I'm 71 years old, a lifelong technician and mechanic, and have just spent over a month refining and modifying a TerraTrike Rover to accept a rear hub motor. It originally had 20" rear with an SA 8sp internal, but as others have done with this model I decided to go 26" since the frame will accept it. I chose Golden Motor because they seemed to have a good product and reputation, and their Magic Pie 5 with internal controller seemed a good fit as space is limited.
Since the Magic Pie 5 is only available for freewheel, I added a new Shimano 6sp system; freewheel, derailleur, shifter, chain, etc. The assembly and installation went great, a perfect fit in the 135mm dropouts, no problems. Did some test riding on pedals only, got the shifter dialed in, everything looking great. Next step was to install throttle, brake levers, and cruise/horn button. Routed all the wiring nice and neat, tested the brake switches, set her on the rollers and hooked up the battery. Nothing. Three LEDs lit on the throttle, no response from the motor. Disconnected the brake switches and cruise/horn buttons, same result - nothing.
I'm using a 14s battery, which Golden had assured me would work fine. Regardless, I decided to check programming so I hooked up the PC cable. System set for 48v, can't set it any higher. Thought this might be the issue so I contacted Golden, corresponded with Zar. He assured me 48v setting was fine with 14s. Making sure, I also tried a partially discharged battery showing 45v. Still no response.
More emails, Zar suggested I reseat all the connectors, did this several times, no success. Followed all his instructions, slow twist on the throttle etc, no success, motor does nothing. Another email, this time Zar wants me to remove the wheel, remove the controller, and look for a hidden LED. He sends a short video of an open controller and a blinking LED.
The motor in the video is not built like mine, my outer cover is integral to the inner finned portion. I send pictures, he says take it apart anyway. After a careful but intense conversation with a sharp putty knife and a hammer, the outer cover finally lets go. I appears to have been glued to the hub - but unlike the video I still haven't reached the controller.
I send pictures, Zar says "You can use any tool to press it force out a bit", so I remove the screws and apply the same tools as before. The result is chipped off pieces of a cover obviously glued on. Fortunately I have all the emails that told me to go this far, but in retrospect this is ridiculous. If I bought a new TV and it never worked, I would NOT expect to be told I needed to do diagnostics at the circuit board level. This motor is clearly not "user serviceable", the lack of a visible LED is a serious design fault, and to expect a customer to go to these lengths on a brand new product that has never turned a wheel is beyond unreasonable.
I've sent more pictures illustrating this whole debacle and requested immediate replacement, but so far no response from Golden Motor.
Is my experience typical?
Kind Regards,
Gary
