donob08

I think Ping knew the dimensions, but I measured my case, to be sure. Currie sometimes changes things without notice. You wouldn't want to buy a battery that "almost" fit. I use Anderson Powerpoles everywhere. In places where I won't visit regularly I use the accessory clips they sell, just to be sure they stay connected.

Using the powerpoles I can charge my LiFePO outside the case and add my Watt's Up meter if I want, for charge or discharge.

Juiced Riders

>>You obviously didn't visit during the shootings, stabbings and buses being put on fire.

No... no, I am afraid i missed out on those. At least you can get away quickly on the bike...

Here is another quick run with video and GPS stuff
https://www.juicedriders.com/blog/200...-the-lake.html

It is more of a qualitative run.

nwmtnbkr

Juiced Riders,

Nice video. Gives people not familiar with electric bicycles an idea of what it's like to ride one. From a personal perspective, I'd like to see some videos on You Tube showing use of e-bikes in a mountainous environment similar to where I live currently, say climbing a steep road but then I'm more interested in torque than speed. I'm enjoying the power assist provided by my system. Come next spring, I know I'll want to beef up my batteries since I'm finding that I want to ride more than 25 miles but my range with my present battery is 25 (with pedaling, which I enjoy). I've got one particular mountain range that I want to keep exploring, but I'm going to need to double my battery capacity since the roads are very steep and you just keep climbing. The other thing that I suspect I'll need to do next spring is get a new fork and disc brake on the front, I'm a little uncomfortable at the speeds coming down the mountains, especially since I'm mainly riding unimproved, gravel forest roads. At present, I pump my brakes rather than just keep them depressed constantly, but it's hard to keep speeds down below 25 MPH on some descents (some might find that thrilling but I don't, especially since I'm having to dodge pot holes on many of the forest roads).

Juiced Riders

I enjoy pedaling very much, but the current gearing is no good over 18mph. Thats sad.

Hills... interesting. This type of test is in the works. we will try to do some limit testing. Powerful up/down hills WILL expose the weakness of the motor, controller, battery and brakes among other things. How much climb do you have and over what distance?

nwmtnbkr

Juiced Riders,

It varies, depending on which mountain I'm on. I currently live in a 2.2 million acre national forest west of Glacier National Park. Several different mountain ranges ring the valley I'm in. I'm mainly riding unimproved, gravel forest roads. Some have fairly steep grades (I know some of it is due to topology, but the forest service contracts out the building of the roads and quality varies--I hate it when the contractors use bolder-sized creek rock rather than gravel).

Here are some photos from my ride today to give you and idea. This was an un-numbered, undesignated forest road (I never ride here without my GPS unit, it's easy to get disoriented and lost, given the density of the forest canopy). This road first dipped down into a little valley.


However, it didn't take long before it started it's path up the mountain.





It wasn't as steep a grade as some of the mountain roads here but once it started climbing it just kept going ever up.



And of course, I have to include a photo of my trusty bike.

Juiced Riders

wow, that is some real wilderness. A reliable ebike is a must. You can never have enough battery range out there. We will try to include more hills in the future testing.

nwmtnbkr

Thanks for considering more hill testing. Are you going to give any thought to 24V batteries? (I can understand if you aren't since most e-bike hobbyists are going straight to 36V.)

It really is a wilderness here--the forest takes up 90 percent of the county. I'm always listening for wildlife when I'm out in it, specifically, the sound of bears since I live between 2 black bear and grizzly bear habitats. I really never want a personal encounter with either kind. They also keep relocating problem grizzlies to our region. A real comfort since you can't protect yourself from them in the lower 48--they're an endangered species. The federal government has actually prosecuted locals who've shot a grizzly attacking their livestock. If one is threatening to break into your stick-built-house, and believe me they can and do if they're really hungry and smell something that entices them, you're not supposed to shoot at them but instead call the game warden (who is about 2 hours away) and wait and hope the bear doesn't get inside.

Garandman

I emailed you folks from your website to get the price for a 48V pack with charger shipped to 01960 with no response. Should I email through ebay instead?

