New Build. DH comp. Advice and suggestions please!

[damon]

hey everyone. So I was originally going to try and do up a bmx with your help, but I've just very recently acquired a different bike that I think I'll go with instead.

The bike is a 2006 large giant dh comp.

I was thinking about going with the 450w gng kit with a 48v 10ah or 15ah battery from ping. I was considering lipos, but as I'm a noob, thought I'd avoid that monster.

I'd like to get her going as fast as possible with some good hill climbing ability.

Do you guys think this would result in a good setup? do you have other suggestions based on your experience?

I will use the bike for a commuter, but I also want to hit the trails with it, and get into downhill. I live in north vancouver and work at the bottom of the hill. going home is all uphill, about 5 miles. and the trails here are second to none.

here is the bike..

 

[dogman dan]

I can't see anything wrong with that plan. Except that dirt tires wear out fast on pavement. A small price to pay for a fun bike that gets you places too.

Nice frame, lots of good space for the battery.

 

[damon]

will the 15ah battery give me much of a performance boost over the 10ah ping battery?

 

[waynebergman]

HI Damon

Nice bike you have there. I have rode the North Shore trails since 1985 and I also have a Giant DH so I think I can relate to what you are wanting to do. I have a learned a bit since I put my first e-bike together that I wanted to use for both trail and street duty that I will try to pass on in a nut shell. I don't wish you to make the same mistake I did with hopes of a DD hub working in the trails unless you go for big battery support and the right wind for the job. Also note that a geared hub motor like the mac will climb well but you will beat it to a pulp if riding it hard on the trails you are most likely to see on the North Shore if its used as a hub motor (different case if it is used as a mid drive). I am new to the mid drive stuff but it is the only way to enjoy the bike you have,if you are going to be keeping the weight down and still be able to crash through the bumps. My Giant is already heavy before the conversion and I am glad I went with a 48v system. If you have gears and keep the bike under 80lbs with battery I think you will be happy if you find the mid drive that will work for you. The Cellman 48v 14.3 ah pack will fit in your front triangle and this is a huge bonus. With this pack you should be able to run 1800 watts if you have an effecient mid drive system in place. There are lots of choices out there for mid drive and I only want to say, make sure you go mid drive if you stick to only 48v which I feel is a good compromise unless you want to go super fast. I look forward to seeing your bike come together. There are not that many electric trail riders around the Sunshine Coast where I am now, so it would be good to get together for a ride when you get it up and going.

 

[dogman dan]

10 ah is not more power than 15 ah, its just more capacity. Amps is more power, not amp hours.

10 ah ping, don't run much more than a weak 15 amps controller.

15 ah ping, you can run 20-25 amps controllers.

Run a 40 amps controller, you'll ruin a ping really fast. So if you are looking for 3000w, you can't do the pingbattery. You need a battery with a better discharge rate than the ping cells.

I should have said earlier, that real fast doesn't always mean it climbs hills well. If you intend to run up really steep hills on a pingbattery, then you need a motor that climbs good, but sacrifice the speed.

I could go on all day about the combinations possible. But the best way still using a pingbattery would actually be two bikes, two motors, one battery.

One bike has the slowest version of the Direct drive motor from Em3ev. That's your climber, and it will do it well, with a max speed of 20 mph. It will tolerate climbing steep hills as slow as 10 mph, so pedal to keep that much speed up.

The other bike would have the fastest version of EM3ev's dd motor on it. Or a similar one from Yes.com.

The third good way to go fast and climb hills great is still that slow dd motor from EM3ev. But now you run it on 72v with a 40 amps controller, likely using lipo. Now you have 30 mph, and climb like mad. That's your fun bike that does both.

I have two of those, one of them with an even slower motor, that climbs like crazy. But in a way, the really fun one is the 30 mph version.

 

[damon]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Yes I'm pretty much decided on mid drive.

waynebergman, thanks for the advice, would you recommend the cellman over the ping then?

definitely we should go for a ride when I'm through this...

