What to look for in a heavy-duty bike

NEVER USE CABLE PULL BRAKES ON HEAVY BIKES unless they are really good ones not like all the GD things under $100@......

Paul Comp makes a good cable pull disc brake (worth every cent): If you find something better let me know.

https://www.paulcomp.com/shop/components/brakes/disc-brakes/i-s-klamper/

Rim brakes are obsolete also. Four piston hydraulic brake would be the best things to stop you on a steep hill. I had cable pull brakes that squeezed both sides and the damn things kept backing out of adjustment, almost killing me on a steep hill.

Brakes that can lock your front wheel without modulation can through you over the front handlebars. Hydraulic brakes made a for an ATV would be much better than a for a Downhill race bike.

A better solution maybe small motorcycle brakes at least on the front. Bicycle disc brakes are not made for this kind of machine. 

         For god's sake don't use BICYCLE drum brakes!

Most bicycles are now moving to aluminum and hydraulic disc brakes. Start with a small moped  or even a motor cycle and add a crank system for looks. 

Drum brakes for a 49cc engine front wheel will be a tiny bit wider that a bicycle fork but it can be spread. and they need a post, maybe it would be easier to buy a new fork:

 What to look for in heavy duty bike that can replace a car

• Don't listen to what sellers tell you, they have no idea and want your money. 

• Don't waste your money on aluminum bikes! Aluminum will break! 

• Don't get a large wheel bike. Small wheels are like lower gears needed for hill climbing. What to look for: 

• 20inch drive wheel with a mid-drive motor of at least 750watts, anything less is a waste of money. Planetary gears are the most affordable. Hub motors need more power to climb steep hills than Mid-drive motors. 

• Large steel rack built into the frame.

 • Front rack attached to the frame not the front fork! [You don't want to swing heavy cargo around, it will affect the steering].

 • Thick 2.25” wide tires like motorcycle tires are 4-ply while bicycle tires are only 1-ply.

• 16” motorcycle tires [measured at the rim] fit on a 20”BMX rim [that hold 20”O.D. bicycle tires] and cost half the price of bicycle tires. These Bias ply 4-layer tires that are rated "L" (for75mph) are very heavy duty with very thick side walls that can hold up your bike with no air in the tube. Do not ever use a Radial tire they are made for speed and nothing else. If you build your own bike make the rear forks wide enough for 2.75" or 3" wide tires.

 • Find the right battery before the bike to make sure it can fit.

 • Best rule of thumb I have seen for choosing a battery is: “If your motor can run at 30amps continuous without over heating then get a 30amp-hour pack at least 48 volts. 

 • Higher voltage battery packs hold more amp hours than are told on the spec sheet. 

• The distance depends on the total combined weight and hills and whether or not you can pedal what you are carrying. Ask people about their experience in your area.

 • Trailers. The trusty old B.O.B. trailer I have had for many years is ok but not always big enough. And fully loaded it is hard to backup. 

 • Two wheel trailers could be better if you can find a heavy duty one.  

• Disc brakes are essential to stay alive hauling 400lbs total combined weight down a 16% grade or steeper. If the breaks are out of adjustment, you have no stopping power. Test your breaks before starting down hill. Some Hydraulic disc brakes adjust them self's. But are expensive as hell. So I am going to try out new type that is actuated with a cable pull. 

• Bigger 180mm rotor and steel pads [color coded dark blue] rather than organic pads will help a lot. Some even have air cooling fins, only good for long down hill runs. But a double piston sets [four pads] or look for calipers that use extra wide brake pads, If you need to ride in the rain. 

 • But the best breaks could be DRUM breaks that are water resistant. But these do not come with a lot of bearings in the hub. Once again amerikan bike racing industry destroys the potentiality of high-quality utility bikes. 

• HUBs with more than the usual amount of bearings helps the bike last longer. Don't even think about wasting your money on hubs with so called sealed bearings that are actually open bearing cups with a rubber seal that does not work as well as they claim. People used to have to re-grease their bearings often and buy new cheap hubs when the ball race wore out. But now most bikes use machine bearings. [Called “sealed cartridges” in the idiot bicycle industry] Don't waste your money on an “entry level” bike.

