New build trek navigator

[Cobblers66]

So at the weekend I'll be picking up this lovely trek navigator to convert for my other half. I'm using her current power cycle Milan 2 as the doner for the electric parts. It has a upgraded 10s 4p battery that I built last year and a rear hub motor.

At some point in the future I will buy a new rear hub for it and get it re laced into the stock rear rim however for now I'm just going to install the rear wheel as is.

The current wheel has a 7 speed freewheel but the bike has 8 speed grip shifters. Do you think I'll have any issues getting the 8 speed shifter set up to work and a 7 speed freewheel?

Is it worth the hassle of buying a new 8 speed freewheel or will that cause clearance issues?

 

[D C]

So at the weekend I'll be picking up this lovely trek navigator to convert for my other half. I'm using her current power cycle Milan 2 as the doner for the electric parts. It has a upgraded 10s 4p battery that I built last year and a rear hub motor.

At some point in the future I will buy a new rear hub for it and get it re laced into the stock rear rim however for now I'm just going to install the rear wheel as is.

The current wheel has a 7 speed freewheel but the bike has 8 speed grip shifters. Do you think I'll have any issues getting the 8 speed shifter set up to work and a 7 speed freewheel?

Is it worth the hassle of buying a new 8 speed freewheel or will that cause clearance issues?

Why not fit a new 7 speed gripshifter, a new one is less than a tenner.

 

[Cobblers66]

Why not fit a new 7 speed gripshifter, a new one is less than a tenner.

That's a good point I could do that,

I was going off memory when I posted this however just been out and checked and the Milan 2 I'm using for the parts only has a 6 speed freewheel but the bigger problem I have know is that the rear chain stays on the Milan 2 are 160mm apart I'm presuming the trek will be the standard 135mm.

Does this mean the wheel will be unsuitable or will I have to just take spacers out to make it fit. Here is a pic of the back wheel I was planning on fitting.

 

[vfr400]

I think you'd be better off getting a a new motor and controller. There's too much to sort out.

 

[Cobblers66]

I think you'd be better off getting a a new motor and controller. There's too much to sort out.

It's already got a 13a controller and Lcd display that was new last year. If I was to go for a 17a kt controller at 36v do you have any motor recommendations would be nice if if Cound top out at around 20mph and it will e carrying around 11 stone

 

[vfr400]

It's already got a 13a controller and Lcd display that was new last year. If I was to go for a 17a kt controller at 36v do you have any motor recommendations would be nice if if Cound top out at around 20mph and it will e carrying around 11 stone

for 20 mph, you need a 260 rpm motor. Aliexpress is a good source of motors, though for most of them you need to build the wheel yourself. For 17A, m y favourite motor is the AKM128, but I'm not sure whether any are stamped 250w. The Bafang SWX02 is also good if you want a bit of power. there are a load of clones of Bafang motors that are all not bad.

Easiest is to find a motor wheel kit on ebay that has a KT controller. They're normally about £220 for everything.

 

[Cobblers66]

for 20 mph, you need a 260 rpm motor. Aliexpress is a good source of motors, though for most of them you need to build the wheel yourself. For 17A, m y favourite motor is the AKM128, but I'm not sure whether any are stamped 250w. The Bafang SWX02 is also good if you want a bit of power. there are a load of clones of Bafang motors that are all not bad.

Easiest is to find a motor wheel kit on ebay that has a KT controller. They're normally about £220 for everything.

My original plan was to fit a front mount motor to spread the weight a little as the battery will be on the rack, I was only thinking about a rear motor because I could use the one I already had.

I've got a giant twist express that's front drive and I like it but I know some people arnt too keen on Front drive especially with suspension forks, so I might end up going that route with it.

 

[Cobblers66]

My original plan was to fit a front mount motor to spread the weight a little as the battery will be on the rack, I was only thinking about a rear motor because I could use the one I already had.

I've got a giant twist express that's front drive and I like it but I know some people arnt too keen on Front drive especially with suspension forks, so I might end up going that route with it.

I've picked the bike up now and got it home, it's mint condition barely had any use.

I've got a hailong 65 cell battery case that I think I'm going to install on the rack. It fits perfect and slides on and off fine. I will have to buy one of the kt controllers designed to fit in the case though if I got this route.

Since I have the case I might go ahead and buy some new cells and build it as a 48v bike.

If I buy one of the hailong case nickel belt kits roughly how mant amps are they rated at. Do they need the series connections beefing up a bit to handle 20 plus amps

I was looking at a 48v mxus xf15c rear hub.

Would that hub work OK with a 22a kt controller. I'm also a bit worried about the top speed as they claim the rpm of that motor is around 380.

The other option I was looking at was the mxus xf08c. Would that have plenty of power for climbing hills mainly on road as this missus isn't one for picking the right gear as the time. There is only about 20- 30 quid difference in the price of the motors.

 

[Cobblers66]

OK so I have the motor fitted now. I managed to get a mxus xf08c and installed the original 8 speed cassette for the bike and I fit in perfect without having to adjust the drop outs.

I thinking about scrapping the idea of using the hailong box and using some other box to contain both the battery and controller.

I have a 30a controller here in the photo below. Can this controller be adjusted to output maybe 15a instead of the 30. I do have the display here for it.

 

[vfr400]

That's quite a big controller, and dated 2015. Have you got the LCD3 to go with it? If so, there's probably a setting to reduce the current in it. It depends which software version it has because there were several and different ways that the current was adjusted. In the early ones, you could only adjust it +/- 5A from nominal. In the latest ones, you can only turn it down, as much as 50%. Whatever it says in the LCD manual might not work because there are many different manuals to go with the software, so be careful.

 

[Cobblers66]

The controller has the lcd 1 screen with it I don't think there is a setting to reduce the power. I suppose just using a lower pas level would be the same. At the moment though there seems to be a hall sensor problem with the motor.

It runs fine on the brainpower controller with the s866 display I have but is shows e07 which is a motor fault.

I tried connecting up the s12s but after trying every available hall and phase wire combination I was unable to get the motor to turn.

I Checked with my meter for dc voltage on the hall cables with my black lead on black 0v connector. There is 4.2 on the red wire and a constant 5v on 2 of the hall wires while rotating the wheel in either direction and 2v on one of the hall wires. I will have to look into this further I think.

The motor is second hand and came with the brainpower and s866 controller but the lad I bought it off bought it new from chinaand said it has always had this issue.

 

[vfr400]

The controller has the lcd 1 screen with it I don't think there is a setting to reduce the power. I suppose just using a lower pas level would be the same. At the moment though there seems to be a hall sensor problem with the motor.

The controller can be set to speed control or power control for the PAS. If you can reach it wit LCD 1, it's P3=1 for power control. if set to speed control, you get full power on all levels, which won't be too fantastic.

 

[Cobblers66]

Well the bike is all together now. My partner is very happy with it. I decided to go with the bag for the battery and controller as I didn't have the right controller for the battery box I had but I think it looks fine.

I got to the bottom of the issue with the hall sensors. I took the cover off the motor and I didn't have continuity on the red yellow and blue hall cables. I pulled the spring back and found the damage.

I've got it running sensorless at the min. It runs OK but if you put the motor under a heavy load on startup like trying to start up in the wrong gear on a hill you hear a loud sort of resonance through the whole bike and the motor cuts out.

In general though it runs fine it motor is very quiet the speed tops out at around 18 on throttle and 20 ish with a bit of pedalling.

I'm going to start a new thread about the motor issue for some advise on getting the hall sensors working again.