Ultimate Ebike transport

[xenodius]

Thanks for the replies. I see this is idea has interested a few so ill go more into the plans i have so far.
The plan to cross the ocean to start with is to take my bike onto a cruise ship with me. Ill be heading to either Europe or south America to start but the journey has no end place insight now. Ill go everywhere i can. Europe is the easy option for me as power is plentiful and also I have European Passport. South America sounds more fun though. Africa will be the last continent for me to travel down as i see it as the most dangerous.
Ill fit 320 cells to my bike just like others have done. 20s12p in a pelican case up front and 20s4p in the frame. Ill use the addaptto maxi controller BMS for Regen charging of the battery. For redundancy ill be taking 2 of these. This combined with the dual halls of the cromotor should hopefully not leave me stranded. The BMS and Regen charging will simplify charging to only needing a 110v/220v switchable psu. I'm also thinking of thin film solar panels for when i camp for a few days between charges.
I like the idea of the trike for comfort etc but its not the ideal transport for getting out of trouble. You can take a dual suspension bike place a trike wont go.
Schlumpf high speed drive is a internally geared crank that can increase your front ring size by 2.5. great for high speed pedaling.
The 2wd idea is good for if one motor dies. Im hoping my cromotor doesnt and having dual halls it can quickly change to a fresh set as needed. Ive even been thinking of hubmonster for this instead of the cromotor but then i lose this redundancy.
I think a smaller geared motor will not last or meet the requirements. most of the time ill be doing 30km/h but some times you got to run to save your live though.

Ive watch long way round and long way down. That you could say was some inspiration for this. That and i now have nothing keeping me where i am.

Instead of taking another hall-dependent controller as backup, I would take along a sensorless controller. So in the case that you fry your halls (yeah, I know cromotor has 2 sets, but if you get it hot enough to burn one set, chances are the other are done too) you will still be able to get around.

Thats a good point and something im thinking about. I think ill take a 12fet sensor-less controller as a back up. 3x redundancy incase of worst case scenario.

The Adaptto controller can do sinusoidal and trap sensored/sensorless.

If you use 20" rims that fit 16"moto AND 20" bike tires then you can have the best of both worlds- plenty of spares to get you to the nearest shop with puncture proof moto ties!

I think 25 mph is the sweet spot touring speed for ebikes. Emergency power is nice, though.

 

[kudos]

I know I am so going to get flamed for this... But asking which electric bike to take into hostile environments is like asking which Nerf gun is best for personal protection in a gang war.

What are the odds of getting a replacement motor in the middle of a Somali village? How's the LiPo battery going to hold up under 60*C heat in the Simpson desert - hotter if the sun is shining on it?

Guess what the US Marine Corps Use? The M1030M1 Diesel motorcycle. It can run on anything from jet fuel, kerosene, diesel or cooking oil. It has only one cylinder, and will probably run for long enough for you to get away even after a .308 has gone through the block. Any metal worker in the middle of nowhere could probably fabricate most replacement parts for it, or jerry rig something up from another diesel if you can't get parts locally.

If you absolutely, positively have to get away every time, accept no substitutes.

The only reason this bike exists is because the military use diesel for all their other vehicles.

Diesel engines are terrible for motorbikes which is why you don't see them anywhere else in the world.

Agree that keeping things simple always helps but as long as you have some redundancy modern tech is a good thing not a millstone.

Kudos

 

[d8veh]

You mentioned riding it in Europe, where there are laws about what bike you can ride without licence, insurance and test certificate. Do you plan to get this vehicle properly registered and insured?

 

[dogman dan]

He will get noticed in some places in Europe, if he rides it 60 mph much. But I doubt that is really the plan. More like gone before any cop takes much interest, and riding less noticeable speeds most of the time, to make range. 30 mph will work fine. Or less, where needed to sneak through. Riding overpowered on a commute is much more likely to get you stopped, when a cop sees you over and over.

Having seen long way round makes me want to do some long rides, but I'm too pussy to be interested in anything but USA and Canada. I'd like to do the Rockies lengthwise for example.

The one lesson I got from long way round, was your frame needs to be stronger than normal for the dirt routes. I wouldn't consider anything alloy, so you can weld it in some village in the Amazon. And forget the road of bones.

Lastly, running at 60 mph. It won't be fast enough if chased with any 4x4 by the cartel guys in mexico. But if they are on foot, 40 mph will be out of range nearly as fast. Lower the voltage and it should increase reliability, particularly with spokes and tires.

 

[Punx0r]

Ebike needs welding? Sounds like you might want to carry a few welding rods and a cable pair to connect to the main pack...

200miles @ 30mph would need something like 5-6Kwh of usable battery?

 

[Falco]

Thanks guys for the questions. Please keep them coming. I want to make sure i think everything out before i set off.
The 16in motor rims sounds good but i have already purchased 19in pro-wheels. Ill see how they go in testing in the 2-3 months before i set off. If I think then ill run into trouble ill use the 16in advise.
I'm not worried about the laws in Europe. A License is only needed for commercial purposes. Ill be traveling and not for commercial purposes. I have a legal mode for the bike if i need to go to the cities. Ill try to avoid that though. I wish to see the world and meet people, not see the cities. most of this trip will be at 30km/h to save power. 100km/h is 'max get out of here' situation.
Not sure why someone would post a diesel bike on a ebike forum. I thought we all agreed that ebikes are the future and far better at everything. I wont go into war zones by choice but it would be insane to think i wont get caught up in some sort of commotion as i travel. I just want to be prepared for the worst case.

