Motor replacement

Raul emailed me today and said that Philip has authorized the replacement of my motor! So, in the end Philip makes things right but it might take a while. Given Raul's considerable knowledge and fast response, Golden Motor would be wise to shift more of the responsibility for the US customer service to him.

California connection

It has been 5 days since I last heard from Philip at Golden Motor so I decided to call the US distributer. I called the number given on the website and talked with Raul. He admitted that when Philip gets busy it can take him a while to respond to emails but he also said that customer service should be a priority.

I told Raul about the problems I had with the dented rim and broken motor sensor. He said that he would talk to Philip and see if he could help move things along. It turns out that when you order a kit from the website, Philip simply forwards the request to Raul. So it might be better to order a kit directly from Raul.

At this rate it could be mid-September before I get a working kit installed -- it's ironic because that's when the go-hub motors will be back in stock.

Still no reply

It's been 4 days since I emailed Philip at Golden the pictures of my damaged rim -- still no reply. So, I emailed him today and told him that I fixed the rim. I also told him about the new problem with the broken motor sensor. If there is one thing Golden Motor could do better it would be customer service.

Motor sensor problem

Alright, this is the moment I have been waiting for all week. I installed the motor, the battery pack and all the necessary wiring. I decided I would attempt to apply power for the first time with the bike rolling. The idea is to keep the initial stress on the motor controller as low as possible just in case it turned into some sort of pyrotechnic display.

So, I was rolling down the street and I applied a little power with the throttle. The motor immediately began to stutter and make a weird tick-tick noise. Obviously, this was not a good thing so I took the bike back to the garage to check things over.

I checked all the connectors making sure they were properly seated -- no change. I went to the forum to see if someone else experienced the same problem. From reading the stories on the forum it appears that it is either a broken sensor or sensor wire.

I hooked up a linear power supply directly to the sensor leads (the red and black wires). Then I hooked up a volt meter to ground and each sensor output (blue, yellow and green wires) one at a time while rolling the bike back-and-forth making sure each output alternated between 0 and 5 volts.

It turns out there was a problem with the green wire -- its output alternated between 0.2 and 0.4 volt. Since the low value was not zero this means that the problem is with the sensor itself and not the sensor wire. I will contact Philip at Golden Motor and let him know there is a problem.

Motor width problem

Before I ordered the kit I asked Philip at Golden Motor if their kit would fit the fork on my bike. I was assured by Philip that the kit would work with my 100mm fork.

From the diagram on their website it is unclear which parts (besides the motor) fit between the dropouts on the fork. It turns out that the distance between the steel spacers (colored green in the diagram) is 100mm which means there isn't room for the washers that go between the spacers and the fork. Spreading the fork is not an option because forks in general are not designed for a static torque like this.

So, I decided to modify the spacers. Each spacer is a tube 3/4 inch outer diameter, 5/8 inch inner diameter, and 1/2 inch long. I had my friend Tim use a lathe to reduce the length of each spacer an amount equal to the thickness of the washer.

After I slid the new spacers on the motor shaft I noticed that one spacer is sticking out of the motor a little more than the other. The spacers do not sit flush with the exterior of the motor housing -- there is small well on each side of the motor in which the spacers rest.

So, on one side of the motor the recess is little deeper than the other. This means that the stationary washer is now really close to the rotating motor housing. What I have will work but I really would like new spacers taking this asymmetry into account.

The rim is fixed

I decided to take the wheel to the local bike shop and have them fix it. I also had them "true" it and change the tube. The tube that came with the wheel had a weird valve on it that I didn't recognize, i.e. it wasn't a Presta or Schrader.

The bike shop did a great job taking out the dent -- I am really looking forward to mounting the motor on my bike.

Lawyer tabs

I spent some time preparing the front fork for the motor. The motor shaft and corresponding mounting bolts are much larger than a typical bike wheel. Modern bicycle forks have tabs at bottom of the fork that must be dealt with.

There is some debate as to why these "lawyer tabs" exist at all. I decided that the best solution was to file them off.

Disclaimer: I am not liable for what happens if you decided to modify your fork -- do this at your own risk.

First, I clamped a small piece of metal to the dropout to act as a guide. Then I used a metal file to remove the tab a little at a time, making sure that I didn't remove too much material. This method worked great -- I ended up with a flat mounting surface for the motor hardware.

After I removed the tabs I also removed excess material from the slot on the dropout. Electric bike motors in general require a 10mm slot and my fork had excess paint and metal at the opening that needed to be removed. This part is tricky so I used a digital caliper to periodically check the slot making sure that I didn't remove too much material.

No reply

It has been almost two days since I emailed Philip the pictures of my dented rim. So, I have a decision to make -- do I wait for Philip to respond or do I take the wheel to the local bike shop and have it fixed?

I am leaning toward the second option. From reading the customer remarks on the forum it could be a while before I hear back from Phillip.

Damaged rim pictures

I heard back from Philip yesterday concerning my damaged wheel. He requested that I send him pictures of the dented rim. As you can see from the pictures below, the dent in not huge but it would interfere with the operation of the brakes.

Battery pack

I have my battery pack all wired up and ready to go. I went down to the local hardware store and bought 14 gauge stranded wire and 1/4 inch spade connectors for the batteries. I chose the 14 gauge wire because it was at least as large as the wire Golden Motor was using for their connections.

I purchased the batteries at a local Interstate Battery. I am using three BSL 1079 (12V 7.2AH) batteries.

I chose three BSL 1079 batteries because they are the right balance between range and weight. I need to go about 10 miles round trip and I don't want to lift more than ~20 pounds (for the whole pack). I plan to take the battery pack with me when I lock up my bike so I need something light enough to carry.

I ordered a Topeak rack an pack system from my local bike shop. I chose the Topeak MTX Trunk Bag DX (the one without panniers) and the matching Topeak Explorer bike rack. This is the same basic setup used by the go-hub kit.

The batteries fit nicely in the bag. I used double sided sticky tape to bond the batteries in an "I" configuration (I will add a picture later). There is enough room in the bag for the charger to sit on top of the batteries which is nice.

Broken fuse

I could not find the fuse rating (in amps) in any of the included documentation. It would be nice if the fuse rating was printed on the fuse holder.

So, I carefully removed the fuse from the holder to see if the rating was printed on the fuse and one of the end caps fell off! It turns out the the rating was not printed on the fuse. Fuses are cheap -- I would expect Golden Motor to include extras in case something like this would happen.

I found the fuse rating (20 amps) from the go-hub website (search for fuse on their webpage). It isn't the same motor but I think it is close enough.

Damaged rim

I was just about to install my bike kit when I noticed that the side wall of the hub is dented. It appears that the hub was damaged during shipment.

The dent is big enough that I am worried that I might damage the rim if I try to straighten it out myself.

I will contact Golden Motor and let them know what happened.

The kit arrives

I received my Golden Motor bike kit (BCK-26-0819) today. I had the delivery man wait while I opened the box and inspect the kit -- everything looks fine.

Bike kit order

I tried to order a kit from Largo Scooters (go-hubTM 26" kit) but they were out of stock until September.

So instead, I placed an order for the Golden Motor bike kit (BCK-26-0819).

The go-hub kit looked like it was the better because it comes with everything you need and it has good instructions. Also, the controller is smaller and it has a better twist throttle. The golden kit looks like it will be more work but I don't want to wait another month.