Currie-EZip ebike Kit $289.88 - Amazon.com

[DrkAngel]

June 9, 2011

Bargain!

Complete sBike Kit for 26"
450w motor - 6/10HP
Wheel
rack
controller
throttle
battery - 24v SLA
charger
brake disconnect
etc

Currie-EZip eBike Kit - $289.88 w/free shipping

[vanilla ice]

I think you can use "SPORTS20" to get $55 off too. You have to use an Amazon credit card though. Coupon should be valid until June 15th.

Noisy motor, but if you don't mind the noise its pretty good otherwise.

[DrkAngel]

I think you can use "SPORTS20" to get $55 off too. You have to use an Amazon credit card though. Coupon should be valid until June 15th.

Noisy motor, but if you don't mind the noise its pretty good otherwise.

True ... The 2008 model was noticeably noisy.
By comparison, the 2009 model was, nearly silent!
Hopefully, the newer models, improved, even more. ... ?

I am guessing that this is a clearance price, on the 2010 model.

[Solcar]

I think you can use "SPORTS20" to get $55 off too. You have to use an Amazon credit card though. Coupon should be valid until June 15th.

Noisy motor, but if you don't mind the noise its pretty good otherwise.

True ... The 2008 model was noticeably noisy.
By comparison, the 2009 model was, nearly silent!
Hopefully, the newer models, improved, even more. ... ?

I am guessing that this is a clearance price, on the 2010 model.

I've read that adding a plastic spacer inside the gearbox can quiet it down a lot.

[DrkAngel]

Very upgradeable!

Increase top speed from 16mph to 20 mph, by performing a simple freewheel upgrade.
Uses the ACS Southpaw 1/2 x 1/8" freewheel. (16T)
EZip - IZip 20mph Upgrade $20!
OEM motor side freewheel is very stiff with no removal tangs, remove before 1st use, or becomes difficult.

20vs16.JPG (130.22 KiB) Viewed 2850 times

Increase range via battery upgrade.
OEM battery pack is 10ah SLA, which delivers 6.14ah, if used in 1 hour.
Using the same case, I have built 26ah Lipo & 31.2ah Li-ion packs, using super cheap recycled laptop cells.
Homemade Battery Packs

25.9v 31.2ah recycled Li-ion cells

EZip 31.2ah Liion.JPG (121.07 KiB) Viewed 2850 times

These enhancements turn a, rather pedestrian, eBike into a respectable machine!

[gogo]

$10 off the "usual" price.

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Currie-Techn ... B002RRBDIW

currie.png (30.84 KiB) Viewed 2866 times

It would be cool if there was an easy way to adapt these for use with eZips to make a 2 motor/controller/battery eZip. That might help the motors to last more than 2 twice as long and you'd have a spare wheel and rack. But heck, I bought my eZip from Amazon when they were dumping them for $225 delivered.

[vanilla ice]

For a while you could get the whole bike for less than this price for the add on kit.. Not a bad motor but I think I'd rather do a small hub motor setup for 290.

[DrkAngel]

For a while you could get the whole bike for less than this price for the add on kit.. Not a bad motor but I think I'd rather do a small hub motor setup for 290.

Currie motor is a "brush", "geared", "permanent magnet" motor
Advantages are:
Re-gearing capability
User serviceable (to a degree)
Much simpler controller (will even run direct from battery, disconnect switch recommended!)
Small size

Optimistic advantage - motor noise alerts pedestrians!

[neptronix]

disadvantages:

+ loud and whiny motor. Straight cut gears plus a brushed motor = loud.
+ more expensive and less powerful than a hub motor kit.
+ changes weight balance of bike to be biased leftward, bike will always want to fall to the left.
+ very little power potential, motor gets very warm on stock 24 volts
+ voltage limiter on stock controller keeps you from running more than 29.4v according to drkangel
+ when brushed controllers fail, they often do so by shorting the throttle and creating a 100% throttle condition.
+ Included lead acid battery is a paperweight after a year or two.
+ pain in the ass to change tire, way worse than rear hubmotor. Involves a lot of disassembly.

