How to assemble a powerful electric motor for a bicycle. What are electric motors for bicycles and how to install them. Powerful and durable brakes

Sooner or later, every biker becomes “corrupt” for a while, and, having wound several tens of kilometers in a day, begins to cowardly dream of funds. small mechanization» ordinary bike. However, after a rest, these immodest desires usually pass, and the bicycle again becomes an object of desire. However, the idea of making a DIY electric bike is very popular and is getting more widespread every year. Let's tell you more about how to do it.

From the realm of dreams:
The photo shows an extreme six-kilowatt bike that develops a speed of 60 km / h in three seconds from a standstill. The peak current is 100 amperes on lithium-iron-phosphate batteries ... According to the manufacturers, it keeps a speed of about 60 km / h for 40 km. Wizards live here: http://www.voltbikes.ru/blog/projects/E-bike-3000W-6000W-lifepo4/

Our goals are much more modest. We will immediately limit ourselves to the fact that we do not mean the production of an electric bike from scratch, but it will be told how to choose and install a special conversion kit on your favorite bike. After this alteration, the electric bike will be able to help you out in a difficult situation.

What do you need it for?

First of all, you should think about what the bike equipped with an electric motor will be used for. It will become heavier, it will not be possible to do cross-country and downhill on it, because the center of gravity of the system increases, the weight increases, and besides, it is not worth falling on such a bike. This can damage the motor and require replacement.

Typically required for the following:

power reserve "just in case", with fatigue, for the reserve. This is a very good solution for older amateur cyclists, as well as for people suffering from cardiovascular diseases, obesity. This allows you to go on calm walks without the danger of exhausting yourself on the way back, if you can’t calculate them correctly;
constant use for climbing uphill, in the form of connection on difficult sections of the route. To do this, an electric bike must be able to move on two sources of energy at once: muscle strength and an engine.

It is better not to use an electric bike on rough terrain. His destiny is country paths, asphalt pavement. Also, the electric bike does not like jumping.

Deciding on power

Before ordering a kit in the online store, you need to decide how far you want to travel on one battery charge, with what average speed, which slides you can climb, how much it will cost to remake the bike.

The key factors will be:

the power of the engine, which is located around the wheel hub (the speed and traction qualities of an electric bicycle depend on it);
battery capacity. It determines the time of autonomous riding and the mass of additional equipment, which usually does not exceed 10 kilograms.

Of course, you can include additional data in the evaluation list, for example, the number of battery recharges (resource), the time spent on a full charge, and many other indicators.

Much depends on the mass of the cyclist. A teenager weighing 50 kg and an overweight man weighing 125 kg, apparently, need different kits.

Thinking about the future

It is also important to consider whether the model you have chosen can be installed on your bike. It will be a shame if you can’t remake your bike and you need to buy a new one.

Can you do this work on your own, or do you need to look for a qualified bike mechanic with knowledge of electrical engineering, which is a very large shortage?

Determine exactly where the battery will be placed, evaluate its dimensions so that the homemade electric bike is comfortable.

What is included

In order to turn the bike into, you need the following main components (they are included in each kit):

wheel motor. This is the heart of an electric bike, the electric motor. You just change one wheel for another;
accumulator battery;
battery fasteners, wires;
control panel or console.

In order for disappointments not to be endless, you need to know that a sufficiently fast and long ride is possible only with a power of about 1000 W, that is, 1 kW. If you decide on the price, then on average you will have to pay 20 thousand rubles for a motor-wheel with a kilowatt engine.

An electric bicycle can be made on a more capacious or less capacious battery. So, a battery with a capacity of 18 Ah will cost 30 thousand rubles.

An ideal, but expensive option is a 2000 watt motor.

An interesting and “budget” option can be considered a cargo tricycle on car batteries. As you know, one such battery has a capacity of 55 Ah and can give very good results. Making such an electric bike with your own hands is not difficult, it is much more difficult to find a reliable cargo bike with a trolley to accommodate batteries. In addition, a bike with more than two wheels can be more comfortable for fishing trips, for cycling tourism within the “reach” of the outlet.

However, chargers have already been created that can be powered by solar panels, charging it during the descent, as well as charging it at rest with the help of miniature steam turbine generators powered by fire energy.

Consumption ecology. Motor: The total interest in electric transport has only been gaining momentum lately - the people of the most different ages and type of occupation.

