I picked up a 24v Lee Iacocca EVG Ebike

[cor]

BTW, I did not get my packs from Ebay as I noticed that Leaderhobby has a sale going on with the lower-C (older type?) packs on half-off sale. I payed $31.67 instead of the usual $63.33 per 10Ah 4s (14.8V) Li-Poly pack. Both Bullistorm 15C and Transmetic 10C packs have this price as far as I can see, but they are almost sold out.
I do not know what made me order the Transmetic 10C instead of the Bullistorm 15C, they look like a better deal (higher discharge) now that I look better, but apparently I was tired or excited about the deal (with dwindeling stock) so I ordered what I thought was a good thing. We will see what turns up. I am surprised by the high shipping costs, as my 4 packs cost only $126.68 total but the minimum shipping charge for the 4kg weight was about $55 making the total $182.
Still this would mean a $0.31 per Wh incl shipping if the cells meet capacity. We will see.

 

[cor]

The 60t chain ring that was on Ebay is removed because it is no longer available - meaning that it sold locally. Pity, it looked like it would be a winner and finally allow me to stay off the smallest freewheel sprocket.
Even with a 48t front chainring, which is already pretty tall, the EVG rides so smoothly that I can ride easily without straining on the smallest 14t freewheel (max gearing) even some overpasses I am able to stay in the highest gear *without* assist. With the 11-32t freewheel that should arrive soon from SD bikes, I will be able to get higher gearing but as soon as I install my battery pack and use assist, I will probably want a taller chain ring.
So, I will keep my eyes peeled for a 56 or 60t chain ring. I also saved the front derailleur from a MTB frame that I sold, so that I will be able to change front gear when I install a bracket to hold that derailleur, since the EVG does not have the normal down tube. Another project, just what i needed

 

[Hillhater]

Hi Hillhater,
Not sure if I read it right, but it seems that just about every of the cheap batteries had some issues being discharged anywhere near rated spec?
Or did I not read it right? ....
Let me know if I did not read the thread correctly.

The summary of that thread is...".keep clear of Leaderhobby's battery offers ! "
..you will most likely be disappointed either with the delivery, quality, performance, or life span !
There is a reason why most of us have settled on the Hobby king , Turnigy or Zippy packs, after much testing.

 

[cor]

Hi Hillhater,
OK that clarifies. I will send an email to Leaderhobby to see if I can cancel my order.

 

[cor]

Leaderhobby had not shipped my order yet and asked if I wanted "Store Credit". I asked them to refund my Paypal instead, to which they said to check my Paypal in 2 days. We'll see.
Still considering which batteries to buy that will give me configurable 30V or 60V.
Got no answers yet on PM to batteries for sale section...

 

[Ian]

Leaderhobby had not shipped my order yet and asked if I wanted "Store Credit". I asked them to refund my Paypal instead, to which they said to check my Paypal in 2 days. We'll see.
Still considering which batteries to buy that will give me configurable 30V or 60V.
Got no answers yet on PM to batteries for sale section...

If you still deliberating, it might be worth considering ping packs as - while heavier than lipo and not flexible like lipo - they will last a long time and very easy to use and charge, and of course you don't have wiring and charging issues. For instance, you could fit a 36v 15ah ping in the battery bay, then add another 24v or 36v 15ah on a rear rack for either 60v 15ah or 72v 15ah. I have the 20ah packs as I mentioned earlier and set my CA for 27amp peak. A couple times I have run the pack to the full 20ah, just going real easy the last couple of AH, and have not experienced LVC. For the 15ah packs, would 1c continuous and a peak of say 25amps be sufficient for your needs? You would be able to use the full 15ah probably is one bonus, while still getting longevity.

Another option might be the 36v 15ah ping pack in the bay, and add a lipo pack on a rear pannier in series for whenever needed. I'd like to try the hyperion lipo one day, but they are very expensive compared to the hobbyking turnigy brand.