 • Front hub: Look for a 'trial' [not trails] bike disc hub with larger bearings. Trial bikes are BMX made for jumping.

• For electric bikes you need a voltmeter to tell you if you have enough power left in your battery. 
• And an Amp meter to tell you if you are draining your battery too fast. (That is the easiest way to kill a battery pack, by fire!)

Warning! Do not ever even think about those wimpy “extender cogs” [correctly known as rear sprockets; free wheels] I had one and after climbing a steep hill the chain warped the big sprocket and tore apart the derailleur. All because they are not made for motor powered vehicles. 

Start with a fat tire bike that has 4 inch tires on a 406mm rim called a 20 inch bicycle wheel,  then replace them with 3 inch motorcycle tires heavy duty knobby or street motorcycle tires. And learn how to build a strong spoked wheel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFGcOmHdUVY

 

                                                     Electric Mini Bike | Super Bike Power – DJ Bikes US (dj-ebikes.com)

More about tires

Motorcycle tires for Cargo bikes?

    wide spoon levers are the best thing to remove tight fitting tires

But you need three of them

Improved heavy duty drive?

how to build your own:

 The frame should be reinforced for a heavy duty cycle truck.

Get Ready America!

 

Electric Cars will NOT save us!

Down-Size Now!!!

I am amazed that people do not understand why people will have no problems pedaling a bicycle when it comes time to live without a car. I spent years riding a heavy bike with heavy cargo and I wore out my knees because I did not have a motor. there are a lot of wise guys that can not understand what it takes to move heavy cargo up steep hills. And most people don't a clue what kind of motor to put on a bike to climb the kind of hills that I live with.

Mid-drives verses Hub motors

The worst thing is that they do not understand how much wattage it takes, end up with a wimpy motor on a wimpy bicycle and expect that they can live without a car. Well they say that lobsters will not try to get out of a hot pot until it is too hot to move, if it is slowly heated. Humans think they have plenty of time; like global heating will NOT be here for at least 40 years? The shit has already hit the fan, it will be in your face sooner than you think.

250 watts and will not work for real utility cycling. I don't care how much of a gear reduction it has, there is a limit. Under 3mph you cannot balance a bicycle. A bike fully loaded more like 5mph or more. Two motors at 750w each might be enough

The next bike I build will have the motor drive the left side of the wheel. Then I can use the pedal powered side for exercise. I do not need a motor for speed on a bicycle, only for hill climbing. So a single gear reduction will work fine. Especially if I have a Field Oriented Controller [that gives a wider range of usable RPM] If you need more power than a mid drive, get two motors with a larger battery.

A guide to multi-motor systems

Gears do not waste energy, they use a small amount of energy to turn Kinetic energy from spinning magnets into torque thrust. Hub motors waste energy as heat trying to drive heavy loads up steep hills in a high gear.

Planetary gears are stronger than smaller gears; excellent for hill climbing. And it takes up less space, best thing for a bike. My geared motor has a 6 to 1 reduction plus more on the human powered drive.

Best Mid-drive?

It is very difficult to get into the right gear to pedal along with my motor. Some people use an infinite ratio gear box that is not made strong enough for a motor that drive 450 pounds [think about it] up a 10% grade. And costs way to much.

If you think you will never need a bicycle that can drive 500 pounds up a 14% grade, you are living in denial. Gasoline will not be around much longer. Electric cars are not available now nor will they ever be affordable by the growing masses of poverty stricken proletariat.

And think about how 1 ply bicycle tires are useless for 400lbs; they wear out way too fast. 4ply Motorcycle tires are lasting me 12 time longer than bicycle tire.

All we need is a 2 or 3 speed BICYCLE planetary gear set strong enough for small motorcycles but without the overdrive.

Ravingneaux planetary gearset animation

Finding Parts

 Cheap plastic in not good for Heavy Duty Cycle-trucks But aluminum is worse.

this is the only one I could find ready to install.

