Magic Pie front hub motor

[DirtyGinge]

erm...pedalling a pie 44 miles.....sheesh no......

Also running a battery down on the 44 mile journey wont be good for it, unless its a mammoth battery...you would use at least 20 AH, and if you buy a 20 ah, then thats a deep discharge, you would need a 30ah otherwise.....shorter life cycle.....

[o00scorpion00o]

That's going to be one big heavy expensive battery my friend, If you can charge it up someplace you will get away with a 20 amp!

There is just no way around that I'm afraid! 

[Andrew]

hey I didnt get the pm. and I don't think ill be able to recharge at work, but I don't mind taking my time back and peddaling.

I couldnt see a picture or link? but its a Trek Calypso maybe 4 years old.

If you were in the UK, I have a whole 26" front wheel Magic Pie kit with 48v 12ah battery for sale if you were interested.

[dawinksta]

After thinking about it, e-bikes are not economically practical. period. No matter how you put it.

Im sure most of you already know this, but to those who dont, All the money you think your saving, your actually paying! Any where you could e-bike to, you could just ride your regular bike there. If you think its too far, it would def be more economical to get a 50cc scooter or motorcycle.

I was hoping technology would have advanced enough by now. I wouldnt even mind if I was carrying 50lbs of batteries so I thought I could do it cheap with sla but I guess were just not there yet. and if you want more exercise, just bike!

I even thought about maybe a trailer and a bunch of deep cycle batteries, but still doesnt make it economical.
My cruiser is very comfortable got a big old comfy seat, thats why I wouldnt mind riding it the 22 miles especially cuz like half of it is bike path.
Im just gonna walk

[Bikemad]

Im just gonna walk.

44 miles is a long way to walk each day.

Alan
 

[dawinksta]

so if I could get two 12volt batterries 20AH for $80 that would be 480Watt Hours over a 3 hour round trip bike ride. 480Watthours/3hour = 160W motor. What would a 160 motor feel like?
Would it slow you down past a certain speed?

[Bikemad]

A 24V front mini motor would be your best bet as it contains a freewheel device inside which will allow you to pedal much faster than the motor, and freewheel faster downhill without the motor causing any noticeable drag. The mini motor is also considerably lighter than the Magic Pie.

I would expect the top speed of a minimotor on 24V to be less than 15mph, so you'll still be doing a fair bit of pedalling, especially if you want to go faster.

Please note that if you're using 160 watts to power the motor, only 128 Watts of usable power is actually being produced by the motor @ 80% efficiency.
128 Watts is not going to be very powerful, but it will make a difference, and you should be able to notice the assistance on hills and riding into headwinds.

If you limit the current to 6.5 amps it would consume ~160Watts on full throttle, but if you're using lead acid batteries, you mustn't expect the battery to supply 6.5Amps continuously for 3 hours. Check out this post for more details.

Alan
 

[o00scorpion00o]

If you want the mini motor, go with a 36 volt 15ah Ping, And bring your charger to work and charge there, the mini motor would be easy on the Ping and it should last you @1000 cycles, a lot more if you don't full cycle it every time, so if your trip is 44 miles and the Ping can get 20 miles, then that's 20,000 miles at least out of the ping!

SLA might seem cheap in the beginning, but actually their cycle life for E-Bike use is only around 100-150 cycles, so the ping is a lot better value in the end, + for sla if you have a 20ah it's more like 15ah!

Where do you live dawinksta ? I know I wouldn't ride my bike in winter here, that's for sure!

The minimum I would use on a trip that long would be a 350 watt geared motor, they are more efficient and have more power than a direct drive!

And the Pie will be gutless at anything under 1000 watts, and it's a bitch to pedal!


Mark