Fusin Motors /WorldWide Electric Bikes 48V 10AH Kit Review
- Thread starter Dan K
- Start date
OK, back to my review. Sorry about the delay, but I have not been at a computer with time to write for a bit. Here's where we're at.
L/M/H. Low top speed, 13MPH. Med high speed, 18MPH. High top speed, 22-23MPH. These are all with lower pressure tires, a loose jacket, and a somewhat upright position on a 26" wheel. Throw on a 700C wheel, get a more crouched position, and I'm sure all speeds go up a couple MPH.
I've also had time to observe some more things as I put another 150 or so miles on the bike. Some good, some bad. We'll start with the good.
Power: This thing rocks in the power department. I love the way it climbs hills and starts off. It actually has so much torque off the line I worry about it pulling the front wheel from the dropouts. Def. need to fabricate some torque arm type things. The axle definitely wants to pull out of the dropouts.
Range: I have not done a max range test yet. There are 2 reasons for this. The first is most of my rides have been long enough that it wasn't practicable. The second is the primary flaw I've found with the kit, and I'm hoping that it's just with my rack (which to reiterate is not the rack they will be selling it with). There is a bolt of sorts that comes out of the bottom of the battery and slides into the rack to hold it in place. The typical bumps on the road, at 20MPH, are too much for this system. The battery slides. I'm working on a way to better secure it. Hopefully the rack they sell it with does not have this issue. On the bright side, range @ 18MPH or so, with coasting and pedaling, is awesome. I've done 35 mile rides without hitting the LVC. I actually enjoy pedaling with the bike on the flats and downhills, and coasting. I don't think I'll do any riding all-motor, except for the range tests I still need to perform.
Also, I had a wire inside the headlight/horn assembly work its way loose, which resulted in the horn sticking on. I didn't have a camera handy where i took it apart, but I found 2 tiny, tiny wires in there that had come loose. They were touching each other, which made the horn sound. Since I don't use or want the horn anyway, I just trimmed the loose wire and electrical taped it up, and put the controller back together. I've got the rear wheel of right now replacing a freewheel, but it'll be back on the road before all this rain stops. Then hopefully I can find a better way to secure the battery, and it'll be off to the range tests.
I won't hold the battery/rack thing against them, since this is not the final product rack. I do think that the horn wires are way too small, to have the bike become unusable because of a novelty feature malfunction is very frustrating. On the bright side I was able to stop the issue easily enough, took no more than 15 minutes, a screwdriver, a knife and some electrical tape.
Overall I'm still very happy. It's holding up very well. More testing to come when this rain quits.
L/M/H. Low top speed, 13MPH. Med high speed, 18MPH. High top speed, 22-23MPH. These are all with lower pressure tires, a loose jacket, and a somewhat upright position on a 26" wheel. Throw on a 700C wheel, get a more crouched position, and I'm sure all speeds go up a couple MPH.
I've also had time to observe some more things as I put another 150 or so miles on the bike. Some good, some bad. We'll start with the good.
Power: This thing rocks in the power department. I love the way it climbs hills and starts off. It actually has so much torque off the line I worry about it pulling the front wheel from the dropouts. Def. need to fabricate some torque arm type things. The axle definitely wants to pull out of the dropouts.
Range: I have not done a max range test yet. There are 2 reasons for this. The first is most of my rides have been long enough that it wasn't practicable. The second is the primary flaw I've found with the kit, and I'm hoping that it's just with my rack (which to reiterate is not the rack they will be selling it with). There is a bolt of sorts that comes out of the bottom of the battery and slides into the rack to hold it in place. The typical bumps on the road, at 20MPH, are too much for this system. The battery slides. I'm working on a way to better secure it. Hopefully the rack they sell it with does not have this issue. On the bright side, range @ 18MPH or so, with coasting and pedaling, is awesome. I've done 35 mile rides without hitting the LVC. I actually enjoy pedaling with the bike on the flats and downhills, and coasting. I don't think I'll do any riding all-motor, except for the range tests I still need to perform.