I need a heavy duty steel idler sprocket:

But this one needs to drilled out for a 16mm bearing with 5mm bolt hole.

Battery Dysfunction

 

The wires that come out of my battery to connect to the controller and charger, keep braking off. I thought that the excessive amounts of wire that make the silicone covered wire so flexible, also made it unbreakable. Unfortunately they do wear out. The only way to solve this problem is to use panel mount XLR sockets. So I am going to have to build my own battery pack, because the e-bike builders don't care if you battery brakes down; it makes money for them.

All they could do is tell me how it is not repairable at all and I cannot expose the BMS by removing the front panel. Which would expose more wire to work with. Only a fool [like my self] would buy a pack with wires that cannot be fixed when they brake off.

Battery rule of thumb 

This is the best rule of thumb I have ever seen. A got a new Agis battery because the old one was not taking a charge. If your motor can handle 30amps continuous without overheating, get a 30Ah pack. But if it can take up to 40 amps for a few seconds, a 40Ah pack would be much better, because it will never heat up enough to damage the cells

Human–electric hybrid vehicles

 

"Burning" any kind of fuel is not clean enough if I have to breathe the exhaust fumes.

It never ceases to amaze me that all the people I know that claim to care about doing something about their environmental foot print just will not stop burning petroleum. Some think that burning Bio-Diesel with  distillates will save our butts. Or they are just waiting for electric cars to become affordable? This is another form of insanity.

These small low-powered vehicles are the only thing that can make a difference. And then only if 90% of petrol powered vehicles are eliminated very soon. And Amerika's electrical power grid must be converted to renewable fuels. So now is the time to use less electricity as well as the dirty fuels that feed the rich.

Then there are the naysayers that claim that you must have massive power to drive two adults and 50lbs of cargo around town. That is all crap. A 40 amp hour battery pack for a 4 or 5 HP motor maybe needed and the idiot politicians won't want to let you use that much power on a vehicle classified as a bicycle. But you can sue the GD Bureaucrats if you use very low 20mph gear ratios and electronic speed limiting controllers connect to Pedal Assist Sensors [crank speed sensor]. Accelerators give you more power when needed but Cops can't very well arrest you if you can't drive your vehicle over 20mph on flat land, even if you do have two or three times the legal power limit. And if you have a large enough battery pack you don't really need more than one or two gear ratios.

           https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=105857

Custom Motorcycle vehicles take more than just larger tires and a larger frame; they have to be able to drive at least 45mph without falling apart. And they would need to be tested by the motor-vehicle department. Building a power-assisted pedal-powered vehicle can be licensed before you put a motor on it.

index

Motors

Buying a Battery

Heavy duty tires for Cargo bikes

Heavy Duty Wheels

Get used to it America

 

The rich republicans are only 30% now and they are still blocking the environmental progress that the other 70% of us want. Petroleum corporations have so much money that they can spew their lying rhetoric so ubiquitously that too many people believe it. All they have to now is keep whining about how the election was stolen from them and keep pumping out the lies.

It's up to you now

                                rethinking energy

The future of transportation

Autonomous electric cars will ubiquitous before 2030. Most commuters will be using Uber Taxi Autonomous electric vehicles just because it will be so-much cheaper than owning a personal car.

There are many more things that will change, like the way things are made. Bill Gates' new book points it all out in detail. The American democracy experiment will fail for sure if too many people believe the doomsday rhetoric spewed out by the corporate imperialists.

Autonomous electric Disruption of transportation ~ Tony Seba

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3ttqYDwF0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4OWMSG4Agg

                   https://kcls.overdrive.com/media/4281338

Converting a car alternator

 

What is true-RMS?

Motorized Bicycle Trailers

electrically activated disc brakes

How else can you put very strong brakes on a trailer without attaching cables? The more I think of building one of these super trailers, the harder it gets. I would rather have one of the flat beds trikes above with hydraulic disc brakes and motorcycle tires. and a large gear reduction to keep the speed down to a legal amount.

