Got Mine Today!

[Dave]

FedEx delivered my rear hub kit this morning & I just unpacked it. Some observations...

1.  The left side of the hub has no threads on it, but the axle flats and the threads are about 1.25" from the bearing housing on the side of the hub. Not sure how that's supposed to be shimmed up to get the dropout pinched up against the steel collar that slides on the axle.

2.  The hub is centered on the wheel; no dish to it at all. If the threaded left cover was eliminated because of dropout spacing issues, then the wheel should have been dished to center the hub on the wheel to go along with the narrower spacing.

3.  The axle doesn't exactly spin freely in the hub; is that normal for a brushless motor?

4. If they are interested in squeezing every last penny from each sale, why do they bother putting a tube & tire on the thing? The tube has that funky Chinese valve on it -- and I'm not ordering a tire pump just for that -- so that's gotta go for sure. And I like having the same type of tire on front & back, so the tire is gone also.

5. The copy on the box gave me a laugh, but also makes me scratch my head a bit; the first bullet point says "High Efficiency Rear Motorized Wheel: Brushed or Brushiness Hub Motor". Ok, probably a little Engrish misspelling on "Brushiness" where they meant "Brushless", but I sure hope there isn't anything that specifically says the motor is brushless. How can I be sure -- without opening the thing up -- that it's not a brushed motor?

I still have a bit of work ahead of me before I hit the road with it, but I have the wheel in hand and that's a good start. Considering I initiated the PayPal transaction on 8-8-07 and the wheel arrived ten days later, I don't think that's a bad turnaround time. Most of the time was consumed with PayPal transferring the money from my bank account, so that time shouldn't be considered at all. Certainly not as bad as has been suggested elsewhere on this forum.

The adventure begins!

[myelectricbike]

I can't share the letter Raul sent Philip regarding the "taxation" issue supposedly prohibiting him from shipping unless the "taxation" issue was resolved by a surcharge, but I can refer you to the article by Timothy Roberts which alerted Philip to Rauls scam (search for "State walks away from Internet tax effort"). Had I not pressed Raul for an explanation as to why there was an abnormal delay and provided Philip with the link to the article you may not only have had to experience a delay but have had to pay Raul an extra $20. Whoops, sorry, got to go. Perhaps someone else can provide you with free service while I attend to a customer and his wife I gave credit.

[al]

hi dave,
tried to post picsbut to big for this site I will try to send them to your email.did you get the  rear hub that says 48v 800w I was not happy with the shim system but proof will be in the testing they sent controler and charger but no info on what the specs are on these maybe take them to the local takaway for a translation. I cant wait to se what this baby will do on 48v when I finaly get her fired up!
Al.

[Dave]

hi dave,
tried to post picsbut to big for this site I will try to send them to your email.did you get the  rear hub that says 48v 800w I was not happy with the shim system but proof will be in the testing they sent controler and charger but no info on what the specs are on these maybe take them to the local takaway for a translation. I cant wait to se what this baby will do on 48v when I finaly get her fired up!
Al.

Nope; mine says 36V on the motor. Almost zero documentation came with it. Only a little leaflet in the box with the charger, and that looks like it came from a third party. I'll snap some photos tomorrow & post them here or on Picassa.

[emzed]

The easiest way to tell its a brushless (or brushiness  ) motor is the fact that there are three thick motor wires plus 5 thinner wires for the hall sensors. Brushed motors don't need the hall sensors nor the extra poles as the brushes do the work, so they will only have two thick motor wires.

Seems like you left hand side hub is different to mine but the axle is the same. I've ground down the flats of the shaft on the left side to fit better in my frame and am going to take it into a bike shop tomorrow to dish the wheel to the centre. (i've also changed the cluster over to a 3 speed)

[Dave]

Did some measuring today; looks like the threaded/flat parts of the axle are the same as what was discussed on another thread; 35mm on the gear side, 45mm on the wire side. There's 140mm between the shoulders, for ~220mm total. The spacing between the shoulders is almost perfect to fit between the dropouts, but put the freewheel on there and it throws it all off. The shoulder on the gear side ends up about 2.5mm inside the freewheel.

So that makes me wonder if, a) the axle got shoved out of place during shipping, and b) whether it's possible or safe to reposition the axle on the bearings. Anybody know what keeps the axle in place, and how to reposition it?

[myelectricbike]

Depends on the particular configuration. In most cases the axle is press fit into the stator yoke spoke hub under 4 tons of pressure. The butt axle I'm designing, however, is slip fit and keyed.

[Dave]

Did some measuring today; looks like the threaded/flat parts of the axle are the same as what was discussed on another thread; 35mm on the gear side, 45mm on the wire side. There's 140mm between the shoulders, for ~220mm total. The spacing between the shoulders is almost perfect to fit between the dropouts, but put the freewheel on there and it throws it all off. The shoulder on the gear side ends up about 2.5mm inside the freewheel.

So that makes me wonder if, a) the axle got shoved out of place during shipping, and b) whether it's possible or safe to reposition the axle on the bearings. Anybody know what keeps the axle in place, and how to reposition it?

Well, I answered my own question. Popped the covers off of the motor to peek inside, and there is no way the axle could have moved during shipping because it's press-fitted to the armature. I guess I should have known that without looking inside; the wires feed into the hub via a hole in the axle, then exit through a hole in the side of the axle inside the hub. If the axle had shifted (which it can't, because it's press fitted into the armature) it would've sheared off the wires.

So, that question is put to rest, but I still need to figure out what to do about mounting the hub between the dropouts. Looks like I'll have to shim out the gear side of the hub so the dropout clears the freewheel, then grind the flats on the wire side out a bit to get the width in the right ballpark. Then the wheel needs to be dished to center it in the frame. All that ought to give me time to track down a set of batteries.