Also, I had a wire inside the headlight/horn assembly work its way loose, which resulted in the horn sticking on. I didn't have a camera handy where i took it apart, but I found 2 tiny, tiny wires in there that had come loose. They were touching each other, which made the horn sound. Since I don't use or want the horn anyway, I just trimmed the loose wire and electrical taped it up, and put the controller back together. I've got the rear wheel of right now replacing a freewheel, but it'll be back on the road before all this rain stops. Then hopefully I can find a better way to secure the battery, and it'll be off to the range tests.
I won't hold the battery/rack thing against them, since this is not the final product rack. I do think that the horn wires are way too small, to have the bike become unusable because of a novelty feature malfunction is very frustrating. On the bright side I was able to stop the issue easily enough, took no more than 15 minutes, a screwdriver, a knife and some electrical tape.
Overall I'm still very happy. It's holding up very well. More testing to come when this rain quits.
dogman dan
1 PW
Par for the course. Lots of us have had issues with the dinky stuff, throttle wire plugs, etc. It must be a pain for the non mechanical types. I still think the three speeds is cool, I have a hard time riding slow, and tend to just creep the speed up and up when I'm trying to hypermile. Set it on low, and you will stay at an economical speed.
lcyn
10 W
I thought I should add to the very helpful and comprehensive review that Dan has posted. I have had the Worldwide Electric bikes 350W 36V 10Ah kit for a number of weeks now, and have about 400 miles on it ( Schwinn 26" ) I have had a chance to ride on level surfaces as well as some considerable hills. Most of my rides are from 6-11 miles round trip, and on paved roads, with a few longer rides. the weather has been erratic here, so I have had a chance to bike in some heavy winds.
Overall, I have been very pleased with the performance of this kit. The hub is small and light weight, and very "stealth" looking. I was not sure if the 350W would be powerful enough for me (188lbs), but it has proven to have no problem lugging me around. Very quick takeoff, and gets to speed quickly. I register a top speed of 22 mph on the flat with no pedaling. The ride is quiet. The furthest I have gone on a full charge is 19 mi., and I do not have a watt meter set up to measure the remaining power. That is with moderate pedaling.. I hope to get a cycle analyst for this bike, then I can measure more exactly. I have one on my other bike, and really depend on it.
On the flat, this bike has great speed and pickup. On hills, it has good power and torque, and handles them well. I took a ride up the foothills, up a very steep hill (one stretch is 11%) and it did great. My Granddaughter was with me on a 500w front hub bike, (non-geared) and the performance was very close between the two.
About the HML switch. There is certainly a difference in speed and torque at the different settings. On the flat, I tend to keep it at the medium setting, but when I want a bit more speed I switch to High. I use the low setting for hills. The low setting seems to increase the torque and decrease the speed, and I assume saves a lot of power at this setting. Once I get a Cycle Analyst I will be able to judge this better.
The buying experience was very Good. Steve at Worldwide Electric Bikes was extremely helpful and Knowledgeable about the kits, responded quickly, and very willing to answer questions and advise. Shipping was extremely fast--I ordered it on a Monday afternoon and had it by Friday morning. A great kit for the price.
Overall, I have been very pleased with the performance of this kit. The hub is small and light weight, and very "stealth" looking. I was not sure if the 350W would be powerful enough for me (188lbs), but it has proven to have no problem lugging me around. Very quick takeoff, and gets to speed quickly. I register a top speed of 22 mph on the flat with no pedaling. The ride is quiet. The furthest I have gone on a full charge is 19 mi., and I do not have a watt meter set up to measure the remaining power. That is with moderate pedaling.. I hope to get a cycle analyst for this bike, then I can measure more exactly. I have one on my other bike, and really depend on it.
On the flat, this bike has great speed and pickup. On hills, it has good power and torque, and handles them well. I took a ride up the foothills, up a very steep hill (one stretch is 11%) and it did great. My Granddaughter was with me on a 500w front hub bike, (non-geared) and the performance was very close between the two.
About the HML switch. There is certainly a difference in speed and torque at the different settings. On the flat, I tend to keep it at the medium setting, but when I want a bit more speed I switch to High. I use the low setting for hills. The low setting seems to increase the torque and decrease the speed, and I assume saves a lot of power at this setting. Once I get a Cycle Analyst I will be able to judge this better.
