompton bicycles, those small folding bikes. Last fall I bought one from eBay.co.uk and it has been in our garage since. It is not suitable to use here in Finland in wintertime, small wheels etc.
As a sidenote I already have one ebike, it's an old trekkingbike with rear motor. It has studded wintertyres and has been working great even on cold periods. Coldest time I have driven it was -23 Celsius (9 mile roundtrip) and there was no problems at all. Honestly it was taken out from warm garage and didn't have to stay outside no longer than 2 hours, and I don't know if internal gearings would suffer if it were outside longer time. Anyway I stayed quite warm (I had a commando style balaclava, beabie hat and a regular bike helmet to keep my head warm) but the main problem was fingers, they tend to get cold after a while. Now back to topic.
My Brompton is a regular black 2009 M6L model so it has no rack. I intend to put the batteries on a saddle bag.
The motor is a 36 volt 260 rpm Tongxin bought directly from China. The supplier was Dongguan Desheng Industrial Development Co and I corresponded with Billy Lei. He is the same guy that german pedelec forum members bought a bigger lot of motors in the past. It seems that Tongxin motors are a little bit hard to get these days and that's why I asked the supplier if it is ok for me to share their contact information. I have to thank forum user jerrysimon for originally hinting me to this seller, thanks Jerry!
I already got the kit last week, but haven't had time to start building until now. Here is the kit contents:
In addition to the motor itself there are a controller, just one cheap plastic brake cutting lever, pedelec sensor (it's reguired here) and a twist type throttle. I asked for a thumb throttle but apparently they didn't have one or it was a misunderstanding. The throttle works fine however and the controller seems to to have an autocruise function; if you keep the throttle steady, after while you can release it and the motor keeps running. The twist throttle is, in my opinion, quite ugly. I don't like those chrome-colored end caps at all and will maybe replace it with thumb throttle and a 3-mode switch that others have used with similar builds. The end caps may even hit the ground when Brompton is folded so they have to go. They are purely decorative though.
Here are some shots about the motor:
There reads "Outrider Brushless" on the left. I used flash to make the other part of the text clear.
This is my version of truing stand. The lacing was very easy, I just used a picture of a ready made wheel as a reference. The truing part took a while but I knew if I'd rush with it, I might have to start from the beginning again.
Basically I screwed the spokes (119 mm long) into 12 mm nipples until there was no thread showing. The rim was a little twisted, so I corrected it little by little until it was just right both vertically and horisontally. After that I turned the nipples one more quarter turn and the spokes seem to have about same tension as spokes on the existing Brompton wheel. Probably whole half turn would have been too much, because these are so short spokes and small rim.
The motor width is about 82 mm, axle total width about 145 mm. I got the motor without roller brake fittings, but I specifically asked for it. The motor weight is 2074 grams.
When I did test run the motor it rotated wrong way and there was no real power, I could easily stop the movement with my hand. The solution was simple, I just tried the phase wires in another order and everything was OK. The color codes on the wires had been mixed up, probably quite common.
Please ask if there is anything you would like to know about the motor or other parts and I'll try my best to answer...
I have been following discussions on the forum already for a while and actually it was this forum that I first time got to know Brompton bicycles, those small folding bikes. Last fall I bought one from eBay.co.uk and it has been in our garage since. It is not suitable to use here in Finland in wintertime, small wheels etc.
As a sidenote I already have one ebike, it's an old trekkingbike with rear motor. It has studded wintertyres and has been working great even on cold periods. Coldest time I have driven it was -23 Celsius (9 mile roundtrip) and there was no problems at all. Honestly it was taken out from warm garage and didn't have to stay outside no longer than 2 hours, and I don't know if internal gearings would suffer if it were outside longer time. Anyway I stayed quite warm (I had a commando style balaclava, beabie hat and a regular bike helmet to keep my head warm) but the main problem was fingers, they tend to get cold after a while. Now back to topic.
My Brompton is a regular black 2009 M6L model so it has no rack. I intend to put the batteries on a saddle bag.
The motor is a 36 volt 260 rpm Tongxin bought directly from China. The supplier was Dongguan Desheng Industrial Development Co and I corresponded with Billy Lei. He is the same guy that german pedelec forum members bought a bigger lot of motors in the past. It seems that Tongxin motors are a little bit hard to get these days and that's why I asked the supplier if it is ok for me to share their contact information. I have to thank forum user jerrysimon for originally hinting me to this seller, thanks Jerry!
I already got the kit last week, but haven't had time to start building until now. Here is the kit contents:
In addition to the motor itself there are a controller, just one cheap plastic brake cutting lever, pedelec sensor (it's reguired here) and a twist type throttle. I asked for a thumb throttle but apparently they didn't have one or it was a misunderstanding. The throttle works fine however and the controller seems to to have an autocruise function; if you keep the throttle steady, after while you can release it and the motor keeps running. The twist throttle is, in my opinion, quite ugly. I don't like those chrome-colored end caps at all and will maybe replace it with thumb throttle and a 3-mode switch that others have used with similar builds. The end caps may even hit the ground when Brompton is folded so they have to go. They are purely decorative though.
Here are some shots about the motor:
There reads "Outrider Brushless" on the left. I used flash to make the other part of the text clear.
This is my version of truing stand. The lacing was very easy, I just used a picture of a ready made wheel as a reference. The truing part took a while but I knew if I'd rush with it, I might have to start from the beginning again.
Basically I screwed the spokes (119 mm long) into 12 mm nipples until there was no thread showing. The rim was a little twisted, so I corrected it little by little until it was just right both vertically and horisontally. After that I turned the nipples one more quarter turn and the spokes seem to have about same tension as spokes on the existing Brompton wheel. Probably whole half turn would have been too much, because these are so short spokes and small rim.
The motor width is about 82 mm, axle total width about 145 mm. I got the motor without roller brake fittings, but I specifically asked for it. The motor weight is 2074 grams.
When I did test run the motor it rotated wrong way and there was no real power, I could easily stop the movement with my hand. The solution was simple, I just tried the phase wires in another order and everything was OK. The color codes on the wires had been mixed up, probably quite common.
Please ask if there is anything you would like to know about the motor or other parts and I'll try my best to answer...