The total interest in electric transport has only been gaining momentum lately - people of all ages and occupations are increasingly puzzled by the question of "inventing" their own electric bicycle. Sometimes the ideas born in hot heads turn out to be incompatible with the harsh realities of life, quite often the "Kulibin" mindset bears fruit, and the result is quite worthy of the pride of its creator.

Many manufacturers have not remained aloof from global trends, and today the offer of so-called “whale” kits for self-creation an electric bike based on an existing bike. In order for the bike to go without your help, you will need at least an electric motor, a battery and a controller that is responsible for the correct operation of the first two units - all this, and much more, is included in the bike electrification kit. But in order for the newly-made device to be worthy of the high title of a bicycle hybrid, we suggest using the following tips.

Electric bike design: components and assemblies

As the theater begins with a hanger, and the dance begins with a stove, so the creation of an electric bicycle with your own hands begins with the selection of a donor. The correct solution of this issue will depend, first of all, on the goals and objectives that the future owner of the bicycle hybrid sets for the designed vehicle.

It is best to take into account the risks of inevitable high loads in advance and use a downhill-class steel frame with a two-suspension shock absorption system as the basis for the design. This option would be preferable to others if you are going to install a powerful motor-wheel - from a kilowatt or more. A direct drive electric motor with a rated power of 1000 watts will allow you to reach speeds of 40-55 km / h. Given the high torque and dead weight of the engine, such a drive is placed in the rear wheel, while it will not be out of place to strengthen the axle mounting brackets, especially if the frame is aluminum.

When choosing a ready-made battery or creating your own battery, you need to consider parameters such as weight, dimensions, capacity and operating current. The rated operating voltage can be different (36V, 48V, or 72V) - higher voltage and higher currents will allow you to accelerate to high speeds. If you need reliability and high resource, choose a battery on LiFePo4 high-capacity cells. If you want to save on weight and cost - take Li-Ion. A capacity of 10 Ampere / hour is enough for about 20-40 km of travel - the mileage depends on the economy of charge consumption, and for many this parameter is in no way compatible with the presence of a throttle.

When the light weight of a velohybrid is more important to you and you do not chase high speeds - the best choice there will be a wheel motor with a rated power of 250-350W. Such engines weigh a little, and, as a rule, have a built-in planetary gear, which contributes to the normal rolling of the hybrid bike when pedaling. The "cruising" speed of low-power hybrid bikes lies in the range of 25-30 km / h. Electric motors

small power is installed both in the front and in the rear wheels, this does not matter much, except that it is useful for a more even distribution of masses. For the same purpose, it is preferable to place the battery in the central part of the frame - the hybrid bike will have better handling and stability. Another option for placing the electric motor - the central one (near the carriage) - has not yet received wide distribution in our latitudes, but many leading manufacturers of electric bike kits have such offers in their assortment.

Regular controllers in inexpensive kits are hardwired by manufacturers and do not provide for the possibility of changing operation parameters. If you don't need it, you can just enjoy the ride. If you want to tinker with setting up and selecting the optimal parameters for your configuration, take a set with an Infineon programmable controller. Close attention should be paid to switching and installation of electrical equipment - high-quality wiring designed for operation at certain currents, reliable connectors, sufficient cooling of the controller, which heats up during prolonged operation and heavy loads.

Security questions

Bicycle hybrids - relatively the new kind vehicles with a fairly wide range of capabilities. In many countries of the world, legislation equates them to bicycles if the engine power does not exceed 350-500 watts. A more powerful electric bike is another story with its own operating characteristics. Therefore, safety issues sometimes need to be paid even more attention than when driving a scooter or motorcycle. Do not forget about both protective equipment and additional equipment. Even for those who are not going to rock out on downhill tracks, but simply plan to enjoy the surrounding beauties on a leisurely trip - in any case, it is worth using a bike helmet, gloves and other protective items that can protect the cyclist from injury in case of an emergency.

Headlight, rear marker, additional reflectors, rear-view mirrors, loud horn - all this will come in handy on the road for you, and will also help other road users to notice you in time. Particular attention should be paid to the brakes - they must be of high quality and capable of stopping your velohybrid at any time, because at high speed the usual behavior of the brakes changes. And it does not need to be an unpleasant surprise for you. Especially, given the increased weight of the bike - the components of the electric drive will "pull" an additional 12-14 kilograms. And if interest in velo-hybrids continues after buying a starter kit with a 250-watt motor, we can assume that soon you will have a more solid and heavy two-wheeled friend.