4 years back I put a batteryspace 36v 13ah nimh pack in the bay. It fit perfect, a step up from the SLA bricks - but I sure wish I'd have gotten a ping even back then, would have been much better, and about the same price!

great to have a thread on the ol' evg bikes - they are endearing - howabout some picture posting? - I will post a pic of mine this week

 

[cor]

Leaderhobby came back to me today with an apology that their system does not update during the day, so they had already shipped my Li-Poly packs out and gave me a tracking number. So I guess that I am stuck with 4 presumably 14.8V 10Ah 10C packs. I will certainly test them when they arrive!

 

[ez-Ebike]

More progress today - I rigged my auto crank puller to pull off the stock crank, and installed a 52T up front. By using some 1mm washers and shaving a little bit off the plastic body mount, it looks like it will clear everything just fine and allow the battery box to still serve as a chain guard.

Now I'm just waiting for my tires, airbrush paints, and batteries to arrive. This is so much fun, I can't thank you guys enough for all the helpful tidbits offered here.

By the way, does anyone know the voltage that the controller outputs to the taillight, headlight, and horn? Are they kept at 24V in the 24V bike, or are they stepped down? Also, what is the current draw of the headlight at that voltage, if you know.

One more question. What does the dial on the bottom of the button cluster on the left handle bar do? It looks like a rheostat, but I can't determine anything about it from my multimeter testing. I've determined what all the wires do from that cluster except for two...

 

[cor]

More progress today - I rigged my auto crank puller to pull off the stock crank, and installed a 52T up front. By using some 1mm washers and shaving a little bit off the plastic body mount, it looks like it will clear everything just fine and allow the battery box to still serve as a chain guard.

By the way, does anyone know the voltage that the controller outputs to the taillight, headlight, and horn? Are they kept at 24V in the 24V bike, or are they stepped down? Also, what is the current draw of the headlight at that voltage, if you know.

One more question. What does the dial on the bottom of the button cluster on the left handle bar do? It looks like a rheostat, but I can't determine anything about it from my multimeter testing. I've determined what all the wires do from that cluster except for two...

Hi Erik,
The 24V battery is connected through a separate (glass) fuse on the controller's motherboard to the lights and horn. That means that even if the controller is not on, the lights still work. (The power section of the controller has a separate relay controlled by the key switch)
That is also how I plan to upgrade the stock controller - take care of the internal power supplies and FET/diode specs, but feed the lights with a 24V supply so that they don't see the higher voltage.
I am not aware of a dial, only light switches, horn, Economy/Normal power switch. Do you have a picture?
You are not talking about the throttle - on my bike that is a thumb-controlled lever on the right side.
Good that you finally got the crank arm off - mine dislodged itself after jumping on the pedal a few times after loosening the inside bolt a few turns, then
taking the bike for a short hard ride. (I have no crank puller)
Nice that you were able to position the chain ring so it stays inside the battery box cover, that reduces the amount of cutting.
Success!

 

[ez-Ebike]

That's good to know. Since that halogen light seems to be an energy hog, I might as well just switch to a different light source. I was really hoping I could get everything working at 12V anyway.

The dial on the left looks JUST LIKE the throttle on right side, oriented down, with the throttle pedal off. I don't have a picture of it at the moment.

Well I hit a snag. While I got my 52T pulley to fit on just perfect, turns out the new crank arm that goes with that pulley is too close to the chainring. It's unlike the stock EVG crank arm which has quite a bit of clearance relative to the chainring. I noticed this after putting the whole battery box on with the pedal. I don't want to cut a semicircle that covers the radius of the entire crank arm! I'm still trying to replicate your method:
i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff455/cor_van_de_water/111218_002.jpg

It seems every online bike shop has a hundred specifications that you don't need on a part, and zero that you do need.

 

[Ykick]

Leaderhobby came back to me today with an apology that their system does not update during the day, so they had already shipped my Li-Poly packs out and gave me a tracking number.

