Any success with add on electric motors to Conventional Bikes?

In article
,
Ron Ruff wrote:

On Apr 29, 10:30*am, Brian Huntley wrote:
The recent rise and some-what legal status of electric scooters in
Toronto has lead to a lot of complaints about them using the bike
lanes. There's just nowhere to put them without ticking off somebody.

You may think it a bit extreme, but I'd be in favor of an entire auto
lane reserved for bicycles and very light vehicles... plenty of room,
then. If there is only one lane, then the cars can take a different
route.

Cannot work any better than bicycle lanes because
motorized traffic must turn left, turn right,
enter and exit parking lots, and, yes, delivery
vans must double park.

This is not difficult. Practice riding skills,
keep your head on a swivel, and you mind on
the job. Signal your intentions to those around
you, direct traffic when you can be of use.
Riding in traffic is good when you have the
skills and are confident.

At red lights I clear the right lane
for those who want to turn right on red.
I look behind me and acknowledge those
whom I may be in front of. Just before
green I clear the way and continue riding
the right side of the right lane.

--
Michael Press

Chalo wrote:

All of the following geared hub motors are highly regarded:

http://ebikes.ca/ezee/
http://www.thesuperkids.com/500wabmcelbi.html
http://estelle.de/e/motoren.asp

Could you fit these motors above on the REAR wheel
instead of front wheel?

wrote:

Chalo wrote:

All of the following geared hub motors are highly regarded:

http://ebikes.ca/ezee/
http://www.thesuperkids.com/500wabmcelbi.html
http://estelle.de/e/motoren.asp

Could you fit these motors above on the REAR wheel
instead of front wheel?

The first one (the eZee hub motor) is only offered as a front version
by ebikes.ca, but the BMC motor and the Heinzmann motor come in both
front and rear versions.

I built up an e-bike with a Heinzmann rear hub motor for a friend back
in 2000. It was a completely satisfactory piece of equipment to work
with. Its built-in torque arm makes it more trouble-free than some of
its more up-to-date counterparts. It is more expensive than most
others hub motors, like for like.

Chalo

Cannot work any better than bicycle lanes because
motorized traffic must turn left, turn right,
enter and exit parking lots, and, yes, delivery
vans must double park.

Well, of course that right-most lane would be at least 2 lanes for
smalller vehicles, and delivery vans can can GTF off the road when
they park... etc...

Yes, right turning cars and and such may enter... but the point is to
design the road system to make bikes and light vehicles the primary
means of transportation of humans. If it is slightly inconvenient for
SUVs... then they can cope... hopefully with some irritation... so
that we do not reward sociopathic (bigger is better) behavior.

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:20:38 +0100, Chalo wrote:

Jenny Brien wrote:

A direct-drive hub is quiet and simple, but very heavy for its power.
Would it be good to use a smaller, high-revving motor and gear it down?

Gear reduction imposes wear, noise, efficiency losses, and points of
failure. If you can live with the implications, you can
(potentially) save some weight by using a gearmotor or reduction
gearbox. It's likely to be lighter and more efficient if you use
chain or toothed-belt reduction, but the physical size of the
components and packaging can exceed available space, and often that
means more maintenance, grime, and things that must be shrouded for
safety.

Is the rated rpm of a motor its no-load speed? Then whatever motor I use,
it's got to have a final output at no more than 400 (max efficiency at 80
cadence, geared 48x12). Maybe nothing will do that better than a hub
motor.

There are hub motors with gears and freewheeling clutches, but
obviously none of them would be suitable for running in reverse to
power a left-side crank.

It took a long time to work out why the Stokemonkey did things that way!
The obvious solution with a geared hub motor would be to mount it so that
it spins on its axle and bolt a sprocket on the side.


An Alfine or Nexus hub would be OK for a modestly-powered e-bike and a
normal sized or smaller rider. It would be prudent to raise the
primary gearing to minimize the torque applied to the gearbox. This
would make sense anyway, if one objective of the power assist is to
raise the top speed of the bike.

No, I'm more interested in range and load-carrying, but it makes me think
that if I were building a longtail ebike, it would probably have fat 20"
wheels and a crank-forward position. That would allow a small load area
above the front wheel and behind a fairing, and with similar carrying
capacity to a SUB would not be much longer overall than a touring bike.