This could turn into a popular way to haul heavy cargo up steep hills. You could build one large enough to haul 600lbs with a regular bicycle easily.

I would use one large motor with one large gear reduction not made for speed. Attach it to the center of a simple rear axle. Slow riding will not make the single axle jump around as it would with speed. And finally you will need to adjust the gear ratio after using it long enough to know what you need.

I would then attach the controller to a Pedal Assist Sensor [with the three speed selector functional to help control the speed of the motor], on your bike so you do not need an accelerator which could make the trailer bump against your bike. And you don't really need expensive lithium-ion batteries because you will use this only when you need to haul something heavy.

I would use 2.25"x 16" inch 4 ply motorcycle tires {mounted on 406mm 1.25" wide} BMX rims, because they do not create more rolling resistance until you have a lot of weight on them. And by then you will be using your motor.

I hate bicycle tires they are not made for hauling heavy cargo. And even if you could technically use them, they're only single ply; a misery to change a puncture when loaded with cargo. Don't waste your money.

Axles for HD Trailers

Don't use bicycle bearings on trailers to handle more than 300lbs. Pillow block bearings are the best; two on each axle thick enough to not bend [0.786" or 13/16th" or 20mm is what was used for this trike hub]. Look for Delta trike hubs and axles. It is better to over engineer it than have it break down because you expected people to use a petroleum powered pickup truck. People are going to be using these things for heavier loads than you think. Most people are living in denial that living without gasoline will be far harder that anyone knows.

And remember that 3ft wide is the maximum for bicycle equipment. Motorcycle wheels and tires are very much stronger than anything made for bicycles.

Motorcycle tires for CycleTrucks

Sprockets for heavy duty motors

pedal assist sensor

Motors with planetary gears give more hill-climbing thrust.

 

Off Road Survival e-bike

 

I like the idea of using gasoline and electric motors, but not if you MUST have the gasoline to run the electric motors. Best to save the gasoline to charge the batteries when there is no sunlight. Carry flexible solar voltaic panels rolled up with a foldable frame work.

I have been thinking more about what it would really take for a bike that can be driven from city to off road mountains. There are at least a couple that use gasoline, but you can't keep gasoline for very long without it turning to varnish. [If you know of a way, let me know.]

There is still a lot of misinformation about lithium-ion batterys out there. Like “they do not last long” (very wrong, it depends on how the pack is built.) And a silent “field oriented” controller will give much better hill climbing power by automating the phase advance process so that the motor is driven at optimal timing; giving more thrust when needed. https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65031&hilit=phaserunner#p976242

To build a pack that will last longer you must think about what stresses batteries. Making them run cool is essential; that requires having a large enough C rate (more cells in parallel). The right way is to build a pack is to design in much more Amp hours than you actually need. Like I need twice the amp-hours my pack has just to get to town and back with out pedaling. And when hauling a total combined weight of 450lbs or more pedaling is useless. So I need at least 3 times my packs 700Wh capacity to keep my battery pack cool. 2100Wh and more like 2400kWh, yet even more would make them last even longer.

Samsung 29E cells are the longest lasting Lithium-ion 18650 cells but a little unpopular with speed bikers that can't handle any extra weight. The pack of 240 cells I am working on will be only about 8” deep by 9”x10”. Lithium Iron Phosphate [LiFePO4] will last even longer but you will need many more of them to get the Watt hours needed.

And if I were to drive up mountains and haul twice the weight, I may start wishing for gasoline. But good design will solve that problem; get a medium sized battery at first then after testing the bike fully loaded with a Cycle Analyst meter to know how many amp-hours-per-mile is needed, you can build a much larger pack. My largest Watt hours per mile use per trip was up to 75Wh/m recently, but usually never goes over 57Wh/m with my smallish 1500w at 52v nominal motor [3000w at 72 volts]. And you will need more like 6000watts for that much weight on steep terrain. Get a controller for each motor, with heat sensor so you don't burnout the Brushless motors. Two motors are better than one, especial if you must use hub motors set in wheels; because a wheel is like a higher gear ratio than you can build with a separate motor. Even if the hub motors can work at a slower speed.

