monkoffunk

I feel rather lucky that my Magic Pie skimmed through customs with no duty.

That would be very helpful, could you PM me? Cheers.

Clearly these batteries are getting better then. I'm just used to so many laptop/phone batteries having very disappointing performance in almost no time after daily use of the battery. Although, I suppose it is true that with a laptop battery, there is either enough V to run the laptop or not, whereas with a bike, you'd just get less assist. I'll keep my eye on the LifePO4 with interest then.

Ah!! I see. Superb. Assuming I break down in tears trying to build one myself, I will definitely use them.

Thanks, I'm almost considering it, just to see if the old duffer who owned one of the bike shops I tried was telling the truth when he suggested it was a herculean task I was asking for. Amusingly he said "And I suppose it's CHINESE!?" and when I said yes, he waved his hand a me dismissively and walked off. Goes off to watch a youtube vid on it..

Is that used 5-6 days a week, all year round for 2 years though? I suppose one advantage of a tailing off battery is that your muscles take up some of the slack and you end up getting gradually fitter

I saw lithium-ion batteries being made once, looked complex, and expensive. I've never "got on" with Lithium. Finicky to charge, store, and despite these new all singing/dancing LifePO things, I think I'll watch on the sidelines and see how they turn out. Overall, they have always struck me as having poor shelf life, and poor cycle life. Countless laptops, phones and mp3 players are my witness. In daily use on an e-bike, most should be useless in about a year (is that other's experiences?) But yes, they are very light.

So I took my Magic Pie to 3 different bike shops and they all looked at me like a space alien. Even the concept of electric bikes seemed strange to them. One though I meant an electric moped and said I should go to a motorbike shop. I don't have an SJS cycles near me, I'm in Manchester, anyone know a bike shop that could build me a wheel?

The problem with these bikes is that they attract unwanted attention towards e-bikes as a whole. They make it more likely for the police to stop people using higher powered, but sensibly ridden bikes.

Hi Gents and Ladies, So finally my batteries arrived, I have my hub motor, now I'm really wondering what bike I should use. First things first, my ex-mrs has a very shabby bike she's letting me have to experiment on...but after that, I wondered what recommendations people have as I don't really know a lot about bikes. This whole project is part "for the fun of it", but part because I'd like to get to work on the thing. Bear in mind, this is a fairly heavy front wheel motor (magic pie), and about 16Kg of lead acid batteries, probably mounted on the rear. Maybe I'm being a cheapskate in bike terms, but I want to spend no more than £400, and would prefer something oriented for comfort and easy to mount paniers on for battery pack. Do you have any recommendations for a commuter bike in my budget?

Clearly this is a dug up thread, but I think the future for the e-bike is in lightweight, small assist bikes. Something like 125W, that just makes a bike that looks, feels and handles almost identical to any other pedal bike that bit easier to cycle up hills. The 1000W, large AH toys we have are more suited to being Mopeds I agree.

The instantaneous current (for very short intervals) many batteries can provide is really rather spectacular. Take a 40AH 12V car battery for example, most can do say 400 cold cranking amps, which is to say it can supply 400A for 30s at -18C! In a short, at normal temperature, the instaneous amount of amps available, for a split second, is probably well over a 1000A The AGM type of lead-acid battery can often hit 1000CCA, so they can provide massive amounts of current in a short under normal temps. I'm not sure with Lithium's but I suspect they can also produce huge short term currents also in a short-circuit. Your finger by the way! That looks proper painful. I remember such pain when as I kid I inadvertently made a "jam jar" pulsejet engine out of a small vinegar bottle and some methylated spirit and my finger was in the way. I had no idea what a pulsejet was, I created it by accident, I thought I was just messing with lighting a bit of meths.

You're not missing anything. I guess I was just thinking aloud. Clearly it works for cars, but then they are routing a LOT more connections. If I added extra electrical items, I though it would be nice to just use the positive wire and tap the ground of the frame. But you're right, it's probably more hassle than it's worth. One of the things you`ll learn about rattling around on an E bike is that you need all electrical joints and connections 100% and preferably soldered with good quality cables. Doesn`t the new front hub come with a cable connected? (3 or 8 wires)? It does come with cable yes, I was probably just being silly.

That's reassuring, I suppose it's just suck it and see. Being a front hub motor, that at least balances some weight forward. The batteries were at least cheap, less than £90 delivered (when they eventually arrive), yet seem quite high quality in terms of cycle life.

Obviously I haven't had enough experience with mine yet to know if it is any good. They are made by Golden Motor (http://www.goldenmotor.com). Some problems I've heard of with them are that the owner of the company is a little arrogant, which may or may not be true, I think perhaps he's just someone who gets a bit tetchy about criticism. The second issue I heard of with the magic pie specifically I think was of overheating, though I think that may have been more the earlier ones, and also seems to be more (excuse the generalisation) Americans who think they can go up a steep hill without pedalling for miles and then wonder why the motor shuts down. Build quality wise, it's certainly feels like a substantial bit of kit. Will be eager to get it running when the batteries arrive hopefully on Monday.

Half a spanner and a jubilee clip sound quite agreeable actually. Regarding the spoking, I suspect i'm best off leaving that to the professionals Thanks for the link though.

I was more thinking of just saving a bit of wire between the front and back of the bike, but not necessarily having the ground connection at the fork, the negative wire could connect to the top of the frame. Advice taken on board though. Regarding the voltage, my understanding of the magic pie is that it's integrated controller will handle a range of voltages from 24V to 48V, up to an absolute max of 60V, so the setup should be legitimate.

Thanks for the warm welcome NRG! Yep, I have worried that I have gone overboard on the batteries and weight... I chose the Magic Pie because it just seemed a good deal for a beginner, what with the controller integrated into the hub, and a flexible voltage and power output range. It arrived very quickly from China, sadly with no manual, though I believe it can be got electronically. I'm asking GM for a copy at the moment. Thanks for all the hints, regarding the torque arm, is that something someone can fit, or is it a DIY job? I'm not particularly mechanically minded, more electrically so... I will post some pics as soon as things start to progress.

While I'm very impressed with the engineering going on here, I was planning to use the head of a 98LED torch I got from ASDA on offer for £7 which takes 4.5V at about 2A. I'm going to power the head with a 4.8V NimH pack. Still much kudos to the cool tinkering going on here!

Hi all, and hello. I'm new to electric bikes, and I don't even have a bike yet. I've just received a Golden Motor Magic Pie I ordered, and I have 4 11Ah Haze Gel Cells (lead acid) on order. I'd planned to keep these in panniers maybe? Now I have my motor, I plan to get it spoked into a wheel. Can I just go to any good bike shop with my new bike and ask them to spoke the new hub into the front wheel? Any idea of cost? Also, I've heard that the forks might not be able to stand the stress of this quite powerful motor. So when choosing a bike, is there any advice any one can give me? Another question: Do any of the bikers use the frame of the bike for the negative/ground connection of their electric bike, or is that a bad idea? I planned also to to use a double-throw, double-pole switch so that I can switch the battery bank between 24V (2 parrallel banks of two 12V in series) and 48V (four 12V in series), the idea being 24V for range, and 48V for performance. I have a diagram of the setup if anyone wants to see it. I'm aware also that this bike I'm building might not be strictly legal..