Zephyr Boy

I just got my first LiFePO4 battery from ping, 48V 15AH for my BL-36 (63 volt big caps). I learned alot in the past week from reading a lot of post(ers) here, thank you for all the great advice. In three days I'll get my Cycle Analyst, then it's show time.
I like to note a couple impressions about getting my ping battery pack. First, the battery arrived in a week after ordering directly from his website. I was surprised because I assumed it takes a week to just build one. So, I'm happy it arrived so fast. Second impression is how light and durable the battery is; no more duct tape wrap (exactly like pings' website photos), and it had 4 wires (big red wire, little red wire, big black wire, little blue wire). Older posts had pictures of a LiFePO4 with just 3 wires. No instructions in box, ping's website has a pdf with instructions though. Took some research to realize that the metal prong plug at the end of the charger was in actually in two pieces (I had to pull the plug to separate the 2 pieces). patiently waiting...

Beautiful pictures above, nwmntbkr. I'll be watchful too if I was you. I would probably have a couple "grizzly bear mace" on my ebike and at home. It looks very peaceful in your pictures (compare to living in Los Angeles).

Thanks all.

Little-Acorn

If you look on Ebay and do a search for 48V 20Ah, a number of LiFePO4 batteries will come up with those ratings. They fall into two groups:

1.) Batteries with a Buy It Now price, where price and shipping come to $600 or more.

2.) Batteries in auctions that start low and you can bid them up. On most of these, price and shipping combined come to around $350-$400 when the auction ends. That's for a 48V 20Ah LiFePO4 battery. Some of them come with a BMS and charger.

Several vendors are doing these auctions, including cammy_cc, EP-battery, Vpower.hk. They're all in China. Purchase prices are usually around $200-$250, and shipping is around $150.

If you want a good price, try putting in a bid.

nwmtnbkr

Be careful of buying directly on ebay from some foreign vendors. There are real horror stories about some fo the duct tape packs that people have bought from foreign vendors on ebay. Worst of all, some who receive packs with many non-functioning individual cells can't get customer support or find that the cost of shipping the first pack back to China and paying for shipping on a new one (that also may not work) is prohibitive. If you're buying from a foreign vendor on ebay, buy from someone like Ping. He stands behind his products (if you have an issue though I believe you have to the shipping costs to send his packs back to China for warranty support). Personally, I want to buy from a US vendor with whom I can deal on warranty issues and where I won't pay a fortune to mail it back for warranty support.

alfonsopilato

:: chanting and raising right arm in the air :: ping ! ping ! ping !

JerseyEbiker

I vouch for V-Power. Its the only battery I build with. Its just as good as any ping battery imo.

alfonsopilato

now, normally i wouldn't compare right off what i read on the sites, but i happen to have built and currently operating a 72 volt bike based on ping's 48 volt battery, so I can vouch for it's ruggedness, trust me I put that bike through hell.

Ping:
48V 15AH V2.5 LiFePO4 Battery Pack
Weight: 7.5 kg / 16.5 lbs
Small Size: 300x105x150 mm / 11.8x4.1x5.9 inches
Price: $485.00 (USD) + 97.00 (USD) shipping to Canada = 582 (USD)

v-power :
Voltage: 48V (53V)
Capacity: 15 Amp Hours
Dimension: 270x140x140(mm)*
10.7x5.50x5.50(in)*
Weight: 9.7
$ 718 USD with shipping

I know you are gonna come back with "v-powre builds their batteries with this size cell etc..." and I can understand how that may affect the higher v-powre price and heavier weight. .. however, from my experience my bike is performing pretty well under the current conditions, I trek 30 km daily on one single charge with power to spare, so cell size aside, i'm getting what i need for $140 bucks less. heck for 718 USD i can almost put together a 72 volt 15ah battery pack.

my 2 cents .. please don't be mad at me i'm just devil advocating (my ego is VERY sensitive, so please only gently replies )

JerseyEbiker

I ebay my V-power packs for far less. $585 from cammy_cc ebayer shipping included. I could never figure out why the V-power site was priced so high. The free 5amp charger is top grade. Great BMS and any config you can dream up.

