Linfitter

My 36 volt battery registers 41.6 volts on my multimeter when fully charged

It came with the Kudos King bike that is all that I know

My Bafang SWX motor windings use 25thou wire rated on the AWG chart as 6.944 amps at 20 gauge I am replying to your post because I frequently draw on 440Watts to surmount just one of my local hills which has resulted in cooking and weakening my motors rotor magnets to such an extent that when I first got the bike I rode nearly everywhere on level 2- 3 at most where I now find I need to go to level 5 to get the same hill climbing performance. It seems to me that the motors you mention are one of the new breed high wattage motors and because there is still some confusion as to what is legal are being passed off as one of the old type. Yours sincerely Linfitter.

Saneagle:-You don’t need to see a reference to the 540watts The definition of which has to be written on every 36volt Controller ever built with a 15amp peak power draw, do the maths volts x amps. As to the rest of my Post it is concerned wholly with ‘safety’ and its relevance in Law. I have pointed out that a motor running up to its rating of 250Watts is ‘safe’ when it exceeds this point and starts creating heat it is ‘unsafe’. Government well knows that it can create all the Laws it wants but until they have been ‘proven’ and ‘ratified’ and ‘precedents’ set in a Court of Law a Prosecution Office would be on dangerous grounds to bring before a Court a case involving a Motor the definition of which would involve a reference to the ‘unsafe’ factor of its build. No Court of Law could ratify a Law that could leave it open to litigation. Government is fully aware of this and wants to bring the EAPC Motor build within the jurisdiction of Law and Order and to give incentive to motor builders they have removed all reference to a Peak Power rating relying on Manufactures to build Motors within the range available to them under the Bicycle Class. Government is keeping their hopes on this quiet and the MofT site is still promoting the implied legal ‘unsafe’ 250watt rated motors and they are doing this purely on a ‘safety’ basis which they are always harping on about. They do not want ‘novice’ potential EAPC riders to be able to buy bikes with a more highly powered motor and without experience of power assistance be able to take them straight out of the shop and on to the road but that doesn’t mean that higher powered EAPC’s are running fowl of the Law far from it and all those trying various means to get a higher wattage motor to perform like its lower powered relation and stamp them with paper stickers stating the old legal power rating are to put it mildly wasting their time. As Soundwave has kept iterating the Police are not bothered with what obviously looks like a higher powered machine, and now you know why, they are in fact providing they keep within the controls of the bicycle class of machine, ‘legal’ EAPC’s. There are three Laws that protect the public and they have been fully tested and put on the statute book a long time ago they are:- riding recklessly, riding dangerously and riding without due care and attention and that is why you will see and hear reference to the Police chasing speeding riders who when taken to Court are taken under these ancient laws and apart from what other penalties the Court deems appropriate to give them, will confiscate the offenders tool for offending the ‘offending’ machine. And that is all that I have to say. I will keep reading people’s posts and hope that I no longer see questions as to why the police aren’t policing – they are. Yours Sincerely Linfitter.

Mr reference to OHM's Law is in regards to the heat carrying aspect of it. Anything that does't conform to OHM's law must be overheating. Thats why I used this particular Physists Law regards Linfitter

