Question about spoked hub motors

[MDG]

Hey all. Looking to possibly start another EV conversion on a Honda CA200. The bike originally has a 17” rear wheel with spokes.

QS has a 205 and a 273 motor. I’d like to have it be 72v and 3000w. Looking for a top speed of around 60 MPH.

The original wheel and hub setup is 36 hole like the QS motor.

Now for the spokes, can I simply order a 17” spoke set or does this need to be custom made? If I could relace the new hub motor to the stock rim that’d be awesome!

Any info or if anyone has ever done this and wants to shed some light I’d be very grateful.

Thanks!

 

[amberwolf]

Spokes are specific lengths depending on the hub's spoke flange diameter (more specifically, the holes), and the rim's ERD (and whether or not the rim has "dimpled" nipple holes, as that forces a specific set of angles of the spokes and means only certain lacings can work.

The ebikes.ca spoke calculator may help you with measuring to get the right spoke length, depending on what you have (or are getting).

If the measurements of original hub and new hub are identical, then you could even just unlace the old wheel, isntall the new hub lacing it up just like the old one. But it's unlikely they'll be exactly the same especially if it wasn't a hubmotor hub to start with.

 

[MDG]

Spokes are specific lengths depending on the hub's spoke flange diameter (more specifically, the holes), and the rim's ERD (and whether or not the rim has "dimpled" nipple holes, as that forces a specific set of angles of the spokes and means only certain lacings can work.

The ebikes.ca spoke calculator may help you with measuring to get the right spoke length, depending on what you have (or are getting).

If the measurements of original hub and new hub are identical, then you could even just unlace the old wheel, isntall the new hub lacing it up just like the old one. But it's unlikely they'll be exactly the same especially if it wasn't a hubmotor hub to start with.

Awesome. Easy enough! I’ve laced up a lot of old vintage Honda and BMW Moto wheels over the years and always got custom or spoke kits from Buchanan wheels. Thanks for the info and when I get the new hub I’ll check out that calculator!

 

[PaPaSteve]

Hey all. Looking to possibly start another EV conversion on a Honda CA200. The bike originally has a 17” rear wheel with spokes.

QS has a 205 and a 273 motor. I’d like to have it be 72v and 3000w. Looking for a top speed of around 60 MPH.

The original wheel and hub setup is 36 hole like the QS motor.

Now for the spokes, can I simply order a 17” spoke set or does this need to be custom made? If I could relace the new hub motor to the stock rim that’d be awesome!

Any info or if anyone has ever done this and wants to shed some light I’d be very grateful.

Thanks!

Spoke angles coming out of the motorcycle rim may be the biggest gotcha with a build like this.
The larger diameter of the hub motor somewhat dictates the spoke angle.
So the spoke angle coming off the hub may not match the spoke angle for the rim.
It might be wise to bounce this off the folks at Buchanan's.

Buchanan Spokes - Spoke Kits - Moped & Scooter

Spoke Kits - Moped & Scooter

www.buchananspokes.com