The buying experience was very Good. Steve at Worldwide Electric Bikes was extremely helpful and Knowledgeable about the kits, responded quickly, and very willing to answer questions and advise. Shipping was extremely fast--I ordered it on a Monday afternoon and had it by Friday morning. A great kit for the price.
dnmun
1 PW
the speed switch may change the timing of the microprocessor's control over the gate drivers, slow is likely with timing reduced, fast is with timing advanced. maybe.
Russell
1 MW
Dan K said:
lcyn said:
So Dan has a 48V kit on a 26" wheel and does 22-23 mph and lcyn has a 36V kit and does 22 mph also on a 26" wheel.
Hmmm...somebody needs to check their speedo I think
-R
lcyn
10 W
My speedo is a cheap 25$ walmart one, so it may not be accurate, although I checked it against my Garmin GPS, and it was within a couple of tenths.
lcyn said:
I've got a cheapo speedo too, and it's only calibrated by the #'s from the manual. I need to do an actual rollout test, which I may do tonight since the rain will probably keep me in. Assuming I can work on a better battery mount, that is... that's on the top of my list.
Also, I'll have GPS speed #'s coming soon. The GPS I planned to use, a tomtom, does not have a speed function! I have a buddy with one that does, and next time I see him I'll be borrowing it to check my top speed that way.
Lcyn, what kind of tire and at what PSI are you running? Bike type and body position? I'm confident I could squeeze a couple more just by losing the jacket and increasing tire pressure to 65PSI, but the weather has not been condusive to losing the jacket lately and I don't want to raise tire pressure until I get the battery mounted better. Oh, I'm almost always riding with a messenger bag as well, but it's pretty light and on my back, so it shouldn't matter much. When I get my hands on a GPS to do my best-I-can speed runs it will be max tire pressure, no jacket, no bag, crouched position, etc. The speeds I'm reporting now are normal riding. Jacket, small bag, sitting fairly upright... the way I imagine the kit will normally be used.
lcyn
10 W
Hi Dan
I am riding ona fairly smooth tread, inflated to about 55. It is warmer here, so no jacket. I went out again this evening a registered 21.4mph top speed. Maybe my balding head offers less resistance. Bike is a Schwinn Sierra, fairly upright position.
I am riding ona fairly smooth tread, inflated to about 55. It is warmer here, so no jacket. I went out again this evening a registered 21.4mph top speed. Maybe my balding head offers less resistance. Bike is a Schwinn Sierra, fairly upright position.
Russell
1 MW
lcyn said:
If the motor data Louispower posted here
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9527&start=30#p147633
is correct then if you're running a 26x1.9" tire the no-load speed should be about 21.1 mph for the motor at 36.14V. However if you have a fully charged LiFePO4 36V battery at 43.8V then the no-load speed could be as high as 25.5 mph. A typical WOT cruise speed on the flats with no wind is often in the 80-85% of no-load or around 21 mph which would seem to confirm Lcyn's top speed. What would help sort this out is if both of you guys would check and report your no-load speed AND the battery voltage for that no-load speed.
-R
Well, today was a bad day as far as the bike kit goes. A very bad day, actually.
My first thought when I saw this kit was “48V, 1000W peak, “everything you need†and no torque arms? Hm. Of course, I had to wait until I got it to make any determinations. (Most of you already know where this is going, right?) Once I got the kit, and got the wheel really well torqued into the frame, I decided that perhaps the kit didn’t actually need them. Of course I still planned to add them, but checking the axle nuts every day it seemed like I was doing ok. Until today. Less than 5 miles after putting the wrench on those axle nuts again, it happened. I was starting off under pedal before getting into the throttle, as I’ve become used to doing. I got up to maybe 8 MPH and rolled on the throttle. I had a sharp turn coming and didn’t expect to exceed 13-15 MPH until making the turn and getting onto the straight. Shortly after rolling on the throttle, maybe at 10ishMPH, the axle rolled out of the (chromoly) fork. The forks bit the pavement, I bit the pavement, and the bike came up and over me, landing on the battery box/seat/rack/rider (that’d be me). Fortunately, I’m not too hurt. Some cuts and scrapes, a sprained thumb, but overall I’ve had worse. Then again, I could have a crash that resulted in waking up in an ambulance and that alone would not necessarily make it my worst, so saying I’ve had worse is not saying a lot.
