The Ultimate GoPed ESR1500 Build

[2Phast2Delirious]

Which scooter project should I complete next?


1. Schwinn Stealth S3000 52v 22AH 50A (hub motor): Dual motor conversion and hydraulic disk brakes for front and rear.



2. Schwinn Stealth S2000 48v 20ah 20a (hub motor): Upgrade 750w controller to 2000w, rear hydraulic disk brake conversion (Wifey's)





4. Go-Ped ESR750 EX 48v 15ah 1500w: High-end ebike controller, new deck, custom grip tape, headlight, horn, misc. goodies



4. Varla Eagle One: 60v conversion, Apollo V3 upgrade, misc goodies.

 

[ESR_RSE]

Go Ped is likely the only company that you can order each nut/bolt/sticker/etc for the last 30+ years. USA based and I like to support them.

 

[2Phast2Delirious]

Go Ped ESR750EX it is, I'll update the progress soon (48V 20AH lithium 2-speed 35A controller 35mph, +30 mile range max)!


However, I'd like to share my love/hate feelings with the Go-Ped business...
Back when I was a teenager/young adult, I owned a few Go Peds (BigFoot, Sport, ESR750 Hoverboard, ESR750EX, and Evo Powerboards), but I haven't supported them in a while. I think they overcharge for what they offer. In addition, before the recent scooter boom, Go-Ped filed numerous bogus lawsuits against every foreign maker of gas or electric scooters entering the country. They had plenty of money to burn, time to waste, and excellent attorneys. Many foreign quality scooter manufacturers (China, Taiwan, Korea, & India) didn't have the time, money, or knowledge to deal with the litigation and ceased all attempts to do business with the US. Go-Ped continued doing this for at least 20 years while maintaining the dominance of the gas/electric stand-up scooter market in the US. Karma came around—they lost a $27 million lawsuit filed against them, which led them to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Long Live the King, lol jk.

Go Ped Suing overseas
Go Ped Sued for $27 million
Go Ped Blocks Overseas Scooters from entering the US


I have the following good things to say about Go Ped:

Go Ped was what sparked my interests in stand up scooters (almost 20 years ago).
USA based, family owned and operated for +30 years. Excellent customer service A+.
The Frames and Decks are made inhouse. Quality frame (but poor outdated design IMO)—the welds are always on point.
As you indicated, any part can be purchased separately (bolts, nuts, stickers, etc).
Extremely devoted clients. The majority are OGs who have been Go Pedders for +20 years.
Owning a few Go Peds raised my awesomeness by at least three points as it was view as a toy for the rich kids (at least where I was from).

 

[ESR_RSE]

From what I've read Steve Patmont was just defending their registered patents to stand up gas scooters. That was to stop the flood of copied, mass produced overseas scooters in the 90s. It takes time and money to create multiple Jigs to test and find the proper frame geometry. Someone else can just take a goped frame and then reverse engineer that R&D for nearly nothing.

Trying to sue Chinese companies is rather useless since the government there is pro Chinese. (no surprise)

Chinese companies nearly immune to U.S. lawsuits

The legal obstacles are unlikely to be removed soon, although China has pledged to curb...

www.sfgate.com

So it it really open to debate how much GoPed actually benefited from all the wasteful but necessary legal spend. I am sure Steve P would of rather not forked over funds to lawyers vs. raw materials for production.

I saw they lost a lawsuit filed by Martin Monster around the 2000s but that is since GoPed never showed up to court. (only low six figures)
They did win against some Florida woman who tried to sue for millions.

GO-PED EMPLOYEES BREATHE SIGH OF RELIEF!

(PRWEB) October 4, 2002 -- The Plaintiff demanded in excess of a million dollars from Patmont Motor Werks, but the jury gave him and his personal injury

www.prweb.com

What was the "lost a $27 million lawsuit filed against them"? Any search just brings up the dead drug addict lawsuit. GoPed was inovating from 1985 through 2005. Last thing I read was the patent on the CDLI suspension.

GoPed as a brand was sold or moved a few times if I recall correctly. (used to be in CA and then NV and now CO) The current CEO Rusty is extremely helpful. I think they do charge more than average for parts but then again where is the profit in having humans walk around a factory to grab $11 worth of washers and plastic parts. Just glad they are willing to offer replacement parts and you just have to plan on ordering a lot of parts at once to make the shipping worth it.

 

[ESR_RSE]

You have a wealth of knowledge on the different scooters since you have a variety. I am sure others can get a scooter for cheap from Amazon or Costco but likely it's heading to the trash in 2-3 years.

 

[2Phast2Delirious]

Cardio has arrived, yay! The biggest battery capacity an ESR750 can accommodate.




48v Throttle w/ Turbo button & Key ignition with LED voltage display





The brains are coming from overseas. Soon, more images!

