Hill Climbing Assistance

[metanewbie]

I'm about 155 pounds, but I carry a lot of stuff roundtrip to work, and I'm surrounded by steep hills.

I am considering a friction drive like the QiROLL because I only need something for hill climbing, and I prefer not to have a bunch of extra 'ebike weight' just for hill climbing assistance. I'm in decent shape, but at the end of the day, hill climbing is not fun.

I have two bicycles, and I was hoping to have something to swap to either. However, my primary ride is the hybrid.

I've attached three images showing my commute of 10 to 12 miles and my two bicycles.

Any advice is appreciated!

Please let me know if I posted to the wrong category here.

 

[kevinmccune]

your fine, now consider this anything helps,I once used a 350 watt"i mortor" all in one setup,when combined with the bikes stock 350 watt 36 volt motor the bike climbed well,now consider this,anything helps the biggest drawback on the "i mortor" setup was the weight,probably a couple of pounds heaveir than the Qiroll" it was very simple unclittered setup and cheaper then the Qiroll.oth the "Qiroll" will give you nice assistance( more than the average ebike rider-imo it takes a pretty strong rider to output 250 watts on a climb.

 

[metanewbie]

your fine, now consider this anything helps,I once used a 350 watt"i mortor" all in one setup,when combined with the bikes stock 350 watt 36 volt motor the bike climbed well,now consider this,anything helps the biggest drawback on the "i mortor" setup was the weight,probably a couple of pounds heaveir than the Qiroll" it was very simple unclittered setup and cheaper then the Qiroll.oth the "Qiroll" will give you nice assistance( more than the average ebike rider-imo it takes a pretty strong rider to output 250 watts on a climb.

That's helpful info!

I noticed there are two different versions, each with a larger battery capacity and a big price difference.

I wonder which is 'enough' for the hill climbing assistance. I don't mind pedaling. I just want the boost.

QR-E PRO +H70 Battery Kit — $439

QR-E MUTE-Plus +B70*1 200Wh — $299

 

[harryS]

I've wanted to get a low cost friction drive to put on a bike for the grandkid, but for me the cost savings aren't there. I emailed the Qiroll guy a few years back, and he was talking about $300 w/o a battery, I already have batteries of varying size. There was also the question about wet conditions, not that we would be riding in it. Sure we would.

Here we are riding the beach. I had a 20" minivello with a front drive Q100H motor. I lowered the bars and seat and it fits her, The motor/electrics were about $300 a few years ago. The sand would not have been passable with a friction drive.,



If you already had a BBS02 middrive (read that somewhere), I guess that is quite like a moped. I also have one of those conversions on a 26" bike, Very smooth. Very powerful. Cost me $575 just for the motor in 2016, you can get them for less today.
When I ride it, I use the lowest assist modes exclusively, and have also tuned them for about 120 and 240 watts.

I've been tinkering with ebike conversions since 2015. My wife and I have over 5000 miles apiece on two 20 inch folders with rear hub motors. Powered with 500W controllers, never had issues with hills, except I have gone up hills steep enough that most of my weight transfers to over the back wheel, and I've had the front wheel lift from the combo of motor and pedalling,

EMGX mentioned his TSDZ2 middrive. The last two years, my wife and I have been riding these about 75% of the time. They cost under $300 shipped from China, They don't need a powerful battery. Mine pull 12 amps max. That's half the electrical power of a BBS02B, It still seems to climb hills for me. My wife doesn't complain at all. She thinks it pulls better than her 500W hubmotors. It doesn't though. It's a torque sense mid drive and is a wonderful low power motor. Tradeoff is reliability. I've had some issues with my wife's motor. It was easily fixed, but I've never had a hub motor fail.

 

[indianajo]

My tires take enough of a beating as is. I looked at tire drive, chain drive, I decided axle drive was the most reliable. ebikeling.com sells a nice geared hub motor kit. https://ebikeling.com/products/750w-geared-ebike-conversion-kit
$729 this week for the 13 AH 36 v battery. More for a bigger one. I put mine in the front fork to not mess with the sprockets & derailleurs if there is a flat. Make sure your front fork is steel. Geared hubs do not drag unpowered, there is only the weight. I ride mine unpowered 80% of the distance.
Make sure you install a torque arm attached to the fork so the axle does not spin in the slot.
I got 4500 miles out of my first ebikeling 1300 w kit, and it was capable of pushing 330 lb gross up 15% grades. I don't need power on the flat, unless the wind is 25 mph in my face. A 6 hour 27 mile trip into such a wind convinced me to buy. I bought replacement motors used from batteryclearancewarehouse that were takeoffs. $39 each. Had to reverse the rotation and slot the tamper proof cover screws to replace with hex drive. Cover screws have to be tightened up about every 2000 miles. Ebikeling kit, you just match the colors of the wires. I put my controller under the seat with the wires down to avoid rain damage. You do have to change the brake handles to ones with switches. The ebikeling handle were longer than the OEM Tektro and cut the amount of force I had to exert to apply the brake.
Don't buy a geared hub motor if you are going to climb slowly at maximum power for an hour. They overheat if lugged too long. I have 77 short hills in 30 miles, rollers, so I can carry momentum from one hill to the next. Do not run too many amps through the motor, I burned a winding in a $39 350 w motor that way.