Why am I not surprised? Leaderhobby's building quite a reputation the past week or so...

 

[cor]

While I got my 52T pulley to fit on just perfect, turns out the new crank arm that goes with that pulley is too close to the chainring.

Hi Erik,
I used just the chainring and preserved the stock EVG crank arm.
The EVG crank has a small 5-bolt pattern that you may be able to drill into the new chainring if it has 5 spokes.
Alternatively, you can keep the stock 33t chainring and use it as spider, it has 5 bolt holes in about 110 BCD, I had to ream them a little outward to fit the new 48t chainring that I cut off a cheap mountain bike. (I sold the frame and wheels separately and made money on that bike after removing the chain rings...)
Success!

 

[cor]

Erik,
I mean - you have a choice of either bolting the 52t chain ring directly to your stock chain ring on the original crank arm, because the 52t is so much taller than that original, there is no interference of the stock chain ring to the 52t when mounted directly on top of each other.
Alternatively you can use two standard 1/4" washers which should give you 1/8" offset between the chain rings and this should be just enough to allow the chain to run on either chain ring, so you have two gears in the front.
However, you will need to extend you chain with at least 2 links to allow the chain to run on the 28t freewheel and the 52t chain ring, so I am not sure if the rear derailleur is still able to keep the chain taut when you go to the 14t freewheel when running on the stock 33t chain ring with the extra chain links inserted...

 

[ez-Ebike]

Thanks for your help Cor. I found 5 automotive 9.8 grade bolts I had lying around that fit perfectly through the stock 33T and into the 52T. It has the perfect clearance now! Also, I went ahead and ordered a new chain. The old chain was pretty beat up.

My tires came in today, and I greased up the DNP 11T freewheel, and attempted to finally install the hub motor. Major problem #2: The tire is rubbing against the left chain stay. It is so bad the tire will not rotate. Looks like I'll have to expand the rear drop out area. I'm thinking of using a car jack to do this. Weird because:
-I know others have used the yescomusa 500w (some use the 1000W) motor on these EVG bikes.
-many have used the DNP 7speed 11T free wheel on both the yescomusa motor and the EVG bike
-People have used 2.15 tires on the bike and the yescomusa motors.

I'm wondering if I should cut the small horizontal piece of metal that joins to the two chainstays, so that when I spread the dropouts the bend will occur closer to the seat tube. Using the metal tube that goes over the axle provided by yescomusa, I had to put two washers on the right side so that the freewheel would not rub against the frame. The metal tube for the other side of the axle requires an additional 10mm before it will clear the frame and allow the axle to be dropped in.

I know that these are beefy frames that can take major stress, but I don't want to mess up the geometry either. I'm wondering if anyone has tips on how they did this with an EVG frame?

 

[Icewrench]

Maybe try a 5 speed freewheel to help with clearance.

 

[cor]

If your tire of the new hub & rim is rubbing on one side, that means that it needs to be "redished", meaning that the left/right spokes need to be retuned to move the rim relative to the hub, to get it centered in the fork. Apparently the rim was spoked to allow for a narrower freewheel.
Sometimes it is enough to play with the clearance in the fork's axle mounting holes (loosen one bolt, push the rim more centered, re-tighten and then repeat at the other side).
Success,

 

[ez-Ebike]

Again, you were right - I dished the wheel and now it tracks perfectly. Went to a LBS and bought a spoke wrench, which stripped out halfway along the wheel because of its cheap metal construct. So I had to use a wrench for the rest of it (major PITA).

Next issue I found once the tire would fit in the frame, is that the flat surfaces of the yescomusa motor axle were not machined in the same plane! I was wondering why I could put in one end of the axle so smoothly into the frame, but not both! It turns out that one end of the axle has it's flat sides "twisted" relative to the other end of the axle, by a few degrees. It's enough that I can see the difference by eyeballing the wheel from the top.