 

[damon]

alright, so upon hours and hours of reading, I'm starting to think I just want to go with a hub in the rear wheel. I don't want to spend too much time on this first build, and get something that can remove my car from the picture for daily commuting as soon as possible. after I get this build out of the way, I think I'd like to build my own frame during the winter. I think I will probably go with wayne's advice and get a cellman battery, the 50V 14.35AH. I'd like to focus on just building a good commuter out of this dh comp. so which hub would work the best for me? I know the bike is heavy, and with the 5 mile hill on the way home from work.... and considering this battery, which do you guys think? geared? DD? I don't need to be able to go super fast, but around 25 mph would be nice. I'm thinking of using a 24 inch rim on the back and leaving the 26 on the front. either that or both 24.

thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Sokol]

alright, so upon hours and hours of reading, I'm starting to think I just want to go with a hub in the rear wheel. I don't want to spend too much time on this first build, and get something that can remove my car from the picture for daily commuting as soon as possible. after I get this build out of the way, I think I'd like to build my own frame during the winter. I think I will probably go with wayne's advice and get a cellman battery, the 50V 14.35AH. I'd like to focus on just building a good commuter out of this dh comp. so which hub would work the best for me? I know the bike is heavy, and with the 5 mile hill on the way home from work.... and considering this battery, which do you guys think? geared? DD? I don't need to be able to go super fast, but around 25 mph would be nice. I'm thinking of using a 24 inch rim on the back and leaving the 26 on the front. either that or both 24.

thanks a lot in advance.

Hi Damon - I was in a similar situation to you a year or 2 ago & decided to go for Cellman MAC 10T. Considering you are getting the battery from Cellman anyway, it would make sense to combine your purchase. Paul (Cellman) is an excellent vendor who offers excellent products and after sale support. The 10T will give you heaps of torque, 50V will get you to 25mph (at lest I do on a26in rear wheel) and is super efficient being a small/light geared hub. I have treated mine pretty rough and have had about 4000kms with no issues at all! (Only issue was some connectors melting a little, but that was easily fixed).

Hope this helps.

 

[kfong]

My trail ride is still going strong, I'm running a BMC motor V2T. Still using the green composite gears, the purple ones are stated to be even stronger. As long as the wattage level isn't too high, they are reliable. I jump mine all the time, I've been breaking spokes regularly, but that has nothing to do with the hub motor. The replacement sapien spokes are not breaking. I should really respoke the hub instead of slowly replacing the cheaper spokes. The MAC is a copy of the BMC, most parts are interchangeable. I don't know if the quality is the same though, but I've been very happy with my setup and even bought a backup BMC motor. Doesn't look like it will be needed, but the last thing I want is to waste any trail riding days. 3 seasons of trail riding and lots of crashes, setup is still very reliable. Tire flats are the only things I have to deal with and regular maintenance. Adding a Fox 32 front fork to it this year, love the setup and it's relatively quiet, which was the main reason for me. Can't be announcing myself in parks which state no motorized vehicle on bike paths.

 

[Sokol]

My trail ride is still going strong, I'm running a BMC motor V2T. Still using the green composite gears, the purple ones are stated to be even stronger. As long as the wattage level isn't too high, they are reliable. I jump mine all the time, I've been breaking spokes regularly, but that has nothing to do with the hub motor. The replacement sapien spokes are not breaking. I should really respoke the hub instead of slowly replacing the cheaper spokes. The MAC is a copy of the BMC, most parts are interchangeable. I don't know if the quality is the same though, but I've been very happy with my setup and even bought a backup BMC motor. Doesn't look like it will be needed, but the last thing I want is to waste any trail riding days. 3 seasons of trail riding and lots of crashes, setup is still very reliable. Tire flats are the only things I have to deal with and regular maintenance. Adding a Fox 32 front fork to it this year, love the setup and it's relatively quiet, which was the main reason for me. Can't be announcing myself in parks which state no motorized vehicle on bike paths.

Sounds exactly like me - especially the spokes breaking - but like you said, that's not the motor (actually says it can handle rough treatment well!)... And they (the spokes) are easy to replace. I've never touched my MAC and it runs just as well as it did a year ago (maybe a touch louder, but its definitely not loud).