Try something kinda new but dont go far from the path just incase............
So the other day I was messing around with some sheet metal trying to think of something new for my rack on my cargo bike with the 36 inch rear and 29er front.
My first thoughts are " DON'T make it look like an electric bike, hide the battery and don't let anyone know they are there ( unless they read my blog ). " I started building a lithium-ion battery pack that was 36 volt to match up with the rear drive hub but making it not too crazy large and heavy, the goal being an assist bike and not a full e-bike sized battery.
The next thought was to create a way to charge the system on the go without the charger, it doesn't need to be a full charge, just a helper is fine.
Coming from a strong background in renewable energy products and concept RE projects over the years, I remembered a very key solar panel that helped the US military. The company Uni-Solar has developed so many crazy products but one of the main products, being these crazy flexible solar panels that the US military could use on the battle grounds. With blocking diodes on each cell, a bullet can go thru the panel and only loose a section of cells as compaired with other companies that would result in the loss of the complete panel. The other neat thing is the panel is flexible and has a clear plastic covering, this also was a great design, to allow the ground soldier to be able to fold or roll up the panel to transport it. I decided to use this panel because of the no glass system and because it was could be modified very easy.
So the other day I was messing around with some sheet metal trying to think of something new for my rack on my cargo bike with the 36 inch rear and 29er front.
My first thoughts are " DON'T make it look like an electric bike, hide the battery and don't let anyone know they are there ( unless they read my blog ). " I started building a lithium-ion battery pack that was 36 volt to match up with the rear drive hub but making it not too crazy large and heavy, the goal being an assist bike and not a full e-bike sized battery.
The next thought was to create a way to charge the system on the go without the charger, it doesn't need to be a full charge, just a helper is fine.
Coming from a strong background in renewable energy products and concept RE projects over the years, I remembered a very key solar panel that helped the US military. The company Uni-Solar has developed so many crazy products but one of the main products, being these crazy flexible solar panels that the US military could use on the battle grounds. With blocking diodes on each cell, a bullet can go thru the panel and only loose a section of cells as compaired with other companies that would result in the loss of the complete panel. The other neat thing is the panel is flexible and has a clear plastic covering, this also was a great design, to allow the ground soldier to be able to fold or roll up the panel to transport it. I decided to use this panel because of the no glass system and because it was could be modified very easy.
So this is the battery tray, the front part will be used as a glove box for paper work
It will have a door on the front
Here you can see the battery layout
The charger controller is in the middle of the pack
and the motor controller is on the left, plus the storage in front.
Here is the Uni-Solar panel just on top so you can get the idea
The final rack will have a 1/4 inch thick piece of lexan squeezing the panel down
This panel is a 11 watt panel at 12 volts, so it will be about 3.5 watts at 36 volts
Here is the mock up of the cargo bike waiting for the classic leif fork, the rack and bars to be finished, its an odd machine to say the lease. It won't look much off this photo when finished so the real question is.... Does it look electric?
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