In general, how many people - so many bicycles. Someone has a priority in cost, someone has reliability, and others are interested in weight or external data. Today, the bulk of requests are able to satisfy ready-made solutions - among the variety of models offered, you can choose exactly the bike hybrid that will fully meet your requirements. published

Among the unusual applications of the engine from the washing machine, the most unusual can be considered its transformation into a motor for a bicycle. motor for bicycle washing machine- sounds more than extravagant, but looks absolutely exceptional. About whether it is possible to make this "technical artifact" and how to do it, read in this publication. We warn you right away, the project is technically complex and quite expensive, so if you are not confident in your abilities, it’s better not to start.

Drive mechanism

Before you start converting an ordinary bike into an electric bike, evaluate the technical potential of your iron horse from the outside. The bike must have a strong enough frame, as it must, at a minimum, support the weight of the rider and the weight of the equipment that will be installed on it. If everything is in order with this, you can start reworking the bike and installing the engine from the washer, drive mechanism, control system and power sources on it.

Let's start with the design and installation of parts of the drive mechanism. We note right away that in order to make a homemade electric bike from the engine of an old washing machine, we need a full-fledged locksmith shop. Well, or at least a lathe, drilling machine, welding machine, as well as an impressive range of materials and tools, including a fairly spacious room where you can conduct experiments.

The drive mechanism will consist of the following elements:

modified bicycle hub;
large pulley;
drive belt from the washing machine;
small pulley motor
motor shaft.

The most difficult thing here, perhaps, is the manufacture of a large pulley. It is almost impossible to find a standard part of a suitable size, so you have to do it.

From a steel sheet (2 mm), cut out a perfect circle.

In the hub of the rear bicycle wheel, between the spokes, we drill small holes. We drill similar holes in the steel circle.
We drill large holes along the edges of the steel circle, simply in order to reduce the weight of the part. For, as noted above, all the equipment, together with the rider, will weigh a lot, and you need to unload the bike frame as much as possible, gaining at least a few kilograms.
Next, the crucial moment, it is necessary to weld a steel strip 20x4 mm to the edge of the disk. You need to weld by gradually bending the strip of metal exactly along the edge. This is not the easiest thing, because the welded joint must turn out to be perfectly even.
After that, we load the part in lathe and process it again, removing all the bumps and roughness.
Here is our detail and turned into a full-fledged pulley. Now it remains for us to paint and fasten the main part of the drive mechanism to the rear bicycle wheel.

Important! The thickness of the large pulley will not allow the bicycle wheel to rotate after installation, as the part will touch the frame. It is necessary to either bend the frame or modify it in some other way, depending on the design of the bike.

Frame modification

We made a large pulley, adapted the rest of the parts of the drive mechanism. By the way, the rest of the parts of the drive mechanism do not need to be redone. The small pulley is already on the motor shaft from the washing machine, the drive belt is also there, so we can move on to reworking the bike frame with a clear conscience. When modifying the frame for a new electric bike, we must take into account that the engine on it should be as rigid as possible. To do this, we do the following.

Attention! When welding the frame for the engine, consider the height of its seat. It is necessary that the distance between the small pulley of the engine and the large pulley of the bicycle wheel be ideal for belt tension.

We continue to collect the electric bike. We install the engine on the frame, put the rear wheel, with a bolted pulley, check the rotation of the wheel. We tighten the drive belt, give small turns manually, checking if it jumps off. If everything is fine, we begin to engage in connecting the engine of the washing machine and organizing its autonomous power supply.

Motor power organization

We have repeatedly written and talked about making it work. So let's not focus on this issue again, but let's move on to organizing the autonomous power supply of our collector motor. Otherwise, our homemade electric bike will be driven by the muscular strength of the legs.

To begin with, let's see if commutator motor from the washing machine to work on DC? After all, batteries, which will become the main power source of the electric bike motor, produce direct current, and the washing machine and its units operate on AC power (household network 220V). It turns out that there are no problems with this, moreover, the engine from the washing machine works much better on direct current than on alternating current, which, of course, is only to our advantage.