The 250Watt Maximum Continuous Power Rating what is it? The simple answer to this question is it is a CODE an understanding of which enables Motor Builders/ Manufactures to be able to build a motor within the guidelines laid down by European Government(s)( EU) and other individual buyers. It is a means by which to find a PRE Motor build AMPACITY wire rating the definition of which is: - the maximum amount of electric current that a wire (the Conductor) can carry continuously without exceeding its temperature rating -(the safety factor) -it is measured in amperes and depends on the size of the wire and ambient temperature. By looking up on a Wire Gauge Chart a particular wires’ current carrying capacity and then multiplying this by the batteries’ mean average power an idea of a useable power rating in Watts can be achieved. Government has used a wire rating that carries 6.944 amps then multiplied this by 36 volts to get a 250Watt rating. A motor built and operated up to this rating can be used all day without overheating. It is safe. Unfortunately, because we British have lost out when it comes to Wire Gauge Charts we do the same as everybody else and use the American Wire Gauge (AWG) system but because this system is based on two different temperature ranges neither of which, although good enough for general purposes, is accurate enough when put up against the EU’s assisted bicycle motor testing process, which in testing for the legality of such, has set the ‘ambient’ temperature at a lowly and constant 30˚ Centigrade, Consequently, our Government who is aware of all the confusion it is causing refuses to use the term Ampacity - and has stated instead that ‘an Insulated wire has a voltage rating and a maximum conductor temperature rating it doesn’t need to have an Ampacity rating as that depends on the surrounding ambient temperature’ - consequently, when asked to furnish a simple explanation to the question above they cannot come up with an answer and cop out by pointing the enquirer (me) and anybody else that enquires to all the information to be found in such as that that is in the EN15194 and UN/ECE Regulation N0 85 legislation and that information relates to aspects of POST motor build and testing which are expensive to buy and runs into many thousands of words none of which are relevant to a PRE motor build consumer question the answer to which runs into forty four small simple words:- It is not a reference to a Peak Power Rating. It is a reference to a Power point (250watts) from which the (AMPACITY) wire rating used in a PRE motor build can be determined in order to conform to OHM’s Law of safe usage. The EU governments(s) were quite aware of the power limitations of such a low rating so decided to ditch all that bumph about safety and beggar the consequences legal or otherwise and decided to up the ante and set the bar twice as high setting a maximum useable power limit to an unsafe heat generating 540 Watts. (Reference to this was later rescinded as exceeding the limit would bring failure under the 30min rule). AND THE CONSEQUENCES ARE The administration of Law is compromised by the hypocritical nature of the present means of rating an EAPC motor build and a EU advisory committees recommendation that future motor builds were based on the Wattage available under the EAPC Bicycle Classification and not on an Ampacity rating was turned down. It is my opinion in view of the statement above that it will not be long (due to the lack of administration of Law) before bicycles presently looked on as being illegal 350-500 Watts will providing they have been manufactured with the proper wire build to conform to OHM’s Law (like house wiring has to) and cannot exceed 25kmp/15½mph in speed will be classed as legal. Yours Linfitter.

I did the same. waited 3months for goods which never turned up. Got in touch with them and got nowhere so set on PayPal explaining that I hadn't been given a tracking number for Fedex. Had hardly finished contacting them before the £80 quid or so was back in my Bank Account. This Topbikekit is definitely a site to beware of. P.S. Contacted TorqueTech a British Company who knows what he his talking about. Explained that my Tektro Auriga hydraulic brakes would definitely work with the KT Controller that he sells when I had been led to believe that they would not. Anyway decided to get Shrink Wrap 2and3 pin JST connectors. Crimping Pliers and pin separating tools and as soon as I get these I shall attack my bike which has been off the road for too long. Yours sincerely Linfitter.

There has been a lot written about punctures of late and the various solutions to them. Now I can understand people riding over penetrative media getting punctures and I can understand them wanting puncture resistant tyres and slime filled inner tubes just in case but just how many punctures are of the penetrative type? It is very rare that I have found any sign of penetrative media puncturing my tyres and goodness knows I have had my fair share. On recommendations from Posters on this site I invested in a pair of Marathon Plus puncture resistant tyres and it wasn’t long before I got a puncture. No sign of penetration. A fortnight later I was out on the moors, bike propped up on its stand and me sunbathing when Pssss while I was admiring the bike the front wheel deflated. I was amazed. I was nowhere near it. It just went down. Yet again no sign of penetration. I surmised that it must have been the first real day of Summer Sun that had done it by heating up the tyre and the extra pressure had found some way of causing a puncture and releasing itself. Having inspected the tyre I then put my attention to the wheel and noticed that the rubberised rim tape was easily moved and that underneath it was 26 neatly machined drill holes for the spokes each with a razor sharp edge. So there was the answer to non-penetrative punctures. The rim tape was moving out of its place and the inner tube was expanding down the spoke hole at least it was trying. It did not get far in its intentions before the razor sharp edge cut it short. I banged another tube in and tentatively went home, took the wheels off, got shut of the original rim tape swapping it for Electricians Insulation Tape (Strong and Sticky) and now with the spoke holes securely blocked off I am six months puncture free with maybe an extra 1000 miles of ride anywhere on the clock. When meeting up with an old cycling buddy he often found that on taking his bike out of his car that one of the tyres would be punctured. He said he probably had more punctures while the bike was in the car than he had while out on the road and he rode his tyres down to the canvass. Little did he know but he was having razor drill hole problems. He laid his bike down in the back of his car with the wheels parallel to the road. Riding about in the car vibrated the bike and when it was that his tyres were in need of inflating the rim tape would move and a puncture would result. Now I find it somewhat amusing to see (See Soundwaves Video post number 24 - 1min 23sec in ) to see my type of rim and the ‘mechanic’ explaining the process of making the rim tubeless compliant by sealing the spoke holes with some good strong sticky tape. He doesn’t know it but he has probably got rid of the reason for 95% of non-penetrative punctures at a stroke even before he has put a tyre on and his customer will no doubt finding that he/she no longer has the same number of punctures expound the virtues of ‘tubeless’ tyres. Conclusion If your rims are like those in Soundwaves video take heed of my post. Yours sincerely Linfitter.

