Constructing an Electric Bike From Scratch
It took Tom Stanton three years of iteration to build his latest e-bike.
If you've been wondering about building your own e-bike, you're not alone. These hybrid vehicles seem to have crept onto roads and trails slowly as DIY projects, and now as full electric-powered bikes that you can buy. Tom Stanton, has been working on a system for going on three years, and is finally satisfied with his e-transportation system.
Rather than using a hub-style motor, his electronic transportation started out as a cheap bike from Amazon, to which he attached a quadcopter-style motor to drive the rear wheel with a belt and 3D-printed pulley. After burning this motor out, he then tried all manner or new improvements, including a dual motor setup, different speed controller options, and eventually settled on a large single-motor setup on a new bike frame.
Stanton also designed a new power pack for his current built, and an Arduino-based display for system feedback. Motor mounting and power transmission for the system was fraught with difficulty, including some interesting electromagnetic effects with the aluminum housing. In the end, his system does have certain advantages over a simpler hub-based system, like lighter weight and quick changeover, but whether you want to spend years perfecting such a system is an open question.
Still, Stanton now has a pretty neat bike, able to accelerate to 30 miles per hour in a few seconds, and with a range of 30 miles or more. On the other hand, is this bike really finished? He does mention the need for a filter, and projects like this always seem to present "just one more" possible improvement. Perhaps we haven't seen the last of it yet!
