Evolution of the Electric Bike?

[Steven]

Check this link out can't wait for it to come out.
Neodymics Cyclemotor Electric Bike Conversion Kit

[Miles Hellon]

Looks like it was designed by a laboratory technician

[nigel]

Hmmm
it looks a bit baulky also it looks like it belongs to a motorcycle how ever its good to see fresh thinking

[Ian]

It reminds me of a forklift truck. It looks like charging those 4 power tool batteries could be a lot of hassle compared to what we're used to.

The cyclemotor name has been used before.

[flecc]

Absolutely not!

Using 1 HP is just brute force, not good design, and that's because it's direct drive which is definitely not the best way of making a hub motor for bikes.

Add to that the very heavy large batteries needed for that motor size and you've got something that would make an old Powabyke seem a lightweight.

Just another in the constant stream of very bad designs that the USA produces for the e-bike market. I cant even think of one really good one, the Currie and BionX being the nearest to that, but both with deficiencies and from unfinished GM and Chrysler research years ago.
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[kraeuterbutter]

just for the batteries:

@flecc:
what are "very heavy batteries" in your eyes ?

the batts he has mounted are
36V (nominal in real is 33V)
9,2Ah
weight should be around 4 - 4,5kg

its one of the few bikes that use real good batteries so
batteries where you can expect many years of use and very high cycle-rates (over 1000cycles in such a bike for sure, even when you run them down from 33volt to 20Volt or 15Volt each time of use)


using 4packs of the Dewalt-kits seems to be easy for the designer of this conversion kit,
but it is also some nonsense:

1.) you need 4 chargers, or you need to charge them one by one
2.) each pack carries his own balancer with it
--> when you remove this you can safe ~300g for each pack

balancing is not realy needed for that cells.. if you want to be on the safe side, do it maybe every 30th charging process
so: the balancer-unit should be placed with the charger in your garage and not in the bike were you have to carry it around with you

[faphillips]

I noticed from the cyclemotor video that the DeWalt 36v 2.2 ah batteries slide in to what looks like a DeWalt mounting system. I am very interested in using this battery on a Nano Brompton as I believe it will give me a range of c 7 miles at significant weight saving over the standard 7ah (2.7kg) battery and the bag that is needed to carry it.

The problem that I foresee is how to mount the battery in a reliable "slide in - slide off" configuration that the battery was intended for, to enable easy charging.

I have considered buying a complete powertool (the Impact Wrench looks best) and then cutting the powertool casing and mounting it to the Brompton front luggage frame. You can get 2 batteries, a charger and the powertool for c £299 inc VAT. DeWalt claim 2,000 charging cycles for these batteries.

Has anyone tried such a conversion? Is there a better way of achieving the same thing?

faphillips

[flecc]

Originally Posted by kraeuterbutter

just for the batteries:

@flecc:
what are "very heavy batteries" in your eyes ?

the batts he has mounted are
36V (nominal in real is 33V)
9,2Ah
weight should be around 4 - 4,5kg

My comment as in the context of the mounting kraeuterbutter, having heavy batteries incorporated in the suspension system in that way is simply ridiculous, and much lighter battery weight would be necessary to ensure safe bike handling. Something like that might work with the Nano motor and a very small LiFePO4 battery, but as it stands that's one of the daftest designs I've ever seen.
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[Leonardo]

I'm interested in faphillips's question as well. No problem in using the 33V Dewalt instead of regular 36V batteries with the Nano-Motor?

Concerning the mounting I've seen on brompton talks that someone uses the Bosch battery inside a pocket of the cloth pannier.

Did you see this youtube video of a Crystalyte 408 using a "modular" Dewalt batteries set?

[faphillips]

re leonardo's point about the Bosch battery 'in a bag'

I read that Tony Castles (He of the Nano motor) uses a 2 Ah battery directly mounted on the luggage block of the Brompton. From the pictures it looks like the Bosch powertool battery which is 36v and 2 Ah. The standard way of carrying the Nano-Brompton battery is in one of the variety of Brompton bags that mount on the front luggage block.

I was thinking of using the small Brompton luggage frame, cutting off most of the frame and mounting the DeWalt battery in the bottom half of a DeWalt power tool (bulk of the powertool removed) permanently fixed to the frame. The frame then connects to the terminals on the luggage block when it is fitted and disconnects when you lift the bag off.