Choose the right batteries. This can be tricky, as we need some rather massive batteries, which are difficult to mount on a bicycle due to their size and heavy weight. The best option– eight compact motorcycle 12 volt batteries, which together provide a voltage of 96V. But there is a problem - even such batteries take up a lot of space and together weigh quite a lot, and it is not clear how to place them on the frame of an electric bike.

After much thought and a whole series of unsuccessful experiments with battery boxes, it was decided to distribute the batteries evenly throughout the frame, hanging them around the electric bike like a Christmas tree with toys.

First, as you can see in the picture above, the bike frame had to be reinforced once again so that it could withstand the additional load. This, unfortunately, led to the fact that the weight of the "iron horse" once again increased, but nothing can be done about it.
Secondly, 8 separate battery mounts had to be welded to the frame so that they could be securely fastened.
Thirdly, I had to literally hang wires around the entire frame in order to connect the batteries to each other and to the engine.
And fourthly, I had to once again induce aesthetics, repainting the bike frame almost completely.

Control block

There are still a number of technical difficulties that we have not yet considered - how to control the engine speed, how to prevent the current from rising to the limit values \u200b\u200bwhen starting the electric bike and during its acceleration, and how, finally, to monitor the charge of the batteries while driving. The electric bike control unit, which we need to assemble, will help resolve these difficulties. We will need:

Switching downconverter at 32.5 kHz.
Variable resistor.
ATtiny26 microcontroller.
measuring resistor.
Chip IR2127S.
Three power transistors of the IRFB33N15D type.
Three 10CTQ150 type diodes.
Charging from a mobile phone.
DC-DC converter P6AU-1215ELF.
Red and green LEDs.
Automatic 6A.
Plastic case of suitable dimensions.
Metal heatsink from a computer motherboard.

We will not describe the process of assembling the control module, and there is no need for this, since the entire necessary information shown in the diagram above. You only need to read this circuit, understand and reproduce it on several printed circuit boards. The result should be something similar.

The board must be placed in a compact waterproof plastic case, screwed to the bottom of the radiator.

We did not find a suitable case for the module, so we had to use what we have. In order for the control module to start working, it is necessary to turn on the machine, turn the “throttle handle”, that is, a variable resistor mounted on the handlebar of the electric bike. After that, the engine will start to gradually gain momentum, and the green LED on the module will light up.

If the batteries are completely discharged or their capacity is insufficient, the red LED will light up, after which the circuit will be de-energized after a few seconds. You will have to go “on your own two feet” until you can recharge the batteries.

Tests and their results

The time has come to test the "hellish machine" on which so much time, labor and money has been spent. We approached the tests no less scrupulously than we did to make a home-made electric bike and conducted them in three stages:

Driving on a normal relatively flat road (half asphalt, half primer) at a speed of 18 km/h.
Driving on smooth asphalt with small ups and downs at a speed of 25 km / h.
Riding on top speed on smooth asphalt without ups and downs.

As a result, in the first case, having accelerated to 18 km / h and maintaining this speed, it was possible to drive 27 km on a primer and broken asphalt on a single battery charge. The muscular strength of the legs was practically not used. There were no ups and downs along the way.

Having ridden an electric bike on smooth asphalt with small descents and ascents at a speed of 25 km / h, we managed to set a record - 19 km on a single battery charge. And, finally, tests for maximum speed showed that our self-made electric bike is capable of accelerating to 30-35 km / h, this, of course, on flat asphalt, without descents and ascents.

For your information! The weight of the rider who tested the bike was 96 kg.

It is noteworthy that if we help the engine by pedaling, we can relatively easily reach a maximum speed of 45-50 km / h, and if we try, we can squeeze out 60 km / h. At the same time, the batteries are discharged faster, after about 10-15 km of such a sprint.

In conclusion, we note that in order to make an electric bicycle from a washing machine engine on your own, it will take at least several months, a workshop, a lot of strength and patience, as well as money. By the way, we spent about $ 700 on the project, provided that we did not have to purchase a bicycle and parts of an old washer. If you are determined to make your own e-bike - go for it, we can only wish you the best of luck!

It will be very difficult for every person to pedal when climbing a hill, especially with a long slope. No less tiring to ride a bicycle against strong wind when even from the descent you need to make an effort on the pedals so as not to stop. On straight sections of roads, and especially on slopes, a bicycle has one advantage: the quietness of the ride, there is no limit on the supply of fuel, there are no requirements for state transport accounting. Most likely, if electric bicycles were widely available, then twice as many people would use light two-wheeled vehicles.

