I doubt very much if you can tell it but you are looking at my new rocket booster I installed on my trike today. No, it is not really a rocket booster. It is just a 72 volt battery. It arrived a week ago but I didn’t install it until now. My current hub motor is rated at 72 volts, but all I have had is 48 volt batteries so that is what I have been using. It did pretty good on 48 volts but I have been wanting to use 72 and get the performance it is capable of. I am not disappointed even though it comes no where near the top speed of 44 mph they claim for it. I assume the weight I am hauling around is limiting me to about 35 mph. That’s okay. I am satisfied with it. One complaint I have with this battery is the lack of an on/off switch. You have to hook it up “hot” which I didn’t care for. I tried to plug in the connectors and the arc destroyed the connector making it unusable. I had to cut it off and strip the wires connecting them live using wire nuts. That is not the way I would like to have it hooked up.
With just one battery onboard now all that weight is mounted down low. And my trike is no longer all cluttered up with 2 batteries, 2 battery chargers and lots of wiring. I have one battery charger now which is hidden from view. I like to carry a battery charger around with me so that I am able to charge the battery when I am stopped someplace where I can do so. My one concern is that this battery weighs more than the battery mount is rated at. I am using plastic cable ties to help take some of the weight and stress off of the battery mount hoping it will prevent it from failing. I already had one battery mount break and the battery was within its weight carrying capacity.
Personally as a highly experience repair weldor and metal fabricator of over 60 years experience I think the bracket was poorly designed and likely to break where it did. Anyway, TerraCycle replaced it for free under warranty which I greatly appreciated.
My 48 volt batteries have enough age and recharging cycles on them to go clear down to where they yield about 20 to 25 miles on a full charge so that is 40 to 45 miles total between the two batteries. This 72 volt battery provided 50 miles or so today so I have more miles I can ride out of just one battery. If need be I could add a 48 volt battery back to gain some more miles on a ride but, of course, I would have to switch my system back to 48 volts to use it. Most of the time 50 mile range will do me as I don’t ride as long and far as I used to now that I am getting older.
No, I don’t have a rocket booster but it seems like it with this new battery. And, in case you are wondering, I don’t use all those taillights at the same time. But if I need them I have them. If my rechargeable batteries go down I have other lights I can use. I normally only use the two outside lights which are 150 lumen Cygolite HotShot Pro. The single light up above by itself is an automatic brake light. As far as I know it works ok. I am not behind it to see it work so I am assuming it is.
I bought a new set of bags for my trike several months ago but never mounted them until today when I had everything removed making it possible to mount them. So now I have plenty of storage space. They are waterproof.
Well, that is my story and I am sticking with it … at least for now.
2nd day of riding with new battery … wow, even better! I got 30 miles in before the battery power level indicatordropped off of the full charge indication. And I was riding on the full power setting all of the time. I am liking this. I can ride at 20 plus mph barely “above idle”.
3rd day of riding with new battery … double wow … it just keeps getting better. Today I got over 40 miles in before the battery power level indicator dropped off of the fully charge indication. Actually, I stopped riding at over 40 miles and it still hadn’t dropped off any. Now I know that this type of power indicator is not accurate as once it starts to go down the remaining indicator bars go down much faster than the very first one.
I have noticed that I can turn down my power setting from 5 to 2 and it is just right for cruising along at 13 mph at full throttle and just right for me to pedal constantly at a comfortable cadence. That way I am getting constant exercise. I still don’t have PAS. I am still waiting on the PAS unit with a longer cable on it as the one that came with my e-motor conversion kit is not long enough to reach on a trike installation.
So far it looks like I am able to get 75 to 80 miles out of a full charge and even more if I keep the power set down lower than I am use to doing … which is full power.
KEEP ON TRIKIN’
A FREE GIFT AWAITS YOU!
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