Went to Scrap Yard to see if they had any road legal motors for sale as my Ford Fiesta water pump had gone making it uneconomical to repair (Car worth £450). They had another Ford in, nice and clean, 11 months test, so I took that but asked them to remove the tow bar that I had fitted to the Diesel with the intention of swapping it over only to find that it wouldn’t fit without some re-engineering which I did. I have to say that my re-engineered job looked and was very solid indeed so when I put my Wilko carrier on the tow bar bolt to test it I wasn’t surprised that me (98.5KGS- 15.5stone) jumping about on the end of it had no effect on it at all. Of course with my weight on the carrier the ‘tow line’ - that imaginary line that runs from the middle of the rear wheel through the tow bar bolt through to any trailer hitch and parallel with the road was deflected downwards a few degrees - so would not have been a weight suitable for towing behind where a nose weight not exceeding 35kg is usually recommended but I am not towing, I am carrying, so if my carrier is not up to the prospect I will make it so. All I can say is if you are worried about your particular dedicated bike carrier‘s load limit is to look on https://www.1upusa.com/cargocarriers.html site, the Lumus 1UP web page (forgot who posted) and get a tow ball boot extension instead. Its just a platform that you put on the tow ball so that you can carry things on it. Seems there is no trouble putting a few hundred pounds on one of them! Linfitter.

Most information given relating to loads on tow bar hitches is given in relation to the towing of Trailers and Caravans and the adverse effect that applying weight to the flexible hitch joining point allied to weight loaded at the rear of the car can have on the alignment and safety of the two vehicles. For information on this subject see any Caravanning web page but I am posting this not as a tower but as a cycle carrier. As you all now know there is a difference between the nose weight that a towed Trailer/Caravan can safely apply to a tow bar hitch and how detrimental overloading this point can be and the cars maximum load carrying weight see (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/09/the-heavy-reality-of-car-weight-limits-and-weight-capacity/index.htm). My cars limit is 850Lbs. If I alone am going off somewhere for the day with all my cycle gear then I still have 500Lbs or 17 x 35Lbs ebikes weight capacity left that I can put on/in the car before reaching its safe limit. That number is pathetic compared to the tensile strength of the steel tow hitch which could quite happily support the weight of 1800 ebikes and still have strength to spare. So if you are not towing what is the problem. There is one and that is loading a car at the rear with weight is it compresses the suspension to some degree. This can be a problem when coming across a Councils zealous traffic calming measures in the form of Sleeping Policemen some of which can be very rotund and the extension of a cars length by the use of a Tow Ball Cycle Carrier can cause the two to meet. If you are aware of this and slow down then there is no problem. If slowing down is a problem then invest in some stronger rear springs that should cure it. Hope this is of some assistance Yours sincerely Linfitter.

