romarin123

Forgot to mention that I verified that no wires are shorted when I made test by hand. I do not know exactly how these motors work, but I would have expected that when gears are not engaging the only resistance to rolling would have come from the axle bearings. But I may be wrong. We will see how things unfold and as d8veh said I maybe worrying about nothing.

Thanks d8veh for the advice on the torque arm. Hello Jonathan75, I will make sure everything is wired correctly when I get to this point. Initial test on freewheeling was done without connection to power, manually on a wheel stand. I expected the wheel to 'freewhweel' or if you wish, to spin effortlessly when turned by hand in the 'correct' direction that is the direction in which the gears do not engage. It did not. I am in the process of building the bike and will be able to test the wheel with power. I would expect that if everything works as it should and everything is wired correctly , wheel should continue to spin for a while after power is cut of. If not, I will try to put some miles on it to 'break it in' and see if things improves. Will report then about results.

Hello again. I forgot to mention that the forks are not 'mountain bike' type (round straight tubes), but rather the 'slender' tapered and slightly curved types. I could post picture if required.

Hello d8veh Sorry I was away. I think the concensus is that I should 'break in' the wheel. So I will do that as soon as I build the thing. As for the fork, they are nothing special took them from run of the mill 20'' bicycle. They are steel , but I do not know the exact type, but no fancy lightweight alloy. I have ordered a pair of torque preventers from BMS battery, but I would welcome any suggestions on this issue.

Hello all contributors to this thread. I apologize for my broken english as this is not my mother tongue. I agree that that the term freewheel can be confusing since in english, it is in both a noun (a device) and a verb. Imagine indeed how confusing it must be to the chinese! So I made a short video to show BMs battery the problem, a picture being worth a thousand words. The wheel was clamped in an appropriate support. I tried to make it spin by hand (in the correct direction which does not engage the gears) and while it spins, it does not do so 'freely'. D8Veh your suggestion is good , but I can clearly feel the gears engaging in the 'wrong direction' and not engaging in the other direction so I do not think it is a 'stuck' clutch. Also, since it is a front wheel I cannot and will not install a cassette. Be that as it may, I got the answer from their engineer that 'Bafang motors are tight' and I was told to assemble the bike and test it. This rejoins other's suggestion to 'break in' the wheel. It will take me some time to get to that point and we shall see... I will report. Thanks again.

Hello Awol. I will follow your advice and hold before sending it back. It is the newer model with the casing held by screws so it is not a bear to open. I was told on another forum that the problem might only be that the motor has to be sort of 'broken in' for the freewheel to operate in a normal fashion. So as for now, my feeling is to get it to work electrically ( I am missing a few parts for that, among others the controller) and then see if the 'stiffness' changes. If not, I will investigate the insides and report. Thanks

Thank you Kirstins for confirming that the motor should freewheel. BMS battery is trying to convince me otherwise. Thank you also Alan for your ideas. I have checked and no wires are touching , as the motor is presently not powered and the wires are not connected. Yes I could have tried to turn it in the 'wrong' direction, but this is not the case. I made sure that I turn it in the sense of the arrow on the hub. When I turn it in the opposite direction I feel the gears engaging and it becomes of course much tougher to turn. I was told by Mr. Bruce Teakle ( he has a blog on changing gears in a Bafang motor) that there is no way to adjust the 'tightness' of the axle as in an ordinary hub. Is that the opinion here also ? Should I open the thing and explore ? Thanks for the input as it makes it already easier knowing I have knowledgeable help.

Hello all Since this is my first post, I will introduce myself: long time bicycle enthusiast which went from diamond frame, to recumbents and now wants to convert them to e-bikes due to knee problem. I own two recumbents one I built myself ( I do TIG) and a Rans Stratus LE. Now the bad stuff. I ordered a 48 v 12 ah battery and a Bafang BPM 2 motor mounted on a wheel from BMS batteries. Upon arrival I noticed the wheel was very hard to turn by hand (in the correct direction shown by arrow on hub). There is no freewheel. Upon complaining I was told by one BMS battery person 'it is built like that' and by technical support 'sorry we cannot hep you on that'. Now The Bafang BPM 2 is a geared motor and I purchased it believing it freewheels. Can anybody tell me if the BPM 2 has that feature ? Thanks