I should have been more clear, I'm getting ready to buy a hitch mounted platform bike rack for my car. Some versions have a swing arm that clamps the front tire down, but not recommended with a front fender. Some people cut the fender back, so the clamp will work. Yours is short, I thought maybe for that reason.
Watt Wagon direct competitors?
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sisyphus
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Ahh, sorry. Well, I know exactly what you mean now. And no, I don't think one with a swing arm would work. I had one of those from Thule for my last much smaller bike and it just made it.... No, the CrossTour and UCP from WW are BIG bikes. Especially now that he's gone to 27.5 wheels. I bought a Thule Easyfold. (WITH THE LONGER STRAPS - an add on option. Link below. It's really expensive, but man, the engineering is brilliant. I mean brilliant. What's to get excited about a rack? You don't have to lay on the ground with a socket wrench... its lockable in more than one way, it has wheels. It's hard to describe, but so much thought went into it.
https://www.rei.com/product/130411/...2b4F25i-3LCuPvAt3NBoCS_QQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://www.rei.com/product/130411/...2b4F25i-3LCuPvAt3NBoCS_QQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Acme
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The Beast looks very interesting but my aluminum Frey CC is already 70 pounds within 840 wh battery. And that is so heavy it is limiting. the Beast is more of an electric motorcycle. and honestly that worries me because too many people will be attempting to ride them everywhere you can ride an electric bicycle which will ultimately lead to a crack down on the rule breakers wI’ll include myself, to a much lesser extent. You will still have to have Pushkar put in an Archon controller.
im guessing it is probably a year out before you would see one. I have learned to adjust down the assistance on my Frey to get some pretty good range. I also think if I really wanted extra range I could carry an extra battery but I don’t know if I would want to be lugging that extra 10 pounds around all the time.
I think at 58 pounds Pushkar‘s Hydra definitely fits the sweet spot I am picturing. And I really can’t put a price on communication, which is Wattwagons strength. I know overtime Pushkar will get burned out but at the moment it doesn’t take me long to get a hold of him on the phone or by text and he is always able to answer my questions.
‘my 2 cents
Gary
im guessing it is probably a year out before you would see one. I have learned to adjust down the assistance on my Frey to get some pretty good range. I also think if I really wanted extra range I could carry an extra battery but I don’t know if I would want to be lugging that extra 10 pounds around all the time.
I think at 58 pounds Pushkar‘s Hydra definitely fits the sweet spot I am picturing. And I really can’t put a price on communication, which is Wattwagons strength. I know overtime Pushkar will get burned out but at the moment it doesn’t take me long to get a hold of him on the phone or by text and he is always able to answer my questions.
‘my 2 cents
Gary
Thanks, that's one of units under consideration. Glad you've been happy with it
FlatSix911
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pushkar
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Deacon Blues
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ProphetZarquon
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With 60V & a 1.4KWh battery, on a custom controller, I'm not sure I'd want to swap in an Archon?
Anyone know anything about this controller Frey's using? Sounds like it isn't just a re-capped stock m620 controller, but actually a whole different model?
Impossible to say. It's entirely possible it's essentially the Bafang controller with higher specced components.
Will be interesting to find out for sure..
ProphetZarquon
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I want to know what Voltage range it can handle... 54 too low? 72 too high?
With aftermarket controllers, Bafang's m620 motor, reputedly handles 70 Volts quite happily? With slightly more Newton-meters of torque per Watt, & less heat buildup per Watt, than at 48 Volts, 60 Volts sounds reeeeally nice.
Sounds so nice, it makes me wonder what it might cost to refit one of their AM1000s, to run a 60 Volt battery & controller!?
Honestly, the whole situation with Bafang controllers fascinates me: If the lockouts on their CANBus controllers aren't lifted even for bike makers, I'd expect aftermarket controllers to become the predominant use case for much of their remaining motor sales...
Who makes these controllers? Is it ASI? PA-Transformers? I have an increasingly hard time believing Bafang does it entirely "in-house".
Someone seen a label or manufacturer sheet, identifiable components, or something?
You're assuming they care much about the US market, let alone the 'custom' one. It's far smaller than the EU one is at the moment, and meanwhile if they sell 'canned systems' (they sell motor, controller, display, etc.) to someone getting their branded bikes into shops - people will continue to buy them. I inherently dislike their locking down, but it's not like US market presence is going to make or break them at this point either. Things most of us want to unlock can't be per EU regulations (e.g. max speed), although the ability to tune power ramps, onset, etc. - should still be able to be exposed.
Heck, they 'could' just clone the 'Smooth Tune' as Ultra defaults and they'd make a LOT of people happy/happier immediately, yet they still haven't. Just weird as they do now have a US distribution or service location AFAIK, so perhaps we'll see some progress over time, but it's pretty difficult to even guess at what passes for 'strategy' for them honestly..
ProphetZarquon
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I wonder whether
(They do, & it does! Beast's is a stock board with (original design spec) 100 V capacitors, swapped in?)