Best way to fit a bike tyre. Equipment needed: Something to depress the valve inner bit to let the air out. The Fitting: First determine the way of rotation if any and the tyre pressure data. Put the tyre on the rim in the right direction with the tyre pressure data next to the rim valve hole (makes the data easier to find later if you have forgotten what the tyre pressure rating are). Next make sure that there is absolutely no air at all in the inner tube and put the tube in situ. Now push the tyre outside the rim over the rim wall at the valve point. At this point push the inner tube valve into the tyre (not all of it) so that you know that it has not been nipped by the tyre. Now proceed to push the rest of the tyre over the rim wall until it starts to get difficult. Now comes the important bit: with finger and thumb of both hands nip the tyre walls together starting at the rim hole and again working in opposite directions pull towards you while all the while making absolutely sure the tyre walls are well and truly down in the rim well, if there is any air in the inner tube it will be at this point that it will work against you for should you relax for a moment the air in the tube will force the tyre walls to ride up the rim well making it difficult to get the rest of tyre over the rim wall. If you have followed these instructions there will be only a small section that hasn’t slipped easily over the rim and that is because at this point the tyre walls ride up the rim well and you may find that thumbs alone are not quite up to the task of pushing the last bit over the rim wall so if that is the case use the palms of your hands to push the final bit over the rim. And that is it. Of course broader tyres with thick side walls are the hardest to ensure the walls are well down the in the well but the principle remains the same no matter what. For a visual instruction on how not to do it watch Soundwaves video struggle! Yours sincerely Linfitter That’s enough from me

In the words of Captain Mainwaring of 'Dads Army' I wondered how long it would be before someone spotted that one!. Sorry for the slip Yours sincerely Linfitter.

The human body is a remarkable thing, it can work at a large variance in surrounding temperature efficiently as long as it can maintain its central body core temperature at 98.4˚F / 27˚C. If the ambient temperature drops, as an instance say to 15˚C this will have a cooling effect on the body which in order to protect itself and its inner essential organs shuts down supplying blood to the extremities hence the person so being cooled will feel that his/her feet or fingers appear to be like ice. It would be interesting if all those who have contributed to this thread invested in a thermometer from their local Chemist for about £3-4 and measured their core body temperature before setting off for a ride when they apparently feel comfortable and then again when they become aware that their hands or feet are becoming cold. You may have noticed if you are into Wildlife that Polar Bears and Wolves don’t seem to suffer from this ‘cold’ problem neither do the Inuits or Eskimo people who live in the same Artic conditions probably because they kill and wear the pelts of Polar Bears and Wolves! So you may find that it isn’t wind chill on the ‘gloves’ that you are wearing that is cooling your fingers but your body that isn’t supplying them with their usual supply of blood. P.S a sign of hyp-‘O’- thermia is that the mind thinks that its body is warm and will try to discard clothing or be happy with the clothes that it is wearing the solution to this false state of affairs is to warm the body up and maintain its true working core body temperature. Personally I don’t find cold extremities too much of a problem when out riding even in minus temperatures with a high wind chill the reason is probably my wearing of a ‘T’ shirt , Sweater, heavy Pullover, fleece lined Jacket, Fluorescent over Jacket, Long Johns, Trousers, over trousers and three pairs of socks my problem can be one of ‘dehydration’ but I find the taking a flask of Coffee and stopping every 3-4 miles for a top up while watching the local wild life an enjoyable solution. Hope my ‘lateral’ thinking will give you something to think about and maybe you will buy a thermometer and let us (browsers) be aware of your conclusions. That’s enough from me. Don’t want to overdo it! Yours sincerely Linfitter.

