Hydraulic Brakes and Brake Regen, can they both get along?

[Ag3n7]

Hi everyone,
On my 3rd bike with the MP5 29'er now and thank you Gary for the speedy delivery again.

This new project has a mountain bike that has hydraulic brakes and unfortunately the GM brake levers are for cable brakes. I was scouring the forums to see what folks have done to make the the brake regen work with hydraulics and see majority use a micro switch with lever to make it work. I think it is a great idea but I don't see any pics of the work done.
Besides the great tutorial from BikeMad, I'm hoping people can post their pics on this thread to help myself and those who are looking for a great solution to have brake regen work with hydraulic brakes.

Thanks all. 

[Andrew]

The easy option would be to do away with the regen. Or maybe use a button on the handle bars or throttle  to engage regen.
I have no experience with the newer pies sorry so I cannot really comment. Some people use a reed switch which uses a magnet.  I did hear of someone using a window alarm sensor to do this. The magnet opens and closes a curcuit to engage and disengage the brake.

[Morgen 3Eman]

Hi,

Since your title was asking if hydrualic brakes and regen can get along,  it seemed as though you were asking for opinions, and here is mine : NO!

I have a master cylinder that includes a switch, but it is really easy to put some switch on a lever so you can use regen while you are braking, and there is probably a safety value in being able to over-ride the throttle function.  But I like the braking function to be under my control.  I did not like how the regen varied the braking effectiveness.  If you are not interested in being able to modulate the brakes, you may llke the the erratic nature of the regen:) I have mine set to zero.

Again, just an old geezers opinion.

TTFN,
Dennis

[AdamB]

If this is helpful (it may not be)...

1st- I refuse to tolerate my ability to decide braking based on a computer's say so.... But regen does have value in many circumstances... I had the chance to compare powerchairs with regen & without regen, I wouldn't give up regen willingly now either...

However the ability to consciously control the relative power/speed (in minute amounts) of my device on both sides is essential to my design, though not so much so on a bike.

After considerable thought I came up with the following solution for my purposes (maybe you can find something useful in it)...

Gary's kits come with a regen brake lever (full size lever) that can connect to a mechanical brake cable but I'm leaving that just for regen.

I also got from him a hydraulic ebike brake set which I will try attached to the cut off but in all probability, will keep separate & activate my hydraulic brakes with a 2.5 finger lever. If I want both, I'll pull both & if I want 1, I'll pull 1.

The different sized levers will allow me to set them up in line with each other so I can pull 1 or both easily with the same hand, at the same time. The different sized levers should make it easy to readily differentiate without looking & avoid confusion.

In addition to all of this, I also have a purely mechanical disk brake with a 1 finger lever & integrated gear shifter that's inline with the others. The gear shifter pulls my emergency shut off & typically the mechanical lever will be used as a parking/emergency brake. This set will have no interactions with regen or any cut offs (beside my independent kill switch).

It's my hope that between the 3, I'll always have complete & comprehensive braking abilities no matter what the situation. Especially in the Canadian winter which is known for killing hydraulic brakes.

Finally in terms of your actual question, if you look at GM.ca in the brakes area of parts, you'll see that there is a hydraulic brake set designed to integrate with the motor cut off (perhaps also regen, idk) that's the closest thing to a direct answer I can provide... Ask Gary & the others here about it, they'll probably be able to tell you more then I can...

Adam

[AdamB]

This is the link to the set I was talking about... It comes in rear/front lengths & different sized rotors... It's an IS mount (I think) but says there's post mount adaptors available (can't speak to that, I don't see them anywhere) & it's designed for the MP5 (& SP5) but says nothing about what's actually being controlled...

So who knows, once mines set up I'll try to let you know my experience (unless already answered) but I can't think straight with this dang URI, so I'm waiting for it to pass or my GP to visit & treat it before I play with expensive electronics & things that electrocute me...

Adam

I almost forgot the link... Here...

http://www.goldenmotor.ca/products/Vector-180-mm-Rear-Hydraulic-Brake-set.html