Going with my chain drive decision I purchased the 500W single chainring kit from Cyclone Taiwan. The main reason I went with them over the USA dealer is that even with the $100 shipping it was still $100 cheaper to buy direct. One disadvantage is that the kit doesn't come with the break levers that kill the motor, so if I get stopped and the cop knows to look for it I may get a ticket. If this happens, I'll just buy the levers from the USA dealer for the $22 he has them for and get the ticket fixed.
The single chainring is more "stealth" than the 3-chainring kit due to it's ability to be mounted between the cranks and rear wheel rather than on the downtube. I didn't want my motor to be out there for some loser with a wrench to take it while it's locked at the school. Now some of you might be thinking "He's crazy, they're still gonna see it and jack it." But here's the rub, I already have to take my quick release front tire off and there's this nice brick wall behind the bike racks. By positioning my bike parallel to the wall and locking my front tire OVER the motor, it will be nigh impossible to reach.
On to the POWER. Spurred by the enormous amount of good forum response at V is for Voltage, among others, to Ping from pingbattery.com I purchased his 24V 20Ah LiFePo4 battery for a mere $400ish with shipping. Lithium is the way to go with a 500W system, so sayeth the Cyclone-USA people. Plus it has the advantage of somewhere between 2000-3000 charging cycles. If I take care of it, the battery will last many years.
The total kit weighs about 18.5 pounds, much better than the 30 something I would have been dealing with had I gone with SLA batteries on a smaller motor. Although that would have saved me about $300 with the initial investment. However SLA batteries only have between 300-500 charge cycles so the investment over time is higher.
I am considering this exact system for my mtn bike, not sure what the total price is yet cuz I have to pay to have it installed. Other option is to buy an all in one off the shelf. I plan to petal but need help up hill due to phys limitation so it has to do well on the hills - should I spend more for 900 w or will that just drain the battery faster?
ReplyDeletewell, the 900W system requires a 36 volt battery as opposed to a 24 volt. If you compare a 24 volt 20 amp hour battery and a 36 volt 20 amp hour battery with their respective motors the running time is about the same. You would be able to go faster on the hills, my top speed on a 6% grade is about 12 mph. The downside to this is the motor AND the battery cost more, so you'd be looking at a higher initial investment. It's also a bigger motor so you would have to mount it in front of the pedals and the motor controller is separate. This means more wires and more possible points that someone could damage your system if you leave it locked outside. Those are the main points you should make your decision on since the 500w will be more than enough for most cases. If I had to do it again I would get the 3 chainwheel kit, I could probably go up 8 or 9% grades with that and a 500w motor.
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