Was going to post this on a new thread but yours is a similiar subject so If you don't mind I will post it here. I have been reading (again) this time ‘Bike Europe’ in which it was stated (5thJan) that MIT and Samsung had developed a solid state Battery (no mention of power or capacity but as the article was in ‘Bike Europe’ one would have thought the subject was relevant) that had no degradation that could last for hundreds of thousands of recharge cycles (14,000 yrs for me) that should be ready for 2018. It was also ultra safe pretty near bomb proof. Now there are obvious ramifications to be overcome if this statement is true. To turn out everlasting Batteries for retail sale would, in the long run, be detrimental to Samsung and so the only answer as far as I can see is for Samsung to do a ‘Microsoft’ and offer its Battery ‘on loan’ with a ‘smart’ key that holds all your details for a small initial fee of say £50.00. These Batteries would not be rechargeable ‘at home’ and would have to be exchanged for a fully recharged one at a (Government has said that it intends to see that there is a fully integrated re-charging structure throughout the Country -24hrs) ‘Docking’ Station/Charging Centre where on ‘docking’ the old battery in a specific ‘docking centre’ machine the information on the old batteries ‘key’ would be transferred to the fully charged ‘exchange’ battery thus enabling the exchange battery to work with the old, registered to you, key. (A Battery of this type would be absolutely useless to anyone else and should eliminate attempts at theft of it from your bike or attempted theft damage at the Charging Centre). A suitable fee charging structure would have to be worked out to make the prospect attractive but the prospect has its merits. A Weekend at the Seaside (80 mile away for me) by bike would become a feasible prospect with a bit of planning as to where to pull in for a recharged battery (up to 8 of them for me-there and back, around a tenner sounds about right). My question is: if the above prospect becomes fact and Battery power and capacity reasonable would you give up your present system? and how much would you be prepared to pay for access to exchange batteries? My present Battery worked out at about £60.00 per year plus charging costs so £1.50 per week or £75.00 per year would not be unreasonable as far as I am concerned especially given the advantages. At that rate those of you that had to buy the Bosch £800.00 batteries would be quids in. And what about bike costings? think of it, £800.00 off a Bosch with a £50 battery even I might be tempted to buy one of those then. That’s enough from me Linfitter.

Kudos King about 26kgs. I got one of the Aldi ones very similar. I quickly found that everywhere I needed to clamp cables of some sort ran and got pinched thus negating any chance of making accurate adjustments to gear changing etc. whilst in motion. I tried first to alter the clamp so that it did not pinch the cables but that was a waste of time. Another thing I noticed having a Rear Wheel Motor and Rack Battery was that the centre of balance point on the crossbar was slightly to the right of the saddle stem and then the idea struck me substitute the saddle for some frame size tubing and clamp to that. So using a spare saddle stem and a foot of tubing made a ‘7’ shaped part which I clamp securely in place of the saddle stem proper. Now I find that the bike doesn’t need to be ‘clamped’ at all it just hangs there in perfect balance completely cable free. (Centre Drive and front Hub Motor owners with ‘bottle’ type batteries may find that their balance point is further away from the saddle stem and will have to find their own balance point and make their own ’7’ up accordingly perhaps putting a bracer between the legs to make more of an ‘A’ type support frame). That sorted the hanging bit out next was turning the pedals. What I didn’t like was that in order to turn the pedals like when checking motor and gear operation or listening for noises the clamp had to be furthest out from the main stem otherwise the pedals tended to touch the stands support legs this put stress on the clamp arm and so I made a bridging support to support the clamp tube. I made a 10cm sleeve to go over the clamp tube and the same to go over the upright support tubing which when in place are both at right angles to each other. Then with a piece of metal of sufficient thickness to support the stresses bridged the two (welded). This part is sort of ‘A’ shaped but with an obvious 90˚ angle. The bike now hangs at a perfect height for me (I made sure it did by chopping some length off the main stem) and in perfect balance with or without the battery and sitting on my buffet, chain and drive set cleaning is no longer a toil of a pleasure. Furthermore, there are times like when I put my part studded Winter tyres on, that with vertical ‘drop outs’ putting the wheel back would be a pain in the neck fighting against gravity. On occasions where I am only working on a wheel or its operation I will stand the bike up near vertical with its opposite wheel on the ground and clamp the bike in that position. The back wheel ‘drop outs’ are then in a horizontal alignment and the wheel is much easier to slide in or out. I do the same when working on the front wheel standing the bike up on the rear wheel and clamping in that position. Yes, I must say that with a bit of work it has turned out to be a very good buy and a joy to work with. Hope this is of some assistance and makes your New Year a much happier one. Yours sincerely Linfitter.