Hello,i just bought a Sun seekere Eurus recumbent trike and It's been a long time since I've put any thought into electric bicyles.I'm wanting to go with a geared hub motor for the front wheel and I'm not really sure What's out there on the market nowadays.Would someone have any recomendations for a hub motor to purchase.Thank you.
Need buying advice
- Thread starter Jae
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docw009
1 MW
Sunseeker sells your bike with what looks like a relatively big direct drive motor, so you can just do what they do,
Looks like 20" wheel, so you're looking for a 100mm front motor. You could get a direct drive, but I prefer geared motors. It will be best if your fork is steel, but a careful install will work with alloy forks. Forks are more liable to fail when they are alloy. A knowledgeable seller will offer you a higher rpm motor for the smaller wheels.
Amazon has a bunch of direct drive 20" motot kits and a few geared motor kits, all around $200. I don't like any of them. he geared kits use a simple 3 level PAS that I've owned. It's very crude and I wouldn't recommend it.
Enikes.ca in canada will sell you a nice Bafang G310/311 assembled in a 20" rim , bur the total package gets to be expensive. I have converted four bikes with 20" wheels, one of them front drive, and I used the Q100H geared motor on all four. Like the G310, it has a high internal gearing and mine will pull a 300 lb total load. I like KT controllers/displays so I buy everything ala carted, spokes, rims in the USA to save on shipping, everything else from CHina. It also allows me to use 48V as an option. Most of the 20" wheel kits are set at 36V.
Looks like 20" wheel, so you're looking for a 100mm front motor. You could get a direct drive, but I prefer geared motors. It will be best if your fork is steel, but a careful install will work with alloy forks. Forks are more liable to fail when they are alloy. A knowledgeable seller will offer you a higher rpm motor for the smaller wheels.
Amazon has a bunch of direct drive 20" motot kits and a few geared motor kits, all around $200. I don't like any of them. he geared kits use a simple 3 level PAS that I've owned. It's very crude and I wouldn't recommend it.
Enikes.ca in canada will sell you a nice Bafang G310/311 assembled in a 20" rim , bur the total package gets to be expensive. I have converted four bikes with 20" wheels, one of them front drive, and I used the Q100H geared motor on all four. Like the G310, it has a high internal gearing and mine will pull a 300 lb total load. I like KT controllers/displays so I buy everything ala carted, spokes, rims in the USA to save on shipping, everything else from CHina. It also allows me to use 48V as an option. Most of the 20" wheel kits are set at 36V.
999zip999
100 TW
Can we see more details of your bike. As there are a few different models and years. Maybe a few pics and a current link.
Grin or ebikesca.ca the same company . They have a spoke calculator. And sell cut spokes of high quality for your needs. You can also buy a cheap $220 kit everything but the battery and then you can buy a quality battery which is the hard of the system. And always gives us the most problems.
Where are you located as shipping costs add up.
How fast do you want to go do you have a lot of hills what is your steepest hill ? Will you be riding on dirt trails.
Grin or ebikesca.ca the same company . They have a spoke calculator. And sell cut spokes of high quality for your needs. You can also buy a cheap $220 kit everything but the battery and then you can buy a quality battery which is the hard of the system. And always gives us the most problems.
Where are you located as shipping costs add up.
How fast do you want to go do you have a lot of hills what is your steepest hill ? Will you be riding on dirt trails.
Chalo
100 TW
Ebikeling makes easy plug and play kits starting at under $400 (not including battery) that don't require a lot of puzzling things out. The ones I've installed look like Bafang G020 clones, but they offer several different motors.
Note that because you have very little weight on the front wheel, you don't need (and can't use) very much torque. Your small 20" front wheel will exaggerate the tendency to break loose on acceleration. So you won't need much power if you don't want to go fast, and if you do want to go fast, you should do it with elevated voltage and not elevated controller amps. A front motor kit intended for granny trikes, like the one from Ebikekit, won't be quite right for your trike, with more torque than you can stick down but lower speed than you might otherwise be able to use.
To be honest, if you want something optimal for your specific trike, you may not find it as an integrated kit. If there is a suitable complete kit it's probably intended for folding bikes. But in that case you need to be careful not to get a motor that's too narrow for your front fork.
