Mini motor direction of rotation seems to be wrong

[asian]

Hi,

I recently received a 24v 250W minimotor (to complement my 750W), on a front wheel... 
When I installed this with the power cable on the LEFT, and tested it, the motor goes in reverse!  Of course I tried wiring up an using the reverse switch, but the freewheel prevents the motor from turning backwards.

So now I've got it the other way round.  Q - is this normal, anything to be worried about?

Many thanks in advance,
Ian
p.s, It's really noisy too! With a very strong 'grating' sound, it would put my mind at rest if I knew whether that's normal too or maybe my magnets are grating away.

[Sundsvall]

Hi andto the forum!

I have a 24v 250w mini motor which is rotating backwards. I was really concerned about this at the beginning but I simply turned the wheel around and it has worked just fine.

Peter

[asian]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your reply.  Good to know I'm not alone!
My 250W is mostly an experiment - to see how a 250W geared motor on a 20" wheel compares with 750W non-geared on a 26" wheel for hill climbing...

Best Regards,
Ian

[Sundsvall]

Please, keep us informed on the progress of your experiment. I’m very interested in those dual drive set ups as I have an fwd winter bike which I would like to convert to an awd. My economy is for the moment totally destroyed by my summer bike project though. My winter bike has been upgraded with a frog style battery pack from GM for the winter to come. It’ll be interesting to see if this battery can take -20°C better than the lead-acid battery.

Peter

[knackeredknees]

I recently bought a 36v 250w mini motor, and it also runs backwards {if fitted with the cable on the left side}.

After a bit of adjustment to my brakes, I was able to reverse the wheel within the forks.

This was/is my first venture into electric bikes/kits etc, and after my first serious test run {in my very hilly area}, i'm pretty impressed with this malarky {and this 250w motor}.

I am now able to cycle further up the steep sections of my local hills, and on the severely  steep sections{which may put undue strain on the mini motor}, I am able to apply a very slight amount of power to the throttle, whilst walking up these sections {a sort of power assisted walking}.

Considering ive never been able to cycle all the way up these steep hills, my 250w mini motor kit is proving to be one of my best buys ever.

Sorry, I seem to have wandered off topic {due to my excitement}.

 Alan 

[knackeredknees]

I meant to have added.....................my mini motor also makes some noise {when put under strain}, although this tends to happen more, if I forget that the motor is intended to assist my peddling, and not the other way around.

Alan

[Leslie]

All geared Mini motors make a bit of noise on take offs.

How much do you weigh?

[TOM]

Yeah,some mini motors rotate are different from other motors.
Before install motor to the frame fork,it's important to check the motor direction of rotation first.
Certernaly,we will paste a note about the direction of rotation on the hub.Thanks

[TOM]

The noise is from plastic nylon gears inside motor.It's brushless with gear motor has more power can save electric power.

[asian]

Just reporting in what I've found so far.

The 750W GM on a 26" front wheel and a 36V LiIon battery can get me (100kg with gear) up to 42km/h with light pedalling (I mean not enough to get sweaty here in Singapore where it's 30 degrees Celcius, during my 5 minute flat-and-straight run).  Without pedalling, ~30km/h on the flat.

This would be good for getting to work and back, if it was legal to ride.

However I still have to pedal a little on the hills.  I don't know the gradients but 99% of people get out of breath just walking up them.  If you need to judge my target hill, you can see it on Google street view:
http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Nanyang+Avenue&sll=1.347053,103.685285&sspn=0.006071,0.011362&ie=UTF8&t=h&split=1&rq=1&ev=p&radius=0.47&hq=Nanyang+Avenue&hnear=&ll=1.349584,103.684984&spn=0.006071,0.011362&z=17&layer=c&cbll=1.349138,103.684395&panoid=f49AXQdSj1MP9JE7iFKz3Q&cbp=12,219.21,,0,5

The 250W GM mini-motor on a 20" front wheel and a 24V lead acid battery (2x 12v 2.3Ah units, just for testing) is really, really slow. I haven't measured the speed, but I estimate no more than 20km/h with light pedalling. Without pedalling I'm lucky to get to 15km/h on the flat.  It feels slow, but is enough to balance reasonably, and ride well.
However it's quite grunty on the hill.  In fact, it seems just as good on the hill as the 750W motor.

Another advantage, it's street legal (or will be within a few months).

However I really don't like the fact that the minimotor wheel is completely off alignment.  It's far from symmetrical, jutting out about 1" on one side.  Even with lots of washers on the other side, and pulling the forks apart, the brakes still aren't coping well. 
Much better to have a disc brake - but I don't have the fittings on my fork and I'm told it's not possible to retrofit disc brakes if the frame fittings aren't there.

[luisgouveia]

Hello Asian,

Load your 250W mini motor with 36-40V and it will give you 32Km/h in plain without pedalling on a 20'' wheel.

Configure the controller to 18A peak and 12A continuous.

It's been 2 mouths since I ride mine that way without problems. I know I'm giving it about 500W continuous and 750W peak but it doesn't complain. Neither do I!

Greetings from Portugal,
Luís