lillback44
Member
While re-doing my Schwinn straight bar project I was contemplating what to do with the old frame, when I came upon the idea of making a nice electric Schwinn bicycle. I've thought about having a electric bike for years, but never really did anything about it because of the practicality of the electric bike.
Then my thoughts took it one step further and I came up with the idea to add a electric wheel conversion kit to my 1999 Wc1 Whizzer! I cant say that no one has ever done something like this before because I saw a video awhile back where Joe Lin was working on a electric rear wheel bike. Here's a link to that ://wvideo.httpsww.youtube.com/watch?v=7gpLlg4sIp8
Initially when I first saw that video I thought " How stupid is that? " What is the point of that and what's the chance that he will ever get that right, and how much more money would someone be willing to pay for a moped that's already way over priced at $2000?
After thinking over the idea I thought about what the benefits could be from trying something like this.
(1) Starting the bike without pedaling.
(2) Assisting the take off of the bike.
(3) Assisting hill climbing.
(4) Alternative to pushing or pedaling the bike home if it died or ran out of gas.
There is a lot to consider in picking out a kit for a project like this and I'm not going to go through all the details, but I can tell you that it is like anything else; higher numbers = better performance= higher price! When I say higher number I talking about wattage, ah, mph, and such. I choose a 36 v 500w front wheel kit for about $209 and 3 12v 7ah sealed lead acid batteries that I wired in series to create 36v for $40.
I have more details on this to be added later and some results from my initial test run from yesterday and today. Here's a short youtube clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jgpTC4FffQ
I should add that this probably wouldn't be considered a true Hybrid vehicle as the gas motor doesn't recharge the batteries for the electric. Sounds better than Gas powered, electrically assisted motorbike.
Then my thoughts took it one step further and I came up with the idea to add a electric wheel conversion kit to my 1999 Wc1 Whizzer! I cant say that no one has ever done something like this before because I saw a video awhile back where Joe Lin was working on a electric rear wheel bike. Here's a link to that ://wvideo.httpsww.youtube.com/watch?v=7gpLlg4sIp8
Initially when I first saw that video I thought " How stupid is that? " What is the point of that and what's the chance that he will ever get that right, and how much more money would someone be willing to pay for a moped that's already way over priced at $2000?
After thinking over the idea I thought about what the benefits could be from trying something like this.
(1) Starting the bike without pedaling.
(2) Assisting the take off of the bike.
(3) Assisting hill climbing.
(4) Alternative to pushing or pedaling the bike home if it died or ran out of gas.
There is a lot to consider in picking out a kit for a project like this and I'm not going to go through all the details, but I can tell you that it is like anything else; higher numbers = better performance= higher price! When I say higher number I talking about wattage, ah, mph, and such. I choose a 36 v 500w front wheel kit for about $209 and 3 12v 7ah sealed lead acid batteries that I wired in series to create 36v for $40.
I have more details on this to be added later and some results from my initial test run from yesterday and today. Here's a short youtube clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jgpTC4FffQ
I should add that this probably wouldn't be considered a true Hybrid vehicle as the gas motor doesn't recharge the batteries for the electric. Sounds better than Gas powered, electrically assisted motorbike.