Chalo
100 TW
You could also use a chain reduced shaft motor to the rear axle. That wouldn't give you variable gearing benefits, but it would spare your pedal drive the punishment and accelerated wear that crank motors dish out. And you can amend the gearing to suit your use case, just not on the fly.
docw009
1 MW
I thought of that just not sure if i want to go down the road of any fabrication at the moment. Only one wheel is driven and there are 2 seperate axles.Doesn't look like it would be too bad of a job to get a sprocket on the non driven side.
docw009
1 MW
You would probably see wheel slip if there's loose gravel on a hill with a front drive.
Mid drives would work nice on your bike. For me the electrical install is a lot easier too. No controller box or pedal sensor to rig, The expense is not much more than a hubmotor,
A Bafang BBS02B on 48V is reliable and fast. A Tongsheng TSDZ2 is less money, half the power, and more prone to mechanical wear, I have a BBS02B and two TSDZ2 conversions. The latter are like British MG. Low power so you have to shift,. Fun but tiring for high speed and can fall apart. The BBS02 is more like a modern automatic car,.
999zip999
100 TW
Where are you located makes a big difference of suppliers and batteries.
Get a decent battery it's the heart of the bike.
Maybe you can find a mid-drive bike for a test ride if in your neighborhood or an a front wheel drive. To try out
It could be a different model just as long as it's a trike.
Mid drive sounds interesting but you need a torque sensor interrupt to be easy on your chain.
Get a decent battery it's the heart of the bike.
Maybe you can find a mid-drive bike for a test ride if in your neighborhood or an a front wheel drive. To try out
It could be a different model just as long as it's a trike.
Mid drive sounds interesting but you need a torque sensor interrupt to be easy on your chain.
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I might investigate tomorrow what i would have to do to put a sprocket on the non driven rear axle.The only limitation is the diameter of the sprocket Can't be too big.If i could get the gearing right maybe something like this.
999zip999
100 TW
I like it. It might be noisy ??? In the USA ???
And it's more E.S. than I have seen in a while.
At that price you could buy a cheap front hub kit.
Now make a cardboard box the size of the battery you are looking at to see how it would fit before you buy.
And it's more E.S. than I have seen in a while.
At that price you could buy a cheap front hub kit.
Now make a cardboard box the size of the battery you are looking at to see how it would fit before you buy.
The specs say it’s geared:
MOTOR BRAND:
Electric Bike TechnologiesMOTOR TYPE:
Front-Mounted Geared HubMOTOR NOMINAL OUTPUT:
500 wattsMOTOR PEAK OUTPUT:
1000 wattsMOTOR TORQUE:
45 Newton metersIt looks big in the 20 inch wheel
Yeah,i keep going back and forth.I listened to one of those rickshaw motor kits and the noise is really something I'm not sure i want to deal with.So I'm back to either mid drive,geared or direct drive hub motor.I have never had or ridden an ebike so i really have no idea what to expect from those three options except that the direct drive should be near silent.I'm aiming for quiet and i really Don't know how much more noise a geared hub or mid drive makes.
999zip999
100 TW
The noise goes down on a direct drive and or a geared motor if you use a sine wave controller compared to a square wave controller. I like D.D. motors ,but I'm 72v 60amps 3,000 watt Mxus. Heavy but fast . Weight shouldn't be a problem because you're not lifting that thing up and put it in the back of your car or truck ?
I know mine's Overkill but how fast do you want to go and what's your steepest hill and longest. As this what builds heat in a motor or mud soft sand or deep snow. Anytime you're lugging the motor it's making heat.
How are you going to use this how much speed and distance do you want ?
E-HP I saw that video and that 58 volts the front tires spin the first time you took off but it's the thing how to get used to you know.
I know mine's Overkill but how fast do you want to go and what's your steepest hill and longest. As this what builds heat in a motor or mud soft sand or deep snow. Anytime you're lugging the motor it's making heat.
How are you going to use this how much speed and distance do you want ?
E-HP I saw that video and that 58 volts the front tires spin the first time you took off but it's the thing how to get used to you know.
