Another 20" wheeled e-trike

[voyager]

Hi Folks .


I might have been quiet of late but another trike has come out of the garage .

Any similarities to anything else is purely coincidental or even incidental .

The past few months have been a mixture of car repairs , a new caravan ( and sorting it out ) , lots of triking holidays ,day rides and some home refurbishment , we still have a lot to do before I can spend more time building as we are trying to do more triking before the weather breaks and Jadis starts to leave her frosty touch on the countryside and the country falls into a dark, sad and cold state.

Specification wise
Its a 20" wheel e-trike with a mesh seat , Under seat steering , huge 203 mm front discs with a 160mm rear , cable actuated with a brake doubler on the front brakes , I think I may have gone a little overboard this time as the trike will sit on its nose UNLESS the tyres don't grip

.

It is now going through its shakedown testing prior to fitting its tow hitch and mudguards , Hopefully it will stop with a loaded trailer behind .

and become a useful camping /touring e-trike

Fitted with a 24v 26" wheeled q100 motor built into a 20" rim running 37 volts ( a 10ah LifePo4 battery ) with a LCD display showing 5 levels of e-assist. The controller is fitted with both a throttle and pedelec sensor , this should make it a little less hungry on battery.

21 speed , 52/42/32 through to a 7speed 11-32 DNP freewheel gives a wide range of gearing from 95" down to 20" enough to cover the hills around here . the 52-11 being high enough to assist the motor while cruising at a higher touring speed with bar end changer .

The rear lamps and cree front lights are fitted to the extensions on the seat to allow me to get the lamps at a sensible distance from the ground .

I would hope it should have a range of 20miles with an interesting performance
So far it gives the appearance that it should.









imgur

regards all

emma

 

[raleighnut]

Another great build there @voyager

 

[classic33]

"I would hope it should have a range of 20miles with an interesting performance"

What's wrong with using those things called pedals to extend the range?

 

[voyager]

I thought they were only foot rests

 

[raleighnut]

I thought they were only foot rests

 

[Scoosh]

Any idea of the weight and battery charging time ?

 

[voyager]

Without weighing the trike I guess under 65lb without battery .
The handlebars, rack and seat frame are aluminium on the trike and even with the lamps attached the seat frame weighs "not a lot".

LifePo4 packs are heavier than Li-on or Lipo batteries . and they are clad in a alloy case but I will weigh everything next time I meet up with my bathroom scales

LifePo4 battery charge time from flat is about 5 hours at 2amp nominal charge , these batteries came from a Pedelec forum contributor , as refurbished but less the plastic end caps which a friend machined from black nylon on a CNC mill .

The batteries have a slightly different characteristic than Lion cells as 12 cells make up the pack rather than the 10 of a lion pack , and their own BMS that will cut the batteries to protect them .

regards emma

 

[Scoosh]

Thanks - just curious

I presume when you say 20 mile range, you mean that is just battery, no human-assist, so the real-life range will be quite a bit more (hills dependent ) ?

 

[voyager]

The problem is here in Peacehaven. I can do a 12 mile ride into Brighton and come back with a battery that takes over 3 hours to recharge - The accumulative climb / descent can be WELL OVER 2500 feet in just a 12 mile ride . Between the hills are a few flat paths and we tend to try and get the average speed over the whole journey well into double figures , on the outward journey we can get a peak speed over 30 mph. On the return with the hills and a steep climb up a zigzag path beside the cliff our average speed drops to just about 10 mph . my 11ah Lion cell does 25 miles per charge on that run but don't leave much for the hills in Saltdean on the return home .

 

[numbnuts]

Nice

 

[voyager]

We have been using "cyclometer" a windows 8.1 phone app to track some of our rides , it works quite well but has a few quirks but hey-ho its a free app.


img host

Under 8 mile total and 1500ft of climb still averaged about 10mph with a peak speed of 25mph , It must have been an off day for us

later's

emma

 

[voyager]

here is part of the climb up part of the cliff at saltdean




regards emma

 

[flake99please]

here is part of the climb up part of the cliff at saltdean

I can certainly see where the e-assist would come in handy. I like the colour of the trike also.

 

[voyager]

The e-assist doesn't help much on the climb as your speed drops off about half way up but with the chain on the small chain wheel in top gear ( 60" ) you can get 15 mph from a running start up the hill and change down on the climb to 2nd gear (25" ) and finish the climb with the motor struggling to help . a middie drive or crank mount motor would be better but would put a lot more strain on the front boom and chain .
Once to the top of the first steep climb you can turn in a parking area and do the same for the second climb which is unfortunately steeper and longer , then you have all the ups and downs along the rolling cliff top road ( A259 ) along to peacehaven where the road does flatten slightly for the last uphill struggles home . I will try and find another profile of the ride if I can extract one from the phone

regards emma

 

[voyager]

here are the screen shots from Cyclometer ( WINDOWS PHONE )
Showing a quickie ride from Peacehaven to Brighton and back with the cross section detail .
Note the accumulative climb is over 2500 feet on this trip

The problem with so many hills on the return journey is getting home without exhausting the battery pack from a longer ride


Here is a photo of the rolling hills taken looking east from Rottingdean Cafe/ toilets towards Peacehaven showing the rolling hills and the cliffs
On the above display about the spot above the dustbin button , The climb from this location up to the village of Rottingdean is up a track the goes straight up to the village ( very quaint town - worth a look if you are in the area )

With only one road through Peacehaven (The A259 coast road ) , every ride from home means hills, hills and even more hills
The only advantage is there is a cycle track running westward through to Worthing The sustran 2 route that is almost trike friendly where as the route eastward on the sustran 2 route is absolutely disgraceful with more obstructions etc that limit the use to bikes only .

regards emma