Building an electric bicyle

Legodude522

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Building an electric bicycle

Hi peeps! I'm working on a new project. Since I've became carless, I've been considering alternative modes of transportation. So I decided to convert my pedal powered bicycle to electric!

So I went ahead and purchased a DC motor and bike mount from the wonderful land of China. Specified as 24v, 350rpm.

I already have a 12v sealed lead acid battery to start with. I might later on go with a larger or purchase another one and just put it in parallel or series depending on if I'm using 12v or 24v.

At my job, we have 12v DC pump controllers as well as 12v to 24v DC power booster/controller. I'll experiment with those to see how they perform.

So here is how my bike is now.
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Here is just a mock-up of how it would look.
4625180477_d9558a56d0.jpg


Reverse side.
4625180899_2b747ae842.jpg


First I'll start with just playing with the motor and controllers at work tomorrow to see how it runs. Then once I get a feel for it a bit, I can begin assembling once I get my bike back from my friend's house. Probably what I'll do it bring it to my job since I got all the tools and supplies there and do it in a few lunch brakes.

Note: I have no idea what the legality of doing this would be.
 
How powerful is the motor? 700w is the legal limit.

I built an ebike a few years back. Pretty fun to ride but a huge pita when it runs dead and you have all the batteries to deal with.
 
Then as long as you leave the pedals, it is classified as a bicycle. You do not need any further registration.

Btw, a 250w motor is kinda low for an ebike. I would expect it to work, but be prepared to pedal to get to a good speed. It will most likely be more of an assist. 450w is the norm.
 
Hmm, well so far I have no plans on having the pedals usable. I'll leave them on so it looks legit but the chain will only be going to the motor. I'll look to see if there is away for me to be able to have both when the times comes.
 
Hmm, well so far I have no plans on having the pedals usable. I'll leave them on so it looks legit but the chain will only be going to the motor. I'll look to see if there is away for me to be able to have both when the times comes.

Put a ratchet of some sort. If you do not pedal, expect the thng to go about 12-15 mph, and then get stuck when it goes dead.
 
Looks good, but can you still change gear when its attached?

350rpm seems quite fast, I think you normally pedal about 60-100 so you'd need to run it in a low gear
 
Wow well as an aspiring road cycling i was suprised to see a bicycle thread round here thats what my cycling forums are for :p

12-15mph is actually pretty slow for a bicycle
like i said Im into road cycling and can easilly reach 25mph on the flat no problems in normal cloths and after not eating anything or warming up etc , and im pretty out of shape at the moment .

also i was under the impression that to keep it legal the pedals still had to work , and also you have to have some method of cutting the motor out above 20mph which on such a hecy bike should be realitively easy to achieve on downhill sections

Asside from the legal consequences if personally be concerned with keeping the pedals working so that you can extend the battery range by pedalling when your on the flat or if the battery runs low

Most importantly stay safe and have fun with it though
 
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