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If you want silent, an FOC or other sinewave controller with a DD hub will give you as close to that as you can get.
But, depending on your terrain, speed range, usage, riding style, weight of you and trike, winds, etc., it can take a bigger battery and controller to provide the extra power required to do the same job a smaller (but noisier) middrive system can do (if the MD is going thru your shiftable-gear pedal drivetrain).
It might take less power for a smaller geared hubmotor than a DD, depending on the motor, wheelsize, etc. But the geared hubmotor, unless it uses helical gears (not many do) it will be louder in a small wheel for the same speed as it will in a larger wheel, for the same hubmotor winding/design, though it will give more torque.
Most of the systems aren't all that different in overall noise, but depending on your goals some of them are probably unacceptably loud. It's really hard to tell from videos/etc how loud something actually is. The smaller the motor is, the faster it has to spin, and the more it has to be geared down, to give you the same power level that a bigger motor could give directly.
If you want to see how some of this works, you can take your info on terrain, etc to the simulators at ebikes.ca and experiment with the preloaded parts to see what it takes to do what you want to do under your conditions. Takes a bit to learn how it works, but the instructions below it should help with that.
But, depending on your terrain, speed range, usage, riding style, weight of you and trike, winds, etc., it can take a bigger battery and controller to provide the extra power required to do the same job a smaller (but noisier) middrive system can do (if the MD is going thru your shiftable-gear pedal drivetrain).
It might take less power for a smaller geared hubmotor than a DD, depending on the motor, wheelsize, etc. But the geared hubmotor, unless it uses helical gears (not many do) it will be louder in a small wheel for the same speed as it will in a larger wheel, for the same hubmotor winding/design, though it will give more torque.
Most of the systems aren't all that different in overall noise, but depending on your goals some of them are probably unacceptably loud. It's really hard to tell from videos/etc how loud something actually is. The smaller the motor is, the faster it has to spin, and the more it has to be geared down, to give you the same power level that a bigger motor could give directly.
If you want to see how some of this works, you can take your info on terrain, etc to the simulators at ebikes.ca and experiment with the preloaded parts to see what it takes to do what you want to do under your conditions. Takes a bit to learn how it works, but the instructions below it should help with that.
docw009
1 MW
In your situation, the heavier DD motor is an advantage because it improves traction and will eliminate noise. ALso lotsof kits avaialble for $200.
I have a front geared motor that resonates badly with an irritating buzz. I filled the fork with structural foam which helps a bit. There are some tradeoffs with that. Some writes say it won't cure in the middle. Others say that if it cures, it will trap water and rust the steel. Oh well. I was going to fill the rest of the frame (alloy) with foam because the pedals buzz.
I have a front geared motor that resonates badly with an irritating buzz. I filled the fork with structural foam which helps a bit. There are some tradeoffs with that. Some writes say it won't cure in the middle. Others say that if it cures, it will trap water and rust the steel. Oh well. I was going to fill the rest of the frame (alloy) with foam because the pedals buzz.
Yeah i was thinking the same thing about the DD being advantage because of weight,I'll never be taking this thing off pavement so That's not a concern at all. I do want pedal assist because i still would like to get some excercise while riding.Is there anything i should look for or avoid with the pedal assist?
How much DIY do you want to do in matching up the wiring, connectors, etc? How much research do you want to do on parts compatibility?
The right kit should just connect up and work (assuming there are no settings to configure).
Separate parts may have completley different wiring, connectors, etc., and require figuring out which wires do what, so you can then match them to other parts of the system that do those things, and you may have to replace some or all of the connectors (and make sure you wire them up correctly).
Note that the more customizable a system is (whether separate parts or a kit), the more settings you will have to make sure are correctly set for your parts and riding situation, etc., before it will work either at all, or at least the way you want it to.
The less customizable it is, the easier it is to setup, but the less adaptable it is to different needs...as long as you already know it works the way you want, that doesnt' matter.
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Wiring should be no problem if connectors Don't match.I've done plenty of that kind of stuff.How much DIY do you want to do in matching up the wiring, connectors, etc? How much research do you want to do on parts compatibility?
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