New Magic Pie hard to turn by hand

[rollin76]

Just recieved Magic Pie.Only took 5 day to get it.Have to wait 9 more days to get battery as it is coming from china.My motor is very hard to spin by hand.Holding the axle it is all I can do to get it to move.Is this normal?Feels like something is wrong.

[Bikemad]

There are a lot of magnets inside which require a fair bit of force to get them moving, but if you put a 10mm spanner on the flats of the axle you should find that it will turn much easier than trying to hold it with just your fingers and thumbs. 

If your Pie is the external controller type, make sure the phase lead connections are not touching each other, as this would make it very difficult to turn.

Alan
 

[GM Canada]

Just recieved Magic Pie.Only took 5 day to get it.Have to wait 9 more days to get battery as it is coming from china.My motor is very hard to spin by hand.Holding the axle it is all I can do to get it to move.Is this normal?Feels like something is wrong.

It is an electric motor with magnets that give resistance. They do not freewheel like a regular bicycle wheel. I would suggest getting your bike all set up and ready to go. Please try to avoid riding it until you have your battery. The motor does generate power when you spin it. Not having somewhere for that power to go could cause a problem. When the battery arrives you will be ready to rock!

Gary

[rollin76]

Thanks for replying Alan and Gary.Motor spins much nicer on the bike.Though my axle was backwards as my wheel was not centered.After some reading I found out that is the way it is and you have to bend forks to get wheel to center.did not really want to bend the forks on my cannondale but I guess you got to do what you got to do.cr mo forks.Used the threaded rod idea I seen in the fourms.Worked great.Anyone have any ideas on how to mount battery in the frame.Dont really care for the rack on the back. Thanks

[GM Canada]

Thanks for replying Alan and Gary.Motor spins much nicer on the bike.Though my axle was backwards as my wheel was not centered.After some reading I found out that is the way it is and you have to bend forks to get wheel to center.did not really want to bend the forks on my cannondale but I guess you got to do what you got to do.cr mo forks.Used the threaded rod idea I seen in the fourms.Worked great.Anyone have any ideas on how to mount battery in the frame.Dont really care for the rack on the back. Thanks

The front wheel is a bit off center for the disk brake to fit but not enough to make any real difference. You bent your forks? That doesn't sould like a good idea. Do you have any pictures of your setup yet? It would be interesting to see why your are having problems.

Gary

[rollin76]

Hi Gary  My wheel was about 7mm off center.i only have 3mm from tire to fork on ether side for clearance so 7mm off center is alot.Im using big mtb tires.all I had to do was bend one side of cr mo fork 1 cm .fits perfect now.I was going to use shocks but could not get it to line up with out bending.I plan on cutting drop out from shocks and rewelding 1 cm outwards to center wheel.My sister borrowed my camera but as soon as I get it back I will take some pics.When is mp 2 coming out?will wheel be centered?does anyone know what kind of range ill get with 48v 20a battery.I will not be riding for awhile as there is to much snow where I live.Ontario,Canada.snow and a front wheel drive bike cant be good lol.Was thinking about a frame bag for battery but after measuring I don't think it will fit.

[GM Canada]

When is mp 2 coming out?will wheel be centered?

I think alot of us are already riding the MP2. I recall Philip calling them MP 2 when he sent me pictures of the cast 20inch and the cetered 26 inch wheels. They did all the planed upgrades except running them at 90 volts. I also recall Yao saying somewhere recently, that they are are working on the gen 3 pies. I don't think there will be any further big version releases. Just small improvments as we go along. After all if you call something a MP2 or MP3 then you make all previous wheels obsolete and of less value. What do the dealers that have a stock of them do then? Sell them at a loss? I don't think so.

Anyway it would be nice to see some pictures of your bike and its modifications.

Gary

[rollin76]

Gm should give dealers a discount on all gen 1 motors dealers have in stock once mp 2 is released then could be sold at a discount to public if they wish to get mp 1 with the new magic controller.I think gm made the motor/wheel to fit centered on the back better than the front.When I tried fitting on back it was  centered.Im pretty sure I have the mp2 after looking at some pictures on fourm.different spoke pattern,spokes straiter coming from hub to rim,programable speed control with usb cord.I was trying to figure out a way to mount my battery other then the rack on the back.I did not realize how big this battery is going to be until I made a mock battery out of cardboard.330mm L 210mm H 170mm W.looks like its going out back.Thinking of modding a frame that mounts battery down between crank for lower center of gravity making batt box part of frame.Any details about gen 3 mp.Pictures coming soon.

[MonkeyMagic]

Hey rollin, are you going to slap one of those 20Ah 48v batteries on your ebike?

Hehe good work. That's a fair size it's probably made up of near 2 of the 12Ah batteries.

I really don't know what it looks like inside that pack but if you end up getting one, or someone else owns one they can post pics up would be awesome

You can split the aluminum case packs in 2 if you really had to mount them in your frame in a custom way. The 48v12Ah pack can have 2 x pin plugs and a power connector for each pack to link to the BMS.