Electric bicycle device

To assemble a home-made electric drive or install a purchased kit on a bicycle, you need to know the purpose of the individual installed parts. In fact, an electric bicycle is a regular bicycle, on which the following parts are additionally fixed:

electric motor;
transmission mechanism;
accumulator battery;
controller;
speed controller;
control equipment.

The electric motor can be commutator, with brushes, or brushless, simpler in design, but more overall with equal power. It is rational to install electric motors with powers in the range of 150-1500 watts on a bicycle. According to the operating voltage, electric motors are selected for 12, 24, 36, 48 V. The higher the voltage, the lower the current flowing through the motor windings and connected wires, therefore, smaller conductors can be used.

With your own hands, you can assemble a belt, chain or friction transmission mechanism.

The battery is usually mounted on the trunk or in a mount on the bike frame. It is better to use maintenance-free batteries, without liquid. Lead-acid batteries are heavier than other types of batteries for the same capacity. In addition, acid flows out of them when the bike is tilted. It is wise to put a battery with a capacity of no more than 20 Ah, as larger batteries will be too heavy to carry on a bicycle.

The controller, factory assembled, is a rectangular block in an aluminum case for better cooling. The main purpose of the controller is to change the magnitude of the motor supply current, according to the voltage drop across the variable resistance in the speed controller. The current is regulated by power thyristors or field-effect transistors, they then need cooling during operation. Secondary functions of the electronic unit: measure the battery level, limit the battery charge current, limit the speed of movement on a bicycle.

The speed controller is actually a variable resistor. For convenience, this rheostat is installed in the usual rotary knob, which is worn on the steering wheel.

Control equipment includes:

circuit breakers;
brake lever with microcontact that turns off the electric motor during braking;
headlight in the housing, with power switch, signal, LED battery level indicator;
a sensor that turns on the engine when pedaling.

Types of electric drives

Electric drives for bicycles are of three types:

Friction.
Chain, belt.
Motor wheel.

friction gear

A similar type of electric drive is found on sale, but is not very popular. The drive assembly with the electric motor and battery is mounted on the seatpost, above the rear wheel. The transmission of rotation from the electric motor occurs due to the friction of the rubberized roller against the tire. It seems that in such a transfer everything is simple and reliable. But this transmission method works great only on children's electric cars and bicycles, and for daily use on a large bike, it is not successful.

Friction transmission has many disadvantages.

The tire of the driven wheel wears out quickly.
It is necessary to maintain increased pressure in the chamber of the driven wheel.
There is a slippage of the drive roller when climbing a hill, carrying a load, especially when driving on a wet road or snow.
The heavy drive puts a strong bending force on the seatpost and gradually breaks the bike frame.

The friction drive for a bicycle has one advantage - ease of installation. It is feasible for every person to equip a bicycle with such a drive: it is enough to fix the device over the wheel, install the control knob, and you can go on the road.

Belt or chain drive

Many craftsmen assemble this drive option with their own hands from electric motors from washing machines, car starters, V-belts, chains, heavy lead-acid batteries.

Electric drives with chains also have disadvantages.

An open gear is subject to increased wear.
Such a transmission to the wheel is much noisier than other electric drives to the bicycle. The noise of the chain, belt is especially heard when cycling through the park, forest.
To connect such an electric drive to a bicycle, it is necessary to place a bulky structure on the frame to mount the electric motor and the drive sprocket or pulley.

Electric drive through a chain or belt is very convenient to build a homemade electric bike.

It is possible to connect the chain drive to the multi-speed transmission of the bicycle. By shifting gears, it is easy to adjust the amount of effort on the electric motor when climbing uphill, driving through deep sand, snow. When the electric motor rotates at full speed, it does not hum, it consumes less current. The battery charge is enough for a long time, if you do not overload the electric motor.
It is possible to assemble a chain or belt driven electric bike that can reach higher speeds than ready-made, factory-assembled options. The available high-speed chain drive will help to develop a record speed on a bicycle.
Free choice of the place of installation of the electric motor, since the length of the chain and belt drive can be changed over a wide range.

