Rear Hub won't turn!!! Please help!!!

[mrhat24]

Hi there, does anybody know why my rear wheel goldenmotor won't turn, it can turn but extremely hard to pedal as if you are pedaling with breaks on. I'm not using it with a battery right now because I have not received it (its been 7weeks), and my regular back wheel went flat so I figure I'll just use the new goldenmotor wheel to replace it. When I initially installed this hub it also had this problem. A guy at a bike shop installed it for me and he made sure all washers were installed properly.  Then after I flipped up the bike and messed around with it, it went away and it rides smoothly like a normal bike. Then just this morning I was riding it and hit a bump and boom the problem returned. When I flipped the bike upside down and messed with the derailer and stuff the friction still persist. Do yall think I have bad bald bearings inside the motor? This is a freaking brand new hub & I haven't even connected a battery to it yet! I'm extremely tired of dealing with chinese vendors now. ARRRRGHGHH This whole ebike thing is a fricking nightmare. I'm down $950. With no battery yet & I can't even ride my bike as a normal bike, & a busted hub. Life is fricking great.

Does anybody know anything about the return policy?  Even if goldenmotor take this back, shipping it will probably cost $100 right?

[JonMcClain]

Please be aware that no hub motor is going to freewheel like a normal bike wheel.  There is internal friction that you must contend with when using a hub motor.  I just finished installing GM hub motor and have had the same problem at first.  It turns out that the main problem was finding the sweet spot for the break pads.  Be aware that the GM wheel is not the greatest.  Have you carefully checked to if the wheel is running true?  I had to do some adjusting with a spoke wrench. 

Jon

[mrhat24]

I know its not just the internal friction because I got to turn smoothley before, although I have no idea what I did.  I basiclly flipped the bike upside down and peddling it back & forth & adjusting the derailer.  One thing that was noticable was some kind of grinding noise coming from the hub.  There were proper washers attached as I had a bike shop to install it fo rme.  Does anybody have any idea what it looks like inside the hub?  Like where the bearings would go, because I figure that perhaps 1 bearing is out of place or something.  Another thing I should mention is that when wheel is turned you could feel the internal shaking, and as you turn it slowly you could feel it passes each magnet. 

[Lanchon]

> when wheel is turned you could feel the internal shaking, and as you turn it slowly you could feel it passes each magnet. 

it sounds as if the motor is producing breaking torque. do you have the controller plugged to the motor (although it's not powered)? depending on the design of the controller, this could induce significant breaking torque. another cause could be that 2 or all 3 of the motor power leads are short-circuited (with 2 you'd feel the torque ripple you describe). check the connector, and check that the wires haven't been damaged and aren't shorted (inspect then use a multimeter).

[muzza.au]

G'day,

When testing and installing my hub, I noticed that if I touch any combination of the three thick power wires together and tried to turn the wheel it was really hard to do. I think the motor is then acting like a generator. You should disconnect and make sure all the wires are not touching untill your battery arrives, but as said above there will be still some resistance as apposed to a normal wheel.

Muzza.au