Anyway, after I got up and attended some of the bleeding, I looked at the bike. The axle seemed to have wrapped the cable a couple times, but not too many times, and not tight. I had plenty of slack above a Velcro tie-strap on the forks, and it pulled the slack through the strap, and never got tight against anything else. The entire wire/hub interface looked good. I was hopeful.
I looked at the battery box. Dinged, and moved on the rack, but didn’t look too bad. I figured if I had an issue, it was probably there. The fact that it moved on the rack didn’t mean much, since it does that from normal riding @ 20 MPH when I hit rough pavement sometimes (again this is not the final rack, so that’s not a dig at the kit). All the connections even appeared OK, aside from the fact that as the battery slid back it unplugged the main power wire. Not a big deal. Now I just had to get the bike the rest of the way to work.
Once at work, I connected everything again. Battery gauge is reading only 1 light. Bad news… I only rode 5 miles on it, and pedaled/hypermiled quite a bit. When the crash happened it was still reading 6/6 lights. I hit the throttle and the one light it had went away as the motor stutter-stepped very slowly, 1-2 MPH if I were to guess. This is where the good news starts, at least for you guys. You now get to see the innards of the thing, after a few hundred miles of riding. Mind you, I have not yet ridden in the rain (although I would have, with the controller in a bag, later down the line as part of my testing). I have had to ride on wet roads.
So, first thought was a loose connection in the battery itself. A wire to the BMS, a solder tab, a wire off the battery, something in there, right? Wrong. Opened it up and checked everything carefully. No loose connections I can find (no multi meter here, so I can’t check actual voltage). What was surprising was corrosion on the battery, as well as some moisture inside. I really don’t think this is the issue as it worked fine right up to losing the front wheel, but it was still surprising to see the amount of wet & road dirt that had made it’s way into the box. I’m thinking that in the future, sealing the openings on the bottom of the battery box or riding with fenders would be prudent. So, without further ado, I present to you the innards of the battery, including the BMS:
First pics, battery box opened up
Seeing no problems there, I opened up the actual battery. This is where we can see the corrossion setting in, but again, all the connections are still solid, much to my surprise (and somewhat to my dismay, since I think that would have been the easiest fix). I also don’t think the corrosion is the problem, since the issue started with the crash, and not after sitting overnight after riding home on a wet night or something.
So, on to the BMS
And with everything again looking solid and no loose wires to speak of, it’s time to open up the controller (which was very well sealed, and had a pretty smart design. I was impressed opening this up).
Now for the downside: I don’t know what the problem could be. The battery appears to have held up to the hit, which surprised and impressed me. There’s a lot to be said for these solid rectangular cells against each other. With so much contact area, there’s no shift (especially in a solid metal box like this one) and even though the battery box was one of the things to impact the ground as the bike cartwheeled @ 10MPH, all the solders, tabs, etc. seem to have held together quite well. The BMS also looks fine. The Controller doesn’t appear to have any issues. I’ve examined all the connections, and they all appear OK. Could be something in the actual motor/wheel, or could be I missed something in my going over the kit. The fact that the battery life indicator is reading a mostly dead batter makes me wonder about it being an issue with the motor, though. I just don’t know.
<this section edited as I found a multi meter, as told in my next post>
My primary thought on this is that for the 48V kit especially, Fusin/WWEB should really consider adding some wheel retention. Torque arms I’d assume, but something more than the supplied gear. With a better way to secure the front wheel, they would have an absolutely amazing product. The range I got was awesome, the power was always there, and the speeds were enough for me. It’s a shame it didn’t last long enough to do more testing.