Ready-made kits are sold with sprockets, a chain, an electric motor, a battery, a charger, a controller, a regulator knob that will fit a bike without shock absorbers, with a hard tail (hardtail) and full suspension. Only the prices for electric sets with chain transmission are higher than for sets of electric drives of another type. Kits with a chain transmission from the Taiwanese manufacturer Cyclone are very popular among buyers.

motor wheel

The most common type of electric drive available on the market. In such a device, a brushless electric motor is installed in the wheel hub.

The advantages of a wheel with an electric motor are many:

Mounting the wheel motor is easy, both on the rear of the frame and on the front of the fork.
You can assemble an all-wheel drive bike by installing two motor-wheels.
A running brushless motor is almost inaudible.
A wheel on a bicycle with a large hub looks much better than an electric motor mounted on a frame.

There are several comments on the experience of using the motor-wheel.

You can not install a wheel with a high-powered electric motor on an aluminum fork, otherwise the tangential force of the rotation of the motor will break the fork dropout antennae. The fork of a bicycle perfectly withstands the lateral force directed from the bottom up. The rear dropouts of the bike are designed for tangential force, which shifts the wheel perpendicular to the axis, so you can safely put a wheel with an electric motor of maximum power on them.
You can not turn the motor-wheel with closed wires coming out of it. The first thing a person does when he picks up a wheel is to start spinning it. When forced to rotate, any electric motor produces electricity. Three thick wires come out of the motor stator and two or more thin ones from the sensor. If during the rotation of the wheel these wires are closed to each other, then a spark will break through between them and ruin the sensor.
You need to mount the electric wheel so that the wires coming out of its hub are on the left. Then the wheel will rotate in the right direction.
In many Asian countries, there is a speed limit for cycling - no more than 25 km / h. Therefore, the controller provides a blocking from exceeding the set speed. You won’t be able to accelerate faster, even accelerating the bike with pedals. The electric motor turned off by the controller will work in the generation mode as an electromagnetic brake.

There are many kits for sale, which include: an assembled wheel with an electric motor from 200 to 1000 W, a controller, a battery, Charger, control equipment, speed controller. You can buy a cheaper motor-wheel kit for a bicycle, which does not have a battery, and does not sell an assembled wheel, but a separate hub with a motor. The most popular electric bicycle wheels are produced by companies: Electra, Golden motor, Polariss, Yamasaki.

I must say that now it makes no sense to assemble an electric bike from improvised components, since you can purchase a proven, reliable set of electric drive for a bicycle. In addition, you can buy a ready-made, beautifully assembled electric bike, for example, from such manufacturers: GRACE, Izip, Sanyo Electric, Schwinn, Yamaha.

The idea to install an electric drive on a bicycle suggests itself. Indeed, why is an internal combustion engine possible (this has been practiced for a very long time), but an electric one is not? With the current level of electronics, such a bike upgrade should be even easier than using other engines. In addition, this will not require coordination with the registration services of the traffic police.

For those for whom this transport is the main means of transportation (for example, for daily trips to and from work), the electrification of the “two-wheeled friend” will allow significantly save your strength and nerves. There is no need to stand idle in traffic jams that are not uncommon at the present time, the speed of an electric bicycle for urban conditions is decent, so the actual travel time is often even reduced compared to conventional ground personal or public transport.

Tired of just riding? Master it! The article tells how to learn to ride on the back wheel.
For those who want to learn skateboarding, our how to choose, buy and learn to ride a skateboard.

By constantly recharging the batteries, at home or in any available place, you can have a significant margin of mileage, and, with the correct calculation of the route and battery capacity, you can always be confident in your capabilities. Yes, in the end, in case of unforeseen troubles, you can get there in the usual way - on the pedals.

Currently, it is possible, without much difficulty, to purchase a ready-made electric bike, but its cost is quite high. Is it possible to re-equip your faithful "horse" yourself? It turns out that this is quite real, and many masters share their secrets online.

Some of them carry out a deep "upgrade" of bicycles, using completely unexpected design ideas, components and materials, often purchased at a "flea market" or in auto shops. Less "advanced" simply purchase ready-made kits for the electrification of cycling - fortunately, manufacturers offer them in a fairly wide range.

What are the types of transmission of rotational motion from the engine to the drive wheel?

friction gear

This type of electric drive, although it is found on sale, is not particularly popular. Its principle is simple. The engine is installed directly at the drive wheel, the torque is transmitted directly from the stator shaft to the tire. It would seem that everything is simple and obvious. But what may be applicable for children's electric cars and bicycles is of little use in the actual use of transport.