Im not saying V-power is better or worse. Im saying they are reliable and worth the money. Same as Ping. I love Ping packs very much so but I detest getting stuck waiting 9-10 days with Ping for testing. I have never waited more then 3 days from V-power. When someone askes me to put a kit together for them I like to know its defonetly going to show up in 7-9 days. It works out well because its normaly a day or 2 behind the DIY kit. Gives me time to test with my own pack and work out all of the kinks before I plug in a new set of variables.

Either way both brands are fantastic.

https://stores.ebay.com/cammy-cc

JerseyEbiker

The price I listed is for the 48v/20ah.

alfonsopilato

This reminds me of the days when I used to put computers together for folks. Isn't it funny how things come back different, yet "the same"? i don't know what that saying is exactly .. but you get my drift...

Jersey, it's very cool that you're able to give an accurate estimate to a client with regards to when their kit will be ready. I remember in the o'ld days... i had to wait litereally months for my kit to arrive let alone the battery. It was excruciating !!! from what you're telling me here, that's all behind us now and i'm glad to hear it

BroadwayJoe

Don't fall into the familiar trap of "I only ride 15 miles so I can get away with 15AH battery." Sure, it works for a short period of time - but if you repeatedly drain maximum AH from a battery you will shorten the life span considerably.

How do you think Toyota Prius batteries last as long as they do? Because Toyota only allows the system to drain at most 25-30% of the battery capacity before recharging. We should all learn from this example and size our equipment with the largest AH battery you can fit into your design.

Anything less is simply penny wise and pound foolish...

alfonsopilato

hey Broadway, haven't heard from you in a while

i didn't know this, but indeed found out when i upgraded from 48 to 72 volts, and i'm not trying to persuade anyone out there to do the same, as higher voltage comes with its own can of worms, which, if you're willing to deal with, is very worth while, imo

what i'm trying to sa is, i use up less ah to do the same trek and i get there faster, on my 72 volts setup, in comparison with my 48 volt one (at the same ah battery capacity)

more voltage at the same ah means you're potentially going to use less of the battery's full capacity to do the same work, unless you're planning on doing 50 kmh all the way

the bike feels smoother and of course more powerful and reliable

if i could i would make it 30ah at 72 volts (that's 2x25lb for 2x36volts) vs 2x12lb @ 15 ah
50 lbs vs 25 lbs... hmmmmm.
as is, the bike is not light enough to pick up the stairs, so going an extra 25lbs wouldn't change much in that arena.
you know, in retrospect, that would have cost me the same exact price as my current setup. :: sigh :: that's because my original 48 volt battery cost me a whopping 900 bucks and the 24 volts 450 bucks !!! like hulloooooooooooooooo !!!.. i learn. i'm slow but i know i do get there eventually.

p.s. oh did i mention i could lose 25 lbs? i mean i am close to 220, and there is no reason for me to be that weight.
i can lose 25 lbs and put them towards my battery pack and the bike would be none the wiser _ hopefully women will still want me and men will still want to be me

JerseyEbiker

Funny.... Im 228 atm. If I didnt have my e-bike I would never excersize at this time of year. It gets cold over here. I take my bike from 4-12 miles to the train every day, from the train to my job in NYC and back. I do this 6 days a week. I thought about breaking the 48v barrier but at this point I climb about 4 different stair cases daily and sometimes I get stuck using the subway/path and that means insane winding stairs and tunnels. I just cant justify the extra pounds if I go over 48v.

alfonsopilato

wow, that's very commendable Jersey
your description of your daily trek throws me back to the scenes of NYC as seen on TV, the whole Welcome Back Carter theme ... I'm imagining NYC with its diverse city paths, people using different modes of transportation.. tell me, are ebikes popular down there?

BroadwayJoe

I commute an ESR750 from Queens across 59th St bridge to midtown. I also have a Panasonic here in NYC and a cheapo hub system at home in CA. 'don't have time for hanging out here much anymore but the site redesign looks good and if we haven't met before - welcome to the forum jerseyebiker!

Whatever battery you use - take good care of 'em and they will take good care of you!

Interesting observations Alfonso - I'm brewing-up something unusual for next spring and I've been trying to decide between 48 or 72 volt? Probably 48v since I have so much 24v stuff that allows me to possibly swap stuff around as the project evolves.

great stuff and fun to watch it evolve over the years!