This motor, which seemed to have a short life as a US product, is being sold here again as a kit. Anybody have any recent experience with it? If this post should be combined with others on the topic, please incorporate. I didn't see where to do a search.
Xiongda
- Thread starter fos'l
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Deleted member 4366
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IMHO, they're the best ebike motor you can get. The winch-mode (low gear) gives unbelievable torque. 30% inclines are no problem - even for heavy riders. In normal operation, they're almost totally silent. these comments relate to the 48v version at 15 amps. If you get the 36v one, you should adjust the current up to 20 amps to get the same performance. Mine's done 4000 miles now and is still going strong.
They have a couple of drawbacks, so not for everybody. Firstly, they don't like to be pushed backwards. that's not a problem for a bicycle, but just about everybody that installed one in a trike or recumbent bicycle, broke theirs. The problem comes when the double clutch jams, which then induces massive torque in the ring gear. That's enough to break it. It happens when paddling the bike/trike backwards with weight on it. You can't really do that on a bicycle unless it's too small for you. With no weight on it, the wheel skids if the clutch locks, so no damage will be done.
Secondly, they're wide because of the double clutch. That means that they can't be used for disk brake suspension forks at the front, and you have to stretch your frame a bit to fit the rear one with a disc brake. Stretching the frame is not normally a problem, especially if you have a steel one, but I think most people find that idea a bit scary for some reason.
Lastly, though not such a problem and possibly fixed now. When supplied, the early ones chattered a bit when giving high torque. The first one I had was solved by adding more grease to the gears and clutch, but after 1000 miles is was chattering again, so needed greasing again. The one I have now came after they changed something to solve that, but I greased it up anyway as a precaution before I installed it. Now, I can feel the chattering coming in high gear on maximum power at low speed. It's not problem yet because I wouldn't normally use high gear and high power at low speed. It's certainly not enough for me to want to open up the motor again just yet - maybe in another 1000 miles or so.
Unless you really need that winch-mode, the Q128 is a simpler and more versatile motor. At 48v, it can go up to 20 amps or more, which gives it 33% more torque and power than the Xiongda in high gear, so the single gear is sufficient to get a heavy rider up most hills. It would be overkill for a not heavy rider.
They have a couple of drawbacks, so not for everybody. Firstly, they don't like to be pushed backwards. that's not a problem for a bicycle, but just about everybody that installed one in a trike or recumbent bicycle, broke theirs. The problem comes when the double clutch jams, which then induces massive torque in the ring gear. That's enough to break it. It happens when paddling the bike/trike backwards with weight on it. You can't really do that on a bicycle unless it's too small for you. With no weight on it, the wheel skids if the clutch locks, so no damage will be done.
Secondly, they're wide because of the double clutch. That means that they can't be used for disk brake suspension forks at the front, and you have to stretch your frame a bit to fit the rear one with a disc brake. Stretching the frame is not normally a problem, especially if you have a steel one, but I think most people find that idea a bit scary for some reason.
Lastly, though not such a problem and possibly fixed now. When supplied, the early ones chattered a bit when giving high torque. The first one I had was solved by adding more grease to the gears and clutch, but after 1000 miles is was chattering again, so needed greasing again. The one I have now came after they changed something to solve that, but I greased it up anyway as a precaution before I installed it. Now, I can feel the chattering coming in high gear on maximum power at low speed. It's not problem yet because I wouldn't normally use high gear and high power at low speed. It's certainly not enough for me to want to open up the motor again just yet - maybe in another 1000 miles or so.
Unless you really need that winch-mode, the Q128 is a simpler and more versatile motor. At 48v, it can go up to 20 amps or more, which gives it 33% more torque and power than the Xiongda in high gear, so the single gear is sufficient to get a heavy rider up most hills. It would be overkill for a not heavy rider.
Thanks again; already have BBS02 and Yamaha "middies". The new US version has been manufactured for 48/52V and is interesting (to me) to see how it assimilates steeper MTB terrain. Also, wanted to build it fairly light using a 20 pound GT as a platform, and a three pound 52V, 7 a/h battery. Really surprised there's not more interest in the UK since it might be excellent for your legal limits. If you haven't looked lately, your thread on ES is 70 pages and growing.
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Deleted member 4366
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The 52v Luna Mighty Mini battery has some limitations, especially the higher capacity version. The 6AH one can manage 30 amps for short times, but gets very warm. It's much better for a bike on the road, where you don't need so much power. The 7AH one has more capacity, but less current. For off-road riding, where you might want max power for hill-climbing, I think I'd go up to a 14S3P battery, which should be happy at 30A continuous.
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