I’m really disappointed. Yeah, I’m bleeding a bit, can’t really use my left thumb, and ruined some work (dress) clothes, but what I’m most disappointed about is being unable to figure this thing out. I really wanted to ride home tonight, and ride it to the motorcycle races this weekend. I suppose the fact that my primary disappointment (considering my injuries and destroyed clothes) is that I can’t ride the bike again tonight, and all weekend, says a lot. I really hope I can fix this thing. If I can, I’ll find a better way to secure the front wheel. I’m not sure what, maybe a new set of steel forks that the axle fits into better, combined with torque arms? If I can’t, I’ll miss this kit. It was only a short time, and a few hundred miles, but I already have become attached. We had plans! A mere 40 hours from now we’d have been arriving at the motorcycle races! We were supposed to ride home tonight, with me pushing the flats and downhills and the bike taking the hard acceleration and climbs! I tell you, we had plans! It’s too soon!
My first thought when I saw this kit was “48V, 1000W peak, “everything you need†and no torque arms? Hm. Of course, I had to wait until I got it to make any determinations. (Most of you already know where this is going, right?) Once I got the kit, and got the wheel really well torqued into the frame, I decided that perhaps the kit didn’t actually need them. Of course I still planned to add them, but checking the axle nuts every day it seemed like I was doing ok. Until today. Less than 5 miles after putting the wrench on those axle nuts again, it happened. I was starting off under pedal before getting into the throttle, as I’ve become used to doing. I got up to maybe 8 MPH and rolled on the throttle. I had a sharp turn coming and didn’t expect to exceed 13-15 MPH until making the turn and getting onto the straight. Shortly after rolling on the throttle, maybe at 10ishMPH, the axle rolled out of the (chromoly) fork. The forks bit the pavement, I bit the pavement, and the bike came up and over me, landing on the battery box/seat/rack/rider (that’d be me). Fortunately, I’m not too hurt. Some cuts and scrapes, a sprained thumb, but overall I’ve had worse. Then again, I could have a crash that resulted in waking up in an ambulance and that alone would not necessarily make it my worst, so saying I’ve had worse is not saying a lot.
Anyway, after I got up and attended some of the bleeding, I looked at the bike. The axle seemed to have wrapped the cable a couple times, but not too many times, and not tight. I had plenty of slack above a Velcro tie-strap on the forks, and it pulled the slack through the strap, and never got tight against anything else. The entire wire/hub interface looked good. I was hopeful.
I looked at the battery box. Dinged, and moved on the rack, but didn’t look too bad. I figured if I had an issue, it was probably there. The fact that it moved on the rack didn’t mean much, since it does that from normal riding @ 20 MPH when I hit rough pavement sometimes (again this is not the final rack, so that’s not a dig at the kit). All the connections even appeared OK, aside from the fact that as the battery slid back it unplugged the main power wire. Not a big deal. Now I just had to get the bike the rest of the way to work.
Once at work, I connected everything again. Battery gauge is reading only 1 light. Bad news… I only rode 5 miles on it, and pedaled/hypermiled quite a bit. When the crash happened it was still reading 6/6 lights. I hit the throttle and the one light it had went away as the motor stutter-stepped very slowly, 1-2 MPH if I were to guess. This is where the good news starts, at least for you guys. You now get to see the innards of the thing, after a few hundred miles of riding. Mind you, I have not yet ridden in the rain (although I would have, with the controller in a bag, later down the line as part of my testing). I have had to ride on wet roads.
So, first thought was a loose connection in the battery itself. A wire to the BMS, a solder tab, a wire off the battery, something in there, right? Wrong. Opened it up and checked everything carefully. No loose connections I can find (no multi meter here, so I can’t check actual voltage). What was surprising was corrosion on the battery, as well as some moisture inside. I really don’t think this is the issue as it worked fine right up to losing the front wheel, but it was still surprising to see the amount of wet & road dirt that had made it’s way into the box. I’m thinking that in the future, sealing the openings on the bottom of the battery box or riding with fenders would be prudent. So, without further ado, I present to you the innards of the battery, including the BMS:
First pics, battery box opened up
Seeing no problems there, I opened up the actual battery. This is where we can see the corrossion setting in, but again, all the connections are still solid, much to my surprise (and somewhat to my dismay, since I think that would have been the easiest fix). I also don’t think the corrosion is the problem, since the issue started with the crash, and not after sitting overnight after riding home on a wet night or something.
