steps to further protect and maintain an ebike kit.

[ebikenoob]

I think the subject line pretty much explains my what I'm after, but a little back story I have a ebike kit installed and running well. With the amount of riding I plan on doing it's only a matter of time before I get caught in the rain. What can I do to weatherproof my kit?

 

[mlt34]

It really depends on your kit. Which one do you have?

Generally speaking, splashing with water won't cause too much of a problem, I've ridden in the rain a ton. A couple things you can do are filling the back side of your connectors with silicone or hot glue and ensuring you have a drip loop in the wires to your motor. Also, make sure the wires to your controller exit down and not up. If they exit up, water will run down the wires and into your controller.

A bigger problem than water getting into stuff is water STAYING in stuff. Some guys wrap components or connectors in cling wrap. Not only is it impossible to 100% waterproof this way, but it also means any water that works it's way in will not be able to get back out and will corrode things even worse.

 

[electr0n]

I spray the inside of my hub motor with some anti rust lubricant and periodically crack the side cover open to let any pooling water out. I cover my throttle with a plastic bag. I've settled on soldering most of my connections rather than using connectors, this alone has increased my reliability a lot. I have the wires entering the motor in a drip loop and my controller is under my seat with the wires going down and it's covered in electrical tape. I haven't had a water related problem since I started soldering my connections over a year ago.

I'm not too concerned with rain anymore. Just take some reasonable precautions and your ebike components will far outlast the bicycle components, at least that's been my experience.

 

[d8veh]

To keep water out of the motor: Make sure that the cable exits downwards so that water doesn't run down it into the motor. On many motors, the disk fixing holes run right through into the motor. If yours are like that, seal them with something like Threadlok or silicone.

To keep rain off everything else, where a cape (poncho) instead of waterproofs. Everybody in China wears capes, and they're the biggest cycling nation in the world, so they must know what's good. Capes are much more comfortable than waterproofs. They cover your bike so everything is kept dry.

 

[Ykick]

For connector junctions I employ scrap inner tube technology:


Now, I'm always on the lookout for thin road tubes, a middle size and large 2.5" diameters, LOL....

 

[motomech]

Aside from the rain, here is something we all should be doing:
Several times a year, go over the whole bike, checking all the fasteners for tightness.
I was having a little trouble shifting and when I looked at it, the derailuer was ready to fall off.
A lot of fasteners could be treated with Loctite as well.

 

[ebikenoob]

Thanks for all of your tips and suggestions. These are very helpful.

 

[cal3thousand]

Scrap inner tube is a great idea. There's so many things you can do with old tubes that I will NEVER throw one out.