Thinking about making my own Electric bicycle

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nat

nat

Joined
Sep 20, 2005
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Los Gatos, California
I am moving from Watsonville to Los Gatos, which puts me closer to work. I am thinking about making an Electric Bicycle to ride in, charge in my cubicle and then ride home.

I am thinking about starting with a steel mountain bike frame, so I can weld to it.

The crankset will be a single chainring.

Crank arms will be cut off and I will weld in foot pegs.

A pancake type motor will be run just above the crank.

4 batteries, one at each side of the wheels, like panier bags.....giving me 24 volts.

thumb potentiometer on the handle bars.

Can I still use the rear derailer?

Can regenerative braking be setup so I charge the battery while coasting down hill?

Anything I am forgetting?
 
'74 UA FJ said:
That you have working legs?
Click to expand...

I work 17 miles from home..............basically up and over the Santa Cruz mountains.

I did do a 16 mile hike last summer.........that was quite a day.
 
Regenerative braking will probably only work if you have a fixie rear axle.
 
Thinking back to the old "add-on" gas helpers, some were mounted on the front wheel with a pulley almost the size of the rim. Could be done with an electric motor and leave your pedal/bellcrank/deraileur in tact so when you battery gave out.....
Plus, that would regenerate power when coastin':hhmm:
 
Motor out of a cordless 18V drill? I know they turn into generators when manually powered. Somebody had a link in a post about that recently. You could use the speed control from the drill......plus..............you'd have REVERSE!!!:D


http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=y8abvlYHK3Q


"Nat's VSR Electro-Ped" :grinpimp:
 
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There are a lot of gas kits to convert bikes, a couple guys in my town are putting them on bikes and selling them. Dunno about electric, seems like I saw a kit somewhere.

17 miles of hills? I've pedalled to a job that far, but it was flat, and I was sweaty all day anyway. That'd be a long way on an electric bike, and I doubt hills would be fun. You might keep the pedals to get up steep hills.
 
nat said:
I am moving from Watsonville to Los Gatos, which puts me closer to work.
Click to expand...

nat said:
I work 17 miles from home..............basically up and over the Santa Cruz mountains.
Click to expand...

You either live over the hill from work now, or you will once you move "to Los Gatos...closer to work". Which is it?

If you're going back over the hill from LG to SC to work, I don't think you'll ever be happy on a homemade electric bicycle. You really need 3-5 hp, which translates into at least 2500w. Say it takes you 1/2 hour to get up the hill, that's 50 amp-hours at 24v, minimum. Double that to be safe. That's a lot of juice.

You can get into the ballpark with $1000 worth of parts from here: http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2039

It would work great to cruise around the hood and down to the bar, but I don't think it's going to get you over the hill. If you doubled the battery and rebuilt the controller to allow higher current, you'd be getting pretty close.

It's a cool project. Dual-motor 2wd would be really fun, but $$.

I think the benefit you get from coasting (speed) will outweigh the benefit you'd get from regeneration. The reason it works in a car is the weight that you already paid to haul up the hill.
 
Fast Eddy said:
You either live over the hill from work now, or you will once you move "to Los Gatos...closer to work". Which is it?
Click to expand...

Funny, i was thinking the same thing...
 
Sit on the handlebars and have your wife pedal you in, she wouldn't whine about the lil' hill :flipoff2:
 
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Fast Eddy said:
You either live over the hill from work now, or you will once you move "to Los Gatos...closer to work". Which is it?

If you're going back over the hill from LG to SC to work, I don't think you'll ever be happy on a homemade electric bicycle. You really need 3-5 hp, which translates into at least 2500w. Say it takes you 1/2 hour to get up the hill, that's 50 amp-hours at 24v, minimum. Double that to be safe. That's a lot of juice.

You can get into the ballpark with $1000 worth of parts from here: Electric Bike Conversion Kit: 36V 600W Brushless Hub Motor with 26"Rim - Change a bike into Hyber E-bike - EB-KIT600W26-BRUSHLESS

It would work great to cruise around the hood and down to the bar, but I don't think it's going to get you over the hill. If you doubled the battery and rebuilt the controller to allow higher current, you'd be getting pretty close.

It's a cool project. Dual-motor 2wd would be really fun, but $$.

I think the benefit you get from coasting (speed) will outweigh the benefit you'd get from regeneration. The reason it works in a car is the weight that you already paid to haul up the hill.
Click to expand...

yzftaco said:
Funny, i was thinking the same thing...
Click to expand...

From Watsonville to Scotts Valley is actually farther and takes longer to drive than Los Gatos to Scotts Valley.

I see your point about power usage........I need to look at amp hours a guess.
 
Yamaha used to sell electric scooters here.

I test rode one and was quite impressed.
It's uber quiet and had good pep to it.

The cost was about $2000US, but you qualified to get a $500 rebate from the government or something.

The range, of course, was rather short at 25-30kms, but you could either fit a spare battery or the charger under the seat.

They said that it takes about 6hrs to get it fully charged and the cost per charge was about $0.16!!:eek:

The one you can see below can be carried around in the special bag and also can be laid flat to be put in a trunk or whatever.

There are a few power/battery assisted bikes here, too. (Most are not too nice to look at through.:D)

GOOD LUCK, Nat!


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DSCN8969.webp
l_hi_ec02.webp
l_hi_ec11.webp
 
with a range of 24 miles, this would work for you...

segway_wideweb__470x418,2.jpg



although...if it's a 17 mile trip, it'll take you a about an hour and a half each way...
 
Degnol said:
Regenerative braking will probably only work if you have a fixie rear axle.
Click to expand...

It can still be done via a friction drive that presses against the wheel. Front or rear wheel drive can be done via friction.

Regenerative braking requires an electronic controller.

For batteries I'd use the Li-Ion ones used in power tools. Very high energy density for weight and they are proving to be very robust.

Here is a unit that isn't quite to market yet but is interesting.

Neodymics Cyclemotor Electric Bike Conversion Kit
 
I've toyed with doing an three wheel drive EV tadpole style trike. I'd make it fully road legal in a motorcycle sense. The reason for three wheel drive is to handle gravel better. I live on a gravel road.
 
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