So, on to the BMS
And with everything again looking solid and no loose wires to speak of, it’s time to open up the controller (which was very well sealed, and had a pretty smart design. I was impressed opening this up).
Now for the downside: I don’t know what the problem could be. The battery appears to have held up to the hit, which surprised and impressed me. There’s a lot to be said for these solid rectangular cells against each other. With so much contact area, there’s no shift (especially in a solid metal box like this one) and even though the battery box was one of the things to impact the ground as the bike cartwheeled @ 10MPH, all the solders, tabs, etc. seem to have held together quite well. The BMS also looks fine. The Controller doesn’t appear to have any issues. I’ve examined all the connections, and they all appear OK. Could be something in the actual motor/wheel, or could be I missed something in my going over the kit. The fact that the battery life indicator is reading a mostly dead batter makes me wonder about it being an issue with the motor, though. I just don’t know.
<this section edited as I found a multi meter, as told in my next post>
My primary thought on this is that for the 48V kit especially, Fusin/WWEB should really consider adding some wheel retention. Torque arms I’d assume, but something more than the supplied gear. With a better way to secure the front wheel, they would have an absolutely amazing product. The range I got was awesome, the power was always there, and the speeds were enough for me. It’s a shame it didn’t last long enough to do more testing.
I’m really disappointed. Yeah, I’m bleeding a bit, can’t really use my left thumb, and ruined some work (dress) clothes, but what I’m most disappointed about is being unable to figure this thing out. I really wanted to ride home tonight, and ride it to the motorcycle races this weekend. I suppose the fact that my primary disappointment (considering my injuries and destroyed clothes) is that I can’t ride the bike again tonight, and all weekend, says a lot. I really hope I can fix this thing. If I can, I’ll find a better way to secure the front wheel. I’m not sure what, maybe a new set of steel forks that the axle fits into better, combined with torque arms? If I can’t, I’ll miss this kit. It was only a short time, and a few hundred miles, but I already have become attached. We had plans! A mere 40 hours from now we’d have been arriving at the motorcycle races! We were supposed to ride home tonight, with me pushing the flats and downhills and the bike taking the hard acceleration and climbs! I tell you, we had plans! It’s too soon!
Update: I was able to borrow a multi meter from a coworker. The battery is reading 0.6V, so it looks like the battery or the BMS is indeed the problem. Unfortunately I've already had it apart, and can't find any loose connections, so it looks like this may very well be the end. That hurts more than my injuries.
That hurts more than my injuries.
Rassy
1 MW
Dan, I was already a little hard on you on the other thread, so won't repeat any of that. My best guess is there is just a bad connection or the BMS broke (The BMS should be easy to replace) If the battery has full voltage, you could just bypass the BMS for a good test (just don't run the battery under 50% without a BMS). You could even recharge the battery with a lower voltage SLA charger until you got the BMS repaired. Good luck, and get those torque arms on there before riding any more.
Rassy said:Dan, I was already a little hard on you on the other thread, so won't repeat any of that. My best guess is there is just a bad connection or the BMS broke (The BMS should be easy to replace) If the battery has full voltage, you could just bypass the BMS for a good test (just don't run the battery under 50% without a BMS). You could even recharge the battery with a lower voltage SLA charger until you got the BMS repaired. Good luck, and get those torque arms on there before riding any more.
No worries on the other thread. I know I should have had torque arms. Like I said, I wanted to see how the kit held up as it came, as it was an "everything you need" kit. Even still I knew I'd tightened them more than I should have needed to, and planned to add torque arms this weekend. Ever notice how things fail right before you get around to addressing them?