And last but not least..

+ hub motors are cheaper, quieter, produce more power, and can be tuned for even more.

The only advantage i can think of of the eZip kit is that the freewheeling is really good compared to some hub motorsdue to no rotating mass being spun other than the loud stock freewheel. But my hub motor freewheels just as good.

Why put lipstick on a pig, DrkAngel.. this is 1990's technology

[DrkAngel]

disadvantages:

+ loud and whiny motor. Straight cut gears plus a brushless motor = loud.

Brush motor - dummy! 2009 and later motors much quieter! You are 3 years out of touch!

+ more expensive and less powerful than a hub motor kit.

Where can you get a 500w hub motor, with controller, brake cut-offs, rack, battery, charger + shipping included, for less than $300? ... With USA warranty and support?

+ changes weight balance of bike to be biased leftward, bike will always want to fall to the left.

Motor on left, battery on right ... balances almost perfectly!

+ very little power potential, motor gets very warm on stock 24 volts

I've run at 37v, (675w+), for thousands of miles, with no overheat problems!

+ voltage limiter on stock controller keeps you from running more than 29.4v according to drkangel

2009, and newer, controllers, have overvoltage protection, sonewhere between 29.4-33.1v.

+ when brushed controllers fail, they often do so by shorting the throttle and creating a 100% throttle condition.

Documentation??? Never heard of any Currie product occurrence!

+ Included lead acid battery is a paperweight after a year or two.

$60 a year would be damn cheap for an eBike battery! Less than the cost of 1 full gas tank!

+ pain in the ass to change tire, way worse than rear hubmotor. Involves a lot of disassembly.

Add my T-Plug mod. Makes disassembly about as simple as any wheel!Simpler than a hub motor!
See page 2: The New EZip "StepThrough"

[neptronix]

Brush motor - dummy! 2009 and later motors much quieter! You are 3 years out of touch!

lol, typo is corrected.
I've heard a newer motor and it is still louder than my big geared hub motor, so given the pithy power it produces, that's pretty bad.

Where can you get a 500w hub motor, with controller, brake cut-offs, rack, battery, charger + shipping included, for less than $300? ... With USA warranty and support?

Nowhere, but i can get a $150 hub motor kit shipped from a reputable vendor overseas with good support for about $225 total to the states and then add a real battery. I could spend $400 and get the same thing from a USA company.. even less if you go the eBay route ( yes, i actually advocate buying an eBay kit over one of these )
Given that the stock lead acid is a paperweight after a year or two, i would say this money saved is best spent towards a real battery.

That's like asking, where else can you get a large size pizza for $6? Well, you can't. That $6 pizza is crap and is made with ketchup ( lead acid ) and velveeta ( brushed motor ), you shouldn't be eating it in the first place.

Motor on left, battery on right ... balances almost perfectly!

Again.. junk battery that should be binned, bookended, or recycled upon receiving the package in the mail.
You have a point here if you use the lead acid battery or fill the battery box with the heaviest lithium you can find.
But how about a center mounted battery, like a real ebike? nope, gotta keep that weight in the back to maintain the side balance.

I've run at 37v, (675w+), for thousands of miles, with no overheat problems!

You also intentionally grandma your bike and run on batteries with massive amounts of voltage sag. Try sticking some lipos in there, give it some hills, full throttle, and let me know how it goes! You even said you intentionally let air out of your tires to keep the speed down. lol.

There are many reports of motor failures at 36v. Don't pretend that you haven't heard of them. I saw the forum you came from.

2009, and newer, controllers, have overvoltage protection, sonewhere between 29.4-33.1v.

So in other words, one that you buy new on Amazon is voltage limited. 15mph, any faster would be dangerous right?

+ when brushed controllers fail, they often do so by shorting the throttle and creating a 100% throttle condition.

Documentation???

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5345

When a brushed controller fails, it feeds full power to the motor instead of shorting out the battery. This is why there is frequently no visible damage. The motor keeps the FETs from exploding.

