Geoff Sleath

There's not a lot can go wrong with brushless motors normally. My wife and I both have similar Cyclotricity systems as do several of our friends. I'd love to have a look inside our hubs to examine the gearing and the motor but as they're working OK I'm leaving well alone. The main potential problem will be the gears rather than the motor as total immersion could affect the lubricant. I use a lot of brushless motors to power model aeroplanes and the only problems I've had on one motor was the magnets coming loose but that was years ago. 250 watts is quite modest power (most of my models are far more powerful) and with a 36/42v battery the current is also quite low. Obviously it's better to avoid riding through floods and if you do it's probably a good idea to dry out the wheel hub as thoroughly as possible.

My wife used to go to the gym on her bike. She came home one day complaining of intermittent operation and when I checked the rear rack battery housing was cracked and the connector pins were loosened. Obviously someone had attempted to wrest the battery from its rear rack mount. When I contacted Cycloticity for spares as it was impossible to effect a repair they sent us new parts FOC as the system was still under guarantee. I thought that was excellent service as it wasn't due to a manufacturing defect. Now she either walks the 2.5 miles or catches the ( free) bus. There doesn't seem to be any way of thief proofing the battery other than removing it and carrying it. Who wants to lug about a heavy battery? Geoff

I've done a lot of miles on a conventional racing/touring trike purely human powered. I always used to say that they're great for constipation on fast corners Mine was a 1956 Higgins with a differential but my wife's Ultralight Higgins was one wheel drive and on icy climbs I'd follow her and give her a nudge with my front wheel if she was getting wheelspin. We used them mostly as winter cycling transport. TWD is a huge help. Mine had a conventional diff but George Longstaff's solo and tandem trikes used a double freewheel which drove the slowest wheel rather than the fastest (as a standard diff does) but apparently works well. Longstaff trikes are not cheap and I'm not even sure they're still being made - George himself died a few years ago tragically young. I f I were to electrify a conventional (ie 700c wheels) or a small wheel trike I'd certainly opt for FWD. Driving just one wheel at the back would, I think, make for very strange handling. I don't really see why you would need to restrict the top speed below 25kph if you had pedal assist because you can't really pedal round corners anyway other than very slowly. The usual way is to lift the outside pedal so you can lean to the inside. We were lent a tandem trike for a day when we were in France and my wife got tyre marks on her back side from enthusiastic leaning. Geoff

I'm quite surprised in a way that ebikes are so popular in the Netherlands. because the riding is so easy. I suppose they help in a headwind. We've cycled quite a bit in the Low Countries and a couple of years ago we went on a CTC tour based on a barge which meant each day our 'hotel' room moved to meet us after our ride. We took our tandem which is just 2xperson powered but a friend took her converted Mercian and she didn't bother fitting her battery after the first day. She's around our age (70s) so not very young but she lives in a hilly area and got her bike converted because of that. The daily rides were quite short and leisurely (around 30/40 miles) and, of course very flat. A recommended way of seeing the country in comfort. I've ridden with a lot of Dutch cyclists of all ages and they were all pretty fit. The great thing was to see groups of older riders on a sort of club run just bowling along 2 across chatting as they went. All on typical upright machines and wearing fairly normal clothes and bare-headed for the most part. The main drawback is that small mo-peds can also use the cycle paths - at least that was once the case; it may have changed. Geoff

I hate cycle tracks which don't have the same priority as the roads they follow. I object to being required to give priority to car park exits, side roads etc when I'm following a main road. I've done many miles in the Netherlands and Flanders where cycle tracks have equal priority and that's how it should be here. 99% of my riding is on the road and has been for very many years and many 1000s of miles. Until cycle tracks are hugely improved (and without 'cyclists dismount' signs) that's how it'll continue. I don't ride on pavements normally so why should I be required to when the authorities, with little modifciation beyond a lick of paint, call them cycle tracks. Geoff