Well no, I'm assuming Bafang would want their most expensive, most powerful, torque sensing motor, to respond acceptably well in most end-users' experiences; but as you point out, they don't seem to bother configuring even their latest locked down CANBus controllers, leaving them lurching around worse than any cadence motor!
The CANBus changeover seems less like strategy, & more like trying to talk up a load of bum stock they don't know what to do with.
Heck, there's no regulatory difference between a speed+Watt restricted UART controlled ebike or a CANBus; so I really don't know what possible advantage Bafang would get from such a switch.
I strongly suspect that it is just what their supplier switched to, to consolidate with automotive production lines. If not... what possible upside is there for Bafang?
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ProphetZarquon
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And yeah, I'm increasingly burning with curiosity to know, who produced the "custom" 60V@30A UART Ultra controllers for Frey, & who produces the stock UART & CANBus Ultra controllers for Bafang?!?
From what I've seen so far, it really doesn't add up as in-house work, unless one branch of Bafang doesn't talk to the other at all!? Generally, in Chinese component-level production, I'd expect to see a dozen "different" companies working in short, infrequent, high volume shifts, in the same building, producing identical or nearly identical units, using components\materials sourced from another set of businesses located almost directly up the street \ upstream, in the same categoric industrial district. In such a scenario, components are often referred to by their function or even visual appearance, rather than more arcane material details, & it is not uncommon for a "big" (high volume) company to pick some product to assemble & silently "outsource" any actual design demands, to a nearby company with actual engineers. Internal knowledge of their own product often extends no further than the spec sheet. ... (Also see: Terminological abstraction & 3rd party dependency proliferation, in the software development industry.
)
Edit: To be clear, my guess is that Bafang designed\produced some motor cores & offloaded the controller design\production to some unspecified affiliate.
From what I've seen so far, it really doesn't add up as in-house work, unless one branch of Bafang doesn't talk to the other at all!? Generally, in Chinese component-level production, I'd expect to see a dozen "different" companies working in short, infrequent, high volume shifts, in the same building, producing identical or nearly identical units, using components\materials sourced from another set of businesses located almost directly up the street \ upstream, in the same categoric industrial district. In such a scenario, components are often referred to by their function or even visual appearance, rather than more arcane material details, & it is not uncommon for a "big" (high volume) company to pick some product to assemble & silently "outsource" any actual design demands, to a nearby company with actual engineers. Internal knowledge of their own product often extends no further than the spec sheet. ... (Also see: Terminological abstraction & 3rd party dependency proliferation, in the software development industry.
) Edit: To be clear, my guess is that Bafang designed\produced some motor cores & offloaded the controller design\production to some unspecified affiliate.
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scrambler
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I am not sure what you are saying.
The Innotrace / Archon X1 replaces the existing controller inside the motor...
ProphetZarquon
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You're quite right. Not sure what I was even thinking of.
Probably something ludicrous. Hopefully they start shipping X1 controllers on CANBus, or confirm ability to swap out stock CANBus controllers for UART X1s, soon!?
(And someone with eyes on the controllers, does confirm that these are not just stock controllers with 100 V capacitors swapped in, correct? (Not so doubtful, I just haven't laid hands yet.))
As stock UART controller availability dwindles, with no evidence of full configuration available on the stock CANBus units... I hope demand for non-OEM Ultra controllers will increase?
So long as new boards are manufactured (even outside Bafang's internal distribution channels), which allow adequate configurability, I feel the g510 will continue to serve well among the strongest ebike motor options on the market.
(After calibrating the torque sensor on our stock UART unit, I'm extremely satisfied with the Ultra's performance, especially compared to smaller motors.)
Might want to search on Brose reliability. Feels good but seems a LOT of them were replaced, more than once for some owners…
loamoaf
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@Rome I think you may be confused about components. The motor a bike ships with has no bearing on the brakes, groupset, suspension, wheels, headset, etc. You can get the S-works Turbo Kenovo that ships with nearly $9,000 retail value in bicycle components minus frame & electronics, or you can get the cheapest Turbo Levo that ships with about $2600 worth of bicycle components - that's trim level and has nothing to due with drive system; both those bikes come with the same motor/controller. If you've got warranty support and prefer a light bike the Brose/Bosch/Shimano/Specialized motors are great, if you have no warranty and something goes wrong your only option is pretty much to replace it. To be honest building electric motors is fairly easy; it's the electronics driving the motor that really matter and Innotrace X1 is in fact Germanese as you put it - not to mention Bafang does have a Polish factory to serve Europe. The rest of the motor is literally just metal housing, bearings, gears, wire, and some magnets. The first electric motors were made in 1834 - aside from metallurgy/machining the main improvement in the equation has always been electronics and power source.
Leon S. Kennedy
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Titanium, <40 lbs, 3800 watts. Seems to good to be true (although battery is ridiculously undersized - probably last 15 minutes at top power). https://www.chimeracycles.com/home. Maybe someone knowledgeable can let me know if this is for real or a scam (its going up on Indiegogo next month).