Fechter experienced this personally, as well as many members of ES who were using brushed early on. That problem is pretty well known. Add the lower efficiency factor and low performance potential of of brushed motors, and you will understand why brushed has generally been abandoned here, with very few exceptions.

$60 a year would be damn cheap for an eBike battery!

Currie is asking about $90 for a replacement. You know that lithium batteries last way longer and are a better value per $ otherwise you wouldn't be building lithium packs yourself.

That pack doesn't even last that long either. That's $60-$90 to replace a pack that goes what, 10 miles?

+ pain in the ass to change tire, way worse than rear hubmotor. Involves a lot of disassembly.

Add my T-Plug mod. Makes disassembly about as simple as any wheel!Simpler than a hub motor!
See page 2: The New EZip "StepThrough"[/quote]

That's helpful but it only reduces the pain in the ass factor by a fraction compared to a hub motor.
I had a mongoose bike with a currie kit on it that i had bought used. It was a serious pain in the ass to change the rear wheel and my hands would always end up needing to be scrubbed afterwards, i think maybe the gearbox was leaking oil or something. I called that bike the lead sled and owned it for about 2 months before selling it.

[DrkAngel]

+ more expensive and less powerful than a hub motor kit.

Where can you get a 500w hub motor, with controller, brake cut-offs, rack, battery, charger + shipping included, for less than $300? ... With USA warranty and support?

Nowhere, but i can get a $150 hub motor kit shipped from a reputable vendor overseas with good support for about $225 total to the states and then add a real battery.

Good support from overseas?
How much and how long for round trip shipping???
"Real battery" for less than $75?

Motor on left, battery on right ... balances almost perfectly!

I've run at 37v, (675w+), for thousands of miles, with no overheat problems!

You also intentionally grandma your bike and run on batteries with massive amounts of voltage sag.

I treat my 37v bikes with respect.
Full throttle at a dead stop produces 90% wasted heat at 1/3 the acceleration, of me pedaling.
In fact, motor does not reach "efficiency" till the 50-75%, of top speed range.
So .. I pedal, and gradually increase throttle till I reach optimal motor operating speed.
Partial throttle, at lower speed, effectively lowers voltage, lowering the "sweet spot", producing a better, more useful, energy to heat ratio.
I still tend to cruise at 20mph, but sprint to keep ahead of traffic at near 30mph.

I typically run at the "legal" 20mph, 25.9v bike, after 35miles, 20mph, full throttle dips voltage to 25v.

You even said you intentionally let air out of your tires to keep the speed down. lol.

I recommended letting air out of the tires, for the possibility of an 20mph limit inspection! ... Learn to read!

There are many reports of motor failures at 36v. Don't pretend that you haven't heard of them. I saw the forum you came from.

Yes! And I recommended simple guidelines to help prevent such damage.

+ when brushed controllers fail, they often do so by shorting the throttle and creating a 100% throttle condition.

Documentation??? Never heard of any Currie product occurrence!

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5345

When a brushed controller fails, it feeds full power to the motor instead of shorting out the battery. This is why there is frequently no visible damage. The motor keeps the FETs from exploding.

So ... no occurrences with Currie kits?

$60 a year would be damn cheap for an eBike battery!

Currie is asking about $90 for a replacement. You know that lithium batteries last way longer and are a better value per $ otherwise you wouldn't be building lithium packs yourself.
That pack doesn't even last that long either. That's $60-$90 to replace a pack that goes what, 10 miles?[/quote]
$60 - $90 for a "starter" battery, sounds a lot better than $400 - $500 for a "real" battery ... to many people!

+ pain in the ass to change tire, way worse than rear hubmotor. Involves a lot of disassembly.

Add my T-Plug mod. Makes disassembly about as simple as any wheel!Simpler than a hub motor!
See page 2: The New EZip "StepThrough"

That's helpful but it only reduces the pain in the ass factor by a fraction compared to a hub motor.
I had a mongoose bike with a currie kit on it that i had bought used. It was a serious pain in the ass to change the rear wheel and my hands would always end up needing to be scrubbed afterwards, i think maybe the gearbox was leaking oil or something. I called that bike the lead sled and owned it for about 2 months before selling it.

