Hub Battery

[Cyclezee]

Does anyone own or have experience of a bike with a hub battery. The one in the attached photo is a Chinese bike made bike with a 250w Tongxshin front hub motor and and a NiMh battery in a rear hub casing. The total weight is claimed to be 25Kg A Li Ion battery is due soon.
Wonder what the pros and cons are of this layout

John

 

[flecc]

I've never ridden one, but the Tidal Force bike uses the same arrangement.

The main and possibly only benefit is the low centre of gravity, but the disadvantages are the difficuty of access and the fact that batteries cannot be swapped when one runs out, so you'd have to wait for a charge before going out again.
.

 

[Cyclezee]

I've never ridden one, but the Tidal Force bike uses the same arrangement.

The main and possibly only benefit is the low centre of gravity, but the disadvantages are the difficuty of access and the fact that batteries cannot be swapped when one runs out, so you'd have to wait for a charge before going out again.
.

Yes Flecc, I was also wondering about all that rotating mass on the back wheel plus the motor on the front wheel Once it gets rolling and up to speed, would normal brakes be able to stop it, or would it end up in orbit
As for a spare battery, all you would need would be another wheel with built in battery and sprocket set, easy
I do like the concept, but just can't think why at the moment

John

 

[Jeremy]

I think the only advantage is that of removing the need for battery storage space on the frame. It will increase the momentum in the wheel, which may give the sort of odd effect I've noticed with the stability of my recumbent with the heavy hub motor. I doubt that it makes any difference to braking, as that's really a function of total bike weight and speed.

Overall I can't really see a good reason for doing it, if going to those lengths I'd be inclined to want to put the batteries inside the frame, rather than the wheel.

Jeremy

 

[Grizzly Bear]

Yes Flecc, I was also wondering about all that rotating mass on the back wheel plus the motor on the front wheel Once it gets rolling and up to speed, would normal brakes be able to stop it, or would it end up in orbit
As for a spare battery, all you would need would be another wheel with built in battery and sprocket set, easy
I do like the concept, but just can't think why at the moment

John

Hi John
the battery doesn't rotate, the hub revolves around it, I use a separate spare battery pack on my carrier and just swop plugs.

Griz

 

[keithhazel]

i bought an upland, battery in back

i had one,i bought an upland folder a few months back on e-bay off a guy saying he bought a container load from china, first one he sent by error was someones return, second one the power went on and off and on and off...shame as had the 36 volt power i want, rather a cheap design and no comfort, i got nice design and comfort in my synergie folder but no umph....

 

[giguana]

putting batteries on both sides of the back wheel is great for manoeuvering, but inside might do some weird stuff to the batteries by centrifugal force. if it is well-designed it could be very good, but the upland is supposedly nonsense and doesn't have a fuse, which is a pretty silly waste of 20 pence.

 

[Grizzly Bear]

Hi All
have a look at what I did with an Upland 26 visit MY E-BIKE the bike weighs 23 kgs, these are old photos by the way.

I can report it handles really good, I can pedal it easy as there's no resistance from the motor, and it goes well (18mph without me assisting). Last weekend I re-celled the hub battery with high discharge 10000mah batteries, and used the original 8000mah (yes they are not 9000 as advertised) to make a spare battery pack.

Griz