Anyway, thanks for the lead on the BMS. I'll open up the battery again and see if I can find an easy way to test the voltage without the BMS. I'm not sure about bypassing it, as I'd have to jury-rig some stuff that I'd just have to un-jury-rig if I got a new BMS. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do at this point. I can have another look at the battery and see if the BMS looks like something I can replace, but even if it is I'm out of commission until I get some new forks. With fit being such a big concern, I don't know how I'd address that. I can't mail-order them in until I find a set that fits tight, and none of my local bike shops sell rigid forks of any size, much less 29er (this was on a 29er with 26" wheels, since the rest of my bikes had one reason or another they wouldn't work with the kit, be it the motor not fitting in the forks or a rear suspension bike that couldn't take the rack, etc). I need some time to think on it. At the moment I'm really, really disappointed.
dogman dan
1 PW
Uggh.... I think you may have a dead cell where the corrosion is, so check that one if the pack won't take a charge. It could have been the crash, or just the small size battery. It didn't sound like you overused it. A dud cell can find it's way into any pack, at the factory they all tested good... But after some use, the dud cell reveals itself.
Rassy said:Dan, I was already a little hard on you on the other thread, so won't repeat any of that. My best guess is there is just a bad connection or the BMS broke (The BMS should be easy to replace) If the battery has full voltage, you could just bypass the BMS for a good test (just don't run the battery under 50% without a BMS). You could even recharge the battery with a lower voltage SLA charger until you got the BMS repaired. Good luck, and get those torque arms on there before riding any more.
OK, so I took another look and the BMS was very, very easy to bypass. Simply a matter of moving a plug from one wire to another. I did this, and with the key on the battery reads 49.3V. Good to go. With the key off it reads 27V instead of 0, but as long as I unplug the battery when not in use that shouldn't matter.
So, I guess props to Fusion & worldwide electric bikes for building a battery & battery box that can take a hit like that. Looks like I need a new BMS and a new fork to be in business again. Hopefully I can get one of these BMS's, with the right connections where I need them and such. And, of course, I'm going to need torque arms and a set of chromo 29er forks that fit the axle into the dropouts nice and tight, with a good flat part to tighten to. Not sure where I can find one of those, unfortunately.
And, of course, with no BMS I don't have a good way of charging it.
Russell
1 MW
Dan K said:
Dan,
Sorry to hear about your accident, at least you are ok and that's what really matters.
The battery still sounds rather low for a 48V pack, which should be around 58.4V (at 3.65V/cell), so you should check each cell to see if you have a low one. As for rigid forks both Kona and Surly have rigid steel 29'er forks for their bikes which should work. Kona sells them right from their site;
http://shop.konaworld.com/products.php?product=-P2-Forks
While Surly parts can be ordered by most bike shops;
http://www.surlybikes.com/forks.html
Hope to see you back up and running in the future.
-R
Russell said:
Thanks.
I don’t know if the battery is fully charged or not, without the BMS I have no way to charge it. The neg. charge lead from the charger goes straight into the BMS, which I think we have determined is toast. I can’t bypass the BMS to charge without cutting/splicing wires, something I don’t want to do. So it could be one low cell, or the entire pack being a bit low. I’m not sure if I feel up to taking the battery apart again and testing each cell. We’ll see how I feel about it as time goes on. I’m not sure which side of each cell is pos/neg and don’t feel like blowing up a tester or cell either.
I know of the kona and Surly forks, and actually know the Surly fork is one bad mofo. The concern is what if the dropouts are a hair too wide, as they were on my motobecane forks?
I hope to be up and running in the future too. We’ll have to see what happens.
dogman dan
1 PW
Yeah, I kinda have to agree, a dead cell is a real possiblility. Hopefully the worldwide guys can supply you one, and a new bms. Any kind of stuff on the top of a lifepo4 cell usualy means it vented. The other cells will be ok though. A 36v bms would make it into a 12 cell pack. Pingbattery can sell you one if world wide won't.
Russell
1 MW
As long as it's exposed simply measure across each cell with a voltmeter to check the individual cell voltages.
-R
EDIT: I'd be concerned about that nasty lookin' one in the middle.
-R
EDIT: I'd be concerned about that nasty lookin' one in the middle.
Russell
1 MW
Dan K said:
Most forks are going to measure the standard 100mm between the dropouts but if this is too wide for your motor then add a flat washer to the axle on the inside of the forks.
-R
StudEbiker
100 kW
Sorry to hear about your accident Dan, but glad to hear that you are mostly okay.
