I had the opportunity to meet John Bidwell yesterday and ride a couple of his EMCs. We got the whole show and tell. John talked about running the Etek CCW, the bigger issue on that motor is always the number of amps and at what voltage = a greater effect on brush wear. The Etek is rated for 48v but many of the folks here run them at 72.
The PMG132 is rated for 72v but recommends CW rotation, and there is some measure of adverse wear using it CCW. High current which we tend to use with aggressive riding creates heat in the pancake motors, and the design of the motors does not lend itself to dissipating that heat gain. For long motor life monitoring for the motor temp is critical. I am using the thermocouple that was designed for the VF500 motorcycle I am converting and checking its accuracy with a handheld infrared temp gage. As John book on El Ninja points out it is easy to melt the ends off the motor rotor causing premature motor failure. I rode the El Chopper and aside from the long wheelbase the ride was equal to any bike in the 350lb range. The power rolled on nicely, not the surge-y power an ICE can produce. Speed attained in the neighborhood exceeded 37mph, had to throttle back. There was a lot left in speed available. This model has a 48 volt battery pack of rv/marine batteries. It was a lot of fun. I also rode the scott-motored mountain bike which had a custom frame. This was also fun but the brakes even though they are disc are but bicycle brakes so you could easily exceed the speed rating of the brakes. We talked about the same concept but adapting motorcycle components, maybe more like light-duty dirt bike parts using the same custom frame. Jeff -----Original Message----- >From: Mike <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Mar 25, 2007 11:12 AM >To: ElectricMotorcycles <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [ElectricMotorcycles] Running etek CCW > >>The etek manual says nothing about CCW rotation. >> >>Anyone have any experience with this, or ideas/comments? > >Darrin! Where's Darrin!? > >Check his blog entries on the site. He did some experimentation with >timing on his. He's running two of them in a similar fashion. Don't >have a URL handy, sorry. > > >-- > >The Electric Motorcycle Portal >http://www.electricmotorcycles.net/ > >Electric Motorcycle Listserv >http://www.electricmotorcycles.net/listserv >
