llile
1 kW
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2010
- Messages
- 457
If you check the sig at the bottom you can find a link to my Trike construction project. It's a big, heavy machine, dual motors in the two front wheels, started with a 40 AH 72V LiFePO4 battery from EM3EV, then added some Lipos as the range fades out on the original. I think I have about 7000 miles on it now and it's still a great ride. 35 MPH tops, 50 mile range, wieghs 500 lbs with my skinny ass on it, as long as I keep it under 30 it is technically still legally an E-Bike according to the laws of the State of Missouri and if I keep it under 20 MPH allowed on the wonderful Katy Trail rails-to-trails system. It is about 49" wide at the wheel bolts.
Fast forward several years and the world is now catching up with us E-Bike hotrodders. My big trike is starting to get outlawed on some local trails in a nearby trail-happy city, and is definitely outlawed on most other state rails-to-trails systems. The Trike is a great road bike and really rocks for touring around on asphalt. It keeps right up with traffic in town. But it isn't going to allow me to do many trails and eventually it will be banned everywhere except the streets. Many of the trails I'd like to travel and try out are now saying that one must have a PAS, and keep the E-bike under 20 MPH to be legal on trails. They all allow trikes AFAIK, but trikes over four feet wide might raise eyebrows, and I've had some near wrecks on crowded trails with two-way traffic. I think it's time to get my big bike off the trail system, before I ruin it for everybody.
I've embarked on building a smaller trike, about Catrike sized, with PAS, a tiny little 250W hub motor, but able to use some of the same batteries and other kit as my big trike. I'm hoping also to have up to 100 miles range at 14 mph, able to haul a snack and some water if I'm on a short trip or pull a bob trailer if I'm on an overnight. I want something I can pick up (The current trike cannot be loaded onto a pickup truck bed, at least my efforts have failed) but still have the comfort of a recumbent trike. I don't want fast, I want high efficiency. I'd probably get better efficiency with a stokemonkey, but I let my buddy use that kit. His bike regularly doubles the efficiency of my big trike in watthours per mile.
Recumbent is the way to go for an old geezer like me. No more buttbusters! Once I went recumbent, I never looked back, and once I tried to put heavy batteries on a two-wheel recumbent, and fought the balancing act, I built a trike and never looked back to two wheels. I rode thousands of miles (One particular year I logged 4000, without a motor!) on a standard two-wheel bike when I was a young lad, but those days are long gone and good riddance to the sore butt.
One of the junkers I have laying around is a Curry folding e-bike, converted to hub motor. I've used this on some traveling expeditions, it's stealthy enough to not attract attention, but as a ride it is terrible. Uncomfortable at best, when I've let others try it out they said "no thanks" after a couple of miles. As a folding bike it is also terrible, heavy steel, heavier still with a motor and batts. Worst of both worlds. I'm scrapping it out for parts for the trike build.
Fast forward several years and the world is now catching up with us E-Bike hotrodders. My big trike is starting to get outlawed on some local trails in a nearby trail-happy city, and is definitely outlawed on most other state rails-to-trails systems. The Trike is a great road bike and really rocks for touring around on asphalt. It keeps right up with traffic in town. But it isn't going to allow me to do many trails and eventually it will be banned everywhere except the streets. Many of the trails I'd like to travel and try out are now saying that one must have a PAS, and keep the E-bike under 20 MPH to be legal on trails. They all allow trikes AFAIK, but trikes over four feet wide might raise eyebrows, and I've had some near wrecks on crowded trails with two-way traffic. I think it's time to get my big bike off the trail system, before I ruin it for everybody.
I've embarked on building a smaller trike, about Catrike sized, with PAS, a tiny little 250W hub motor, but able to use some of the same batteries and other kit as my big trike. I'm hoping also to have up to 100 miles range at 14 mph, able to haul a snack and some water if I'm on a short trip or pull a bob trailer if I'm on an overnight. I want something I can pick up (The current trike cannot be loaded onto a pickup truck bed, at least my efforts have failed) but still have the comfort of a recumbent trike. I don't want fast, I want high efficiency. I'd probably get better efficiency with a stokemonkey, but I let my buddy use that kit. His bike regularly doubles the efficiency of my big trike in watthours per mile.
Recumbent is the way to go for an old geezer like me. No more buttbusters! Once I went recumbent, I never looked back, and once I tried to put heavy batteries on a two-wheel recumbent, and fought the balancing act, I built a trike and never looked back to two wheels. I rode thousands of miles (One particular year I logged 4000, without a motor!) on a standard two-wheel bike when I was a young lad, but those days are long gone and good riddance to the sore butt.
One of the junkers I have laying around is a Curry folding e-bike, converted to hub motor. I've used this on some traveling expeditions, it's stealthy enough to not attract attention, but as a ride it is terrible. Uncomfortable at best, when I've let others try it out they said "no thanks" after a couple of miles. As a folding bike it is also terrible, heavy steel, heavier still with a motor and batts. Worst of both worlds. I'm scrapping it out for parts for the trike build.