cheap cyclone motor?

[1KW]

http://www.sickbikeparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=26&products_id=170&osCsid=05kaa726pfldcvbb5ssk5vc3d7

is that the cyclone motor? Would have to get your own controller, mount, throttle, crankset, but hey 119.00 isnt bad at all?

EDIT* Looks like it doesnt come with the planetary gearbox..but hey. Look at the price of JUST the motor on the cyclone usa site, definitely 120 dollars cheaper.

Ill stick with a gng setup, i dont trust the gearbox on the cyclones at all.

 

[kriskros]

that does have the gear box but not the free wheel... Cyclone gear box is VERY strong.... I have tgwo olf them running..over 3k miles. no problems...running 48v,20amp ay 2c... 650w has separate controller... I use Lyen controllers, he wires them foe cyclone with CA plug

 

[1KW]

nice man!

For the price its almost a steal, get a used lyen 6 or 9 fet and your good to go with a custom mount.

 

[solar.g]

That sickbikes link seems to be dead now.
But +1 on strength of Cyclone gearboxes.
Ride with someone who has 1200W/36V Cyclone with Kelly, towing trailer behind trike.
Does lots of km a day, no problems.
Of the riders in our group, at least 9 have Cyclones of all sizes from 200W-1200W and no-one has killed a gearbox.
Batteries, yes. BMS's, yes. Internal controllers, yes.
Gearboxes, no.

 

[boostjuice]

That sickbikes link seems to be dead now.
But +1 on strength of Cyclone gearboxes.
Ride with someone who has 1200W/36V Cyclone with Kelly, towing trailer behind trike.
Does lots of km a day, no problems.
Of the riders in our group, at least 9 have Cyclones of all sizes from 200W-1200W and no-one has killed a gearbox.
Batteries, yes. BMS's, yes. Internal controllers, yes.
Gearboxes, no.

How many of these riders kits have performed grease>oil lubrication conversions? This seems to be the critical ingredient to long service life considering the unhardened planet gears and off-gear grease-fling migration that combine to wear the planet tooth profiles eventually. It's normally only the added noise of this process that provokes users to open-up the gearbox and discover the deformed teeth profile....even though they are still 'working'.

 

[AussieJester]

I have always believed these gearboxes could
Be made to last by running them with light weight oil for a few hundred kilometers then
remove all gears from the box and have them hardened before replacing and using
High quality gear oil...we did this with
Gearboxes from 1/8th scale rc buggies in the mid 80s they ran quieter and lasted the life of
The buggy...stock gears lasted a few race meetings...jm2cw

KiM

 

[solar.g]

Of the Cyclone owners in our group, only one has done the official AFT oil conversion. 2 of us have done our own cheap-assed oil/moly grease slurry conversion.
Only got 1000km on mine, and haven't pulled it apart to see how it compares with others' standard gearboxes.
There are a couple of notable owners who ride with 2 speeds (on & off) on standard Cyclones. Would be interesting to pull those apart and look at the gears after a few thousand km.
Keep things in perspective, though. These are cheap motors, cheaply made.
Abuse them and they will break.
Treat them well, and they will give thousands of km of faithfull (if noisy) service.

 

[kocoman]

Link says product not found?

 

[tony67]

I've just crossed 12000 kms on my 1200w cyclone and I'm just recently noticing some excessive noise and extra vibration. Gotta open her up and check but I reckon my gears are shot. I have been running gear oil/grease mix since approx 1500 kms. I can't fault this box given how it's performed.
Tony

 

[tony67]

As expected my gears are cooked. New set are on the way. Here's what 12000 kms even with good lubrication does. The box was still nicely packed with runny lube so these things do have a finite lifespan. I have noticed a small amount of wear on the sun gear, barely noticeable though. That thing must be damn hard.

 

[solar.g]

Planetary gears being available as a spare part are a sure indication that Paco expects those parts to be a consumable.
12000km on a 1200W motor is not bad.
Do you have a Cycle Analyst or other means of monitoring/recording your typical amps/watts?
Would be nice to know what sort of power you've done over the 12000km to wear out a set of cogs.
eg: Mine are typically 7A continuous, 12 - 13A max (deliberately set low).
I hope to get 20000km out of mine, if I'm gentle with it.
Mind you, I might order the set of teeth now, and have them laying around as spares for when I need them.

 

[turbo1889]

Well if you think about it from an engineering and maintenance point of view it actually makes sense to deliberately make the planet gears out of softer metal then the sun and ring gear. Why? Because something has to wear out, there always has to be the weakest link in every system and trying to harden and toughen up everything just leads to unknown failure points. Where as instead if one makes the easiest to replace component the weakest link that considerably reduces repair issues and allows for the stocking of primarily just that replacement part. Just like shear pins in lawnmower cranks. You hit a big rock or something with the lawnmower and put a sudden extreme stress on the engine spinning the blade that it can't take then that deliberately week pin just shears off and the motor stops working but its a relatively easy fix with just replacing the pin.

Quite frankly one of the big reasons I like the cyclone motors so much is because they actually use metal for the gears. Complaining that the steel is a little soft doesn't hold a lot of clout when comparing up against others that use plastic gears that aren't even metal for goodness sake !!!

As to converting to oil lubrication, on my next full power cyclone build I'll probably seriously consider getting an actual AFT gear box conversion, right now I'm wondering if they would be willing to just sell me the parts necessary for the conversion (the double lip oil seal for the motor side of the box being the primary thing needed to get a good true oil conversion) and mail them too me in a box and I can do the work myself.

I've already been experimenting for a while now with oil lube in my one gear box although it does leak a little on both the motor and drive end of the gear box due to not having upgraded seals. I've tried a bunch of stuff but so far what works the very best is 2-cycle mix oil, I especially like the 100:1 marine outboard full synthetic low-toxicity mix oil from AmsOil that stuff is probably the best lubricant ever made. Full synthetic 0-40 weight European sports car engine oil from Mobil isn't half bad either and is a lot cheaper and then there is the always popular generic red colored automatic transmission fluid option.

I half wonder if the "propitiatory" gear box oil that AFT is using isn't a 2-cycle mix oil.

I do think though that for cyclone type mid-drive gear heads AFT is the ultimate hop-up "place to go" and I do a lot of drooling on their website.

 

[solar.g]

AFT make money not on the parts or the invention but on the labour they charge.
So they probably won't do mail-order on parts kits.
They don't, from what I've been told, even like telling their (paying) customers any specifics on any of the parts they use.
Its all about charging for the labour, or "the total solution".
Then there's the (not cheap) magnet-upgrade option, which just uses a cheap ring of magnets inside the gearbox to immobilise the worn steel bearing dust to stop it working as an abrasive to further wear your gears out. I remember the magnetic sump plug from my motor-racing days (when English cars were lubricated using a mix of oil, bearing metal and other magnetic metals from inside your motor).
Not bashing AFT at all, just saying these are not new ideas or solutions; it's easy to do yourself (if you can be bothered).
If you can't be bothered to do it yourself, then pay for them or someone else like them to do it for you.
I'd prefer to just get a Bearing Services or equivalent catalogue (or catalog, depending on your spelling) and a vernier gauge to see what's available to replace the standard bearings and do it myself.
Not rocket science, just costs a bit of research time and money to find the right part.
BTW, Cyclone's standard one-way clutch bearing for their motor freewheel is upgradable to a better part from the NSK or Koyo catalogues, rated for about 10-15% more torque from the standard part.
Just search for FCB-20. About $20 for 10-15% upgrade to what is a critical part (if it breaks, you don't go anywhere in a hurry).