Once again. With my simple mod. Simpler than a hub motor!
Simple unplug, then. Same as normal wheel. No torque arm, no wires!

[neptronix]

Good support from overseas?
How much and how long for round trip shipping???

Yes; 1 week via sea; shipping is cheap to here, but i have not tested the price for the way back.. in that order.

"Real battery" for less than $75?

No such thing, lead acid = bookends

I treat my 37v bikes with respect.
.....
I typically run at the "legal" 20mph, 25.9v bike, after 35miles, 20mph, full throttle dips voltage to 25v.

No bike should have to be babied. Why run something on the edge of it's reliability? sounds like a bad choice to me.
We run our hub motors at 2-10 times their watt rating on here, whereas you have to worry about an additional few hundred watts blowing your eZip motor.

I run my 500w motor at 1500-1600w constant with no incident. It doesn't even get warm. No babying it, 5 mile hills, jackrabbit starts. I do pedal but only to increase my top speed to about 28-29mph or so.

My bike's battery voltage rests at 41.4v after a full charge. It dips down 0.7v to 40.7v at a full load of 36 amps.
Lead acid sucks and so do 1C rate batteries.

So ... no occurrences with Currie kits?

Not that i know of, but that's good enough of a reason to stay the hell away from brushed. It can happen to any brushed controller.

Once again. With my simple mod. Simpler than a hub motor!
Simple unplug, then. Same as normal wheel. No torque arm, no wires!

Perhaps the kit differs from how my mongoose was setup. There were multiple bolts to remove to get the wheel off. The kit here may be easier.

[DrkAngel]

We run our hub motors at 2-10 times their watt rating on here, whereas you have to worry about an additional few hundred watts blowing your eZip motor.

That is crazy!
You are saying that you'all run your 36v hub motors at 72v - 360v?

I run my 500w motor at 1500-1600w constant with no incident. It doesn't even get warm. No babying it, 5 mile hills, jackrabbit starts. I do pedal but only to increase my top speed to about 28-29mph or so.

So ... you run your 36v hub motor at 108v - 115v!???
I do exactly the same speed with my 37v EZip!
Faster ... actually ... 30+MPH!

Either you have a very vivid imagination,
or you just don't have any idea what you are talking about!

[neptronix]

Forwarding this thread on, thanks for the laughs DrkAngel

[stanz]

WOW, when you guys get pissed, you go at it!

$290 for a 24V kit with batteries isn't bad, not my cup of tea, but not a bad price. It's the lowest complete conversion kit other than the off-shore stuff.

If you need a kit without batteries I'm pretty sure there are still some 9C kits available for $249: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14731

[gogo]

There is a couple in their 70's that live across the street from my parents in AZ. They ride their eZips all over and seem to love riding them.

[icecube57]

wow.. umm some awesome reading skills.

[DrkAngel]

I run my 500w motor at 1500-1600w constant with no incident. It doesn't even get warm. No babying it, 5 mile hills, jackrabbit starts. I do pedal but only to increase my top speed to about 28-29mph or so.

At 500 watts, a 36v hub motor draws approximately 25 amps.
At 1500 watts, a 36v hub motor would draw approximately 75 amps.
That means that your Turnigy 20ah 36v pack would propel you for only 16 minutes, maybe 8 miles?
Your old 5ah Lipo, about 4 minutes, it could take you, less than, 2 miles.

If you are going to make stuff up ... try to be a little more realistic.

[neptronix]

At 500 watts, a 36v hub motor draws approximately 25 amps.
At 1500 watts, a 36v hub motor would draw approximately 75 amps.
That means that your Turnigy 20ah 36v pack would propel you for only 16 minutes, maybe 8 miles?
Your old 5ah Lipo, about 4 minutes, it could take you, less than, 2 miles.

If you are going to make stuff up ... try to be a little more realistic.

LOL... was not aware i was going up against Einstein here. I am going to have to cry uncle DrkAngel!!!

[stanz]

I run my 500w motor at 1500-1600w constant with no incident. It doesn't even get warm. No babying it, 5 mile hills, jackrabbit starts. I do pedal but only to increase my top speed to about 28-29mph or so.

