Powabyke Derestricted ?

[TwistNgo]

Does anyone know if you can derestrict a powabyke commuter 24 ?

will it harm the motor ?

what would the top speed be ?

and is it advisable to do this ?

I'm not planning to do this as I find the performance adequate for my needs I'm just curious !

 

[flecc]

There is no restrictor on the Powabyke TwistNgo, like most e-bike motors it was designed and internally geared so that the motor reaches it's maximum revs at about the legal speed. In this way the point of maximum torque (pulling power) falls conveniently at around 7 to 8 mph on your bike, just where it's needed for steep hill climbing, so good design.

Sometimes controllers can be tweaked to give a bit more, but that's not without risk. In general though, the only way to get an electric motor of the types that e-bikes use to run faster is to use a higher voltage supply, and there are illegal 48 volt and 72 volt motor kits available. To try that on the Powabyke motor would require a high voltage controller and would wear it out quickly, so it's always better to use something designed for that purpose in the first place.
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[TwistNgo]

Thanks for the info.

 

[brookesy]

more power

thats interesting flecc, I had bought a sakura from a chap and it went very fast, definitely more than 15mph, and it took off like a rocket from standstill, however, I had to put o new throttle on, as the other one came off, and had new batteries put in, and it was way slower, do you think he had modified something? would be interesting to know. thankyou

 

[flecc]

I think I saw you mention that before brookesy, but I don't have a definite answer on the Sakura. The most likely mod is a controller tweak, but that should have produced exactly the same performance for you with a new battery, assuming it had the identical voltage.

If the older batteries had more cells, i.e. more voltage, that produces more speed. However, you mentioned the throttle change, and I'm suspicious that the new throttle you fitted might not be a match for the controller and not reaching a full power signal.
.

 

[electric.mike]

brooksey

that's interesting flecc, I had bought a sakura from a chap and it went very fast, definitely more than 15mph, and it took off like a rocket from standstill, however, I had to put o new throttle on, as the other one came off, and had new batteries put in, and it was way slower, do you think he had modified something? would be interesting to know. thankyou

i cant answer the throttle question but we have had two of the sakura batteries rebuilt, one was brilliant the other rubbish we retuned the bad one for replacement cells, had to wait 3 weeks as sakura had run out.
this made me wonder if they had been using batteries that where coming to the end of there shelf life, but when we got it back with new cells (they didn't have my secret mark on them) it wasnt a lot better.
as i now use my powabyke it was only a spare for my wife's bike so we decided not to waste any more time,because next year the lead acid will be replaced by something else, my wife is like you she loves the sakura when its got full power to play with.
how long have you had the new batteries if its under 6 months return them as not satisfactory.

mike

 

[electric.mike]

brooksey
another thought has occurred to me the bike is sold as a 36 volt but in the instructions it states its also sold as a 48volt there is room in the case for 4x12volt batteries if the previous owner took the chance of damage and fitted four batteries this would account for the extra speed but not a good idea unless you know that 48 volt electrics are fitted as per reply i got from flecc shown below.

The 48 volts would potentially give that proportional gain in speed Mike, 33%, making it very fast, but a new controller is normally needed as well, the present one could blow on 48 volts.

mike

 

[flecc]

That was my suspicion too when I mentioned extra cells Mike, but I didn't know the Sakura battery case, and didn't even know if it was SLA or NiMh.

This quality problem does happen with NiMh at times, there have been some very poor cells on the market, and supplier quality control checks are essential with those to eliminate dud cells from packs. I haven't known of dud new SLA batteries though, lead acid usually being very consistent when new, regardless of manufacturing standards since it's such a simple technology.
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[Baboonking]

brooksey
another thought has occurred to me the bike is sold as a 36 volt but in the instructions it states its also sold as a 48volt there is room in the case for 4x12volt batteries


mike

That explains it. You can't get more speed without more volts. The exception is where the speed is limited by the controller such as on bikes like the torq.