I bought a Trek FX3 hybrid a few weeks ago which I've converted to FWD electric motor. It has Shimano M315 hydraulic discs which I find both powerful and controllable. I would certainly recommend them. I would certainly avoid second hand - even new they're not expensive and I've paid a lot more for good quality caliper brakes in the past. I don't have a throttle fitted though there is one supplied with my conversion kit. That's got nothing to do with the brake levers but with the fact that there's insufficient room on the handlebars because of the shape. I assume you have a frame set with disc brake braze-ons. I wouldn't advise using bolt-on clamps at least on the forks. Forks with disc brake braze-ons are relatively cheap - certainly cheap if you value your safety. Brakes are not an area worth economising on in my experience. btw I didn't bother with adding motor cut switch equipped brake levers even before I had the Trek. The levers are poor quality and if I'm braking I'm certainly not pedalling (does anyone have motor assist single fixed?) Geoff

Thanks, Colin. With the very unseasonable (ie warm) weather we had last week I knocked up about 100 miles. The longest ride was 45 miles with my wife (also electrically aided). I avoid using the 'help' all I can and still had 4 bars showing on the battery when we got home. Admittedly the ride was in the relatively flat S Derbyshire lanes but I still had the long 2 mile climb up to our house 3 wheelers are fun. Try one with big wheels! Enjoy your riding. Geoff

I can vouch for the hydraulic Magura calipers. We have one on the front of our Canondale tandem (no electrical assistance - my wife provides the extra urge ) Geof

I used to ride a racing trike a lot (one with 3 x 700c wheels) and it was always standard practice just to brake the front wheel. There was a calliper brake and a cantilever operated independently by conventional handlebar levers. I've found on both trikes and especially tandem bicycles that braking can be greatly improved by the use of high quality levers with minimal flex as well as fitting brake cables as thick as possible. You could try just fitting better quality brake callipers as well; there's a reason they're more expensive. Of course the ultimate solution might be to fit a disc front brake but that is quite extreme as you would need to change to front forks to one with a disc fitting. I've had drum brakes on the back of tandems as a 3rd brake and never had one that was remotely effective. The reason is that the drum flexes when the shoes connect because it's simply not stiff enough - that was also the case with some vintage motorcycles. Geoff

Thanks. I'm hoping to gain a little knowledge and possibly even contribute something useful. I am of a technical bent both mechanically and electrically but this is new stuff for me. Never the less, because of my electronic engineering background my cycling friends tend to think (mistakenly!) I'm an expert Geoff

Great, that's what I was suspecting but it's good to get confirmation. My fancy LiPo etc chargers are only rated for 8S packs anyway so wouldn't be much use with the 10S (or 12S) used on eBikes. Though I do charge at 1C which can be up to 6amps on my bigger packs. Some people charge faster but I prefer caution. I actually tried the Panda charger earlier this evening and it topped up the battery on my bike OK. So I'm happy that I'm in no danger of doing harm. Thank you all. Geoff

Thanks vfr400, that's reassuring. I've not checked the polarity but centre positive and outer shell negative is the most likely. Geoff

Thanks, Andy I know the Lithium Poly (and presumably Lithium Ion) charge regime is a constant current voltage limited one and on the LiPos I use a lot of (I'm charging a load right now for my model aeroplanes) the fully charged voltage is 4.2v. I guess the voltage for Lithium Ion is similar even though their nominal voltage is 3.6v/cell rather than the 3.7v/cell with which I'm more familiar. That one you pointed to on eBay looks OK and really similar to the Panda one I already have. I'll check the polarity, of course. However I would still like to know if there is a charge control circuit inside the battery shell (it's a rear pannier rack mounting version). What does concern me a little is the lack of a balance feature. I have some very exotic chargers for my LiPos which ensure each cell is charged to the same level and also measures the Effective Series Resistance (ESR) of each cell (a good one is around 5 milliohms and higher than 10 milliohms means they're almost scrap). Of course my aircraft draw a lot more current than the measly 8 amps my 250 watt bike motor does. Geoff

