I have a big hill on my daily commute. Specifically, an 800 foot descent over a 2 mile period. The rest of the 12.5 mile total round trip is flat, well except for going back up the hill.


I am seriously considering a goldenmotor.com brushless, gearless, 500 watt hub kit. Ebikes are currently illegal where I live, so I want a stealthy system that doesn't make any kind of noise until the laws change. Therefore I will not consider a chain drive or any other geared, freewheeling system.

What about adding regen-capable controller for an additional $48 with my order?
Is it worth the bother? It will be with a 36v 10ah LiFePo4 battery.

if the hill is at the beginning of your commute there will be no place for the regen current to go. Unless you start with partially charged batteries. Even under ideal conditions its never more than a few amps pushed back into the pack - I'm not fan of regen in practice. I love the theory and perhaps someday things will progress but at this time it's very experimental technology.

That's a nice pack you've chosen. Sure would be a shame to screw it up trying to save some brake pads.

btw - panasonic makes a sweet chain drive that's more stealth than any hub motor. Search panasonic vivi to see what I mean.

The goldenmotor hub is a gearless (direct drive) hub motor so it will be very quiet, but like all gearless hubmotors it's also kind of big.

The advantage of kits like the cyclone-tw.com kit is that they aren't that obvious if you look at the bike (because they're small) ... and the sound is too quiet to be heard even by the rider, if you're in moderate or heavy traffic. (it'll be very hard for anybody who's in a motor vehicle to hear it.)

I think the cyclone-tw.com website is down. Are these geared hub kits?

Even under ideal conditions its never more than a few amps pushed back into the pack -

I had a kit with regen. Ebraking with the illusion of extra power felt great, but the truth was dissapointing in the end. No noticable charge increase with added complexity at the brake lever, which is easy to trip and lock-up (ebrake) the wheel.
Not worth the trouble or cost.

Hi bent - you know! I have a Xootr with regen and while it won't lock up the wheel, if the controller doesn't fry it can cook the batteries to a nice shade of goo. Maybe some day - but for now it's just added complexity and potential for trouble.

Ok, you guys talked me out of the regen braking feature. The cyclone-tw website is back up and the kits look excellent. I am looking at their 500w kit. I guess I should start a new thread asking about battery selection for this kit. They recommend the 24V 20AH battery for the 500W motor, not the 36V 10AH like I was considering.

The cyclone kit is not designed to withstand battery voltages higher than about 24V and using a 36V battery is likely to ruin the controller and/or throttle.