Talking about the pedelec sensor on the alien kit.

[Old Timer]

I was talking to Jim today with regards what is the correct way to fit the sensor (not the magnetic plate) and he checked his made up bikes and one was with the sensor box of tricks facing the magnet disk and one was the other way around. Now we think that maybe it would work either way although I couldn`t get mine to work unless I faced the plastic box of tricks towards the magnet plate but! on my bike the gap is very large when I face the box of tricks the other way so it might have been the gap that was causing it not to work. You are governed by the bottom bracket spindle and where the square drive of it ends, if the sq drive went right up to the BB securing cap then you could get in nice and close and maybe that would work. Trying to get the magnet disk to go past the sq drive section of the spindle is difficult and of course if the disk is on the round section of the spindle it could easily spin around maybe.

Now I`m thinking, if the sensor was turned around on my bike and I managed to close the gap could I get it to work? and if so would that now change the way the pedal assist works (instead of adding more help on a fast chain wheel like mine does which is opposite to my bought built bike would it maybe change it to assist on a slow chain wheel

Worth a try me thinks.

 

[flecc]

It would work the other way around if close enough, but it won't change the power characteristic. That will remain the same since the controller is just sensing the pass rate, the direction doesn't matter.
.

 

[Old Timer]

Well! Onmebike convinced me that the only combination I hadn`t tried(having my pedelec on the left hand side) was to remove the sensor from the mounting plate and refit it with the wire coming out of the opposite end thus having the magnetic disk passing the sensor from the other direction. I found I then needed to turn the magnetic disk over so that the arrows on it now face the direction of travel (like it would have been if I`d fitted it behind the crank)
A quick test with the bike strung up in the shed was telling me that things hadn`t changed so I went out for a quick spin in the sun. Sure enough things hadn`t changed and assistance was still geared towards the faster moving crank. Now i would think that because this bike is light(as far as most E bikes go) and has a pretty high top gear that I was hitting the 15mph top limit of the assist with more ease than i would on my bought E bike. Well! I was certainly moving a hell of a lot faster that`s for sure and have to put that down to the weight of the bike and the gearing. So! pushing that bike along at quite a respectable rate (not quite Lance Armstrong mind you) with what felt like not much if any assistance and I thought "lets see what happens if I open the throttle" and sure enough the kick up the backside comes in and I`m now really moving it.(much faster than I could under my own steam at my level of fitness) and certainly above the 15mph limit.
Thinking about it more, if the pedal assist had taken me up to the speed I was finally travelling when I punched along in top gear with the throttle wide open then that in it`s self might cause a problem because you wouldn`t always want to be charging around at high speed and having the choice to use the throttle if you fancy is probably better at those high gear high speed situations.

So, nothings changed really and the Evans will be a fast commute bike or a trainer.(more head down bum up)
Where as my Powertrek will always be my bike of choice when I want to go out for a sedate ride around the lanes (suspension, disk brakes, seat post suspension, stem extender to lift those arms, full panniers and a pedal assist mode that is more or less perfect. ( maybe just a couple of more teeth on the chain ring for a slightly higher gear in top for down hill and flat)

So! Onmebike sent me out from a nice warm house into a cold shed to once again do the strip down. But I`m not upset because he was right and the more you experiment then the more you learn and if you don`t try then you don`t get

I noticed on E bay last night that Alien are offering a a 48V 1000W kit for around the same price as the 36V road legal kit!!! could that be my next project?

 

[daniel.weck]

I noticed on E bay last night that Alien are offering a a 48V 1000W kit for around the same price as the 36V road legal kit!!! could that be my next project?

Baring in mind that these are direct-drive motors, which may or may not suit your hill-climbing needs

- 48v Off Road Only Kits

 

[NRG]

OT, I reported the same about the throttle of the Alien in my 'first impressions' thread. On a full battery the pedelec will get you to about 16mph plus a little, opening the throttle gets you to about 18mph if you have the gearing to keep up.

Don't know if you noticed with the bike on the stand that the pedelec is progressive but only at very low cadence IE rotate the crank slowly and the motor cuts in, slowly up the cadence and the motor will also slowly speed up...the trouble is it reaches full speed very quickly, the ramp up is too aggressive. I have an idea on how to fix this but won't be able to try until the weekend.

 

[Old Timer]

OT, I reported the same about the throttle of the Alien in my 'first impressions' thread. On a full battery the pedelec will get you to about 16mph plus a little, opening the throttle gets you to about 18mph if you have the gearing to keep up.

Don't know if you noticed with the bike on the stand that the pedelec is progressive but only at very low cadence IE rotate the crank slowly and the motor cuts in, slowly up the cadence and the motor will also slowly speed up...the trouble is it reaches full speed very quickly, the ramp up is too aggressive. I have an idea on how to fix this but won't be able to try until the weekend.

Keep in informed please