My wife and I have been cyclists for many years - utility (ie commuting/shopping); touring (cycle camping/ CTC tours/ Audax etc); racing the odd time trial. We've ridden tandems (I edited the Tandem Club Journal for a few years in the late 80s/early 90s), trikes (we still have a couple of Higgins trikes in a sorry state) as well as lightweight singles. We're both in our late 70s and finding our Derbyshire hills a bit harder than we once did so I elected to convert our decent solos with a 250 watt front wheel conversion. I think the addition of a little help on the hills to bikes of our choice suits us better than buying ready rolled eBikes. I've usually built up our bikes by choosing the components to fit on hand-built frames even building our wheels. However the choice of ready built bikes has expanded recently so my wife has a Marin on which she'd ridden over 30k miles before I added the motor and I've recently bought a Trek hybrid with a step through frame because I can no longer lift my leg easily over my lovely Kinesis Racelight. I had what's turned out to be a serious accident back in 1990 when a cat decided the shortest distance across the road was through my front wheel. Luckily I'd bought a helmet a few weeks before just for commuting but the spinal shock which paralysed me for a few days still causes me problems and are getting gradually worse. Hence my need for a step through frame. Many of our cycling friends are able to keep riding and healthy becuase of electric conversions. These are all who have ridden many 1000s of miles touring and racing and never really stopped. It's giving us a new lease of healthy life. I'd rather ride without but it's better to have electric assistance than not ride at all. Geoff

The Cyclotricity front wheel 250 watt conversion kits come with a throttle. I've converted 4 bikes over the past 18 months or so for me, my wife and a couple of friends and all come with a throttle. My wife uses hers just to set off; I never used mine except as an experiment. We're all ageing (70++) very experienced cyclist who are using the electric push to help us to get up our Derbyshire hills (which I swear are steeper than they used to be) so we want to pedal as hard as possible and pedal assist is perfect for us. I certainly think a throttle should be very limited in its use and shouldn't allow for unlicensed motor cycles (and I like motor cycles). There's nothing stopping a pizza delivery person from riding a pedal assist eBike. There is a walking/pushing option on our bikes but walking at 6km/h is more like a trot! I'm not a slow walker but if I'm anywhere where I want to walk with my bike then 3km/h would be more appropriate (eg round a shopping area) Geoff

I'm fairly new to eBikes but a fairly experienced cyclist and adequate mechanic. My professional background is as an electronics design engineer though long retired so quite out of touch. My other pastime is aeromodelling with an interest in electric flight and I've converted several models designed for liquid fuelled (methanol/oil/nitro mix) engines to Lithium Poly (LiPo) energy sources. These are lower voltage (3S to 6S - nominally 11.1 to 22.2v) but much higher currents than is common on eBikes (maxima are 40 to 70 amps - 400 to 1,400 watts) but much shorter durations.; I aim for around 10 minutes flights for a scale model weighing from 2 to 4 kgs. Now to my problem. I've mislaid the charger for my Cyclotricity 36v battery on a front wheel conversion kit I've fitted to my bike. One from the supplier seems to be very expensive for what appears to be a fairly rough 36v 2 amp (nominal) DC source. Having damaged a radio control transmitter by trying to recharge it with my 'intelligent' LiPo/NiMH charger rather than the wall wart charger supplied because there is a controlled charger built-in rather than a direct connection to the battery as used to be common, I'm wary of using a different source. What I'm wondering is if there is a built in charge control circuit in ebike batteries that simply needs a rough DC source as a supply or is the supplied charger more than simply a transformer and rectifier? I do have a charger for my wife's bike so I'm not totally stuck and I also have a charger for an electrified Airnimal Rhino which has a Panda bottom bracket motor but that gives a specification of 42v even though it's for a 36v battery. I'd normally be happy to experiment but the cost of damaging the battery is too high. Incidentally I'm very impressed with the Cycotricity supplied conversion kits (I've done my own, my wife's and a couple of club mates) less so with the Panda bottom bracket set up. Geoff