Let us know if you get that 20Ah pack it looks nice and beefy

[Andrew]

Thanks for replying Alan and Gary.Motor spins much nicer on the bike.Though my axle was backwards as my wheel was not centered.After some reading I found out that is the way it is and you have to bend forks to get wheel to center.did not really want to bend the forks on my cannondale but I guess you got to do what you got to do.cr mo forks.Used the threaded rod idea I seen in the fourms.Worked great.Anyone have any ideas on how to mount battery in the frame.Dont really care for the rack on the back. Thanks

Perhaps you could have got a canondale with a single fork set-up, they are really odd looking . then you probably wouldn't have needed to bend anything. my front pie is off centre with my MTB Fox Float Forks, I squeezed a couple of washers on one side to centre it a bit more, it was a very tight fit, although still not centred it solved the problem of potential rubbing. Only time will tell if the front tyre begins wearing unevenly, but the bike itself rides absolutely fine. I too have two pies running on my Specialized MTB and that is with one GM 48/12ah battery. the 48v 20ah looks a real beast. I understand the issue you have with battery placement, in the frame will make the balance and centre of gravity much better. One day I would like to consider having a custom built battery that fits in my bike frame. the sheer size/dimension of the GM 48/20 will be arkward to fit if it's on a rear rack, if you have the pie on the rear wheel this will make the bike quite bouncy on the rear when at speed and the front very light. But as you have a front wheel drive you should get good bike balance and weight distribution which will make the bike steadier and more planted.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Hey rollin, are you going to slap one of those 20Ah 48v batteries on your ebike?

Hehe good work. That's a fair size it's probably made up of near 2 of the 12Ah batteries.

I really don't know what it looks like inside that pack but if you end up getting one, or someone else owns one they can post pics up would be awesome

You can split the aluminum case packs in 2 if you really had to mount them in your frame in a custom way. The 48v12Ah pack can have 2 x pin plugs and a power connector for each pack to link to the BMS.

Let us know if you get that 20Ah pack it looks nice and beefy

Monkey, I do like the idea of splitting a GM battery and remoulding it into a bespoke shape. How easy would it be to keep the battery in series and parrellel as it was designed to be but also making it into  a triangular frame shape??

[Bikemad]

Hey rollin, are you going to slap one of those 20Ah 48v batteries on your ebike?

Hehe good work. That's a fair size it's probably made up of near 2 of the 12Ah batteries.

Hey Monkey, don't forget it's a LiFePO4 battery, not LiMn.

Let's see how it compares to the 48V 12Ah rack pack, starting with the good points:

• $32.75/Ah is slightly cheaper than the rack packs's $34.67/Ah (You pay 57.5% more for an extra 66% capacity)
• It can deliver twice the continuous current of the 48V 12Ah rack pack
• Its life expectancy (number of charge/discharge cycles) should be double that of the rack pack (effectively halving its cost over its lifetime)

Now let's take a look at the not so good points:

• It's much bigger (its volume is approximately 2.7 times greater)
• It's much heavier (approximately 2.4 times heavier)
• It doesn't have a socket for a quick release power cable
• It doesn't have a carrying handle (it will be a two handed job to carry it)
• It doesn't have a lockable quick release fixing
• It doesn't have a key switch
• As a permanent fixture on the bike, it would be more difficult to charge (or even store in the warm) throughout a cold winter
• It's far too wide to fit low down inside the frame and still be able to pedal
• Its stored power to weight ratio is much lower (only 1.56Ah/kg compared to the rack packs 2.28Ah/kg)

If the additional size and weight can be easily accommodated, then it would definitely make good economic sense. But I suspect that for most users, it would just be too big and too heavy to use as part of a standard ebike conversion.

Alan
 

[rollin76]

The main reason I went with 48v20ah is I did not want to run at max cont amp 48v 12 is only 20a max cont.Little eaiser on batt as 20ah is 40a max cont.Still waiting to get batt from china as gm canada did not have one in stock.Cant wait.Its going to be alot of weight above the back wheel.I like the idea about making a batt pack in the shape of a triangle to fit in the frame.Maybe this is an idea gm should be thinking abuot for future battery packs.Is there a place in this fourm to post suggesstion about product inprovment or somrthing?I realize that it wouldent work with all bikes. I will see how it goes with batt on back but I know im not going to like it.To top heavy.I wonder how hard it would be to take 48v 20ah batt apart? Anyone ever try?.I was thinking about placing batt betteen crank arms but would have to have 200mm bettween crank arms and some sort of jack  shalft as crank would be way off center to line up with back wheel.has anyone ever rode a bike with 200mm spacing between pedels?mounting in frame triangle sounds much easier lol.Kinda weird why 20 ah batt with only 8ah more then 12ah weighs over twice as much?does it matter which way the batt is mounted?Almost wish I had of got 2 48v 12ah batt.Would have gave me more options then 1 big batt when I have to mount them.Sorry for all the questions.Thanks for the advise

[Andrew]

the battery will be ok on a rear rack. Just try and get the rack as low down as possible near the rear tyre, and definatley make sure you have plenty strong fastenings on the side arms of the rack. When you go around corners there is going to be a lot of weight pulling on the rack. I had this problem with just the GM 48/12 batt(6.5kg). I've secured the rack with Hose Clips onto the frame.
The battery thing will be a bit trial and error. If looks are not too important but a low centre of gravity is then you maybe able to strap the battery under the diagonal lower main frame tube (where you would put a crud catcher on a mountain bike), obviously it would have to miss the front wheel when turned and the pedals/your foot.

Not sure about widening the crank, it's definatley worth trying if you can get a longer bottom bracket for the crank arm. you will find that there will be little problems like this to overcome when making a DIY build! - I did!!

You could have got two 36v 12ah aluminium batteries for the same price and put them either side of a rack in pannier bags.

Andrew

[DirtyGinge]

or get 2 batteries in rear pannier side pouches about 6 inches from the ground