New project - Ezee kit on Giant Seek 0

[lowranger]

Fair play for getting this to work but I'm definitely not grinding these (exceedingly expensive) hollowtech cranks! I'm really hoping that magnets on the chainring will work for me. I agree about wanting to have assistance without worrying about throttle all the time...I want both!

I'm sure you will get it to work ok. I can understand you not wanting alter the cranks.
The difficulty I had was setting the magnets precisely enough so that there was a consistent clearance between them and the sensor. You need some method of holding them exactly where you need them whilst whatever you have used to bond them sets. The gaps needs to be very consistent or you end up with pulsing when when the cranks are turning slowly.

Look forward to seeing the completed bike.

 

[benjy_a]

I decided to send the rack back; I ordered an adjustable one rather than trying to adapt this one to fit.

One of these is on the way; will hopefully be able to get it to fit better and lower on the bike.

AXIOM Journey Adjustable Rear Rack :: £28.80 :: Accessories :: Bags - Pannier Racks :: Triton Cycles

The Marathon plus 700 x 38c just fits on the rear wheel with a very tiny clearance with the SKS mudguard.

 

[benjy_a]

Finally had time to finish the conversion this weekend; everything is working perfectly now. Pedelec sensor ring epoxied to the inside of the chainring after making a 40mm hole in the middle of it. The sensor has been attached to the bottom bracket using elasticated, self amalgamating tape which seems to be holding up!

The controller is mounted to the underside of my new rack which sits nice and low. Battery is in a Giant hard-shell pannier mounted on the rack.

I have managed to fit the brake stop switches into my hydraulic brake levers and they are also working ok.

Chainring with PAS sensor and magnetic ring

Front wheel with torque arm fitted:

 

[benjy_a]

The finished bike:

 

[Cyclezee]

Well done Benjy,

A very neat and tidy job.

That is one very nice looking bike

 

[Scimitar]

Very smart looking job altogether; well done.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

great build, but we want to know how it goes. How many amps is it set for? Speed? Hill-climbing? MPG? Comfort? Handling

 

[Rab C Nesbitt]

Benjy - well done on this job !

I too have a Giant Seek 0 and to be honest, I really doubted that you'd be able to do this conversion (like you, I struggled to even get a pannier that didn't slope !) - but you've carried it off with a lot of clever thinking and a bit of panache - it looks really good.

The Seek is a terrific bike on its own so I'll be very interested to hear how it performs with the new kit.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Rab,

Cyclezee do of course supply battery racks / carriers for use with eZee kits, there are 2 types, the MTB and City type shown below. Incidentally a rack of choice is now included as standard with each Mk2 kit. These have the advantage of a mounting plate for the controller and the battery is locked in place on the rack.

Benjy choose to do things differently to suit his own requirements and we will do our best to tailor a kit to meet the needs of the customer.

 

[benjy_a]

great build, but we want to know how it goes. How many amps is it set for? Speed? Hill-climbing? MPG? Comfort? Handling

The bike is very comfortable to ride and due to the fact I am used to my direct drive Brompton; I find it incredibly easy to fly along especially down hill where I can go as fast as if it had no motor due to the nice freewheeling of the Ezee hub.

The performance of the kit is amazing but I have it connected to my 48v 16S6P lifepo4 A123 battery. The only reason I have done this is because I wanted to save money. Having spent so much on the battery in the first place I wanted to be able to use it with both of my bikes.

That being said; this kit is more suited to 36V and if I had the money I would invest in a 36V A123 pack because it is just too fast on 48v and at the moment I am unable to use it on anything beyond level 3 (out of 5) to stay legal. You can set the kit to 48V as I have but this is quite obviously not the ideal voltage for a relatively low power motor.

To give you an idea; unloaded top speeds tested at home are 23mph restricted mode and 36mph unrestricted on level 5. The fact is that I would imagine even trying to run the unrestricted speed on the road (aside from the legality aspect) would result in a meltdown of motor or controller pretty quickly. I have a spare throttle which I intend to 'modify' with a variable resistor to further restrict the top speed.

Having said all that I am using the bike up to level 3 on the control box which assists up to about 17ish mph. Hillclimbing is very good (better than the Crystalyte Brompton) although when tested up my ususal nemesis of an incline the controller did get pretty hot (motor only just warm). I'm hoping that this is normal. My controller is mounted out in the fresh air so it cooled again quite quickly.

