hub motor
 

I am new here and need advice please. I am considering buying an adult single speed tricycle. From there I want to add a front hub motor to it. Several questions please in general terms. I have someone to do the installation.

I was told that the parameters should be to get the largest voltage motor, largest in wattage, SLA battery for simplicity, twist grip throttle, battery charger and battery should be included in the kit. Battery should be in the 20AH range for the sake of run time and mileage. Speed around 20MPH would be fine for me. All this for the lowest $s I can afford.

I was told that almost all of these kits come from CHINA, and regardless of kit price they are all basically the same for the same tire size, 26" in my case. Only brushed versus brushless and wattage rating is the difference. Are these parameters correct? I was adviced that a 48 volt, minimum of 350 watts, would be fine for the occasional weekly short trips I will be doing.

Do you have any specific recommendations? Price range? Trike $s is 250 at a big box store. Kit should be less than that in my opinion. A finished price in the $500 range sounds reasonable to me. Am I in the ball park? EBAY sells kits fromm $100 to $500. Except for small differences like replacement brake handles with switches(?), speed sensors, dash board, and other so called safety stuff, the kits are basically the same as I said.

A basic kit enough to function without the niceties would be fine. Any advice welcome. Most of the kits I can afford that meet my needs are 48 volt,1000 watt, either brushed or brushless. Typical? reeltoreelguy@gmail.com

Moved to Electric Bikes from Bicycle Mechanics.

20 mph would SEEM (to me) to be max for that kind of trike. You could achieve that (IMO) with a 36V system (depending on your weight, wind and on flat ground). A 48V, 20 ah lead battery will weigh ABOUT (I'm guessing) 40 - 50 pounds and you need to decide where to put it. All hub motors aren't the same, but for your price range there probably isn't much difference. Also for a front application you should have a steel fork and probably at least one torque arm. I think you should consider a 350w, 36V kit with a geared motor and Lithium battery (you should be able to put this together for $600 -$700, maybe less). If you want a heavy direct drive, inexpensive motor put 48V, 1000w into your browser. Inexpensive, but decent systems from acceries or whatever for $200 -$300, then you just need a torque arm and battery.

Figure $1000+ for the complete bike.

FYI. My current bike uses a 36volt lithium ion battery from elifebike on ebay that cost $280 shipped. It also uses a 36 volt 500W geared rear hub motor, also from ebay for $199. I've got 250 miles on it so far, and top speed without pedalling is 18-20 mph. Runs fine. Very reliable so far in the four months I've had it running.

I like geared motors because there's no drag when pedalling. I bought a second 36volt motor, same as the first, and will be using it as the front motor in a second bike I'm building. Wheel and hub weighs 12 pounds, by the way.

I would go with a brushless motor. Controllers are more complicated, but they're all mass produced these days with vendors copying each other's designs, so the electronics are pretty cheap. A motor with brushes will eventually wear out the brushes, no?

So, yes, I think your budget is realistic with a $249 trike, but I think 20 mph is not. These trikes were intended to be pedaled well under 10 mph by geezers. They are not stable when turning at speeds. The brakes will probably be an adventure above 10 mph too.

LBS Here sells them ready to ride , whole trike..

Hub Motor in the front Fork, fork made to take its Torque.

Battery pack under the rear basket.

You only have brakes on the front wheel unless it has a Coaster brake then that only acts on 1 of the rear wheels

I'm building almost the identical trike. It's my first trike build but I did build an electric bicycle before so I have a little experience. One thing I have added to mine is a torque arm to help the fork handle the torque of the hub motor. On my bicycle the forks didn't fare so well after some miles. The voltage isn't too important as watts are watts. Lower voltage will use more amps, but you will have less invested in batteries. Higher voltage you will have more battery power (assuming the same Amp/hours) and should get more range. Someone with more knowledge will probably jump in here if I'm wrong. I'm using an 800 watt 36 volt kit and SLA batteries. The tire that came on the hub motor was of a smaller size than the ones on the trike so I switched them out. I also put flat resistant tubes in all three tires for obvious reasons. I wound up purchasing everything through Amazon after price shopping. It just worked out that way. Let me know how your's turns out and I'll do the same. Progress here is slow due to winter weather and the need to work outside.