 

[2Phast2Delirious]

Arrived. The best controller for brushed motors is this one. It is superior to an Uberscoot or EVO Powerbords.
Silly labels is for humorless trolling .

 

[2Phast2Delirious]

Yay, I just finished all the wiring! In order to make it extra convenient for myself or the next owner, I constructed a custom harness/adapter for the controller and batteries so none of the terminals need to be changed. It's satisfying to get my ESR750 operating again and better than ever because she came equipped with an expensive and outdated mobility scooter controller (early to mid 90s tech) that broke down approximately 8 years ago. The new controller has a brake cut-off switch so I will need a new brake lever from an UberScoot (Wuxing brand). I may consider headlight, taillight, and brake light. I might stick with the stock sprocket (76T) because I value torque over peak speed. With my weight (215 pounds), the top speed should be around 30 mph, however someone who weighs 175 lbs should be able to perform it at 35 mph. Range should be 35 miles on ECO and roughly +15 miles on Turbo. I wouldn't exceed +25 mph for longer than ten seconds, I'll only utilize the turbo option to accelerate quickly up hills or through semi-off-road conditions. The batteries and controller are a touch too large, so I'm creating a custom spacer deck right now.

 

[ESR_RSE]

Nice work! What motor are you using? I found the silver case brushes will melt at 36V on hills.

Where did you get the controller?

 

[2Phast2Delirious]

The customized deck spacer is now complete. I was able to finally take it for a couple test drives. a lot of fun! The only thing left is the parallel battery switcher and the grip tape with customized graphics



Wifey's old scooter build

 

[ESR_RSE]

Is that a tow ped attachment on the rear?

 

[2Phast2Delirious]

Nice work! What motor are you using? I found the silver case brushes will melt at 36V on hills.

Where did you get the controller?

It has the stock Black Top motor. Although I don't have much experience with overvolting these mobility scooter motors, I would guess that the people who burned their motor were using a powerful controller like the Kelly 24v-48v 100A.

The controller I'm using, which is made by the same company that makes Currie-Tech and Ebike controllers back in the day, has an intriguing feature where the amps will rise if you give it full throttle from a stop rather than dumping 35A instantly (which puts a lot of stress on brushed motors, especially from a stop).

Is that a tow ped attachment on the rear?

It is a tow ped attachments, indeed. Additionally, it is capable of pulling an instep trailer. The tow attachment is actually supposed to be on the left side.

 

[amberwolf]

The controller I'm using, which is made by the same company that makes Currie-Tech and Ebike controllers back in the day, has an intriguing feature where the amps will rise if you give it full throttle from a stop rather than dumping 35A instantly (which puts a lot of stress on brushed motors, especially from a stop).

That's usually called "slow start". Sometimes instead it is "throttle ramping" when it is more generally applied to all throttle commands.

Some sellers use the terms interchangeably, but they shouldn't, since "slow start" should only apply to startup or other sudden current-change-under-high-load conditions.

 

[2Phast2Delirious]

That's usually called "slow start". Sometimes instead it is "throttle ramping" when it is more generally applied to all throttle commands.

Some sellers use the terms interchangeably, but they shouldn't, since "slow start" should only apply to startup or other sudden current-change-under-high-load conditions.

I appreciate you explaining the terms because I had no idea, hehe. We always value your input here. Given how quickly my scooter performs, I'd definitely refer to it as a "smooth start" or "soft start".


Stay safe, healthy, and positive!

 

[ESR_RSE]

I wish I could configure the Go Ped ESR controller for the "amp ramp"!

 

[amberwolf]

THe Cycle Analyst could be setup to do this, and if you wanted a wattmeter, speedo, odo, etc., it could be worth the price and the time to set it up.

Or you can create a device that does that with an arduino nano, pic, etc. Depending on how you want the "amp ramp" to work, you need two analog inputs (to sense throttle input and battery current) and one analog output (to create throttle output to controller) on the MCU, and an instrumentation op-amp to read a current-sensing shunt placed in the battery negative wire. If you would also like it to be speed based, so it only activates at specific wheel RPM range(s), you need one digital input to read a wheelspeed sensor (to make this sensor more accurate, install more magnets on the wheel).

 

[ESR_RSE]

Very cool. I love Grin Technologies. Their charger is what I use. I'm using ultra cheap $4 speedometers already that are good enough for around town.

The ESR controller has no issue with a proper battery with sufficient amperage support. I just need to wait until better cells are around for the strange battery pan size. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[2Phast2Delirious]

I have an awesome ESR mod. It makes more sense to switch the turbo wires with the power (turbo on the fly). Starting in ECONO and switching to turbo may help lengthen the life of your motor. It also adds some theft prevention because most people won't be aware of the new power switch in the back. My entire fleet of scooters must be key-operated.