<-- Updated my profile.
The voltage of the battery and controller is 36v. The battery is a LifePo4 I got from an eBay seller from China. Nothing too special. I did do quite the browsing and feedback review before eventually buying it. I avoided duct tape batteries. All in all, the careful selection paid off as I've had the battery since after I left my previous job back in the middle of last year and thus far and it has held up great with no noticeable drop in speed/range.
And older battery box I built had a battery meter, but this meter was designed for SLAs (which was the previous battery I had before this one) and was quite inaccurate for my new Lithium battery chemistry. I would have a feeling the battery meter on that throttle I bookmarked would have the same issue. Thus I just use the odometer on my bike to keep track of the miles I travel and from that I knew when I have to recharge. On the very first test run with the battery, I ran it till the BMS hit the safety cut off so that I can get an absolute range. From that the bike went 13 miles. So I took off 3 miles and thus decided 10 miles is the range I take the bike to before recharging. Though now that I've upgraded to a 500watt controller (I had a 350 watt controller at the time I first bought the battery), I may want to bump off a mile or two. So I will probably start recharging it on the eighth mile now.
To put this in perspective, I only got about 5 miles tops out of my older SLA batteries which were close to 40+ pounds in weight and after about 2 to 3 miles it would start to slow down noticeably. The new battery sticks to a high speed through about 70% or so of it's range, then the top speed on first gear drops by about 1mph or so. It doesn't drop to 15MPH till about 90% of it's used up capacity, by that point I know I should really put it on the charger pronto but I rarely take it that far.
This was long before I had migrated the ebike parts to the current bike which has rear and front suspension. The SLAs would never be able to go on the seat post rack I have now since it would be too much for the rack/seat post to handle.
As for the throttle, it's the same one I've had since when I first got the ebike parts to start out with back in November 2011 I think so it's really starting to show it's age. Here's the photos I took of my ebike as it is currently configured. (I took these just 30 minutes ago)
http://imageshack.us/a/img577/3075/20130530194740.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img708/6025/20130530194619.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img822/9391/20130530194612.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img694/7610/20130530194527.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img441/4403/20130530194514.jpg
Don't get too concerned about that duct taped area near the throttle. Underneath all that are twist on wire connectors (I don't know exactly what they're called, they are typically found connecting wires together on ceiling fans and such but the ones I use are smaller) sealed by hot glue to make them permanent and water proof, so it's water tight and it's been like that for months now with no issues.
So even though the current wire setup is stable, I still want to get the new thumb throttle with the proper length wires. Also, as for the thumb shifter, it has a push button which I use to shift to higher gears as I get faster. (in the photos the button is not present since it wore out and fell off, but that little white pole in the center still functions and that's what I press now to get it to shift) I just use my thumb to shift it back to first gear after I've gone through the gears and such and need to slow down. Probably need to buy a newer shifter at some point. I am currently not employed, so I can't really buy new parts and can get small things once a month or so. I'm surprised it has held up for so long without having to buy something expensive to fix it.
The bike gets a top speed of 18 MPH on first gear just about anywhere I go in town. I get 22 to 23MPH on second gear, third gets me 26MPH, and close to 30+MPH on 4th. Mainly the only times I can hit 4th gear is if there is a slight downhill or if the wind is helping me. But in 90% of my travels, I can get to 2nd gear most of the time and 3rd gear half the time. The new 500 watt controller improved this by a lot. Before when I had the 350 watt controller (have been using the same motor for all of this) I could only get to 2nd gear most of the time and rarely able to get 3rd and when under a heavy load at near the top RPM, the motor RPM would fluctuate by a bit which seems to be something to do with the current limitor in the controller. That old controller was just crappy, so I have since upgraded to the newer one.
My mounting bracket for the motor has it mounted in the area under the kickstand mount underneath the frame. In one photo you can see that I had taken a Dremel and removed some material on the rear fork on the right side in order to get the bracket to line up in parallel with the crank gear since the motor cog needs to line up with the crank cog pretty closely for it to behave well and not jam/derail the chain.
