# mobility scooter use as donor for ebike?



## swampjeep (May 16, 2008)

does any one know much about mobility scooters? I could get one very cheap, and am wonderign if the motor, batteries, and controller might be a good start to making my own bike into an ebike.

what sizse motors to they normally use? this is an older model, I dont' have much info on it though.


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## Little Rhody (Jun 17, 2008)

It should be ok for a bicycle, but not a motorbike conversion. 

LR


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## swampjeep (May 16, 2008)

Little Rhody said:


> It should be ok for a bicycle, but not a motorbike conversion.
> 
> LR


yeah, I'm looking to conver a mountain bike, just for relatively flat street use

any idea of motor wattage/power in typical ones?


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## akumabito (Jun 23, 2008)

I believe most of them are 300W. I have seen a few with upgraded motors, but those were intended for obese users. If it still functions ok, it should be good for a speed of about 5 to 8 MPH and a range of about 20 miles. 

I'm not really sure how this would translate into bicycle form..


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## swampjeep (May 16, 2008)

akumabito said:


> I believe most of them are 300W. I have seen a few with upgraded motors, but those were intended for obese users. If it still functions ok, it should be good for a speed of about 5 to 8 MPH and a range of about 20 miles.
> 
> I'm not really sure how this would translate into bicycle form..


thanks for the info, from what I've read I should be looking for a 500w or better motor, sounds like I should look elsewhere, although it might be worth the $50 just to experiment haha


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## Little Rhody (Jun 17, 2008)

swampjeep said:


> thanks for the info, from what I've read I should be looking for a 500w or better motor, sounds like I should look elsewhere, although it might be worth the $50 just to experiment haha


I would say, for that price It would be worth experimenting with. I have been wanting to find two of the same for a small project, but cant seem to find any in that price range. Im looking at the jazzy scooters and comparable units.

Good luck and have fun.
LR


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## DeathBlade556 (Jul 19, 2008)

I've done a bicycle convertions with a power wheel chair motor, so pretty similar to one of those power scooters. What I did was mount the motor over the rear wheel on a cargo holder and got some sprockets from a bike shop welded a sprocket to the output shaft and added another chain sprocket to the rear wheel on the opposite side from the normal pedal/chain assembly. And then used the scooters normal controller battery pack.


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## swampjeep (May 16, 2008)

DeathBlade556 said:


> I've done a bicycle convertions with a power wheel chair motor, so pretty similar to one of those power scooters. What I did was mount the motor over the rear wheel on a cargo holder and got some sprockets from a bike shop welded a sprocket to the output shaft and added another chain sprocket to the rear wheel on the opposite side from the normal pedal/chain assembly. And then used the scooters normal controller battery pack.


what kind of performance did you get from it ?

meaning top speed, range, stuff like that, not looking for quick, or high top speed, just curious

can you give any otehr details? gears used at motor? at wheel hub? wattage of motor used? volts?


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## DeathBlade556 (Jul 19, 2008)

Well I was able to coast along at around 7-8mph 6-7mph going up hills, the range I had was about 6 miles with a pack of four 10ah gelcels. The motor was 800 watts @ 24V, it used a wormgear box the gearing there was unknown but I would guess around 30:1. It had a lot of torque I could of used a bigger sprocket on it to higher speed on the level spots, I had a 10t on the motor and I think 25-30t on the hub. It could have been faster but I used the controler that came with the wheelchair, It was very current limited with a differnt controller I think I would have got more speed.


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## akumabito (Jun 23, 2008)

I would think on flat terrain a 300W motor would do ok.. I did the math some time ago and on a _recumbent_ I could sustain a speed of 25+ MPH on less than that. I guess on a regular bike, keeping in mind the aerodynamics difference, a 300W motor should see you 10MPH, perhaps 15, depending on tires, rider weight and body positioning. 

They already see speeds of about 5+ MPH on those mobility scooters, and those really are geared for torque, not speed. Most people who use them are relatively heavy set, and sometimes they need to carry additional medical gear (such as oxygen bottles)..

Either way, I'd have a look at that scooter. It could very well be that it comes with a 500W motor as stock, perhaps even 600W. it all depends on the make and model, and the person who used it. 

There should be a type plate on the back somewhere detailing motor and battery specifications.


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## Amberwolf (May 29, 2009)

I have used a powerchair motor on the Crazybike2; it's only rated 24V @3.6A per the label, but it draws significantly more than that under load. The 3.6A rating is a no-load rating (not sure why they bothered putting it on there). I don't know it's actual wattage rating, as there are no detailed specs on it, but I'd guess it's 300W or thereabouts, perhaps even 400W. 
http://electricle.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-post.html
(pics of two of the motors are in the post)

It has a built-in gearbox to reduce it to 120RPM, which with a 22tooth sprocket mounted on the motor's output hub (instead of the 10" powerchair wheel), driving the 24tooth grannyring on the Crazybike2's leftside gearset, gets about the same speed as I pedal at comfortably. 

Right now, until I find a better mounting solution for the sprocket on the motor hub, it's using a 24-tooth and so goes faster than is comfortable to pedal with (I have no freewheel for this part yet, but should soon). 

http://electricle.blogspot.com/2009/04/powerchair-motor-installed-and-working.html
(some pics of the bike in an earlier state, showing pretty much the current motor configuration)

http://electricle.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-bars-power-steering-chainline-fix.html
(More recent configuration of the rest of the bike, with basically the same motor configuration)

It probably wouldn't power the bike very long without my input, since with the U1 SLAs I am using the thing weighs around 120 pounds.  But it will actually drive the bike up to at least 15 MPH without pedalling, on a flat road, if I have long enough to run it up to that speed and change gears thru the whole range. (it is running, with the pedals, into a complete regular 18-speed rear drivetrain). 

With my input, I can get up to 22.3MPH, again on a flat straight stretch of canal path. Given the weight of the bike, and my poor knees, that's pretty impressive. Also unfortunately not legal to do on the roads in AZ, because the law limits bikes to 20MPH. Typically I ride it around 16-17MPH, with some input from me, but most of it from the motor. 

I can get about 15 miles one-way range out of two *used* U1 wheelchair batteries, and I'd love to have a LiFePO4 pack to test it with to see how it performs with lesser weight to pull around. If I stop after about 10 miles or so and let it rest for a an hour or two, I can get about 22 miles range out of it. Or stop a bunch of shorter times along the way. Not bad (though not as good as I'd like for the weight I'm hauling around). 


I have a couple of other similar motors with 135RPM gearboxes, but the same motor rating, so they'd go faster but have less torque, unless I changed the sprocket size on the motor hub.
________
WEB SHOWS


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## mitchdurfee (Sep 17, 2018)

swampjeep said:


> does any one know much about mobility scooters? I could get one very cheap, and am wonderign if the motor, batteries, and controller might be a good start to making my own bike into an ebike.
> 
> what size motors to they normally use? this is an older model, I don't' have much info on it though.


Hello there, I am Mitchel. I recently bought a Mobility Scooter and it is very good. It is very lightweight and very sound. I can drive it the whole day with a single charge. I used to wander around my house and town. You should really look for this Mobility scooter.


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