Judge for yourself:

There are no transmission links, that is, the possibility of increasing the angular velocity of the wheel through the use of gearboxes is excluded;
Extremely low efficiency;
Even a slight drop in pressure in the wheel chamber will drastically reduce the efficiency of such a drive.
Constant friction between the engine clutch and the tire tread dramatically reduces its durability.
In wet weather, dirty roads, frost, the coefficient of friction will significantly decrease, the friction clutch will slip, which will reduce the already low energy efficiency of the drive.

The only advantage of this system is the ease of installation, which does not require any deep modifications to the bike.

No, if you plan a rework with real improvements in the performance of the bike, it is better to immediately abandon such a scheme.

Classic chain or belt drive

This principle is most often used by craftsmen - "homemade", because of its visual "comprehensibility" and a wide selection of necessary components from conventional bicycles. Electric motors are often used as the engine. household appliances(for example, from a washing machine) or automotive electrical equipment.

What can be said about shortcomings similar drive?

It should be noted right away that altering a bicycle in this way will require the owner to have a fairly deep knowledge of mechanics and high technological skills.
Another disadvantage is the noisiness of the system with this type of transmission, but in road conditions this is unlikely to cause significant inconvenience to anyone.
The refinement is associated with some changes in the frame design, which can reduce its strength characteristics. In any case, it is not recommended to carry out such work on bicycles with carbon or aluminum frames - only on steel ones.

But the shortcomings are brightened up by a number benefits:

It is clear that here is the widest field for creative design ideas. However, manufacturers did not forget about cyclists - there are ready-made kits for electric bikes on sale. The kits from the Taiwanese company Cyclone are the most popular.

Similar "constructors" are produced in different versions - using a standard bicycle chain, or with the transfer of force through an additional chain with one or two additional sprockets.

Systems equipped with electric motors power from 360 to 1500 W, with a supply voltage of 24 or 36 volts. To control the operation of the drive are used electronic controllers, and in engines up to 500 watts, they are usually built-in. The kit includes all necessary fasteners, means of visual control and manual control of the drive.

Installing an electric drive will be quite a feasible task for any owner with “properly growing hands”.

The overall weight of the bike is quite acceptable - 3-4 kilograms, but the speeds that it can develop are very impressive - 40 or more kilometers per hour.

The simplest solution is a motor-wheel

For lovers of lightweight cycling, manufacturers offer another option in which the electric motor and wheel are structurally arranged into one unit, the so-called motor-wheel.

Advantages such a system are obvious:

When installing this drive, the bike does not undergo any significant modifications, does not change significantly and its appearance. The only thing is the installation of controls on the steering wheel and the battery compartment on the frame.
Installation does not require any significant knowledge and skills - with correct selection wheel-motor, it is available, probably, to everyone.
The engine is almost silent.
If desired, the bike can be easily transformed back into a regular one.

There are, of course, a number shortcomings:

A wheel with a drive placed in it is a rather heavy structure (6 or more kilograms), which increases total mass vehicle. Experienced cyclists recommend installing a reinforced front fork.
There are certain limits on drive power.
Exceeding the speed set by the manufacturer can have the opposite effect - the engine turns into a generator and spontaneously slows down the movement.

The kits sold are a brushless electric motor assembled in the wheel hub with a power of 200 to 1000 watts.

As a rule, ready-made designs go on sale - with spokes and a wheel rim, however, for those who like to approach the matter, simply engines are also implemented in detail. In this case, the choice and installation of the necessary spokes and rims falls on the owners of the transport. So to speak, a do-it-yourself motor-wheel.

The kit necessarily includes a controller that ensures the correct operation of the drive, control mechanisms, batteries with a recharging unit.

Depending on preferences, you can choose both front and rear drive wheels. Some cyclists solve the problem "in one fell swoop" - they make their "car" all-wheel drive.

Wheel motors are considered the most popular among fans of the electric drive. "Polaris", "Yamasaki", "Electra", "Golden motor". You can buy them both through specialized stores and by ordering via the Internet.

Having realistically assessed your need for an electric bike, financial solvency and technical readiness to perform your own installation, you can make a choice in favor of one or another model.