I think that's a major safety issue in that the axle will not be flush against the dropouts on both ends. I contacted the LAShop and hopefully they'll be able to resolve this.

 

[cor]

Hi Erik,
Yup - I always use a small adjustable wrench to tune spokes. Not ideal but it works every time...

 

[cor]

Yesterday my EVG had its first time with Lithium batteries. It was still an emergency pack, made of 2 laptop packs that said that they were dead, but had all 9 cells good in them, so I charged each up to 12.5V (just below 4.2V per cell) and soldered them in series and connected them to the bike to have lights in the night. (I knew I had to ride about 18 miles to a friends place for dinner and back home). Wow, what a difference to the flashlight type bike lights! Finally able to see where I went as well as others (cars) no longer pulling out just in front of me.
6s3p laptop cells means that the voltage was a little low, around 23V when I measured it after running the lights almost two hours, but I was surprised that the headlight took only 400mA, this means it is about 10W at 24V.
The tail light was just below 100mA in braking (max intensity) mode and this means that each row of 10 LEDs is getting almost 20mA which is the standard spec for that type of LEDs.
Standby current for the controller (key switch off, lights off) is 17mA, which means that the 6Ah laptop pack would drain in about 360 hours or 15 days. Good that the pack now has the standard 4mm plug that is also on my LiPoly packs, so I can disconnect it when not using the bike more than a day.
Next is the installation of 10Ah LiPoly packs, I have 4 packs of 4 cells each so it will be a 8s2p (30V 20Ah) configuration, which I can later re-configure into 60V 10Ah if I trust the batteries to deliver - at this moment I am still hesitant to give them more than 1C discharge because I question the quality of some of the cells, even though the capacity is OK - the internal resistance is not.

 

[cor]

I temporarily installed two LiPoly strings (30V, 20Ah) and used the bike on my regular commute. Wohoo! steep overpasses and "launches" from red lights are now fun. I was not too careful one of the first intersections that I hit the throttle from standstill and I saw the front wheel dance in front of me, several inches above First Street instead of on the pavement... I guess that happens with a freshly charged 8s LiPoly pack that even under hard draws stays above 29V on a 24V bike.
Other than the torque at launch & hill climbs, I am not using the assist as my normal riding speed is well above the speed that the motor achieves at 30V.
That is why in future I may try to upgrade the controller to 60V and put the parallel packs in series and see if instead of only at the bottom end, the assist can also help me at the top end of speed... For now, it is great not to worry about getting tired and still having to climb or the batteries of my bike lights running low, I now can see what is in front of me and the large 50-led tail light is also *very* visible.

 

[cor]

OK, I have been riding my EVG for several weeks now and I never had such a nice bike that responds so well, even though there remain a few minor issues and wishes to improve.
Today I commuted to work (11 miles) in relatively cool morning weather after the rains during this night and this allowed me to push myself a bit without totally breaking into a sweat (I still need to sit in meetings during the workday) but I managed the ride in 40 mins with several brief stops for traffic lights (yes, I stop for a red light) and that without any electric assist (my controller is still stock so I cannot go higher than the 30-ish volts that my 8s Lithium pack is supplying now and thus at about my average 18 MPH pedaling there is no assist possible at this voltage).
I did use a good part of the charge in my pack for a climb up the Santa Cruz mountains (rise about 2600ft, 900 meters, over about 6 miles up HW 9 from Saratoga). During this climb I found out that I need to pedal-assist up the mountain as the controller starts protesting when asking it to deliver full power continuously. This is not the controller overheating but the protection it has against too long high current draw (integrating the current over time in a long time base feedback filter). The motor was cool to the touch when I arrived at the top. Jay!
Last night I tried (for the first in long time) to use the horn and with a BEEee-eee-eee-eee-eep it continued to sound several seconds after the short push on the horn button and then died. I smelled a "burned electronics" smell after the ride, rising up from the innards of the bike, so I need to open it up and check what happened. Pushing the horn button now only blinks the "lights on" LED off, as it should according to the schematic, but no sound.
My new 48t chain ring combined with the stock 14-28t freewheel remains to be a good gear ratio for flat roads, but any slight downhill and I immediately wish for a higher ratio, so I need to take some time and install my 11t freewheel.

