Electric Bike Hub Motor Planetary Gear Upgrade
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Christian Livingstone gives an overview of his first replacement process with the planetary gears and clutch mechanism on a BMC geared hub motor, while also including an upgraded feature within the gear-set that drives his home-built electric handcycle. There's some on-road demonstration of the finished work, along with some commentary and rationale given for both geared electric bike hub motors and for direct-drive electric bike hub motors. PS: I went back and dug out the seal and caged bearing set to the clutch mechanism. And, interestingly, the cage material is a plastic, with the top seal-looking cover snapping onto it, so I couldn't really tell if the same number of breaks that were in the so-called seal were also in the bearing cage material too. But, also within the caging material were slots for some blockish little steel cogs that engaged kind of like a roller/cam/cog when the motor starts to spin up, with a sort of centrifugal clutch action as well. Anyway, the breaks in the plastic cage material was undoubtedly the cause of that occasional chatter sound that I would sometimes hear when hitting the throttle at slow speeds while rolling over bumps and may have also included an occasional slippage within the clutch, that I also started to suspect more recently. But, maybe the clutch would have functioned for a good while longer just fine, with that occasional chatter at times like that, i.e., about once or twice per 5 miles of electric use. So, I'll probably just tolerate that if the new clutch mechanism develops any breaks like that again over time, and then just let it actually fail to function. But in the meanwhile, I'll obtain a new clutch mechanism, so that I tend to always have one on hand. I may even take to old clutch and weld it up, as I read one forum poster suggested, to bypass the weak link of this clutch action. That would still give the BMC the great torque characteristics and quick take-offs, true to the 5:1 gear ratio, but would inherit the magnetic drag during freewheeling like a direct-drive motor. So, maybe I'll do that as a little YouTube project at some point, to satisfy my curiosity as to how much magnetic drag would be felt and if it would be deemed tolerable, as a trade-off for a much stronger drive system that has great torque. Also, I recently learned that the reason I didn't need to cut the phase wires or removed their connectors to change the clutch mechanism is not because the manufacturer changed anything, it was because I'm using a FRONT motor at the rear, and the front motors have the wires coming out the other side, which makes them easier to work on. Nice for me!
Comments
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can you tell me how to make hub motor at home
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Thanks for the info , I built up a cargo bike with a BMC V3 hub. My question is how much play if any do you have in your hub relating to the axle? When I built up the wheel I didn't notice anything in the truing stand , after mounting I I can feel about a 1/16 to 1/8 play by the tire slightly moving back and forth in my hand while it is mounted on the bike up on the center stand.
On our non motorized mountain bikes with sealed bearings and quick release hubs there is no play.
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Hi! I worked in mechanical maintenance in the oil field and used a flat plate with automotive sanpaper, very fine grit to remove slight amount of surface area and polish. A figure 8 motion on the sandpaper to evenly sand and polish. Find a counter top installer and get a piece of counter top about 12x12" or bigger for the surface. Hope this helps.
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Awesome. Thanks!
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cool
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Thank you for sharing this video. Very educational indeed. It filled my curiosity too. I also took the geared hub route since this is so lightweight compared to DD motors. I was a bit concerned about the composite gears, but looks like they do hold up very well if not abused. Thanks once again for making such a detailed video.
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Great upgrade? Bad idea. Why? Because you can strip the teeth in the hub if to much torque is applied (i.e riding in mud or low traction surface). I'd rather strip a plastic gear than the hub.
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Thanks for your video! I have subscribed to your channel.
I bought a 36v controller with 36v hub motor.
I powered it with 36v lithium pack.
But the motor does not run.
When i did the same using a 48v controller, the motor runs.
I am puzzled. The motor rims is etched with 36v rating. I can understand that a hub motor can be over-volted but not sure why the 36v controller does not work.
I suspect either the controller is faulty or the hub motor is actually rated for 48V .
How to test what voltage the motor is rated for despite the rating specified on the hub motor rims?
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Hi Christian,
I like the look of the trike bike you used for your ebike setup. Could you name the trike's make and model? Was the cargo space standard? Also, if you know it off the top of your head, how wide is your trike and does it take up pretty much all of a bike lane? Thank you if you have a couple minutes. -
Your explanation on the subject was very informative, thanks n good luck with your future projects.
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I need to know where I can get replacement planetary gears for my bike .I have about 2000 miles on my bike and they started to make a grinding sound.
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great video
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I'd be concerned that the new metal gear will wear out the ring gear inside the hub, instead of wearing out the relatively-cheap plastic gearwheels.
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Nice video! What hub are you using? Model number? Thanks!
55m 29sLenght
206Rating