You will need to calculate as many variables as you can; like what your lowest gear ratio should be, having two different low ratios would be a big help. Big 3 to 4” wide motorcycle tires and plenty of rack room to pack every thing all in one trip. You may need to get off the logging roads. So a short bike with a heavy duty trailer will be needed. And flexible roll-up solar panels with charge controller will be needed.

Knobby tires are not good for the road because they are nail magnets. I once got a large nail right through the middle of my MTB tire. But you will need traction off road. Forget about turning an old bicycle into one of these vehicles. You need to start from scratch and use motorcycle tubes and parts. Like stainless steel not aluminum rims and all airplane steel tubing. Don't build it like some kind of race machine, heavy duty tubing is needed. And extra low motorcycle gears. Better to crawl than to burnout your motor. If the tires will not stand up without air they are not thick enough. The first time I used my 4 ply front tire, it was flat down to 7.5psi And I did not even notice it. It was nice soft ride but I was able to go to the food bank and bring home about 40lbs of food [total combined weight of at least 400lbs] so a round profile steel belted 4ply would be the thinnest tire to use. And large spoon shaped tire irons are the best thing for removal of tires. Don't even try bicycle tire irons.

Improved CycleTruck

Only a few small tools are needed to build a bicycle [besides a welder]

I need some one to build a frame that will hold a large battery pack in the center of the frame so it won't bounce around. But I still need a usable crank with chain drive and large box rack on the front and rear. And the rear should have a 16" rim 2.75" to 3"wide motorcycle tire with 2.25" on the front. The rear rim should be a steel motorcycle rim, while the front could use an aluminum BMX rim. Although I am not sure there is any point in using an expensive bicycle rim. High tech metals seem absurdly over priced unless you are a weight weeny. And there are too many people brainwashed by the bicycle industry; resulting in people thinking they should build cargo bikes with one inch tires to lower the rolling resistance. Even though they will wear-out 10 times faster than a 4 ply motorcycle tire. A tire made for large amounts of weight will ride higher on the tarmac than a tire made for light weight, even at a higher PSI.

converting-off-road-motorcycles-to-electric

fun fun fun

 

Four Wheel CycleTruck

DIY Backyard engineering an Ackerman steering assembly you can learn a lot just by trial and error. Like: 

The seat is tilted forward a bit to apply more pressure to the pedals.

Negative trail was needed to keep the wheels steady. See the photo.

The jack shaft needs to drive both sides so it won't pull one side the steering harder than the other. Put a cassette on the right side of both drive wheels with a support on the right side of the right side wheel. See “Light Foot” delta trikes.

The wheel on the inside of the turn will be pulled by the jack-shaft while the wheel on the out side of the turn will be pulled faster than the inside wheel and therefore freewheel ahead.

But if you want the shaft to drive the wheel on the outside of the turn for better traction, you would need a differential so that one side of the axle not turn faster than the other.

And using scrap parts is so much cheaper than paying for machine work. Machine shops charge a huge amount of money. And Bicycle specialists charge even more, like $16,000 for a special custom designed bike. So there are a lot of people that just work on it until they get it right and do not worry about how it looks. But having a gas shielded arch welder would help.

You can burn oil onto metal for a cheap paint job.

Racks are the most important part:

http://commutercycling.blogspot.com/2014/11/racks-are-most-important-part.html

Leaning trike Design:

http://commutercycling.blogspot.com/2013/12/leaning-cargo-trike-design.html

Engineering a three wheeled vehicle:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Engineering-A-3-Wheel-Vehicle-Chassis/

                             Light Foot cycletruck

with hub motor

http://sickbikeparts.com/electric-

motor-freewheel-heavy-duty-14t/

Trailers and Building them

https://commutercycling.blogspot.com/

2007/12/actionbent-bicycles-review.html 

bicycle builders on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/

electric motorcycle builds

https://www.facebook.com/groups/electricmotorcyclebuilds