Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.morph999
01-22-10, 04:53 AM
Let me just throw out some advice to new people who haven't bought one yet.
You will likely need at least a 36v15 AH SLA pack or 36v10AH lifepo4 pack before you are satisfied with the range. You need almost twice as much AH in an SLA (lead -acid) battery as you do in lifepo4 because of the peurkert effect. If you have to get SLA, I recommend getting the EB-20-12 which is the B&B 12v20ah SLA's. They've been specially made for electric bikes and have been known to last to 5000 miles if taken care of correctly. I started out on 60v9ah SLA pack and it sucked really bad. I could barely get 6 miles out of it and that's with 50 % pedaling so more like 3 miles without pedaling. I would also say capacity over volts. I got a 36v20ah lifepo4 now. I chose capacity over more volts because I found that with the 60v pack, I rarely went over 25 mph anyway. I'd much rather enjoy a 1 hour ride on a 20AH lifepo4 pack than a 5 minute ride on a 60v9ah SLA pack. Nothing worse than seeing a gas scooter blow by you on the road because you ran out of battery. I plan on adding another 12v20ah Thundersky later this year, though.
You will likely need at least a 36v15 AH SLA pack or 36v10AH lifepo4 pack before you are satisfied with the range. You need almost twice as much AH in an SLA (lead -acid) battery as you do in lifepo4 because of the peurkert effect. If you have to get SLA, I recommend getting the EB-20-12 which is the B&B 12v20ah SLA's. They've been specially made for electric bikes and have been known to last to 5000 miles if taken care of correctly. I started out on 60v9ah SLA pack and it sucked really bad. I could barely get 6 miles out of it and that's with 50 % pedaling so more like 3 miles without pedaling. I would also say capacity over volts. I got a 36v20ah lifepo4 now. I chose capacity over more volts because I found that with the 60v pack, I rarely went over 25 mph anyway. I'd much rather enjoy a 1 hour ride on a 20AH lifepo4 pack than a 5 minute ride on a 60v9ah SLA pack. Nothing worse than seeing a gas scooter blow by you on the road because you ran out of battery. I plan on adding another 12v20ah Thundersky later this year, though.