Great news that the adaptto controllers can run sensor-less. I must have missed that. Looks like i wont need a 3rd controller after all.

Thanks kudos. Hope this inspires you to not let your dreams slip by. We only get 1 life to chase them after all.

I'm not sure ill need a battery of 5-6kwh. Ive been riding ebike as my sole transport for 1.5 years now. I seem to average 5-9wh/km unless i get to hills. Im thinking a 2.2-3kwh battery will suffice. I plan to make the cells in the battery easy to swap out. Ill be using 18650 cells due to the ease of finding them and the variety for different situations and power requirements. Meaning i could use 50c 1.1ah rated cells for drag racing or 2c 3.4ah cells for max range.

I think ill use this thread for the build also which should start soon. If people have more wisdom on how to help me create the the ultimate ebike transport for this situation please share before i set off.

Best regards,
Falco (free like my favorite bird)

 

[recumbent]

You've got us all revved-up for adventure. Personally I'd go long wheel base recumbent with front fairing. most of them are made of chrome moly steel, which is essentially spring steel, and they are 7 feet long. Perfect for long distance rides, they hold lots of cargo and have the most comfortable seats in the world. I ride all day and still feel just fine. Try saying that with that thing you sit on now. You will gain an extra 10 km per day just from the efficiency in aerodynamics. Good luck man.

 

[dogman dan]

A steel bent does make sense. If you build your own frame, it can be anything of course. My bike is more for grocery getting than anything. So I wanted tall enough to see over car hoods in the city. But I did build with carrying camping gear in mind too. I built it before my health got ruined, thinking a week of riding would be possible at some time, and hopefully some day an entire summer.

In Europe, you won't be so far from a welder when you need it. But even in Europe, crack that alloy frame and you are going to be riding what you can find in that town.

In the third world, lots of guys have the welder from the truck alternator setup. But you could easily weld with your battery pack if you must. Nor will you need to go 100 miles per charge, though that kind of range will be nice. 2kwh would be the max size battery I'd carry in Europe. That should be about 60-100 miles of range, depending on the speed. About the max amount of saddle time, at 30kph. You will need more range in other places, where you might ride 3 days to get to another plug. Like Mongolia, or parts of Africa. Consider this, if you blow your range running in a place like that, you are walking. So maybe a folding solar panel will be a must then, even if it takes days to charge you up.

I like 30 kph/18mph. Just about perfect for my longer rides on the frankenbike. Slow enough to really look around while I ride, yet not quite so slow I never get anywhere. By 40 kph, on the 150 pound bike with horrible aero, it just costs too much range to go that fast. I get about 20wh/mi on the flat without wind. So call it at least less than 30 wh/mi in windy weather. If you have that big a headwind, stop sooner of course.

 

[RonRobbins]

Thanks for the replies. I see this is idea has interested a few so ill go more into the plans i have so far.
The plan to cross the ocean to start with is to take my bike onto a cruise ship with me. Ill be heading to either Europe or south America to start but the journey has no end place insight now. Ill go everywhere i can. Europe is the easy option for me as power is plentiful and also I have European Passport. South America sounds more fun though. Africa will be the last continent for me to travel down as i see it as the most dangerous.
Ill fit 320 cells to my bike just like others have done. 20s12p in a pelican case up front and 20s4p in the frame. Ill use the addaptto maxi controller BMS for Regen charging of the battery. For redundancy ill be taking 2 of these. This combined with the dual halls of the cromotor should hopefully not leave me stranded. The BMS and Regen charging will simplify charging to only needing a 110v/220v switchable psu. I'm also thinking of thin film solar panel for when i camp for a few days between charges.
I like the idea of the trike for comfort etc but its not the ideal transport for getting out of trouble. You can take a dual suspension bike place a trike wont go.
Schlumpf high speed drive is a internally geared crank that can increase your front ring size by 2.5. great for high speed pedaling.
The 2wd idea is good for if one motor dies. Im hoping my cromotor doesnt and having dual halls it can quickly change to a fresh set as needed. Ive even been thinking of hubmonster for this instead of the cromotor but then i lose this redundancy.
I think a smaller geared motor will not last or meet the requirements. most of the time ill be doing 30km/h but some times you got to run to save your live though.

Ive watch long way round and long way down. That you could say was some inspiration for this. That and i now have nothing keeping me where i am.


Instead of taking another hall-dependent controller as backup, I would take along a sensorless controller. So in the case that you fry your halls (yeah, I know cromotor has 2 sets, but if you get it hot enough to burn one set, chances are the other are done too) you will still be able to get around.

Thats a good point and something im thinking about. I think ill take a 12fet sensor-less controller as a back up. 3x redundancy incase of worst case scenario


The Adaptto controller can do sinusoidal and trap sensored/sensorless.

If you use 20" rims that fit 16"moto AND 20" bike tires then you can have the best of both worlds- plenty of spares to get you to the nearest shop with puncture proof moto ties!

I think 25 mph is the sweet spot touring speed for ebikes. Emergency power is nice, though.

These bikes are still not popular in the market.. Main reason is the less efficiency.. If these bikes become more efficient and covers good amount of miles they are worth..

 

[GiantEV]

Any updates?