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I've been riding my Rover to work for over a year now and put over 600 miles on it. My job has moved and my ride has increased to 7.5m with lots of hills so I'm looking to add electric assist to the trike. I've done some research and have seen solutions ranging from <500$ to over $2000. The hub design motor seems to be the most popular however I'd like to keep the 8-sp hub if possible. That leaves front sprocket or mid-drive kits (or maybe something else I haven't seen yet). I'm not looking to convert the bike to a Veleomobile. I'd just like to have motor assist for going up hills so I can keep a more steady pace. Can someone provide a suggestion for a kit that is not too expensive and preferably with some tips on how best to mount it?
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http://www.ridekick.com/
Peter_C
TerraTrike Rover W/N360 by NuVinci (copy and paste into your browser) to see ---> My Trike Photos
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My wife at 65 has brain aneurisms that limit her level of exercise to keep her blood pressure from getting too high and is the reason for the assist motors in the first place. She also has arthritis in her hands (as do I) and the thumb throttle could be an issue for any extended ride. Plus it replaces the left hand twist shift for the Patterson and can keep the same half grip that will match the right half grip.
Purchased the following tools from Amazon for the Bafang
BBS02 build: Park Tool HCW-5 Lock Ring Spanner, Topeak 2011 Update Universal Chain Tool, Park
Tool Compact Crank Puller, KMC
Z-72 7-8sp chain (Dark Silver/Brown).
Cost: $50.83 with free shipping.
Also purchsed the following from California Ebike: SKU005-006 - Bullet connectors (pair), Male
and female extensions bare ends, Left Half Twist Throttles, Speed Sensor Ext
Cables 13". Cost $155.00 with
$15.00 express shipping. Purchased
a complete chain rather than individual links due to the 46T crank
gear ring up front replacing the Patterson 25T 2 speed crankset. Again, these items cover two Rovers.
With 3 feet of snow on the ground, will go cross country skiing this weekend and leave the build for another day.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
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As with any project, mistakes are made and corrected, and better ideas pop up only after all the work is done. I will keep up with any additional changes.
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Waiting for chain link pins to complete. Tested electrics and motor and all seems well. Three feet of snow on the ground and there will be something to plow in the morning. It'll be a while before the big thaw comes.
The cable routing was a bit too aggressive in trying to keep all connections out of harms way. By cable tying the power cable from battery to motor along the chain tube, when I tried taking off with just the throttle, the chain tube jerked (tightened the chain) and pulled both power leads apart just undreneath the seat. Reworking now to route the cable with more service loop. As a matter of fact, redoing all the cabling for neater appearance and no inadvertant disconnects. In order to lessen the chance of a brake cable disconnecting or breaking when stretching the cable in a sharp turn, I originally ordered male and female brake cable extensions. These have to be soldered together to make one extention cable. With all wires going up the left handlebar I made the extension for the right hand brake. This will put less stress on all connections and resolve the routing problems. Rail trail opening day is March 28th. Don't know if all this snow will melt before that so it may be just fat bikes hitting the trail.
The patterson worked great in both high and low range, the only issue was there was a noticable efficiency loss in high range. Rarely got into high gear high range except downhill. Without a derailer post on the Rover, it was the obvious choice and I would do it again to get those midrange gears even with the loss pf efficiency. Makes for a very clean layout and less than half the price of a Schlump.
Wife and I together had no problem pushing the trikes up the new ramps, then getting the ramps folded and stored between trikes. Very little lifting required (I watched and did as I was told).
Made the extension cable for the speedo and have yet to cable tie things back up. Not going to worry about appearance until I get this cabling right and not pulling apart under loads. As set from the fatory, the level one setting (about 10%) runs the trike around 10mph with no pedaling. Level 2 (about 20%) is about 14mph and level 3 (about 30%) about 18mph. The battery display never dipped below 80% charge in over 100 minutes of use. Max speed was 27.4mph and a bit twitchy - might need more toe-in. Should get miles and miles out of pedalec and still have power to get up the bigger hills.
Wife has a 30 mile rail trail run scheduled for Friday morning. Better get crackin'.
Have ridden it for over 2 hours and over 35 miles on rail trails with no indication of power loss and all with the motor doing most of the work - still recovering.
I am looking at doing the same as you.
It looks like the speck on the terratrike rover is 118mm bottom bracket and the Bafang BBS02 seems to have a speced to BB 68mm did that cause any problems.
Thanks in advance,
Nelson
Thanks,
Nelson