 

[cor]

In the previous two days I had twice a flat rear tire. Not really a problem with the EVG, but simply a piece of metal on the street that cut a hole in the tire.
Even slime did not help any more. (nothing that slime can do for a 1/4" tear)
The first day I immediately took action - walked to the bike shop and got a new tire and tube.
However, I decided that the rear tire had almost no wear, so it was a pity to discard it only because there was this tear, so I tried to fix it.
Put a new tube in the old tire and did not want to see the tire pull the approx 3/8" tear further open, so I tried to strengthen it on the inside.
I have often fought with credit cards to tear them and they are very difficult to damage, or so I thought, so I bent an old credit card in U shape and stuck it inside the tire, centered for the tear.
Big mistake.
It looked fine, the tear did not get much stress, but the credit card caught between the tire and tube was not able to sustain the stress very long.
I was able to ride home (11 miles) and run an errand, but the next morning on the way to work (cool morning, with bright sunshine) after about 3 miles my rear tire suddenly deflated because, as I found later, the credit card had torn into 4 pieces and one jagged edge had just sliced into my tube....
So today I took the tire off again and patched the new tube, this time I did not try to reinforce the tire, but am simply hoping that the tear does not grow
and I can get some more service out of this relative new old-stock tire that has less than 700 miles (200 in 1999 when the bike was new and the rest in the last month or so). I have the new tire sitting in the garage, in case I need to replace it.
In the last week I bought a new, old stock e-bike for my wife. Chinese make but the frame looks nice. Unfortunately the controller died in the first half minute of riding it. I suspect that one of the 3 motor wires (it is brushless) came loose, which caused a spike and killed one of the 6 FETs in the controller. Maybe I will try to fix it and put in higher voltage & amps versions to make sure it can survive some abuse.
The EVG is continuing to go strong, I love that bike!

 

[Ykick]

The way to deal with a tear or large hole in an otherwise good tire is to apply a patch to the inside of the tire. Failure to do so may pinch the tube if it starts to poke through the opening on the tire.

Or, take a smaller smooth tread used tire, cut the bead off and install it inside as a sort of liner.

 

[cor]

THanks Ykick, great idea.
Luckily the tear is not opening at the moment - I can spot the cut when I rotate the wheel, but it is not opening itself, apparently the OEM tire is relatively good quality and I did not pump my tire as hard as I did before to avoid putting extra stress on that spot. My biggest fear at the moment is a sharp stone or other debris from the road getting caught by the tear and working its way into the tube, so a "liner" would definitely help there. Maybe I will drop by the bike shop to ask for an old tire that they trash anyway...

 

[cor]

OK, I took a piece of about 3" of a relatively new but damaged tube (that was on this same rear wheel earlier) and roughed it up with sand paper,
then also roughed the inside of the tire around the cut, applied shoo goo on both the tire and the old tube and stuck the tube against the inside of the tire.
Re-mounted the tire (taking care not to dislocate the patch) and pumped the tube hard enough to produce a decent force on the inside of the tire to press
the patch (the old tube) against the tire but not stretch the tire enough to open the cut.
Due to the pressure, a blob of shoo goo pushed out of the cut, so I was able to wipe it and get it level with the tire, rechecked after a few hours before the shoo goo was all cured and removed a new blob. The next day everything was still level and the shoo goo had cured.
Since it filled the cut, also the tire itself is glued back together and the new patch on the inside distributes the force of the tire pressure.
I pumped the tire to a reasonable max pressure and rode it with a smile due to the reduced rolling resistance and low cost fix of the tire!
After a few days commuting, the shoo goo has not shown any signs of deterioration and the tire looks as new. Jay!