The different assist levels on the control box seem to correspond to speed rather than current. I think this is a shame. If I were to design this system I would have the assist levels correspond to max current but with a fixed top speed. The issue with the system as it is is that I aways want to go as fast as possible and maintain a good average speed. I never want to just pootle along. Sometimes I would like a little assist at my average speed, sometimes when I'm tired I would like a lot. At the moment I can either have zero assist (as levels 1 and 2 will only assist up to about 6 and 12mph) or maximum assist on level 3; nothing in between.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Benjy,

To clarify a couple of points if I may, we only have a couple of customers in the UK using Mk1 eZee kits with the V1 motor and 48v 10Ah eZee batteries, supplied on the understanding that they are for use on private land.

Most people seem to be happy with a 37v setup.

Currently we have no stock of 48v batteries and will only supply on special request to someone who is not going to use it on public land.

This combination, i.e. V1 eZee motor and 48v battery, has been marketed by ebikes.ca to the North American market for a long time and has a proven record of reliability.
As we are all aware US and Canadian regulations are quite different from the EU and higher performance is allowed.

I personally don't regard the eZee motor as a low powered motor and V2 which you have even less so.

For your particular setup, I think a Cycle Analyst would be more suitable and give greater flexibility to alter the performance parameters than the control box / battery console (shown below) that now comes with the Mk2 kits. Unfortunately the latest version of the direct connection CA that is compatible with the new eZee wiring loom is not available yet.


For those who have not seen the new console before, in addition to being a battery gauge and power level selector, it has different mode settings which can be seen below.

Menu 1: Mode Selection
Mode 1 (Default): Pedelec / EBike (US): Power Led Bar shows the assist power level. When throttling, it switches to EBike mode.

Mode 2: Pedelec (EU): Power Led Bar shows the assist power level. Throttle will be limited to 6km in EBike mode.

Mode 3: Not in use. For future development.

Mode 4: Pedelec (EAF): Responds to throttle/EAF. Power Led Bar Bar shows the current (amps) level.

Mode 5: EBike (Cruise): Responds to throttle (from gauge). Power Led Bar shows the current (amps) level. ‘Up▲’ button set cruise. ‘Down▼’ button turn off cruise. EBrake will also disengage cruise.

With regard to the controller and heat dissipation, the stainless steel mounting plate supplied does help considerably and acts as a heatsink as do the controller mounting plates on the eZee battery rack/carriers.

 

[benjy_a]

John, I hope I didn't come across as critical, I just wanted to share my observations as to 48V in my opinion not being suited to UK legal use as I think we both agree...I am loving the kit so far and my worry about the heat in the controller will be allayed in time as long as nothing blows; it definately gets much hotter than my Lyen programmable.

Of course when restricted it is completely possible to get this legal on 48v which I intend to do but I'm considering the Speedict rather than cycle analyst as I really don't want another big plastic box mounted on my handlebars!

Another observation is that this motor is noisier than my Bafang powered Juicy Sport (now sold) and much noisier than the Crystalyte (to be expected). The noise is not unpleasant; just a high pitched whine that is enough to make people turn heads when on quiet country roads.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Benjy,

No, I didn't take your post as critical and in fact welcome your observations.

My intention was to make others aware of the wider aspects of the conversion and different possibilities.

You have done a great job and with your permission, I would like to add some of your photos to the gallery section of our website.

The photos are particularly good quality.

Regarding the noise, I wonder if your other bikes had front or rear motors, I am sure you are aware that this makes a difference.

 

[benjy_a]

Hi Benjy,

No, I didn't take your post as critical and in fact welcome your observations.

My intention was to make others aware of the wider aspects of the conversion and different possibilities.

You have done a great job and with your permission, I would like to add some of your photos to the gallery section of our website.

The photos are particularly good quality.

Regarding the noise, I wonder if your other bikes had front or rear motors, I am sure you are aware that this makes a difference.

No problem at all; all the pictures should be available from Flickr (edit - I mean photobucket) at full resolution

Looking at your post; could you explain how mode 4 operates? I'm not sure I understand what it does?

Mode 4: Pedelec (EAF): Responds to throttle/EAF. Power Led Bar Bar shows the current (amps) level.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Benjy,

Mode 4, is a pedelec mode and the power setting is not preset to fixed level as in Mode 1. The level power simply varied by amount of throttle and indicated by the blue LED's.

 

[benjy_a]

Hi Benjy,

Mode 4, is a pedelec mode and the power setting is not preset to fixed level as in Mode 1. The level power simply varied by amount of throttle and indicated by the blue LED's.

Ok thanks, so you would have to hold the throttle constantly in whatever power position you want at that moment?

 

[Cyclezee]

Ok thanks, so you would have to hold the throttle constantly in whatever power position you want at that moment?

That is correct Benjy.