A while back I had made a thread asking about any left side bottom bracket cups that are slightly longer then normal. But that never panned out, thus was forced to make the adjustment on the other end of the bracket where it meets the frame. It's been like that for awhile now and doesn't appear to have compromised the metal strength since it has not flexed or bended thus far. I don't live anywhere near the mountains have rarely take this bike off road, so I don't think it will ever become a problem for me.
Also, due to how the pivot is positioned for the rear suspension, I can't really use the mid mount kits that have the mounter mounted near the front between the frame and the front wheel, thus the reason I'm stuck having the motor mounted where it is now. As long as I keep the chain lubricated, I don't have any issues with the chain. Typically if the chain gets too sticky, the chain makes a grinding noise when I accelerate and won't stop till I drop throttle and pedal a little be to take out the slack. The chain has the habit of sticking to the motor cog a little too long and chain can actually drop down and hit the bottom screw mount of the cover plate that holds the motor to the bracket and also holds the chain stay in place. The chain stay/tensioner originally was a cheap 10 tooth gear similar to the ones derailleurs use.
But the chain hoped off it quite often when ever it started sticking to the motor cog too long so I just went and got a larger roller type originally for ATV/MTB moterbikes. So now the chain doesn't have anything to derail off of, and the pulley is near indestructible, so if the chain ever does jam up, it won't destroy the chain pulley and I just pedal with the motor off to unjam it. If it's really jammed, I move the bike backwards instead of pedaling. But now that I got it lubricated well (West Texas dust storms can really gum things up occasionally) it has yet to even start that grinding noise and is working well.
I think the motor has almost 2000+ miles on it thus far. I've had it since near the end of 2011. After I stabilized the rig with a mid-mount bracket instead of the rear side mount bracket, the motor has seen consistent use since June/July of 2012. The kit was originally a rear mount system that only got me one speed for the motor. The bracket was too soft and started bending under the torque. Probably should have gotten the mid-mount system in the first place.
Now that I'm out of a job, if the battery or motor ever bites the dust, I won't really ever be able to fix it. I might be able to eventually replace the motor after a few months, but if the battery dies on me, that's the end of my ebike adventure. Just don't see ever being able to drop $300 into a new one. So hopefully it will last me another year or two (not sure how long it's supposed to last. It's already out lasted my SLAs by a lot). It's already survived through it's first winter, so it's running great thus far.
EDIT:
Forgot to mention that the freewheel crankset was not something I got from GNG. I order that off the sikebikeparts website as the shipping from GNG was too expensive for me at the time I got the new mid-mount bracket to convert the kit over to a mid-drive system. The pedal cranks, freewheel adapter, chain guard, and crank axle were acquired from that site. The bolts that hold the 36tooth crank cog to the freewheel have since been replaced by new ones from my local Wal-mart as the threading on the originals got stripped and the bolts kept getting lose which could get dangerous and jam the crank cog with the right side pedal and cause the motor to transfer the torque into the pedals suddenly (one end of the bolt would stick out too far and hit the pedal crank). It would be just as bad as the freewheel freezing up suddenly. One day I started hearing a knocking noise and felt the pedals jerk a little with every chain wheel revolution. At the time I thought the freewheel was about to fail, so I paid close attention to it as I got home. As soon as I felt it jerk, I pulled my feat off the pedals real quick. Good thing I did, because the loose bolt fully engaged the crank and the pedals were spinning at the full speed that the motor was driving the chain! That could have probably taken out my ankles can cause a whole mess of other troubles if I hadn't been paying attention to it! So I got all those bolts replaced real quick. Turned out the freewheel was fine. Phew!
My next worry is the seat post, It's starting to sag from the weight of the battery. (probably from hitting some bumps on the road) and I have already rotated it around and reversed the seat and seat rack to get it back up. (It sagged down far enough that the tire was hitting the seat post rack when ever hitting a small bump).
If it sags down again after I had rotated it, I will get it replaced. Last thing I need is for that whole seat and seat rack assembly to snap off while I'm riding it. That would be a million times worse then having the crank freewheel suddenly seize up. The battery is only 14 pounds, but I suppose hitting some bumps a little too fast can put some serous g-forces on that seat post with the battery/rack swaying up and down from bumps I hit.
Bike is starting to rack up some serious mileage, so just like an old car, some things are just going to start failing on me. But as long as that motor and battery holds up, I won't have any major problems.