At 500 watts, a 36v hub motor draws approximately 25 amps.
At 1500 watts, a 36v hub motor would draw approximately 75 amps.
That means that your Turnigy 20ah 36v pack would propel you for only 16 minutes, maybe 8 miles?
Your old 5ah Lipo, about 4 minutes, it could take you, less than, 2 miles.

If you are going to make stuff up ... try to be a little more realistic.

Huh? Neptronix said he was running 41.4V, if he is pushing 1500W into his motor that means he's using 36.23 amps, not 75. W = V x A right?

75A at 41.4V would yield 3,105W zoom zoom!

I have pushed 837W through my 500W hub motor when my SLA pack was at 39 volts. If I was running more voltage I could provide more watts, my controller limits me to around 21 amps.

[DrkAngel]

Huh? Neptronix said he was running 41.4V, if he is pushing 1500W into his motor that means he's using 36.23 amps, not 75. W = V x A right?

I have pushed 837W through my 500W hub motor when my SLA pack was at 39 volts. If I was running more voltage I could provide more watts, my controller limits me to around 21 amps.

1. "Watts" rating on motors is a measure of output, not intput. 750 Watts = 1 HP (Horse Power)
2. Output is a factor of efficiency, input watts x 80% efficient motor x 75-95% controller x 80-95% battery efficiency.
(Example: 1000w input x 80% x 80% x 80% = 512w output.)
3. Battery at 41.4v is the full charge of a 36v median battery, thus, 36v should be used as "battery" volts, unless for a very brief, "max output", measure.

[stanz]

My brain hurts, just look at it.

[Nehmo]

I now have the bike, but I didn't get the Currie SLA battery. I used 2 U1(lawnmower) 12Vs in series. It's heavy at 105 pounds. Where did you, DrkAngel, get the cheap Li batteries?

`~- Nehmo

[Floont]

We run our hub motors at 2-10 times their watt rating on here, whereas you have to worry about an additional few hundred watts blowing your eZip motor.

That is crazy!
You are saying that you'all run your 36v hub motors at 72v - 360v!

I run my 500w motor at 1500-1600w constant with no incident. It doesn't even get warm. No babying it, 5 mile hills, jackrabbit starts. I do pedal but only to increase my top speed to about 28-29mph or so.

So ... you run your 36v hub motor at 108v - 115v!!!
I do exactly the same speed with my 37v EZip!
Faster ... actually ... 30+MPH!

Either you have a very vivid imagination,
or you just don't have any idea what you are talking about!

and then followed a little later by...

There is a couple in their 70's that live across the street from my parents in AZ. They ride their eZips all over and seem to love riding them.

(I lowered drkangel's shouting in the quotes above to return some civility to the conversation).

"To each, his own", I say. If you want a simple recreational bicycle like the retired couple referred to by member gogo, then the ezip works well. And if you want a little assist for your commuter bike or recreational bike, then ezip is for you. Obviously, drkangel likes his. neptronix statement made earlier in this thread is close to accurate though. Brush-less hub motors can be over-volted and over-amped far more than brushed motors can.

I have personally over-volted my Crystalyte x5304 hub motor, significantly upgraded my controller with a custom Lyen controller, upgraded the wiring to a thicker gauge and experimented with optimizing the firmware to provide higher current on the controller. I increased the voltage from 72v nominal to 132v nominal and have increased the maximum recorded current from 30 amps to 105 amps instantaneous (50ish constant). So, based on these values I've increased the wattage by approximately 6.4 times from stock (instantaneous) and about 4 times (constant). The limiting factor is now the outdated lead-acid batteries. But notice that the bike still not limited by the hub motor itself. There are many others on these forums that have done more than I have and significantly exceeded 10KW sustained on their hub motors for a power increase of over 5 times the stock value. So, neptronix's "2-10 times their watt rating" may be stretching it a bit, but his statement regarding brushed motors not being able to do even close to that is absolutely correct.

So, once again, "to each his own"!

FA